Losing weight is not about "eating smarter".
Relationships don't improve by "staying connected".
Businesses don't grow by "gaining alignment".
People don't become happier by "being more mindful".
Those are things we say...
Conclusions we draw...
after things succeed or fail... but it is not HOW they happen...
What is... "eating smarter", "staying connected", "gaining alignment", "being more mindful" or any of those intelligent sounding things that we say in conversation, anyway?
We lose weight, we improve relationships, we grow our businesses, we become happier by
CHANGING WHAT WE DO IN SOME SPECIFIC WAY TO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
And,
EVERY day is an opportunity to do just that...
I am "eating smarter" all the time... but it wasn't until I gave up sodas that I saw a material weight shift.
I am "eating smarter" every day... but it wasn't until I went fully on an "Ideal Protein" program that I dropped 40 pounds in 2 months.
And, now 5 years later... I forget... and I try to just "eat smarter" and notice with tons of effort no weight ever leaves my body.
Relationships are tough. We are all "working on them" in some form... and do they improve? How often do they stay the same?
It is not until we bring a really difficult topic to the discussion, or we start going on date night, or we make a commitment to talk on a regular basis...
Something specific needs to change in our behavior to achieve a better relatioship.
Business is the same thing. EVERYONE is "working on being better aligned", but it's not until you make the monthly meeting mandatory, you change the agenda, you change the players, you do the acquisition, you add the service, you add the metric... UNTIL YOU DO SOMETHING different that different results happen.
I share this because I am so often frustrated by my own progress in life...
I try to stay honest with myself... WHERE am I making progress... WHERE am I wasting effort?
If I am not ready to CHANGE something about the way I am doing things... then why the heck am I expecting a different result (my golf swing comes to mind - it's not just by swinging more that my swing gets better... I must be deliberately doing something specifically different... when a coach I took changed my GRIP, my drives changed completely).
We all expect change, as people, as organizations, as a country...
WHAT ARE WE WILLING TO DO DIFFERENT?
And, BIG EXPECTATIONS demand BIG changes - which then become SCARY and hard to implement... VERY HARD...
So, I remind myself... HARMONY happens in the moment.
Failure to change behavior becomes failure to change deliverables which leads to WISHING that we had... DISHARMONY...
Successful (specific) behavior shifts have the potential to lead to positive shifts and changes in deliverables / experiences helping us feel better about the "IS" of our lives, and then inspires our WANT... HARMONY.
EVERY day...
EVERY day is an on opportunity...
for some small SHIFT in how we think, in what we believe, in what we eat, in how we work, how we relate...
EVERY day... is an opportunity to improve upon who we are...
And, my greatest disharmony comes in days where I feel like I am simply "trying harder" with no affect... no result...
This is why I am so clear that my only fear is "wasting time"... as I too often do...
MISSING the opportunity in days to make some positive change in my behavior, in my thoughts, in my life... to move it in the direction of greater harmony...
EVERY day...
TODAY...
enjoy the gift,
SO - I am going to start a list... TODAY... that is going to be my behavior change today... I am going to start a list of what deliberate change I make in my LIFE... DAILY... "my DAILY tweak".. I will call it... and I will be specific... and deliberate...
today
take advantage of the opportunity to commit to a new way IN SOME SMALL WAY of living your life more in the direction of the life you dream about...
EVERY day...
SEIZE the day...
And, if you happen to fail...
try it again tomorrow...
improve your life - in some SPECIFIC way...
EVERY day...
in harmony,
Nestor