Real_Growth

Photo:Pixabay

At certain times in our lives, we look around and see that our lives are not what we had hoped, and decide to make changes for the better. To get in shape, to learn a foreign language, to read more, or spend more time with our families. All good things, and worthy changes that will make us better people in the long run. And many times, we begin and our resolve to stick to our goals fizzles out more quickly than we thought, and we find ourselves back where we started, no better off, and wishing things were better than they are. Real goals, ones that we stick to, ones that we accomplish, begin when we call ourselves out on our own faults. Realizing, and admitting to the fact that it’s just so much easier to sleep an extra half-hour than to get out of bed, lace up your trainers and go for a run before work. Or perhaps placing constraints on what time we do have, and deciding to finish the report for work as soon as we get home, rather than spend time with our children, and finishing the report—in a much better frame of mind!—after the kids are in bed. When we finally get tired of hearing our own excuses, complaints, objections, and dislikes, and decide to do something anyway…is when real growth begins.

As humans, we have the capability of justifying nearly everything we think is right, or that we believe in, despite the evidence that these things are not working for us, or those around us. There is an old saying that addresses this: ‘nothing changes if nothing changes.’ We all want things to change for the better, but largely without making any change in how we live our lives and how we make decisions. Many of the programs designed to help people break addiction to alcohol, drugs, etc., use a form of ‘when you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired’ of your condition, that’s when real change can begin. When the excuses, no matter how good, how justifiable, are recognized for the enabling crutches they are.  While many of the changes most of us want to make in our lives are not this dire, the mind-set is often the same. 

The changes we might need to make in our lives do not have to be enormous, difficult changes in our lives, though. These changes can be as simple as saying ‘I will eat salad with dinner each night, or I will not have dessert,’ and the changes begin as our bodies adapt to the new diet. Spending a few minutes in the morning with our spouse or children, talking and asking questions begins to open our minds to hearing and understanding those things which concern others, as well. Similarly, a walk after lunch is the beginning of becoming aware of our bodies as well as taking in nature, such as it might exist where we live, is a new beginning as well. The small steps are not only achievable quickly, but as quickly, we begin to see things in a new and different way, and our understanding of them in this way starts to grow.

Change and growth, which keep us engaged with life and with the others around us, is truly not a mountain to climb, but an honest look at our lives, how we are living, and what we could change to make it better, as our entry to change that leads to a better life for us all.