Life change is easy to wish, dream or talk about, but harder to actually make happen.

Like wanting to lose weight, create more work-life balance, find the work you were meant to do, start a business, quit a bad habit, start a good habit, etc.

Why is it so hard, at times, to change your life?  Because there is often a disconnect between desiring the change and actually doing what it takes to make it happen. That disconnect is called motivation.

So what is it that really motivates you to change your life? [Read more…]

New Year’s is a time when many people say “I want to change my life.”  Sometimes we’re talking about making a major change in direction, other times it is a habit we want to start or stop, or a goal we’ve always wanted to achieve (like losing weight, starting a business, running a 5-K, etc.).

If you’re looking to make some change in your life in the New Year, check out these excerpts below, from my best articles in 2010 on how to change your life.

Annual Life Review & Planning Weekend

A few years ago, one of my mentors introduced me to the idea of an annual life review and planning weekend.  It was something he did every year, both on his own and with his wife, because they wanted to be more intentional in how they lived their lives and raised their children.

Their goal is to assess their current life situation at least once a year, and determine what they wanted to focus on and achieve — over the next season, year, and 3-5 years — within each of the six major areas of life…

Click to Read Annual Life Review & Planning Weekend

Life’s Greatest Truth and Hardest Lesson: Everything is a Choice

Everything is a choice. This is life’s greatest truth and hardest lesson. It is a great truth because it reminds us of our power.  Not power over others, but the often untapped power to be ourselves and to live the life we have imagined. It is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize that we have chosen the life we are living right now.  It is perhaps frightening for us to think that we have chosen to live our life exactly as it is today.

Click to Read Life’s Greatest Truth and Hardest Lesson: Everything is a Choice

How a Change in Your Beliefs Can Change Your Life

I just started reading Zero to Zillionaire: 8 Foolproof Steps to Financial Peace of Mind by Chellie Campbell. The first step, or strategy, she lays out in the book is: “Change Your Mindset and Change Your Future.”

The point she makes is that the situation we find ourselves in today (whether good, bad or indifferent) in our finances, relationships, career, etc., is a direct result of our thinking. And if we are not happy with our situation and want to make change in certain areas of our lives, we need to change our thinking – our beliefs – in those areas.

One of my mentors explained it this way in a concept he called The Belief Matrix…

Click to Read How a Change in Your Beliefs Can Change Your Life

How to Harness the Power of the Mind to Get Results

Our thoughts and beliefs shape who we are, and the results we experience in the different areas of our lives (whether good, bad or indifferent) are ultimately determined by what we believe to be true about those life areas. So how can we change what we really believe about certain areas of our lives that we want to change?

First, we need to realize that our beliefs have been programmed in us over time through our life experience to this point. Sources include parents, siblings, peers, friends, etc. Many exist by default rather than by intent or design. That is why I said, last time, that we believe certain things to be true, whether they are true or not. I think it is sometimes helpful (though perhaps painful) to identify the source of the belief we want to change…

Click to Read How to Harness the Power of the Mind to Get Results

Handling Stress and Changing Expectations in Marriage

After 18 years of marriage, I have a new wife.  Gratefully, this one’s much better than the old one.  Let me explain.  Before she slaps me.

Last week, my wife and I enjoyed a dinner out to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary.  During the course of our conversation, she made an interesting observation about our lives: Nearly everything about us has changed…

Click to Read Handling Stress and Changing Expectations in Marriage

Reboot Your Life

“Reboot” is often a term used in association with computers – to reboot a computer is to restart it.  But recently, I’ve heard of people who are rebooting themselves or rebooting their lives, meaning that they’re starting over, or recreating themselves.

I can understand why you’d want to reboot yourself if things aren’t going as well as you’d hoped, or if you want to make some significant change in your life – like start your own business or find a new career.   But reboot yourself when you’re at the top of your game and enjoying great success?  Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?

Click to Read Reboot Your Life

You might also like:

• Is it easier to plan your vacation than plan your life?
• What you think determines what you achieve
• How to reach your full potential
  

Someone said, “If you want to change the world, learn to tell a better story.”  That’s why I’m attending the Reinvention Summit, the first virtual conference on storytelling.

When I stop and think about it, storytelling is really at the heart of just about everything I do…whether it’s my work in nonprofit world, writing this blog, or even in my personal and family life.  What about you?

Anyone – whether you’re a parent, leader, pastor, teacher, speaker, entrepreneur, salesperson, writer, or member of a team or group – who wants to truly motivate others and prompt real change in their thoughts and actions, needs to be able to tell a great story.

Don’t believe me?  Ask yourself this:

When is the last time you reinvented yourself, or made serious change in your life and work, just because you read or heard some facts, then made an intellectual decision to change?

We all know the facts of why we shouldn’t smoke, why we should exercise and eat right, why we shouldn’t do this and why we should do that.  But…

What really motivates us to make real change in our thoughts and actions is a story that we can relate to, of someone who is like us who either made the change and is the better for it, or didn’t make the change and subsequently, suffered for it.

I’ve realized that just about every change I’ve made in my life has come not because I’ve assessed the facts and circumstances and made an intellectual decision.  No, I made a change because someone told a story that motivated me to take action.  It impacted me at a heart-level, where lasting change is made.

What I especially like about the Reinvention Summit is that it explores the intersections between personal reinvention, business reinvention and social reinvention, because I’m all about trying to do a better job at integrating my life, work, and the causes I care about.

The speakers come from across the realms of advertising, storytelling, social media, marketing, personal growth, social change, and more, and include John Elkington, Annette Simmons, John Gerzema, Tiffany Schlain, and others.

If you are ready to do a little reinvention in your own life and work, please join me at the Reinvention Summit!

The Reinvention Summit is a two-week virtual telesummit (November 11-22) and truly has something for everyone.  I know, two weeks is a long time.  The good news is that all the sessions are being recorded, so you can listen at your leisure.  So don’t worry if you sign up today, even after the event has started, because you’ll still be able to hear all the sessions anytime.

Whether you’re in the midst of a career transition, leading your organization through major change, or just want to do a better job at motivating yourself and others, you’ll find invaluable insights and guidance at the Reinvention Summit.

Register for the Reinvention Summit Today!