change your life

One of the easiest and quickest ways to start improving and changing your life is to do something that you’ve always done a little differently. It doesn’t have to even be related to the goal that you may have in mind.

The idea of making changes in your life is to get things rolling. To get things moving along, try changing small things in your life today.

Have you ever arrived at work or home and not remembered how you’ve gotten there? This is not only a scary notion, but it can also can be a great lesson that you should become aware of your surroundings. Look around you realize how how your daily life may be getting in the way of your self-improvement.

Here are some simple suggestions to help change up your routine today:

• Change your route to work
• Eat a meal during a different time of day (i.e. eat breakfast at dinnertime)
• Change the order or time of your exercise routine
• Get up a little earlier or later than you normally do
• Do some different chores around the house or ignore chores that you always do

The real point of this exercise is for you to realize that while we may feel comfortable in our lives, it can be that this comfort, the ‘settling’, that might be getting in the way of the changes that we want or need to make.

Start making the bigh changes in your life right now by changing some other, not-as-important parts of your life. You will be surprised at how different the world looks. You will start to believe that bigger changes are indeed very possible.

Life is as good as I allow it to be.

In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, there is a line that has given me great comfort in my daily life. It is talking about the things that are put before us and how we handle them.

The line states that “nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake”.

To me, this says that there is a reason for everything that goes on in my life. I am told that there are lessons to learn from everything and that I have choices as to how I react to these “opportunities”.

I believe that there are lessons to learn from the things that at are placed in our lives. But, the lessons that are to be learned may not be for us to learn. Maybe, it is a lesson that is to be learned by someone else. It could be that by going thru something with grace, another person can believe that they can do the same thing.

I have a friend that lost his daughter in an auto accident coming home from college for Christmas. He did not go crazy with grief and go off on the world. No, this gentleman came into our group of friends and talked about his grief. He showed me, and others, that we can go thru grief without destroying others and creating more grief.

I have also been taught that my mind sometimes cannot tell the difference between a tragedy and a miracle. An incident that happened in my life 20 years ago is a great example of this fact.

Something happened that, at the time it happened, I knew that my life had changed totally. I was at a crossroads and, depending on which route I took, life would be different.

Thankfully, even though I did not think that it would be a good choice, I took the route that has helped create a fantastic life. A life that is full and provides much joy and happiness.

Looking back on that night, I did not know what was in store but was able to take a route that would help my family and families of many other people.

So, I know that nothing happens in my life by mistake. And that life is as good as I allow it to be.

Have you ever had one of these days? Everything going great and you are just going with the flow. The sun is shining, you do not have a care in the world and life is good.

Then someone says something, or does something or looks at you weird and everything goes straight into the toilet.

And it does not matter how big or little a thing was that happened, your serenity is just shot. Like I said, serenity to death row in 30 seconds.

Now, nothing is good in the world. Your boss hates you or your kids hate your or your best friend is gone, or your dog is gone. The things that have happened or are about to happen are now endless. And, it is all in your head.

I used to say that when ever my boss’s door was closed, he was getting ready to fire me. Talk about having a major ego problem. I was thinking that I was so important that I was the only thing or person that he was thinking about.

When something like this happens, it is time to get a different perspective on things. Get it out of your head and into the sane world. You need to talk to someone or write it down on paper.

By getting things out of my head and into the real world, my perspective does a major change. I can, sometimes, see how my thinking is totally wrong. I can see that my ego has taken me on another major head trip.

This is when it is great to have some good friends. I am not talking about just the guys (or gals) at work or the ones that you hang out with. They will probably have the same kind of messed up thinking as you are trying to correct.

No, I am talking about a “spiritual guide”. Someone that has their feet firmly planted on the ground. This person does not necessarily need to be a religious person but someone that is not prone to fits of fantasy. Not someone that will just validate any weird thought that you throw out.

I have heard that “my mind is a bad neighborhood to visit on my own” and that I need to have a guide with me when I visit.

This is just some of my thoughts to show you that you are not alone in this world. And to tell you that my life is as good as I allow it to be.

Have you ever wondered if there was a quick way to begin having a good day every day?

Are your days less than great and somewhat depressing? Do you constantly see the bad things that are going on all around you?

Then I have the perfect way to start having good days all the time. You can create a gratitude list each and every day.

That is right, every morning, right after getting up, write down ten things for which you are grateful. Make a list of ten items daily that brings a little smile or some pleasure to your life, things that make your life easier or more enjoyable. And, each day, make it a new list full of different items.

Regardless of how bad you may think your life is, there are things that make you grateful or put a little bit of pleasure in your life.

When I look at the sunrise on the way to work, I have a choice to make my thoughts good or bad. I can think that I would rather be back in bed sleeping the morning away.

Or, I can think I am grateful that my eyes work so that I can see this beautiful sunrise. How many people in the world would change places with you in a heartbeat if they had your eyesight and could look at the sunrise?

On that same drive in to work, I could get upset about the sounds of the rush hour traffic, the roar of the engine noise and horns being honked by the impatient drivers. Or, I can be happy that I can listen to my favorite radio station and the pleasant music. There are thousands of people what would love to have your sense of hearing instead of their world without sound.

It is a decision that is made on a daily basis to experience gratitude and be happy about life. As you make the decision to be grateful about the little things, your life will start to improve. You will begin to see that life is good. As your thoughts begin to focus on the good things of life, more good things will come into your life.

The law of Karma states that what we put out into the world (our thoughts) will come back to us.

So, for my money, I choose to concentrate on the things for which I am grateful. These are the things that I want to expand in my life.