As I shared a few post back, I met Brene Brown face-to-face during her Australian visit (Sunday Life column on the matter to come).
Her big thing, the thing that resonated for me when I read The Gifts of Imperfection was that making a change in your life is about getting serious, deliberate. You can talk about it, think about it, half do it…
but if it really matters to you, you have to fire up and hone your actions
and bunker down and BE IT. Live it.
I asked her how she actually does it. How does she prepare for it. Run up to it. Jump to it.
Her answer:
No sugar
No flour
Exercise
And prayer. Specifically The Serenity Prayer.
Oh, I said. Me too. Of sorts. And we talked about this.
I know most of you who read my posts are on the same boat. We’re all wanting to get more committed and aligned to what matters to us. And to leave more of what doesn’t serve us at the last port. It’s friggen hard to do. And we can spend years trying to run from it, do it in half measure…only to fall back to our old ways again.
I’m finding the only way to make the leap into change is to be clear. So I try to get as clear – and thus deliberate – as I can each day. There’s nothing magic to this. Or inaccessible. Just diligence. It’s friggen hard.
But this is what I do:
No sugar or gluten
Meditation
Exercise in the morning
Less alcohol (it’s now down to one glass of wine at a time…anything else fuzzes me up the next day)
Reducing e-distractions. Words With Friends is going to have to go…I’m playing it at 11pm when I’m trying to commit to early nights!
And here’s the one that’s really a pearler:
Committing to everything I do. Even the small stuff, like deciding to eat lunch at 12.30, not 1.30. Or whatever.
Because every time I commit, it builds up my deliberate muscle. Even if the decision might not be ideal, I’m practicing committing.
OK, I should be at my computer instead of riding into the Post Office at 9am. But I’m on my way now. Let’s do this thing with elan and purpose and make it happen!!! Bam!
What do you do to get serious and real with yourself? Actually, more interestingly, what are you wanting to get deliberate about…I’m betting we’re mostly seeking the same thing…
