If you are looking for some positive changes in your life, welcome to the Thrive Beyond 55 club!
Thriving is about getting out on the playing field with the intent to live a bigger and more satisfying life. It means aligning our intentions with our choices, and then taking a step.
Physics tells us a body at rest will stay at rest; a body in motion will stay in motion. Our bodies and minds tend to get in ruts, sinking into the comforts of inertia. Moving ourselves from a state of rest to one of action isn’t always easy.
Here’s two principles I find helpful in making changes in my life.
Change by Decree
For years people have used affirmations to strengthen their resolve and clear the energy path for receiving the object of their desire.
A declaration adds the rocket fuel to an intention giving it a powerful thrust into the world of manifestation. Declarations have a way of cutting through the mind’s cluttered swamp of intentions, to a place of clarity.
Science is now beginning to reveal quantifiable evidence of the power of self-talk. Even medical practitioners are realizing the positive benefits of declarations and affirmations as they witness marked improvements in patients who engage in this practice.
Change by Degree
Healthy change happens in increments, not through massive tumultuous upheaval. I know there are proponents out there of massive action. I am not saying there aren’t times for both modalities.
My experience, though, has been that the action that tends to get the longest return is the one that starts with one small step. It’s not flamboyant. It doesn’t populate the headlines. It just gets the job done. Period.
Like a jumbo jet or a cruiseship, our minds and bodies aren’t prone to turn on a dime. It takes small adjustments, but be simply shifting a degree, we begin to turn in a new direction and that realignment plots a new course in life.
Airlines pilots know making an adjustment to their flight path of one degree will result in a massively different destination outcome. Imagine making a SERIES of small incremental changes. The result could turn your life around and put it on an altogether new course.
Not by tomorrow, or next week, but six months from now or a year, you could be looking at a totally different you.
Someone once told me, ‘You’re going to be a year old anyway, why not make it count for something?’
We forget that time can be our friend. So often we make it our enemy by focusing on what we haven’t accomplished. We focus on the tick tock of the clock instead of what we are actually doing with the minutes of our day.
Break it down into bite size pieces. Give yourself some small victories.
Football players measure their advancement in ‘downs’ – often just moving the ball a few yards at a time. Yet, in the end, those little achievements are what eventually win them the game. We shouldn’t expect to throw a touchdown with every effort. Once in a while, the opportunity comes along to make some extraordinary progress. But it’s the steady, small efforts that add up to the biggest wins in the end.