Making Small Changes & Being Uncomfortable

Many people saw their plans and year upended in 2020. Rafiki told Simba in The Lion King, “The past can hurt…you can either run from it or learn from it.” Unfortunately, there is not an easy button to get back on track after large disruptions in our life. Loss of sales revenue, layoffs, working remotely with limited WIFI or trying to juggle kids remote learning while you get your work done – all very stressful situations and probably set many of us back last year.

As I have outlined in previous articles – attitude is incredibly important. Your ability to defeat yourself before you even start to improve is powerful. We need to get our head around what it is going to take to improve any situation – and that means being uncomfortable! Often the thing that defeats us is thinking too big – trying to do too much too soon, and it seems like a monumental task.

Being uncomfortable is part of any improvement process, but uncomfortable does not mean intolerable! Staying in your comfort zone is not going to change anything. If you try to focus on smaller changes and the discipline to accomplish them every day, they become habit and part of your routine…. Still uncomfortable, but tolerable!

Here are a few small changes you can make that will have an impact on your work or home life:

-       Reprogram your mind to stay positive.

-       Set your alarm half an hour earlier.

-       Clean up after yourself immediately.

-       Don't over-commit.

-       Don't be so predictable.

-       Swap complaining for expressing gratitude.

-       Stop comparing yourself to others.

Today is the day. Tackle the one thing that you have been putting off…. And tomorrow tackle one more, and so forth, and so on…Eleanor Roosevelt said “Do one thing every day that scares you. Those small things that make us uncomfortable help us build courage to do the work we do.”