Aloha, and happy September. You been in good spirit while I’ve been gone?
September 1st is the 244th day of the year (since this is not a leap year). That means we have 121 days to go in 2010, a bit over 33%. Here’s what I suggest: Choose your change and find that you are a much happier person by the time 2011 comes knocking, regardless of what might be going on in your family, your workplace, your neighborhood, or in the rest of the world.
Choosing change of your own design is a very smart strategy, an ‘Imi ola, create your best life kind of strategy. [Literally; ‘Imi (seek) ola (life)… Hō‘imi means “look for better and best.”]
You can choose big change (get a new job, move to a new city), or you can choose little change (get a different haircut, move the furniture around). The important thing is that you are the one who is doing the choosing. It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway, to be crystal clear about this) that whether big or small, you’ll opt for bright-outlook change that will give you a more positive expectancy about the future to come. You will also be choosing to Ho‘o, and make your change-of-choice happen.
One of my all-time favorite quotations is this one by organizational change pioneer Richard Beckhard: “People do not resist change; people resist being changed.” In other words, we must feel we’re the ones in control, whether simply for balance, or so we’re able to take charge, and re-correct when we feel we need to. We resist when we feel the reins of control and self-determination may slip out of our hands.
When we work on a plan of our own design we don’t feel helpless, directionless, or victimized. Even when we screw up, we can say we were experimenting or exploring, and learning —and we were! Decisions to change can’t be totally wrong or ill-advised if they were generated within our own wants, needs and purposes because we are not, by nature, self-saboteurs. Our survival instincts will always kick in and serve us well.
Beckhard’s quote is written within the cover of my current journal as a self-prompting; I’ve read, and reread his words often during the past year to ask myself, “What are you resisting now? Why?” and then, “What can you do about it?” because I don’t believe that avoidance works well; avoidance is a twin sister to procrastination. There’s always something I can pry out of hiding: I’ll identify my resistance, choose my change and get moving again.
And you know what? Great stuff has happened for me this past year, both because of the ‘Great Recession’ and in spite of it. I’ve chosen to focus on certain things, and ignore, or bring a better ending to others. I’ve simply believed, heart and soul, that I can choose my own destiny and work on creating and shaping it. Then I do!
Choice ~ your choice ~ is the white magic of ‘Imi ola, and there’s plenty to go around. So go make your own magic in September; it’s a fine month for it.
If you want a bit more help with self-determination, and making a “plan of your own design” these two posts from the archives may help:
