Change is Possible

We just have to do it

When I got it into my head to expand this blog and also do a podcast, I honestly did not know what I was getting myself into.

I had no clue I was taking on so much work for a hobby. I thought it would be relatively easy. On certain days of the week, I would write for the blog and on others, I would write for the podcast, and then I would set aside time during all of that for recording.

Needless to say, it has not worked out that way. I did it for a while. I kept my routine. But then I got off of it because, when recording episode two, I just hated everything I was putting out there. So at the last minute, I scrapped the episode and recorded something completely different on the fly.

And I have not been able to get back into the routine since.

This is a perfect picture of something that all of us do. We find ourselves falling out of good habits and back into the ones we were doing before.

I try having conversations about this with my stepdaughter. She has some personal struggles that she tries to blame on her diagnoses that are actually related to decisions she regularly makes. For example, I will happen to catch her coming home late from playing with her friends and I will simply ask, “Why are you late?”

To which she will respond, “I wasn’t.” Even though it is late and I watched her show up late. Which ultimately leads to a discussion about lying. This leads to her inevitable saying, “Well, it's hard to stop doing something that I have been doing all of my life!”

This is a solid picture of all of us from time to time, is it not? We keep falling into the same habits or not sticking to new, better ones, and we make some lame excuses about how it is just too hard because we have been doing things a certain way for far too long.

We are fixed and unwilling to grow.

But we can change.

All we have to do is…well…do it.

It starts by addressing our fixed mindsets. We need to address the fact that we often feel like our habits and attitudes and whatever it is we are trying to change are actually unchangeable.

Here is the truth, though:

Habits are changeable.

Attitudes are changeable.

Skills are changeable.

Almost everything about ourselves is changeable.

We just have to acknowledge that they are.

This, in itself, is a process.

Start small. Do not try to change all of your habits all at the same time. Pick one and focus your energies on it.

It can be overwhelming to think that you have to be honest all the time every time. Or, in my religious upbringing, there was a phrase from the Bible that was often repeated, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” That is a huge and lofty idea.

Perfection.

It is simply not possible to be perfect every time all of the time.

Do you know what is possible, though? Doing right at the moment. Instead of focusing on always doing the right thing, focus on doing the next right thing.

Because you can always do the next right thing. Do not worry about the five decisions ahead. Rather, focus on the decision right in front of you.

It is not possible for me to stick to my writing and recording routine forever. But it is possible for me to stick to it on this one day, and at this one moment.

Just like it is possible for you to change your habits and attitudes each day and at each moment.

You just have to do it.