Make the unfamiliar, familiar. We can challenge ourselves every day without even realizing it.
Make the Unfamiliar Familiar
It's another morning. You wake up. You go through your normal routine, and you head off to your job. You don't put any thought into it. This is normal. This is what you do.
There is something in you though that tells you that there is something more out there. But this is what you know and what all your friends and family know so you stay stuck in the rut that you are in.
I did that for so many years. Then one day something happened, and my brother and I had to shut down the business that we had had for the last 30 years. I was devastated. I did not t know what to do next. I did not like the job. I did not like the business I was in, but it was what I knew. It was my security blanket.
I didn't really know what to make of the loss. I had lived this life for so long I never considered doing something different. No that's not true. I wanted to change what I was doing for a very long time. It just scared me to make the move and do it.
As I began to study coaching and RTT therapy, I started to realize that I was allowing my mind to do exactly what it was supposed to do. You see there is a rule of the mind that says we are hardwired to stay with what is familiar to us and to avoid what is unfamiliar. Being in the business with my brother was familiar. Going out and doing what my heart wanted was unfamiliar.
Fortunately, there is another rule of the mind that says that the mind learns by repetition. So, what if you made the decision to make the unfamiliar familiar? What if you were persistent in doing things differently every day?
You would change your life.
Let's just look at some of the facts that we know. The failure rate of dieting is a 98%. It isn't because the people that go on the diet don't want to make changes. It's not that they don't want to lose weight. It's because eating healthy foods is not familiar to them.
Most lottery winners lose all the money that they win within three years. They don't want to go back to working full time jobs and living paycheck to paycheck. But what is familiar to them is spending everything that they have. Saving money and investing is something that is unfamiliar to them and so they don't do it.
People who are in abusive relationships tend to stay in those relationships. They know that it's not good for them, in fact they know that it may kill them. But it is what they have grown used to. It is what they have convinced themselves that they deserve. Being in a healthy loving relationship is unfamiliar. They want it but they don't feel that they deserve to have it.
We can change our lives drastically if we make the decision to take all of the things that we find that are unfamiliar and therefore scary and make those things so familiar to us that they not only create a new life for us but they create a new us.
Take some time today and figure out what it is that you have in your life that is familiar to you but that you know is holding you back from reaching your full potential. It could be that you criticize yourself constantly believing that this will help you to change your habits so that you live a different life. It could be because you feel that you are not worthy of having the life of your dreams and so you set those dreams aside and you live the life that is familiar rather than a life that fulfills your soul. It could be that you run back to what you are addicted to because that numbs you and allows you to continue to live a life that doesn't excite you but is known.
Now for the fun part. Make a list of those things that are unfamiliar to you that would really change your life for the better. Instead of criticizing yourself decide to praise yourself. You may not believe the things that you're saying to yourself when you first start saying them but sooner or later your brain grabs hold of that thought and you become that person. Muhammad Ali said that he started telling himself that he was the greatest before he was anywhere near being the greatest. But he kept telling himself that until that was what he was. What if instead of just going through your routine you started to find pleasure in the things that you were doing like that first cup of coffee in the morning or the smile from a coworker when you show up at work? What if you told yourself that you were worthy and that you could have and do and be anything that you wanted to be? These things may seem unfamiliar to you right now but do them every day and after a while they are going to become familiar. And now you have changed your life.
I am not going to tell you that doing things that are unfamiliar to you is going to be easy. There's going to be a lot of fear involved. But if we walk hand in hand with that fear and we do it anyway we become a bigger better person, a person that we respect, a person that can go on and achieve anything that they want in this world
I have faith in you.