I have frequently written about the fact that we need to make changes to the way we live. This applies to the systems of government, money, taxation, Earth stewardship, and level of cooperation, to name a few. And I have written about the fact that change starts with you. Even if you don’t change any of these systems, become the sort of person that would fit into a changed World. Because by doing so you will find that you do indeed live in a World that has changed. But what are the tools that you can use personally to make positive change happen?
Responsibility
In NLP we talk about cause and effect. If you live at the effect side of life, then the reason your life is the way it is, is because of your parents, your teachers, the government, your genetics, your partner or ex-partner. Whoever it may be it is most definitely not your fault. The difficulty of remaining in this space is that you have just disempowered yourself. You have taken your own personal power and given it to someone else. Now you may have very valid reasons for doing so. But thinking like this is not moving you forward. Instead do what you can to move your thinking to the cause side of life. Where you accept that, if change is going to happen in your life, you are the one that is going to make it happen. You may not have actually caused your current life situation, (you may have too), regardless of the facts of that, you are most definitely the one that is going to improve your situation. No one else will, you must do it. This is accepting responsibility for your life. If you don’t like where you are, change it.
Be Yourself
The expression of who you are changes as you move through your life. As a teenager I wanted to join the army; at university I studied Civil Engineering; I then became an accountant; and now I am a trainer of NLP. Not all the time through this journey have I thought I was truly being myself. But my life seems to work better when I feel like I am. If there are things about yourself you don’t like, then change them. If you can’t change them or don’t really want to change them, then live with them. Because they then become part of the unique expression of life that you are. Change what you want to, and what you can, and embrace everything else. As much as you can, be who you are, because let’s face it you cannot actually be anyone else anyway.
Imagination
As you take responsibility for your life, as you commit to truly being yourself, use the power of your imagination to envision the life you want to lead. As I mentioned earlier this year, everything is created twice. Once in your imagination and once in reality. Now just because you can imagine it, doesn’t mean that you will necessarily experience it. But what it does do is allow you to explore what really excites you. This might give you a sense of where you want to go in life, what you want to do, what sort of people you want to be with. It might also drive out some goals or objectives that you want to work on. Examine all of this and find what excites you most.
Take Action and Let Go
The language of physical reality is action. Once you have a sense of what excites you, then take action in that direction. By doing so you are demonstrating that you are dedicated to taking responsibility for your life and being yourself. As you move forward let go of the idea that things must work out the way that you envisioned them. They might do, but they might not. You may get excited to do something simply to get you to move to the place in your life where you can see something else which is also exciting. And had you not taken action initially you would never have seen it. I only found NLP by being excited about doing coaching. It was only then that I saw that I could become a trainer of NLP. Had I not been excited to learn about coaching I might never have seen NLP and been able to imagine myself as a trainer.
These are the tools of change. Now go and build something to be proud of.
“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” Carl Rodgers
