Time to make a change
“I want to change.” People say it all the time, but these same people often find themselves repeating the same loop over and over. Why? Because there’s always a reason why today is not a good day to start making that change. But there truly is no day like today! It’s cliché because it’s true. Nothing about tomorrow will make a big change come easier.
I challenge you to make today the day when you start making that change you’ve thought about for so long. When tomorrow rolls around, you want to look in the mirror and know you took a step in the right direction rather than spent a few more hours on social media. Let’s take a look at how to get started:
NAME THE THING
Is it work? Is it your relationship with your significant other? Your friends? Are you looking for a new experience to get you out of your rut? Ready to start dating? What do you want to change is a big question, but you can likely answer it pretty quickly. I want you take out a sheet of paper and write the word “Goal” at the top. Under it, write down what you want to achieve. It can be as big as “Get a new job” or as small as “Clean my room.”
MAKE A LIST
It’s all about the baby steps. In my practice, I often use the metaphor of the yellow brick road because we all have our own personal Oz that seems impossible to reach. With every step we take, another obstacle pops up. But you don’t need to get to Oz overnight. You just need to take one step each day to get closer to it, tackling obstacles one at a time, rather than trying to remove them all in one day, by yourself. So the next step is making a list of every step you’ll have to take to achieve your goal. Don’t leave any step out—the smaller, the better.
CREATE THE SPACE
Get out your calendar now, whether it’s on paper or on your phone, and block out the time every week when you will start moving down your list of steps and get closer to your goal. If you stick to this schedule, you’ll have built a self-improvement habit in no time. Whether you get through one step a week or several, you’ll still be closer to reaching your goal than when you started.
KNOW WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL
You can’t cure COVID-19, you can’t reopen schools, you can’t reopen businesses, you can’t protect the vulnerable. Make sure that the goal you’re working toward is one that you can actually accomplish.
Robin Maier is a licensed clinical social worker who uses a gentle therapeutic approach to guide women in every stage of life toward greater happiness
