Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

Journey - First Step

Article by Wendy McCance

How aware are you of that voice in your head?  The one that encourages you or gives you reason to doubt when going after your goals?

Over the last year, I have seen my goals become clearer and brighter.  I have never felt so focused, determined and strong.  I know what I want to achieve and I’m doing my best to block out any negative thoughts.  I encouraging myself to continue moving forward in a kind, gentle way.  I make sure to celebrate even the tiniest successes and really enjoy the journey.

Trust me when I say that it isn’t as easy as it sounds.  I have built up beliefs after 40 odd years of living my life that are hard to break.  Without realizing it, I had formed patterns. I became good at stalling, doubting and doing practically anything short of giving up.

This last year hasn’t just been about reaching goals, but really about changing an entire way of thinking.  I am becoming aware of  how I hold myself back and how I can correct the damaging thoughts.

Each day I think about where I’ve been and how much work I have done to get to the place I am now.  I spend time feeling grateful and proud of my new strengths.  I listen for those inner feelings that tend to hold me up from moving further ahead.  I fight a toxic thought several times each week.

That’s my battle right now.  Instead of picturing all the ways something could go wrong and the bad feelings associated with those moments, I conciously look for the good and allow myself to feel the excitement of what I see unfolding.  I picture the happiness and the feelings of accomplishment I will have when I get over another hurdle.  I picture what will be around me. What it looks like and how positively friends and family will react.

I have learned that there is a delicate balance.  To succeed, you need to work hard, but you can’t force things to happen.  When changing negative thoughts, you must be kind and gentle with yourself.  Frustration and bullying your way to think in a more positive will only be more damaging.

If you can change your habits, you can change your life.  It’s all about breaking down the thoughts, and being aware of the negative feelings and actions that occur rather naturally.  Replace those bad feelings with feelings of gratitude, happiness and peace regularly and you will see a shift begin to emerge.  Become aware of the negative actions you perform like stalling or freezing in fear and replace those actions with activity that gets you moving.  It takes a lot of work, it is worth it.  I am aware of what I am doing, and how I feel doing it.  I have grown tremendously over the last year and although I still have moments of struggle, I am seeing a new path emerge.  Things I never thought possible are happening every day.  As long as I continue to embrace the positive events, as long as I continue to believe, amazing things will continue to happen.

If you are looking for an inspirational book, the two below do a fantastic job of helping you form positive habits to meet your goals.  I happen to have both books in my bookcase and reference them often.  They really are fantastic.

 


 

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Wendy McCance

Wendy McCance is a Michigan based freelance writer and social media consultant. Wendy has gained attention as the founder of the popular blog Searching for the Happiness which can be viewed in 6 local papers online, including the Oakland Press.The combination of writing skills and social media knowledge is what makes Wendy such a powerhouse to work with. Stay tuned for opportunities to advertise, guest post and as always, have your questions answered.

To contact Wendy McCance about a writing assignment, interview or speaking engagement, please email her at: [email protected]

14 thoughts on “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

  1. Great work Wendy and I agree it’s hard work but worth the effort.The biggest issue with thoughts is our identification with them. They keep us from seeing who we really are and from connecting with the magic of the moment. I wrote a blog post recently called “The Paradox of Letting Go, changing your Life” and talked about my experience in my early 20′s learning how to let go of thoughts and beliefs that I new were unhealthy for me and the impact it had on my life.

    Enjoy your blogs, keep the hard work going, I am sure it has had an impact on your writing.

    http://meaningfullifecoach.com/blog/the-paradox-of-letting-go-changing-your-life/

    • I saw the Secret on video first and then got the book. If you get a chance to rent the video, it has a much bigger impact. It’s really a fantastic way of looking at your participation in what unfolds in your life.

  2. Congratulations Wendy, counting your wins and seeing how far you have come is a success strategy. I love both books you mentioned and I am reminded of the Jim Rohn quote ” work harder on yourself than you do on your business” , I am a passionate personal development student for that reason, I can change me - more power to you , Wendy.

  3. Good stuff Wendy. Everything that happens to me - even the negative things are positives because the negatives are learning opportunities. If you aren’t getting what you want out of the deal you need to change the way you are going about it. As you noted - when you change the habit you change the result.

  4. Whenever you branch out onto a new adventure there are always doubts. The problem is when the doubt becomes a habit. Habits are hard to break but can be detrimental to your success. :-)

  5. Wendy, Great Post.

    The biggest thing we all have to overcome is FEAR. With fear comes all the NEGATIVE EMOTIONS, that will shut down everything that we try to do. The best way to overcome this is to have a plan, with a Main Goal, but with many smaller goals to achieve that larger goal. We may never fully achieve that main goal, but it is the Motivation that we need to keep us focused in the correct direction. The other thing as we go forward, it that we need to be flexible enough to make changes along the way, either because we did not see some things as clearly as we thought in the beginning, or as we go along outside things change that create the need for us to reevaluate and adjust.

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