Change happens when you choose to make allowances for it. If you would like to change the way things are, you should choose to allow the change to take place; you cannot take the next step in your career without doing anything about your current job or current situation. You cannot rise to the next level in your life, whether in the spiritual realm or in your finances, until you choose to change that which has been holding you back and keeping you defeated. In order to see change in any arena of life, it must start with a choice; you then align your actions to the choice. In order to get better and better in every area of life, you have to be willing to go through the process of change and to step out of your comfort zone into what is unfamiliar and unknown, and that is where risk-taking comes in. In order to see change, you have to be willing to take some risks. You ought to ask yourself the question: Am I a risk taker?

Although the process involved in pressing through the initial pain of change can be difficult, as you emerge, change becomes easy and you find yourself getting accustomed to the change. Life does not get better by chance. You cannot stay right where you are and expect a miracle; even for miracles to happen, you have to choose to believe. You get to the pinnacle of your success by making choices that pave the way for the actions that will catapult you in that direction. When you choose to change that which has been keeping you defeated, you maneuver your way to success and reposition your life to explore endless possibilities and to live a life without limits. You cannot afford to be your old self and expect a different result; just as they say, you cannot do the same thing and expect a different result. You will need to start by identifying your development areas, and then alter your attitude and actions to bring about the desired result. This can take a while and you may not see the results overnight. And in some cases, you may have to reassess your actions based on new sets of data and alter the course until it produces the desired outcome.

A systems analyst who is trying to fix a systemic issue operates under the same model. He tries different approaches to resolve the issue until he finds the right resolution. In some cases, the fix might be a minor one and it may come easily, but there are times when he has to try different approaches to find the solution; in those situations, he reexamines his actions based on new findings. In life, we need to apply the same principle and try different approaches until we discover what works. This calls for flexibility to adopt new ways and willingness to change.

People get deceived into thinking that prayer alone can change them. The reality is that you are the only person who can change yourself. Although prayer is a powerful tool and it can be a major contributor in enabling you to change, change by itself will not happen unless you choose to allow the change to occur. While wanting to change is a great step in itself, going through that struggle of getting past the process and pain involved in change is the hardest part. In order to adopt change, you have to be willing to let go of the past and move forward.

Change happens only when there is a desire to change. The desire to change has to be followed by making the right choices and subsequent actions. If we think that we are fine and everything about us is fine, we would never feel the need to change. It is when things go wrong that we start to examine our lives and identify our areas of development and in doing so, we reposition ourselves by making minor adjustments in the areas that have been sadly neglected. However, there are many who live in denial and fail to see who they really are. They live in a misconception of who they think they are; this is particularly true of people who do not evaluate themselves or their actions. People who live in denial are unable to accept who they are and be open to change.

Little Sally made this decision to be a perfect person and be perfect in all her ways. Much to her disappointment, she found herself failing to achieve this goal. She would resolve again to be perfect, sometimes giving up after repeated disappointments. This process continued for a long time and as she grew older, it became even harder for her to be the perfect person she wanted to be, so she gave up thinking to herself that this was not a realistic goal. Later, she realized why her attempts had failed- she was trying to do it all at once and expecting to see an immediate result instead of taking one step at a time.

As she grew older and had more than one issue to deal with, more areas to work on, she started to take one step at a time, but even that wasn’t easy. Every time she tried to take a step in the direction of change, there would be many obstacles to overcome, and she would succumb to the pressure and give up, but with time and effort, Sally saw change evolve over a period of time. One thing about change is that it is a very gradual process it will not come into effect with a one-time choice. You can change but you cannot change overnight. Your thought patterns, belief system, habits, behaviors and responses have been built over a period of time and it is going to take a while before remodeling can take place. One has to be patient to see the change – in one self or in others. Without patience, you would find yourself giving up too soon.

Years of right choices are required to overcome years of wrong choices. When you have practiced impatience for a long time, you become impatient, and impatience gets rooted within you, soon it becomes a part of you. Later on, when you choose to overcome this habit, it will take years of consistent right choices. It will not come overnight because we all know that it is very easy to form a bad habit but it takes much effort to overcome a bad habit. The same goes for anger, fear or any other form of negativity. People who are highly negative in their thinking become so used to seeing things in a negative light that it takes years of conscious effort on their part to begin to see things in a positive light.

