If you decided that you wanted to go back to school and become a doctor would you expect to have to work hard? I am guessing you would, and I am also guessing that you know it would take at least 5 years of commitment and dedication to achieve the qualifications and reach the level of skill necessary for you to work in medicine.
What about if you decided to play the piano to concert standard? Again I think you are a wise enough soul to appreciate that it takes many years to fine tune your skills and those years are full of practice, practice and more practice. It would require a level of dedication and perseverance that most people do not possess.
Isn’t it funny that few people if any would argue that to become a skilled doctor or musician takes practice and that it does not come in a week or a month but can take decades for them to really reach the top of the profession.
Yet why do so many people think mastering themselves should be so easy?
I occasionally get life coaching clients that expect to make changes inside 1 or 2 sessions. Now sometimes that can happen if they are tweaking at the edges but if they are looking for fundamental changes in thinking patterns and behavior then it is unlikely. Not only will major changes take time to implement they will also require embedding and working on right up until just before you die to keep them in place.
Yep, that’s right I’m afraid self-development is a life long process.
I know some people will simply shrug their shoulders and give up after hearing that because let’s face it, that sounds like hard work and they would rather read a book or maybe pop a pill to make everything hunky dory and tickety boo.
If you want to make significant improvements to your life you will have to work at it the same way as anybody that requires a skill to perform in their career will work at it. It shouldn’t be viewed as a problem anymore than brushing your teeth, taking a shower or breathing is.
If you take 30 minutes a day and devote that time to improving yourself by reading or meditating or visualizing or whatever it is you want to do rather than simply vegging out watching mind numbing tv. Within 3 months you will notice a difference, within 6 months your family and friends will notice a difference and with 12 months you will feel like a whole new person and your only regret will be that you didn’t do it sooner.
So what are you waiting for?
Tim Brownson is a Certified Life Coach and has been unsticking people and helping them reach their true potential since 2005. If you would like to know how he can help you