Sometimes when you want to make a change, the fear of it can be overwhelming. Whether you want to change your eating habits, spending habits, or your overloaded schedule, it can be tempting to make big declarations of change only to discover it’s much easier said than done. And that’s why so many doubtful questions tend to pop up when you’re contemplating what to do: Is this the right change? Will I be able to keep it up? Do I really want to make this big of a commitment?
A better approach to change is this simple experiment. Choose a practical change you can make and give yourself a set amount of time to try it out – say, a weekend or a week or even a month. And at the end of that time period, evaluate how it went. What worked well? What didn’t work so well? Did you see the results you wanted? Do you want to keep going with it? If so, what tweaks will you make.
When you approach your life like a living laboratory, you realize that it is often impossible to know what will work until you give it a try. The journey is about learning what works for you and what doesn’t. Changes don’t have to be perfect the first time you attempt them in order to be effective.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing an experiment of my own – trying out a new schedule. It is a pretty radical change. It is a 30-day experiment and it mirrors a plan I had imagined and started working towards several years ago, but in the fast pace of family and my business, I had lost sight of it. But as I work on a concept for a new book, I was reminded of this old vision. I’ve learned a lot in a couple of weeks, and I’ll make some decisions about what permanent changes I’ll make.
What about you? What change have you been thinking about, but hesitating to move forward because you aren’t certain about the “right” way to do it? This week, would you be willing to experiment with change? Try it. I’d love to hear about it in the comments section on the blog.
