The Road to Personal Change

In the field of personal development, there are many different approaches out there to personal change. The idea of helping people to alter the course of their lives is something which appeals to more and more people who enter the profession in the guise of coaching or therapy. This month I want to talk about some of the things that I believe are essential in a person being able to change. These are what I call the five elements of change. . The first is belief. Belief is the crucial factor in any form of change. If a person doesn’t believe that they can change then the big likelihood is that they won’t. If a person believes that change is going to be long, hard and painful then it more than likely will be. On the other hand, if a person believes that they will be able to change quickly and easily with effort then they will find themselves able to turn around things much quicker than they could hope. You need to start to believe in the power you have to be able to change and make that belief a belief in you. It’s not about you just believing in yourself, it’s about you developing an identity of the new you, the changed you. When you’re identity says you can change then you can. The second element is Values. You need to ensure that you have a god understanding of what’s most important to you. Your values will determine the choices you make, the route that you take. It is vital that you align your values such that you are doing things for the right reasons. When you align values it means ensuring that you are acting in accordance with what is important to you. This ensures you are properly motivated to get things done successfully. The third element is Goals. You must have clear, defined, positively formed goals so that you know what you are changing to. When your goals are based in the senses it makes them clearer and more appealing. When your goals fit in with the rest of your life it makes them even more appropriate to achieve. When your goals are something you can control then you can determine each step you take on the way to success. The fourth element is using your Imagination. We learn how to do this from NLP. You learn to imagine what you want to do differently and see yourself doing it differently over and over again and imagine yourself in the experience. At the same time any time where you remember the old behaviour you imagine that imagine moving way off into the distance, smaller as it disappears. You practise only imagining what’s useful and talking to yourself in a useful way. The fifth element is Discpline. When you make any change in what you are doing or thinking, you need to maintain that change and keep the new behaviour going no matter what. You have to be strong regardless of what happens. This discipline will allow you to ensure that the changes you make become habits and so you can be free from the old behaviours. With these 5 elements, you can make any change happen powerfully, quickly and permanently.