Creating a change....

For many of us, we reach a point in our lives where we feel as if nothing is going right; our energy levels are low, we aren't enjoying our work, we don't have the same sense of contentedness with our friendship circles and we just feel a general sense of 'down' about life.
We have two choices here - to keep continuing on the path we are travelling; feeling down, isolated, and unmotivated OR, we can make a change/s to give ourselves a chance to live a life more satisfying, connected, happy and with color. I know which one I would rather choose - and life certainly seems a lot more exciting when you can wake up out of bed most days with vigor!

Creating change isn't always easy. To begin with, it's a good idea to have a vision in mind of the life or goal you want to achieve. Think about how this feels, how this looks, how this will effect you and the people around you. Think about what needs to change in your life to be able to get to this vision.

The next thing to keep in mind is that goals and visions will change many times throughout your life; you may reach a goal and need to create a new challenge or desire, your life priorities may change (particularly as you get older, and your living arrangements or lifestyle changes).
It is important to set aside some time when this does happen, or you begin to feel that faint feeling of 'down', lack of motivation and dissatisfaction with life again, to re-visit your initial goals.

                                        
The following steps can be helpful in how you can go about creating a change in your life, to be able to live one with more gusto, excitement, satisfaction, motivation and optimism!

1) Decide what you want to change.
2) Ask yourself why you want this change.
3) What else could you change if you made this change?
4) What do you envisage your life will look like after you make this change?
5) What could get in the way?
6) What  are your strengths? (Yes - we all have some!!)
7) What have you succeeded in before?
8) What quality/talent did that take?
9) How can you use that to help you now?
10) Do you think you would be more likely and able to make changes with some outside assistance/encouragement?
                                                 
It is helpful to keep  in mind that the following things can also have an impact on your ability to make changes, and to change your thought processes when difficulties do arise; our resilience, adaptability, resignation and acceptance.

Resilience encompasses the ability of an individual to be able to 'bounce back' from one of life's set backs. Creating a new vision will give us back our optimism and drive to get back to it!
Being able to adapt to changes in circumstances are also helpful. If we have one goal and are not flexible in our thinking or have got to the point where our original goal has become irrelevant to our lives, then we are more likely to lose our zest for life and disillusioned.
Resignation tends to gives us a feeling of hopelessness, that we are residing to the fact that we could not reach our goal or vision, which can increase risk of developing depression and anxiety.
Acceptance that we cannot change and control everything, but that we can change our thoughts and feelings towards our vision. It is much more productive to redirect your thoughts and energy towards the things we can change.

Good luck change makers!!!