Dear Mr. Self Development,

How do you change your life for the better?

John

John, there are 9 steps that will change your life for the better:

Step 1 – Become Dissatisfied: Do you realize that you will never change until you are dissatisfied with where you are today?  Whether that dissatisfaction is from 30 extra pounds around your waist, or just $500 in your checking account; your dissatisfaction with your present births the possibility for change in your future. Your frustration with your present is the door to your desire.

Step 2 – Document Your Goals: You must document your goals, if you are serious about achieving them. Habakkuk said, “Write the vision and make it plain.” You are 90 times more likely to accomplish a goal when it is written down. Only 3 percent of Americans write down and review their goals daily, this maybe why 3 percent of Americans have 97 percent of all the wealth in America, and why the other 97 percent of Americans are sharing 3 percent of the wealth. 

Step 3 – Get Clarity: You must clearly see and know where you want to be tomorrow; the clearer your goals, the stronger your faith. Clarity builds faith. The stronger your faith, the faster you will achieve your goals and change your life.

You must see your end-result clearly. You must be focused on your goal like a sailor is focused on the port in the harbor in which he is headed to.

It is just as difficult to get to a place you can’t see, as it is to come back from a place you’ve never visited. 

Step 4 – Visualize and be Grateful: You must see yourself the way you want to be (in your imagination) at all times, and be grateful for that reality before it arrives, knowing that it will arrive.

A grateful heart will attract great things to you.

Step 5 – Make Plans: Only when dreams become plans and those plans are put into practice do those dreams manifest into our realities.

Step 6 – Change Your Mind: Remember, nothing changes until YOU change. You have to change your mind, by changing your thoughts, by changing what you give your attention to. 

If you want a different result, you will have to do things differently. To the degree that you want a different result, determines the degree that you will have to do things differently. A goal of earning $10,000 more a month will require more change than a goal of earning $100 more a month.

Step 7 – Move from Your Current Circumstance: What’s a circumstance? It’s a circle (circum-ference) around your current stance.  In order to change circumstances you must change your stance.  In order to change your stance, you must change your mind, in order to change your mind; you must change what you think about.

You need to make a conscious decision to focus your thoughts, and your attention on what you want in your life. Don’t focus your attention on things you don’t want in your life. By giving things you don’t want your attention, you are feeding those things, and they will grow bigger and bigger. Remember, what you focus on expands, the good, and the bad.

Step 8 – Don’t Wait: I urge you, don’t wait until you’ve suffered so much, that you must change. Channel your current frustration into a vision of where you want to be.  We should always use the frustration from our present conditions to push us toward our dreams, until the vision of our future pulls us to where we want to be. 

Often we continue down a path that we know is wrong because we have not suffered enough pain related to that path (we haven’t been broke long enough, we haven’t been unhappy long enough, we haven’t suffered enough). Only when the pain is too great, do we seek change (that great pain may be a trip to the hospital, bankruptcy, or a divorce). Unfortunately, circumstances rarely change without great pain.

However, we must become people that change because of our desire for something better, a vision of a better tomorrow, a belief in a greater future.  Let’s not wait until the pain is so great, that we have no choice but to change.

Step 9 – Take Action: Take action today, stick to it everyday and you will arrive at your chosen destination. Everywhere you’ve NEVER been in life is because you’ve not placed enough value in getting there. 

You can accomplish your hearts desires, if you properly plan for it, so plan for change, and change your life!