The 3 Best Ways to Make Big Changes

I’m not the best with change, but I’m no stranger to it. Usually I know it’s coming well before I have to actually go through it. Which gives me ample time to prepare (or freak out, ha). Maxie is here with great tips on how to make those necessary big changes life requires!

The 3 Best Ways to Make Big Changes

Guest post by Maxie McCoy

Making changes to your life isn’t ever easy. We’re all creatures of habit. We get into a pattern, or we get into a routine, or we go with what we know – and sometimes never question it. But questioning it may be exactly what we need to do in order to create intentional change in our lives.

It doesn’t matter if the changes you want to make are personal, professional, relational, health-focused or spiritually driven… If you’re feeling the pull to make a change you’ll most likely have to do something different to get it. And if you’re looking to be somewhere, or someone, that you’ve never been, it’s likely you’ll have to find a route you’ve never taken in order to get there.

Remember that age-old saying of, “If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done.” It’s so true! However, doing something you’ve never done can be hard sometimes, even scary, and often challenging. But there ARE ways to make it all easier.

Some of the biggest changes I’ve made in my life – with my health, my relationships, and my career – have required me to come out of my comfort zone and establish routines that help me stick with whatever it is that I’m trying to change. If you’re trying to change anything in your life, consider these ways of doing it:

Know why you’re making the change. If your change is grounded in why you “should” be doing something or because it might “look good” or because of “pressure” (from anyone), the change isn’t likely to stick because it’s for external reasons. If you can find your true, deep rooted, internal reasons for wanting to make a change, you can always come back to that when the going gets tough. For example, it’s the difference of wanting to make dietary changes because you want to look good in a bikini (external motivators), versus making those same changes because you want to feel healthy this summer (internal motivators). The latter is what’s rooted in intention that can keep you going.

Make the changes small. And then build on them. Not all change is sweeping or a 180-degree change overnight. Often, the biggest progress we make is when we make small tweaks to our life and then keep building on them. For example, if you want to get a handle on how much time you’re spending online, maybe the thing to do isn’t deleting every social channel and email account, and instead setting office hours for digital or limits on your screen time. Then, once you feel secure about these changes you can continue to build on them until you feel good about how much time you’re spending online.

Set up recurring check-ins. When we make changes, it’s easy to completely forget about our own progress. So, if you can setup check-ins (at whatever time interval feels right to you)…then it’ll give you a great understanding of what you’ve implemented, how you’ve felt in the process, and what you still have left to do. You can schedule these in your phone calendar, or make a date with an accountability buddy, or set up time with an expert who can give you guidance on your progress. Whatever it is, make time to check in with how far you’ve come and how you feel.

Change is never easy. Especially when it’s self-imposed change for the sake of progress…in any area of your life. But what’s more important than your life? So it’s probably worth working on!

Maxie has filled her book, You’re Not Lost, with inspiration just like this. Read it today!