DECIDING to change...

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There are two words that require close attention in the process of change. The first one is consistency. The second one is gradually.

All habits, eating, drinking, driving, TV watching, smoking, exercising, come into being because they get done regularly and frequently. That’s consistency, a repetition of an act or a thought.

A close pal of mine developed into a seasoned, self-destructive, ferocious drinker from what started with a few drinks at the weekend, and developed into one or two drinks most nights, and then into one or two drinks every night, and then into a good few drinks any night, and any afternoon, and at any time when he could get his hands on the stuff.

It happened gradually and developed with dedicated consistency.

He fixed his problem much the same way. He cut down during the week, drank a bit less at the weekends, and gradually and consistently, persisted, till he reached a level that most people would regard as moderate. And he has held it there.

He applied the same process to a couple of other matters in his life, personal and professional, and has succeeded in some areas in his life beyond what he had ever imagined.

Gradually and consistently, we can train ourselves to any level of accomplishment. The graduation makes it less daunting. We don’t get overwhelmed by the amount we think we have to do. The consistency breeds a familiarity; when we do something a couple of times, we begin to get familiar with it and start to train our minds and bodies to work with it.  Another word for this is practice. Regular intelligent practice, repeated frequently, imprints it self on the brain and in the nervous system.

In the last posting I asked you to look over some habits that you may have developed and to see how they may have contributed to your current situation. They can be good habits, or not-so-good ones. 

But what is important is to recognise them. If your habits are unhelpful, you can do something about them. But you need to know what they are; you can’t fix what you don’t know.

This is the premise on which the four levels of competency are founded:
Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence; that's the sequence for getting as good at what you want(need) to do, as you might be at not doing it.

And it all starts with a decision. Everything does.
So, if you've been looking at where you are at this moment in life, assessing it, and you feel you could do with improvement, in any area, what do you think got you there?
Are you happy with it? What can you do about it? Do you want to maintain it? Improve it? Share it with someone? Show others how to do it? Does it need protection? Security? Care? Or to be abandoned? Changed? Discarded? Replaced?
What habits got you there? Are you glad you have them? Are they serving you? Impeding you? Do you want to change them? Reinforce them? Can you change them?
How can you get them working for your benefit?

Regardless of whether we're satisfied with our lot and want to hold station, or whether we want to make more of it, we all need to be fundamentally fit, healthy and well. 
We need to be free from anxiety, to be able to use ourselves at the optimum level of our own competence. 

That's what fitness and health and wellness is really about, isn't it?

David Hegarty
Common Sense Wellness
087-2321128
[email protected]
www.commonsensewellness.ie

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