The Snowball Effect of Change

To have the life you dream of, you are in need of change. Big changes and small changes. There are truly big changes that are needed in your personal and your professional life, changes that will improve your physical and mental health. But creating that change from scratch or making that change at all is going to take way more conscious effort than you believe is possible to conjure up. This is normal, you aren't really meant to believe you can do it, because at this point in time you are yet to prove it to yourself, don't let that hold you back, there's a way of getting the ball rolling, and its by creating momentum. Momentum is a powerful tool as it can build and build and become truly unstoppable, it does take energy but it doesn't drain energy.

In this way 'change' is a small group of snowflakes, tiny and unique. It doesn't know what it can form into, it doesn't even think about it, but with the creation of momentum it grows and grows by picking up other small changes along the way. Once the intention of moving in one direction is set it naturally grows and picks up other small changes. It becomes the centre of so much more, it attracts in more than was ever previously considered as it is nurtured throughout its growth.

For this reason, I believe in making 'change for change sake', this means making a positive change in life that doesn't take too much thought. This simply means knowing something is likely to have a good effect on you, those around you or the environment etc, but not having to know too much about it, instead simply experimenting. If you want to really change your life, creating new experiences will open your eyes to see what you never saw before.

This new focus of attention will create new thought patterns and a new approach to areas of your life which in turn lead to creations of new actions, reactions and considerations.

But where exactly would I start?

The question of where to start is completely up to you and should be within something that interests you and within an area of your life you would like to make some changes. So you can break these areas into categories such as:

• Health and Fitness
• Work
• Relationships
• Hobbies
• Distractions

Read them out loud a couple of times... Which one is most calling for your attention?

This is likely to bring you to the big change that you are struggling to make in your life. But it is in the small, less obvious details that the change will be possible.

Is there one thing you can add or remove from that area of your life now and do so for 30 days?

Again, this can really be anything.

For me, removing meat from my diet was very important to a continual improvement in my health and an ability to see outside of my 'ordinary'.

In other areas such as work and removing distractions, making clearer notes of how you day has been spent can also be a great catalyst of where greater efficiency can be created. This is something I am currently working with and I would recommend to others.

Small changes will lead to more thought and meaning than originally considered. This again, is what turns the people away who are not willing to change their life, but can inspire those who are willing to find out what greater experiences are in store.

Mastering a small habit, can open your mind to more. You regain the understanding that you are in control, your world is a reflection of your habits, and you have the ability to change them.

My Habits

I am a type one diabetic, I was diagnosed roughly 13 years ago. This wasn't caused by any particular bad habits and was likely the result of a virus and/or my genetics. Although this wasn't caused by any habits it did create some habits for myself that would be things like making quick calculations of my carb intake and avoiding overly sugary drinks and foods (but mostly just drinks).

My habits were created within the first year and did not change much, and because of this my diabetes never really improved, my attention towards it reduced and I've used it as an excuse at times to make my life 'easier' one way i would do this was by just accepting I couldn't exercise more or exert myself much. This habit along with a lack of care crept into my life quite unnoticed and I would sit deeply immersed in my comfort zone with a tv show and a packet of ginger nut biscuits and a sugary cup of tea just working my way through the lot of them. This was normal on probably two occasions a week. Exercise also wouldn't be regular and the idea of pushing myself wasn't very normal either.

However, I wanted to have a better focus on my health and nutrition. I became inspired to change my diet initially by removing meat, this would be an experiment and was aimed to bring my focus back to the food I consume. Ive always found cooking meat easy and 'the norm' although I would struggle to create a good variety of side plates. I wasn't expecting big changes in my life by removing meat, it was just a response to seeing people around me fill themselves up on the same food every week since I first met them. It concerned me knowing that I may never try something I truly love, or something that could improve my life if I continued to be stuck in my 'norm'.

Later I forgot about the grand scheme of things again. I'd removed meat from my diet and now this was the norm, which this time was inspiring. What it really created was the understanding that I am in charge of change. This spiralled into greater changes in my diet and in my approach to fitness. I rarely drink fizzy drinks, I exercise a lot more and I've radically reduced the number of foods I intake without in an unconscious manner. I feel great having put a this growing focus into my body. It started with removing meat and has brought be to a place of much better understanding of nutrition and fitness as well as other things like why I fell into the junk-food habits in the first place.

The dedication to making a small change led to a huge "what if?" ... 'What if I stopped the habit of injecting insulin to make my life easier as a diabetic? And instead I understood my food intake to the point that my body ran perfectly well on the great choice of food and fitness I could give to it'

The big 'impossible' picture is created by the smallest snowflakes of change.