LegendaryLife.com Blog

I often hear people tell me how long it took to create lasting changes in their lives, so how long does it actually take to create an enormous change in your life?

What is change?

Change, for me, is defined as going from habit forming activity to another. For example, somebody might choose to change their eating habits to gain or loose weight or change the people they choose to have a relationship with. Change, to me, isn’t the migration from one to the other but the exact period in time that a distinctive decision is made and kept. Put another way, although it may take a few months to leave an hold habit behind for a new one, to me, the change actually occurred when you decided to follow though with actions beyond thought.

Habits 101

Humans, like most organisms on this planet, are creatures of habit. We are no different then the local rooster that needs to yell it’s lungs out at the morning sun wanting a few more hours of darkness to sleep with his harem. Most of us derive pleasure out of being able to predict the outcomes of such things as driving to and from work, taste of food at your favorite restaurant and even being with a person you choose to love. There is an entrenched sense of security, knowing that even if some things fall apart during everyday struggles, you can always count on a few habits to pull you through. These habits can be both positive and negative. A positive one might be the desire to workout at the gym a few hours a week in order to build the body of your dreams. A negative one may be the desire to job hop once you are given too much responsibility from a boss. No matter the habit, detrimental or otherwise, it is a habit that, at the end of the day, you choose by your actions to either maintain or leave.

Decisions about Change

Changing ones outlook on life happens in a split second, not over time. You may choose to stop smoking, that decision for creating a lasting change in your life took no more then a second. So, once you realize that you have the power to create a change in habits that quickly, then going through the process of making a new habit reality isn’t very difficult. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel which makes the process of going through the change you have decided upon that much more straight forward and powerful.

What is the difference between decision and change?

A decision is the choice, positive or negative that you choose to follow through upon. Change is the underlying process or reason why you made such a choice. If you see somebody you are attracted to, then there is a desire for change that requires a decision to be made.

How to create a lasting change in habits

First, you need to decide to follow through with a change in habits, without a decision, you are going nowhere fast. Once a decision is made, simply follow through on a daily basis, however incremental, until you have achieved the new habit you wanted. This does sound rather straight forward doesn’t it? Well, who ever said change has to be dragged out? If you want something, go for it, if you don’t, leave it behind. Simple. The process of changing a habit can be difficult sometimes, it may require a change of environment, relationship patterns or even thought processes, nobody said the process of change was easy, but the decision to create lasting change is.

The Bottom Line

If you want change, make a decision as to what you want and follow through with new habits.