Change & Acceptance

Change your thoughts, and you change your world. -  Norman Vincent Peale

These may seem like two very separate issues, but change and acceptance are actually tied together. There's  no way you can go back and change the past. You can only look to the past for guidance towards the changes you;d like to make. If your life is a mess, if you've lost a job, betrayed a trust or ruined a precious relationship. the best thing you can do yourself is simply accept it. You know, feeling sorry for yourself or blaming everyone else, it only keeps you in the past mistake. 

I wanted to blame everyone else, you know, because I had nothing to do with it. But I had everything to do with it. I was part of every single equation. You just realize it's all about how you think.

By Accepting your lot, you can clear the slate, and prepare yourself for change. It's enormous relief to start all over again with a blank canvas. But before you state painting, prepare yourself. Make every stroke count. 

I used to always accept everything outside, and I was never accepting things on the inside. When I really turned that around and started accepting myself, and surrendered to the fact that I am a great person, that's when  I actually was able to move forward. 

Would you take a risk that promised a great pay off? A career change, a move to a different state, or a new opportunity, if that risk meant giving up some of your security?

I would necessarily find any interest or attraction in taking an unnecessary risk?

What is security? Security is material things.

I personally, um see security as, sometimes as stagnation. 

I would absolutely give up stuff that I have, in order to better my life. 

You know, if you asked around, most people say they're willing to pay the price. So why is it that they don't take that first step? Well there's two reasons, actually. Number one, there is an enormous gap between knowing what to do, and actually doing it. And we talked about that in the first program. 

Number two, many of us do start to take the first step. We'll set out to achieve our goals. But after a few steps, or a few weeks, the trail and the determination go cold. Lack of preparation is what we're really attempting to overcome. You know, we get excited. We vow to take action. We jump in without a plan. We may even start to see results and then we let up a little. Next comes the distractions, which often pop up at the wrong time. Stuck in unfamiliar territory with no clear sense of directions, we naturally veer back towards safe ground. Toward what we know, 

'I didn't believe in anything. And I grew up very, very angry with no self esteem and no confidence. Not a fun way to grow up. I figure out that things are not working the way I'm doing it, so really the only thing left is to give this stuff a chance. When I finally decided, okay, let's try this and see what happens,  and I really gave it a chance and started putting to use some information, some personal development, I saw some immediate changes in my life. And I was blown away.'

You know, change isn't always as easy as it looks. We are creatures of habit. We tend to fall back into patterns. We gravitate to what is familiar and comfortable to us. Growth and change, they truly rattle our cages. Take us out of our comfort zone. 

'I think change is difficult. Imean, I think change has historically been a difficult thing for me.'

Another part of the problem is that we are seldom taught how to change. Want to quit smoking? Just resist the urge to light up. Like to lose some weight? Push away the plate. Trout out your trusty will power. Well, that's not a good thing. 

You see, will power is a temporary mental burst, and can rarely be sustained over long periods of time. Next thing you know, you're getting hungry. The will power wears off. That's only natural, And without a plan, you have no healthy food in the house. Not a good thing. Cookie jar, here you come. 

Will power can be very strong for a short period of time, but then it weakens. Lose focus and you slip into your old behavior patterns. We have all experienced this. And when we do, we say, "I didn't have enough will power to change."

Well change affects everybody differently. I think, a lot of people try to use their will power to go through it, when really they can just use the power of their subconscious mind to change the image that they have of themselves.

Again, we see how the best way to change our behavior is to first change our thought process. Don't resist the urge to eat, but begin to change the vision of ourselves from fat to thin. From junk food junky to healthy eater. You know, there's a normal lag time between belief change and the behavior change, but stick with it, and you'll find it to be a much more permanent solution. 

I've committed myself to that 100 percent, knowing that you can do anything you want. And, I didn't live that way before. 

It's so exciting to learn the correct way of changing your behavior patterns, because it is much easier that you think, and it takes no sustained use of your will power.  And best of all, you can actually expect results. Not hope for results. Remember, your really changes only after you've developed a new consciousness. Not before. The new consciousness must come first.