You have permission to change
I hereby grant you permission to change!
Here’s the key *reaches into pocket*. Here’s the lock *guides you to the door of change*.
Now, put the key in the lock, open the door and *POW!*: WELCOME TO CHANGE!
Well, life is just not that Walt Disney, is it? But, the decision to change can be just about as easy, if you allow it to be…
Sometimes we get to a point where we desperately crave change. Change of self, change of circumstance or maybe a change of heart. So it’s important to know that it’s more than okay, necessary and natural, to act on that need.
When we’ve been doing the same thing for too long and the whole routine starts to wear us down, it’s an indication that the concept behind the routine needs a review.
It’s normal to get sick of routine at times - routine by definition is to repeat something with intent. It’s when the meaning behind it, no longer seems worth it. And it’s not just when you’re in ‘the hard’ or ‘boring’ part of a routine, it’s when you’re beyond those phases, yet feel it’s not purposeful anymore.
When we engage in a routine, it’s important to reflect now and again. Is this purposeful? Do I still want this? And if so, it’s key to ask ourselves (answering with brutal honesty), if what we are doing supports our greatness, or minimises it.
When we do little, less and things beneath our capabilites, we become disenfranchised with our real needs on more levels than one. We actively communicate to the world and ourselves ‘this is it’. If we become far removed from what truly makes us sing, are we really living with joy?
Of course, it’s not always practical, achievable or realistic to ‘sing with joy’ in life. Sometimes ‘the hard’ or ‘boring’ part in life has to be drudged, sweated out and pushed through. The point though, is that there’s so much more to existence than endurance and tolerance, so when it’s possible to enact positive change… go for it.
Sometimes our struggles our inner and therefore not observable or measurable in the way that external hardships are. Due to that very reason, they are just (if not more) deserving of review, than ‘tangible’ challenges. So when our internal dialogue dictates all of our actions and resolutions, it’s pivotal to stop and consider the drive behind choices, routine and goals.
Often, we realize that the routine we’ve been practicing isn’t ‘enough’. Isn’t challenging enough, stimulating enough, or honest enough to support our true selves or real intentions. And that’s okay, but to realize that and not do something about it, well, that can set you up for a lifetime of slow-boiled pain and frustration.
Of all the routine review outcomes, the ‘not honest enough’ one tends to hurt the most. But what does it mean, in real terms? It means: not living or pursuing your truth.
The ramifications of not living your truth day-in-day-out, for months, years or even decades on end, will eventually equal a physiological slow or breakdown. It happens and it’s bigger than us. Maybe it doesn’t happen straight away, maybe it creeps up over years, but it’s a passive engagement that inevitably, the body communicates.
Have you ever noticed that when you really detest something and have to engage in it routinely, you do unhealthy? Maybe you use cigarettes or alcohol to get through yet your eczema/headaches/fatigue increases? That’s the physiological breakdown I’m talking about. It’s your body saying ‘hey! I REALLY don’t like this! Can we change ‘a,b,c’ please?’
Often, we get so comfortable, conditioned and numb surviving, tolerating and enduring, that we forget what we wanted for ourselves. And when we remember what we wanted, we then feel pressured to validate our diametrically opposed choices, by created a lie or cover story to ourselves ‘oh it’s impossible now anyway. I’m too old/young/inexperienced/overqualified/unfit/out-of-touch.’
Okay, but they are still excuses, excuses generated in order to avoid the pain of change. Because why? Change communicates ‘I was wrong’, on some level. It says ‘this no longer serves me – I’m redirecting my sails’. So we think we look ‘stupid’ on some level, or misguided. When in fact, there’s no one fixed choice and associated outcome in life, that doesn’t involve some degree of review – decision making and, change.
When you’ve invested in living smaller than you are, for continuity, it’s critical to maintain the lie. Not necessarily to others (though sometimes that plays a part), but more for yourself. Here is an expensive (timely) exercise in self-deception and self-discipline. That if put toward change (what you REALLY want), you’d probably have achieved by now…
So if you’ve been good at keeping your truth at bay, join the club of billions - it’s okay! It’s the next step that counts: Back Yourself – believe you can do or be that which you dedicated months/years/decades convincing yourself you couldn’t.
There are many good things that come from not living in truth. One is an impeccably crafted toolset: you know how to create a structure and maintain it rigorously. If you apply that to what you want – you are absolutely unstoppable.
Everyone lies to him or herself in one way or another over time. The point is not that self-deception occurs (sometimes it’s even critical to survival) it’s identifying when you find safety in ‘survival mode’, when there’s actually no crisis or thing to be endured…
The only person that you ever need ‘permission’ from to change (at ANY stage in life), is you.
It’s good to bulldoze old routines.
It’s good to live your truth.
It’s good to change!
“The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change”
Heraclitus
