We'll get to the "how-to" part in a second, but first I want to tell you this story.
Every day I take my dog, Pico, for a walk around the block and every time we get to this one house, there's a dog on the front porch whimpering. It looks like it is well fed and it looks like its owners are inside, so I cannot understand why this dog is whimpering. And it's not like this happened one time and I'm still sad about seeing this dog cry. No, the dog is always whimpering every single day without fail. So one day I decided, against by introverted judgment, to walk up to the house and ask the owner if the dog was ok. Want to know what the owner said? She said "That's very kind of you to be concerned. Spot is just laying on a nail." I replied, "on a nail? Why doesn't he get up off it?" To which she responded, "He will when it hurts bad enough." *Cue my tears thinking about Spot living with this dull pain every single day.* *And cue more tears thinking about each and everyone one of us and our dull pain that we live with (physically, mentally, spiritually, relationally, financially...)*
My grandma Lorian wouldn't like me admitting this but that's not a true story. It is an adaptation of a story like that that I heard in my coaching training.
We are like Spot. There is a nail we're laying on. We work too much. We don't like our jobs. We aren't physically healthy. We worry too much. We have a dream but we're too scared to leap. Eventually, the pain will get to be too much and we'll be ready to make a change.
Now the "how-to" part.
You'll know you're ready to make a major change when that dull pain turns into a fiery, curl you up in a ball pain.
How close are you to the pain of your nail being that bad? Are you like Spot quietly whimpering on the front porch of your life? Or are you like Lassie down the street who got up off that dang nail and decided to make the change?
I wonder how many of you have one specific change in mind. There's usually one change that, if we were to make it, it would have major positive ripples for the rest of your life.
Or maybe there are so many changes you want to make but you don't know where to start. In this case, I encourage you to start with the smallest change possible. Waking up 5 minutes earlier each day. Journaling one sentence per day. Walking over your lunch break instead of sitting on the 'gram. Small actions can have an exponential impact on our lives.
If you are reading this and you're shaking in your boots because you can logically understand you need to make a change but are terrified to do so, check out my vlog about why the fear of change shouldn't hold you back.
Love,
Kelsey