Creating REAL Change in Life is not Easy!

Change is not just the stuff that jingles in your pocket!

That's definitely true enough... but what is this thing called 'change?" And why does it often seem so difficult to do?

I think a lot of people understand and sincerely appreciate that there are aspects of their lives they want to change. It can be as tangible as "give up smoking" or as INtangible as "have better personal boundaries."

Sometimes it's not even that easy to define what needs to change, and we struggle to do so.

Part of the trouble — and why we often fail to change things we know we need to change — is that we tend to remain in the shallow end of the psychological pool. And so, we end up changing the symptoms, rather than the root causes of our dis-ease.

Change is often so difficult because real change requires us to challenge some of our most closely held beliefs. And that can be not only difficult, but also painful.

Sometimes that pain involves admitting that not only are we wrong in our assumptions about something, but we have been approaching an entire aspect of our life — for YEARS — from an angle that never had any chance of getting us what we truly wanted.

Our egos don't like to face the possibility that we actually aren't anywhere near as smart as we thought we were.

So we resist. Or gloss over the real issue... and change does not happen.

It is any wonder that more than 95% of so-called "New Year's Resolutions" have failed by the time spring rolls around? And those are usually about the easy/tangible small changes we want to make...

Most therapists will tell you that people only succeed at changing their lives when they are truly ready to change their lives. And most of the time we're actually only paying lip service to the idea of needing to change.

The only exception seems to be life threatening events. Someone has a heart attack and are told they need to change their eating habits... they usually do change their eating habits, because the alternative is... not good!

So what inspires us to change?

For myself, it has always been a case of growing sick and tired and disgusted with the status quo, to the point where I'd rather stick a fork in my eyeball than continue.

And even then, it has been difficult to make changes.

One such change I made in recent years was primarily about changing my mindset. Not that many years ago, I allowed myself to be far more of a victim of my short little span of attention (ADHD) than I am today, where I am instead using what I know about the condition to create the best possible life outcome that doesn't demand pharmaceuticals to dull my senses.

It took a surprising amount of willpower to abandon the whole "poor me" mindset... but it was important that I did!

Perhaps the best thing we can do for ourselves is to truly understand what it is we want to change — at it's root level. Otherwise we likely will end up change changing superficial symptoms...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

---

Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!

Proud member of the Silver Bloggers Community on Hive!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2024-02-10 01:08 PST
1073/2331