Whether it is an eating disorder or some kind of addiction, it did not happen in one day. It was the end result of making those wrong choices for a prolonged period. Overcoming those habits would involve a time consuming process of making right choices on a consistent basis. The reality is that we are a sum total of our upbringing, our life experiences, our circumstances, our exposures, and the choices we made in those various situations and junctures of life. We also are who we are and we became or become who we are because of the choices we made or make in our life. If you have always allowed yourself to succumb to pressure, allowed your feelings and emotions to dictate how you feel or act, there is going to be a tremendous change involved in being who you are to becoming one who knows to take every thought captive and to bring every negative feeling or thought under control and embrace positivity.

Change is inevitable. Many fear change, due to fear of the unknown, but change can be good. Whenever there is “change” involved, it means there is an opportunity for growth. In fact, change always represents an opportunity for growth. In an ever-changing world, where change drives the profitability of businesses, the success or growth of any corporation comes from its ability to embrace change effectively and quickly. Corporations that are unable to change with the times will not be able to withstand competition or even survive in a competitive world, which is why we see corporations stagger in their growth when they fail to embrace new technology, new processes, or fail to understand new industry trends and upgrade their technology to align with it. In order to thrive in competition and keep up with what drives the revenue and growth of a company, any corporation must stay ahead of the game in terms of cutting edge technology, and be flexible enough to adopt these changes.

If you observe the competition between Intel® and AMD, one thing you will notice is that every time Intel® brings out a new product, AMD responds quickly with an equal or even better product, and vice versa. Why is that? The answer is obvious: they are aware of their competition and they stay ahead of the game and on top of cutting-edge technology. This is true of Google(TM), Apple®, and other companies. These are the corporations that drive competition and innovation. Surviving in this day and age means you must innovate, and innovation requires new thinking to revisit old problems in new ways and to tackle new challenges with new thinking. This process evolves change.

In an organization, when you have a new manager, you have a brand new opportunity to give him the perception that you would like him to have about you, to work with him in achieving your goal. While that would be one choice, you can also choose to sit back worried and frustrated about the change. When you know that your organization is gearing toward a new direction, you can choose to capitalize on that; you can choose to understand more about the organization’s new goals and directions and position yourself to be ahead of the crowd, or you can sit back with an attitude of “who moved my cheese.” At a personal level, say you happened to be moving into a new neighborhood. You can look at this change as an opportunity to win new friends and influence new groups of people, or you can choose to look at all the hassles and frustrations that come with it.

There are many who in their career tend to get pigeonholed into something and they keep doing the same thing for many years. They get so comfortable and used to where they are that the thought of change or exploring other possibilities seems like a fear factor for them. They have limited growth and live a life of limitations set by their own choices. What they don’t realize is that they are living in a small world and under the illusion of being in a safe haven, and they fail to acknowledge that there is a bigger world outside that has unlimited possibilities to offer. On the contrary, when you open yourself to change and see what the world has to offer, you open yourself to a new dimension of endless possibilities … to live a life without limitations.

My four-year-old child amazes me. It seems like just yesterday that he was a little helpless baby, staring at the lights in his bouncer. Now, he can do math, read, write, cycle, skate, and perform different tasks on the computer. He approaches life with so much excitement, and he is always exploring new things, ready to learn and challenge himself, ready for change and willing to stretch himself without fear. As a result, he has opened his life to a new dimension of possibilities. Many times as adults, we get so bogged down in the process of making ends meet; we get stuck in a routine and choose to stay where we are, allowing our true potential to remain hidden and die a natural death.

As they say, “In order to change your way of living, you have to change your way of thinking” Change allows you to evolve and grow, leading you to your destiny and the ultimate purpose. Change does not have to be tangible. It can be a change from within-a change from who you are to who you grow and mature into; a change in your approach and attitude. A good attitude will bring forth tangible results but the change of attitude has to first happen from within. Changes that are external and tangible like a change of job, a new home, or a new car can affect you, but it is the changes from within that are immensely powerful because a change from within can affect your circumstances and change the very course of your life