The Art of Making Change: Mental Fitness in Action
Focus the lens - Seek Clarity
Having over 25 years of expertise as an NHS occupational therapist alongside my role as a coach has taught me how to help people who face challenges develop their ability to take action in their lives.
The art of making change is closely connected to our potential for resilience. When we are in the process of both, our mental fitness is established. This is my specialty in my role as a mental fitness coach.
When I support people to overcome challenges to make changes, we begin by creating a learning partnership. We agree to work together to understand how we can overcome these barriers. We co-create an action plan and work side by side, exploring ways to become more productive and discover how to love the process.
Being a changemaker begins with a clear objective and ends with an outcome that makes an impact. Your ability to achieve this is closely connected to your ability to conceive your ideas in 3D and believe that they are possible. If getting clear about what you want to achieve is difficult for you, this may help you.
Top 4 tips - Get clear about what you want.
A simple conversation can allow us to verbally process thoughts and identify actions that are likely to attract these results in a fruitful way. Alternatively, listening to other people’s visions can clarify what is most desirable. You might hear someone describe their ideal image and realise that you want this too.
If you are looking for a creative tool to generate and capture ideas and themes, create a vision board, a simple process that helps you explore your hopes, dreams, values, and desires. It invites you to increase your awareness of what you want and, in doing so, become attracted to making this possible.
FREE goals appeal to me. This concept involves creating goals that are Fun, Ridiculous, Exciting, and Emotionally charged (www.andrewandpete.com). This creative and dynamic approach invites you to “simply think big.” It works in alignment with my preferred style of goal setting.
Develop the mindset - Change the view
Our ability to see our goals through to completion will be dependent on numerous factors. They include mindset and attitude to change, current commitments, the resources available, the scale of a project, and possession of the knowledge and skills to undertake the project we choose. Addressing any inner blocks that could compromise best efforts means creating new and helpful ways to think that will support change. Wayne Dyer put it beautifully when he said, 'If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’ You can read more about mindset management here.
Create a clear plan
If you already know what you want to achieve and are pondering how you can make this possible, learning to break a project or goal down into bite-sized chunks helps to make changes happen. Not rocket science but believe me, it is powerful. Even the most competent and successful people can become challenged by having a ‘wooly’ goal or by not having the road map to navigate the way. Creating some degree of accountability can keep us on track with any plan. There are many ways to go about this.
A personal favourite of mine is simple … Write a statement of intent. Include some facts about your potential to make this possible and why this goal is important to you. Get clear about what you are committed to doing, when, and how, with advice or notes to yourself. Pin this strategically somewhere so that it is visible.
Break it down
Once plans have been constructed, create clear milestones and create productive and constructive accountability. Alternatively, you might choose to work with an app such as Trello, which helps you curate great ideas and task/project manage them through a process from idea to completion.
Sometimes my goals seem stubbornly optimistic, yet I always share them with other people. Once I’ve said them out loud, I get attracted to creating the outcomes, and I start to behave in a way to make this possible.
Take action
When it comes to making the goal into a reality, if you enjoy it, a formal goal-setting approach to creating action might be helpful. SMART goals might appeal to you. They encourage you to focus on specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-specific goals. You can then work from the end goal and create measurable milestones to reach at different timescales along the way.
Top 5 tips
Focus on that one thing. Whilst you may have many ideas you want to pursue, give your attention to one thing, to begin with, and dedicate a daily time slot to give that your full attention.
Start your day with a win: For me, starting the day with a positive outcome is invaluable. No matter what you feel like, start with a small success that will energise you, not deplete you. It could be a quiet time of reading; it could be yoga or running to music as simple as making your bed or doing five pushups. Whatever it is, make it easy enough to regularly achieve it.
Identify the minimum viable commitment time to pursue this task (usually a minimum of 5 minutes). Identify a time every day to this small win and notice how your state of mind starts to change.
Do the toughest task first: Pick the toughest or most important task to accomplish first. Achieve this item before anything else, and you will feel productive and accomplished no matter what the rest of the day brings. It will also allow you to head into the smaller, less pressing tasks at hand with greater focus.
Focus on what you can control, possibly the most important thing you can do. Throughout each day, focus your attention only on what you can directly control. This is often called the circle of influence. Anything outside your personal influence mustn't be allowed to have your attention. Focus on the things you can do, and do not allow the things you cannot do to interfere with your focus
Stretch and grow - Become comfortable with the uncomfortable.
At some point in life, we have all opted out of something important on account of the discomfort. This highlights the importance of learning to manage stress to allow growth. If we choose to view the stress of change from a place of opportunity, we then will see that what challenges us, changes us and we grow in this process.
I was recently told a story about how lobsters grow. This can be used to understand how humans grow through risk-taking behaviours, a reminder that times of stress are also signals for growth.
Like lobsters, if we can learn to become comfortable with discomfort and take risks, it is possible to create space to stretch, grow into it and become a better version of our current selves.
Take the leap
As my friend Abi Collins frequently reminds me…’ If you are serious about inviting something into your life, you had better be ready to open the door when it comes knocking’.
So the question...Are you majoring in minor things? Is it time to change gear and get in the fast lane?
Do you want to think bigger, act bolder and make an impact? Perhaps this is your time to shine!
Build a support team - Create accountability.
Find someone with whom you can share your future vision with. Choose carefully! Ensure that they believe in you and will be firm with you. They can encourage you to break the bigger picture down into smaller chunks and check-in to see if you are doing your homework. This could be mutually beneficial should you work together to help each other move forward with a plan or aspiration.
I have several forums that create this for me. I am part of a wonderful mastermind group that helps me stay adventurous with my career and lifestyle choices. I am grateful to be challenged, stretched, and championed regularly.
Celebrate success - Pay attention to the success that you create
Making an impact is possible for us all. This means paying attention to success and making each big or small and win become important, and it plays a significant part in boosting motivation and fueling us forward. There are many ways to do this. One friend has a triumph board where he pins successes, moments of pride, and milestones along the way. This often reminds him of the changes that he is creating. In contrast to the to-do list, this invites you to have a 'have made' list celebrating your successes along the way.
Embrace the adventure - enjoy the ride.
Being focused on the results yet flexible on the journey, whatever the goal, helps you to shift gear and get in the fast lane, embrace the detours, the stories, and most importantly, if you are going to make an effort... enjoy the ride.
Whether you are a professional who wants to explore and pursue a new career adventure, a parent looking to have more family escapades, or someone looking to have a health adventure, make a plan and turn that idea into your reality!
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#100% Pure Polly – Living Life’s Adventure…
I wish you all a happy and energetic week.
Do you want to know more about how to live your life’s adventure?
