Change needn't be hard. In fact, it can be downright easy.
Your subconscious mind has been storing facts, attitudes, and beliefs about change all of your life. In many instances, these beliefs are about how difficult it is to change. You need to examine these and determine which are valid.
Remember that your creative subconscious mind maintains your beliefs by selectively filtering information to validate all of your beliefs and attitudes. If your thoughts are about what you don't want in regard to change or about how difficult change is, your creative subconscious finds other people, other phrases, and other attitudes that will support that negative attitude about change. Thus, your mind will work to make sure that you get what you're thinking about, and prove that your negative thoughts are valid. Birds of a feather truly do flock together.
But, if you think about how easy or beneficial change is, your creative subconscious will find people, phrases, and attitudes that will support the ease or benefit of change. Your subconscious mind will work to make sure that you get what you're thinking about here, too, and that your positive thoughts about change are valid.
What you need to do is ask yourself, "What do I want to believe about change? How difficult do I want it to be?" Once you've worked that out and decided that you want change to be easy and beneficial, you can turn your thoughts in that direction and feed focused positive thoughts and desires to your subconscious. You can then expect that your subconscious will work toward making change easier and more beneficial for you.
Often, you might approach a change by trying to change your behavior without first changing the inner thoughts, habits, and attitudes that control your actions. This usually makes changing behavior fairly difficult. If you first change your thoughts,
habits, and attitudes, then changing your behavior will be much easier.
It's important to understand the benefits of any change you're considering and to understand just why the change is desired. Change is easier to accept when you can see the reason for the change. The reasons and benefits for the change make it more palatable for you. When you understand these things, it is more likely that you might become dissatisfied with the present situation and begin to want the change.
Wanting the change is very important to a successful change. You should remember that it's your choice to change, so the change should be in response to your own desire to change, not because you feel you should. The change needs to be your idea.
Visualization is very helpful with change. When you decide to make a change, first think it through completely. Understand very clearly and specifically what you want to do. Plan it out in detail and visualize each step. Visualize the benefits and imagine what things will be like after you have made the change. You should become more comfortable with the change as you do this. Develop a newly defined comfort zone in the area of the change.
As you go through the change process, reward yourself for the gains you make. Celebrate your successes along the way, and celebrate again when you've achieved the change you planned.
Jim Will, Ph.D.