A group of young people, giggling and pointing, striking poses as each tried on faces, wings, and crowns. First came the werewolf, then the ballerina, then of course the princess and the pirate. All the while, the guy in the vampire mask stood by and watched. They were having lots of fun, imagining, and playing the parts as they went from character to character. Sounds kind of silly, but don’t adults do the same thing?
Imagine That
Why do you sometimes enjoy dreaming about being someone else so much? Come on, I know that you occasionally do. Could it be that you are dissatisfied with who you current are, and fantasize about what it would be like if you were were just a bit like some other person? It’s OK, everyone does it at some point in their life. That is the stuff that fuels change. As long as dreams and aspirations are given reality through action, it great to visualize.
What’s not healthy is to focus so intently on desires to be someone else, or how that person is who you truly want to be, that you lose who you are, and your own sense of personal worth. But if you want things to be different, what then, what options do you have? One of the truly great modern mentors has addressed that very idea.
If You Want Things to Change…..
It’s absolutely acceptable to want to become someone else. In fact, I believe that it is somewhat unhealthy to be perfectly content with who and what you are. That denotes a sense of being on a plateau, not progressing, just existing, not going foreword. Jim Rohn says it best; “If you want things to change, you need to change.” Those are indeed words to live by, actually, to live better by.
You Do the Math…
What do you say when you have painted the picture for someone and you want them to figure the rest out? “You do the math!” Here’s a better admonition for change; “You do the research.” If you have that feeling the you could be better, that there is more in store for you to become, do you have a sense of where you want to head? If not, do the research.
A Word of Advice
One of the best ways to find your options is to seek out mentors and role models. Find them in your life, find them in good books. But find them. Here are some things you can do:
- Start to read, start to study.
- Listen to and view recordings. YouTube is a great source of inspirational material.
- Start a learning journal, write down characteristics that impress you in others, record quotes and stories, write your impressions, write your goals.
- Start to live the “As If” principle. If you want to possess an attribute, then start acting as if you already have it, try it on for size, experiment with it, get used to it, even tweak it some. In time you will assimilate that particular behavior. It will become part of who you are. Then move to the next one.
A simple bit of advice, Research….Journal….Act.
I can promise you from experience, do these three very basic actions, and you will start to change.
Till next time…
improvements lab 