How to change your life in 60 seconds

May 16th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Change
your life in a minute

How many books have your read on personal development? How many seminars have
you attended? How many podcasts have you listened to? and how many blogs have
you read to change your life?

My guess would be that you’ve spent hundreds of hours reading, watching
and listening for ways to change your life for the better. I know I have,
I am a self help junkie and was forever searching for that elusive book that
would change me forever. I was looking externally for a lesson that would
change me. It took years to learn that my life was not going to change
from a book or a seminar or a podcast or a blog.

Your life literally changes within the space of 60 seconds.

Some of you will know exactly what I am talking about here and some of you
might be thinking ‘what is the clown talking about!’

How to change in 60 seconds

Decide that you really want to change and what you want to change from and
what you want to change to.

Deciding to change

This might sound a bit too simplistic. You might think this step is
a given and that of course you want to change or you wouldn’t be investing
all that time reading and listening to self help articles and seminars etc. However,
ask yourself have you really thought about it?

Changing might involve changing your life totally, depending on your circumstances. I
know people who have literally change the country they live, they’ve
changed their friends, they’ve changed their house, and they’ve
literally changed their surroundings which show a huge commitment.

I firmly believe that to change a long standing habit in your life you have
to remove yourself totally your habits surroundings. I think a classic
example of this is drug users. I deal with a lot of drug users in my
role as a support worker. The ones, I have seen, come off the drugs quicker
and more successfully are the ones who have literally removed themselves from
their friends, their family, and their normal surroundings. They have
re-invented themselves elsewhere. It’s like having one of those
fairground machines where the mechanical arm picks up the teddy and you win
the prize, it’s been taken out of its normal surroundings and given a
new life.

Knowing what you might have to sacrifice in order to become a better you will
it be worth it? If your answer is still yes and you have really thought about
it and are willing to sacrifice then you have decided to change.

Knowing who you are

You know yourself very well and you know your feelings and thoughts about
the world. Maybe you’re wrong, maybe you have a skewed perception
of yourself, maybe you’re comparing yourself to people you shouldn’t
be.

When I was younger I used to try and be like Tom Cruise in the films Top Gun,
Days of Thunder and Cocktail. I wanted to be a confident, funny, go get
em sort of person. It took me years to realise I wasn’t that person;
I was quiet, confident, liked my own space and preferred to develop my intelligence
rather than my list of conquests.

Who are you comparing yourself to? What do you think other people think about
you? Ask your friends how they see you and what type of person they see
you as. You have to be prepared for what you hear so don’t ask
the question if you are not prepared fro the answers.

When you know who you really are and you still want to change aspects of your
life. then you’re ready for the last step a changing.

Who do you want to be?

You wouldn’t go to a strange place without first having a route map
to find it. So it is with life. you have to know what and where
you want to be in life before you can actually go there.

You will know deep down if you really want to change. You will know
generally who you really are and you will probably know what you want to change. Looking
at these three aspects of change should only take you 60 seconds initially.

Who and where do you want to be next year?

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There Are 13 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Today is that Day on 16 May 2007:

Steven,

Big props to you for a great post! So many people know that they “want” something, but they don’t really give much thought to who they will be and what their life will be like once they have it.

The general belief in success is that once someone attains success, they will have the options to do what they want, when they want. I fully subscribe to that point of view myself, but I encourage people to realize that the things that you will “want” to do must be different than what you are already doing, or else you would already have success!

- Aaron

Comment by Psychic ability on 17 May 2007:

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Comment by Liz on 22 May 2007:

What an excellent post. I completely agree , no single piece of information is going to change your life without you consciously applying it. There is no secret book or audio that will transform your life without your participation. You must choose to grow and take action to achieve that goal.

Comment by fluencev on 23 May 2007:

i believe myself just like you.

Comment by Dale on 21 July 2007:

I appreciate the format of your article but i have one question to ask you. If i was someone who needed to change an area or aspect of my life and had identified what needed to change, who i currently was and who i wanted to be, what self help techniques would you suggest? Many people know what they want to change and become but can not action their new found knowledge. What techniques would you suggest to help people make the change. I suggest the real answer is not only in the ‘knowing’ but more in the ‘doing’(taking the necessary action). Please do not take this as a negative response to your article but as a coach myself i have found that simply advising people on what they need to do and then not giving them the tools or techniques to get the required results is very frustrating and non productive(hence the need for coaches in the first place). You are correct in saying that first you must know what it is you want but more importantly you will need to know how to change it. Keep up the good work and may i suggest the next addition to your last sentence “Who and where do you want to be next year?”)would be - “and here are some self help techniques to turn your answers into reality!” regards Dale.

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Comment by Gary V Carter on 2 March 2008:

You are bang on! The decision to change starts it all. And I find that behind that decision resides a disgust with the way things are. Sadly, behind that disgust is often a feeling of despair. When a person lacks any sense of hope it is really hard to find the will to change.

With the right kind of desire and then the digging in to understand who and where they are so many people could create a life better than they ever imagined.

With just the right amount of support from the right kind of person the intentions that lie buried can wake up and flourish. But as you quite correctly point out it is all about the decision in the first place.

Comment by louise jean on 1 June 2008:

For me to change my life would mean changing my childrens life to the point that they would miss all their friends and we would be more isolated. I can’t make that sacrifice until they grow up then it will probably be to late. It’s easy to change your life if it just involves changing your own life.

Comment by Cal D on 1 July 2008:

I have many positive comments to make about the other posts however I must point out that Louise Jean just used one of a series of typical excuses by blaming others as the reason you cannot make change. It is all so obvious when I look in from the outside although I have been guilty of such similar ridiculous excuses myself in the past. Today I am pleased tp state I do not drink, drug or smoke anymore. I did all to excess just a few years ago. I learned to make LASTING change. I have since written a book all about mental skills, tools, tactics and strategies that anyone can copy to make lasting change. Firstly though Louise Jean get honest and real and lose the excuses. All the best Cal D