Small Changes

There have been times in my life that I wanted to make changes and it felt so overwhelming that I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to do everything at once. I wanted to be where I thought I should be, achieve what I thought I should achieve, look like I thought I should look…the list was endless. I thought that in order to accomplish all of these things that I needed to make a lot of major changes. I would make lists of the things I was going to change about myself and try to do it all at once. I wanted to be finished with my list by the end of the week. I wanted everything ‘fixed’ immediately and painlessly. I probably don’t need to tell you how that worked for me. Let’s just say that wasn’t a good formula for success.

I can tell you that more and more, I’m discovering that it’s the little things I do that create the most significant changes in me and my life. These small changes cause a ripple effect that come together in major ways. I am learning to be more patient. The patterns I wanted to change weren’t formed in a short time. Some of them I have had most of my life, so why would I think that I could change them in an instant?

I made a commitment to myself in January of 2019 that I would not hit the snooze button on my alarm in the morning anymore, not one more time. At that time, I was in the habit of hitting the snooze at least three times, sometimes more. I would then jump out of bed 45 minutes later than I planned and be rushed getting things done before going to work. I started my day out in reaction mode. I was already feeling lousy before I got out of bed. I felt like I spent the rest of the day making up for that time I spent resisting getting up. I am happy and proud to say I have not hit the snooze button even once. The ripple effects of that one small commitment have changed my life in ways I couldn’t imagine.

I felt so much better starting my day without feeling guilty for hitting snooze. That caused my critical voice to take a rest.

I had time to start a good morning routine with meditation, journaling, and setting intentions for the day. That helps my day flow with grace and ease. When my day goes better, my week goes better, then the month, year and my life go better. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t difficult things to deal with at times, it just means that I have a reserve of peace and well-being to respond to those challenges.

When we change the world changes.