15- Change and Appreciation????

How do you create change? I remember in my early 20’s being depressed and confused. I got home late one night from work and sitting on my couch flipping through channels when I got stuck on an infomercial. It was Tony Robbins and he was selling one of his CD programs. Since my life felt like it was a mess I decided I had nothing to loose and ordered the program.

For those of you who haven’t heard, read or know anything about Tony I will say he is a dynamic speaker and motivator. He creates a lot of value for his clients and I appreciate what he does and the way he does it. With that being said the way he suggests creating change is interesting. He gets you to focus so strongly and with so much emotion on what you hate about a certain aspect of you life that you feel forced to change.

I remember even as a child being taught that if you want something to change you must focus on what you don’t like about where you are, motivate yourself, take massive action, talk about why you don’t like it, tell everyone who will listen why you don’t like it, replay why you don’t like it over and over and over in your mind. And then at some magical point you break free.

Using body weight as an example of this there are actually weight loss programs that suggest you take a picture of yourself in the least amount of clothes possible and then circle the parts of yourself you do not like. I see it happen all the time. People reach that frustration point of their weight and then go on a strict diet or a crazy exercise plan or both. And usually after they loose the weight it all comes rushing back.

It happens around other issues also. People leave their job to only find the same issues at the next one. Or you leave that crazy girlfriend to find the exact same issues in the next one. I have witnessed one friend go through guys at a staggering rate and each one is almost a mirror of the one before.

About a year ago I ran into a new philosophy around creating change. Actually it took me almost a year to accept it and for the past year I have been practicing it. There are some operating principles I would like to share.

~You are where you are.
~You can get anywhere from you are.
~Reality never lies. You are experiencing exactly what you should be experiencing.
~There will never be a happy ending to an unhappy journey.
~Make peace with where you are.

What if you could create change peacefully? What if you didn’t have to wage a war on fat, your job, your spouse, your mind? There are many tools to do this. I have listed some throughout this blog and will continue to list more. From what I have been studying the past two plus years the fastest way to get where you want to go is....Appreciation. After my week long rampage of appreciation I will dig into the peaceful way of change.

But first today I am going to write a letter of appreciation to a friend I work with. I know she has been up and down lately so I am going to appreciate all she does. I will leave you with this thought.....

“You manifest the essence of what you appreciate and depreciate.”

Much Love
9-1-9