Escaping Mediocrity

This is Day 22 of 30 Days to Changing Your Game. Yesterday Kyle Lacy started a chain reaction, and today my BFF Allison Nazarian gives us an up-close-and-personal view of change. Don’t chicken out! Keep reading.

You’ll Eat It & You’ll Like It: Change As A Necessary Part Of The Diet Of Life

By Allison Nazarian (@AllisonNazarian)

Ah…change.

It can be traumatic. Mixed with that sick and scary feeling in the pit of your stomach. More often than not accompanied by uncertainty.

Traumatic + Uncertain + Nauseating = Well…..you do the math.

Change can be scary as hell.

Even the kind of change we seek out and deep down want (such as the end of a dead long-term relationship or the start of a brand-new career) can stop us in our tracks.

I’ve had one of those years in which everything changed. One of those years in which the Me of Right Now is so different, in every imaginable way, from the Me of Last Year.  And I am so grateful for every moment of it, even and especially the scariest and saddest and most uncertain moments.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that the difference between having the power to create the life we crave or being powerless and having life control us is found, in very large part, in the way we react to, learn from, operate under and act in the face of change.

Here’s what I know about using the inevitable changes in life to change your game for the better:

Expect the unexpected. Regardless of what you plan and visualize, know that things are not always going to go as planned. That’s a guarantee. And that’s OK. Adopt an attitude of openness and non-attachment to everything happening exactly as you “need” it to happen.

• Change your game: Know that you can’t possibly control everything. Count on the absolute lack of total control as a constant. Use it to your advantage.

You are going to make mistakes. Lots of them. The good news is that mistakes are good for you. Actually, even more than good — they are gifts to you. (Really!) Mistakes are the best and most clear reminders of what you need to do, what you are doing wrong, what you have not done and, most importantly, what needs to change for things to happen the way you want them to happen.

• Change your game: If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t acting. If you aren’t acting, you aren’t living. If you aren’t living…well…is that what you want from life? Welcome mistakes and grab the important lessons from each and every one.

Open up. Let your guard down and be open to all of the new and different and change-filled and, yes, scary-uncertain people, events and opportunities that come your way. Say “yes” even when you want to hide and say “no.” Know that what you want and what you are looking for may not show up dressed exactly as you have imagined it.

• Change your game: Think about your times of great change. Did everything happen exactly as you planned or expected, or did a chain of events that you could not have possibly imagined take place so that the change – and all of the opportunities and transformations that came with it – could occur?

Make fear your friend. When you act, you make things happen. When new and different things happen, that’s change. Change, as we have established, can be scary.  Expect the scary. Even welcome and hug the scary. And for heaven’s sake, don’t allow the scary to overtake you.

• Change your game: Act despite the fear. As Charles De Gaulle said, “Deliberation is the work of many men; action of one alone.”  Taking consistent action – something every day — will get you where you want to go.  Don’t think and think and think…DO!

So here is what I am asking you to do RIGHT NOW: What is one thing that is scaring you, bugging you, stopping your or blocking you in this moment?

Think about all of the fear, excuses, “it won’t ever get fixed” thoughts your Ego is feeding you about it. Feel those fear, excuses and thoughts if you can.

Now go fix it anyway. Figure it out and do it. Go ahead, change your game. (And let me know below exactly what you are looking to do….don’t lose this opportunity!)

Allison Nazarian is a copywriter, writing coach, blogger/columnist, author and a Mom who is easily scared but acts despite the fear. For more on copywriting and coaching click here, read Allison’s blog here or follow her on twitter here. Learn how to build a Real Copywriting Business here.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 2:45 am and is filed under 30 Days to Changing Your Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.