Changing is difficult but necessary. I am intentionally using the present continuous tense to indicate that we never fully arrive. The moment we “arrive” we cease to exist. Instead, more often we go through a metamorphosis process akin to that of a butterfly. What do I mean? We change then we plateau for a moment but then we start changing again. Sometimes the change is occurring in an area where you’ve already grown, just at a deeper level. However, we are all familiar with that aspect of changing. I am here to encourage you all today because of some thing that I have heard many times and have been encountering on my own journey.
When you start to change, those around you will not understand you, even you might not understand you! You are not who you used to be but neither are you where you need to. In other words, you have this new vision of who you will become but you are not there yet; neither are you where you were. Most times it is very uncomfortable. People think that you are acting differently and in verity you are! So what to do, if you no longer want to spend as much as you used to but those around you are not there yet? What to do if your list of needs have shrunk drastically because you realise that you can actually exist without those things? What to do, when they don’t seem to get it? You are struggling to fully embrace your new lifestyle, making sacrifices, adjusting your boundaries but the changes are so minute that they seem invisible to those around you. Yeah, you have been cutting back but you are still in debt. You have been working out but the weight isn’t coming off as quickly as you’d like because you cannot afford to eat the way you need to in order to enhance that. You are studying more and applying yourself more but the grade has only increased by a measly 2%. What do you do? You know that you are changing. You have a small amount of savings now. You lost 1 pound but your body feels so much differently. You still struggle to exert yourself more but you know for a fact that your energy level has increased. Last week you could only run for 5 minutes and this week you can run for 5.5. You know you are understanding the material more and you are better able to articulate yourself. However, no one seems to see that. All they see is that you are acting “brand new”.
You are! That is the truth. Although it is meant to insult you and discourage you…You are new! You are not where you were when the journey started. You have struggled, slipped up, stopped altogether and have thought about quitting numerous times. But hey [and we should never start sentences with the word but]…but hey…look at you! Embrace your process [I don’t like process…it means time and I am type A and everything is an emergency and don’t even bother with the things that come out of sequence]…You are on an individual journey that is unique to you and your destiny. Yes you need to be accountable and not be indolent. However, if you are doing all that you need to do then keep changing! Keep growing! Eventually the results will come. Do not despise your small beginnings. So what you only started your investment with $500 and it has only grown to $650, who cares? It has grown! Keep growing! Keep learning! Keep moving…mostly in silence of course and keep changing!
What about the persons around you who don’t get it? They don’t understand your new vision? Some, in fact most, are really NOT out to get you. Remember just a few days, weeks, months, years ago, you were exactly like them! You used to turn up your noses at the very people you are emulating now! It took some time for you to come around. So keep working the plan, they will get it eventually. And for those who don’t? Maybe it is time to change your circle. Over time, it will be very clear what you need to do. Regardless of where you are on this journey today…just starting, or well on your way and adjusted to the process, or maybe somewhere in the middle, whatever you do, Keep changing!
So, what are some of the means that you will use to keep changing? In what areas are you going to change this year?
GMW