Saturday, September 21, 2013

Be the change.

 Via inspire-keri.blogspot.com
I love this picture - it is a good reminder for ways to live life and be the change.  See for yourself.

Change Yourself
If you have a level of self-awareness that every moment may give you an opportunity to learn and better yourself, you will not allow even the smallest moment to pass you by. Tiny changes every day are always easier than a total self-overhaul, right?

You Are In Control
You are. If you have decided that this is your life, and this is how it will be, that is your choice.  But if you really wish for something else, there is only one thing stopping you from making the change.  Find a way to convince yourself that it will be hard and you will have to be patient, but it will be worth it.

Forgive and Let Go
I can think of a few friends that I know that have a hard time with moving on, or allowing them to forgive others without an apology.  It is exhausting to spend part of your day throwing energy away at something that doesn't get better or doesn't give energy back, and this is blocking your ability to put your time and energy towards the things and people you really love.

Take Care of This Moment
As a piece of advice at our wedding, and family member gave my husband and I the advice to step aside and take just a few minutes to ourselves to be in the moment, and watch our guests enjoy our wedding celebration.  We did, and it was a memorable and perfect moment.  I now give this same advice to other friends heading in to their weddings.

Without Action You Aren't Going Anywhere
You can't lose if you don't try, right?  You can't win either.

Everyone Is Human
Remember that everyone is fighting a battle, and that perhaps someone is rude to you because they are having a rough day.  Be resilient enough to know it isn't personal, and see how you can help bring their day up.  If they keep being awful over time, don't be around them any more.

See the Good In People and Help Them
It makes me crazy when I hear people assume that someone else is always trying to screw them over.  I hear this a lot in the workplace in particular.  Trust that people wake up wanting to be successful at work, and that no one, including your boss, lies awake at night dreaming up ways to make your life harder.  Let's give the benefit of the doubt so that we can get to the real root of the issue instead of the cop out response.

Persist
Resiliency  - the top skill missing from our kids lives.  When you take a really good digger, say to yourself (or your kids), "That was a good one!" and "Brush it off, bro."  Refer to the "you are in control" and "change yourself" sections.

Be Congruent, Be Authentic, Be Your True Self
Think of one or two areas where you tend to be less than authentic in order to impress someone, fit in to a group, or convince yourself that you are something else.  Focus on the root cause of why you reduce your true self in that case, and find one small change you can do to stay authentic in those situations.  Try it a few times in a purposeful manner, and see what comes of it.  I can think of a friend who is fantastic as her true self, but I haven't seen it in a while.  I think that if she felt more comfortable being her true self more often, she would have more of the life that she wanted and would feel more comfortable in her own skin.

Continue to Grow and Evolve
Lather, rinse and repeat for tiny steps forward in life.  Sometimes it is harder to see the growth or change, so ask yourself where you were one year ago as a reference point.  It is usually an easier unit to measure slow and gradual change.

Baby steps, but take steps and be the change.

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