How to Change Your Life

In a nutshell?  Get out of your comfort zone!!

Everything I Learned About Sustainable Life Changes I learned from Alcholics

A lot can be said for a recovering alcholic’s method of changing their life.  So here is the alcoholic’s crib sheet for changing their life.

1. Admitting you have a problem.  Lots of ’self-helpers’ want to change their lives, but don’t really think that there is anything wrong with it.  They only want to improve or ‘tweak’ their life.  The two concepts are contradictory to your success.  There is a world of difference between ‘tweaking’ your life and changing your life. 

If you want to change your life, then you need to admit to yourself that there is a problem with the one you have. 

2. Asking for help.  Alcoholics don’t do it alone.  Period.  They go to meetings.  Sometimes every day a week.  It takes bull-headed determination and persistence to change your habits.  And in asking for help, they create accountability for themselves.

3. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of themselves.  For an alcoholic, this can be an extremely painful process.  There is nothing like admitting to yourself that you are a bad parent, or a murderer.  (I’m not kidding.)  But the first step to recovery is being honest with yourself. 

Changing your life isn’t simply “Wow, I’m not happy and fulfilled and I want to be”.

Changing your life means looking at yourself, your actions and asking yourself why you have made the compromises you’ve made, why you allow others to control your life, why you are living up to someone else’s dream instead of your own.

4.  Dumping your friends.   Usually alcoholics have friends who are alcoholics.  In order for any change to occur, they have to get away from these ‘friends’. 

Think about it.  Poor people have friends who are poor.  Miserable people have friends who are miserable.  Tree hugging hippies seek out tree hugging hippies.

Like minds seek each other out and reinforce a certain view of the world between the group.  You can’t expect to change your life if you continue to hang around the same people.

5.  Hit rock bottom.   Alcoholics don’t usually change until they have hit rock bottom.  Usually they realize they have been abusing someone or committed a crime.  Perhaps they have pushed away a spouse. 

Make mediocrity your rock bottom.  Make your fears your rock bottom.  If you don’t, you probably won’t ever change because, let’s face it, you probably aren’t beating your kids. 

6.  Keep your goal in mind.  You can’t forget about your goal.  Eat, sleep, and breathe your goal.  This is your life.  If you don’t do it now, you’ll procrastinate your way right out of living on purpose.