It takes an adventurous spirit to attempt behavior change. When you set out to play a bigger game with your life, you have to restructure the way your brain and body operate. This is not a metaphor. Different behavior requires actually building new neural pathways in the brain. It means using your body in unaccustomed ways.
Take sky-diving. This thrilling activity takes guts. You have to be able to overcome the very strong programming in your cells that screams out, “I’m not meant to fly!” Maintaining the status quo here may equal survival. To jump out of a plane, you’ve got to get really cozy with feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Once you take the leap, there’s no going back. You must be totally committed to enjoying the thrill of the new experience you’ve bought yourself. You’ve faced the worst possible outcome – your death, and let go.
Changing a customary way of doing something, or renovating a cherished self-image may spark feelings similar to leaping into thin air. That’s okay. You can remind yourself you’re not in free-fall, you’re just trying to organize your desk. Avoid hyperventilating as you consider a big transition like perhaps a career change by cultivating a gentle approach to the effort.
- Keep your expectations realistic about how long it takes to create a solid new habit.
- Let yourself off the hook once in a while.
- Always create Plan B, so you don’t have to panic if Plan A doesn’t work out.
- Acknowledge every effort you make – restructuring isn’t always easy.
- Look for transferable skills – if you can clean off your desk, you can do anything.
- And remember - real satisfaction comes from working with your fears more than from a perfect external situation.
It takes courage to be willing to change. Jumping out of a plane is a one-shot deal; the day-to-day vigilance of self-observation and adjustment needed to create new behavior requires unflagging heroism. Kudos to you for attempting it.
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Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.