Create Change or it will Create You

Changing is not easy. In any area of life, change is difficult. In everything we do, we can make changes to get new results. That doesn’t make it easy to do. When it comes to making changes in our health, change can be especially difficult.
When you think about your health, it is easy to think that changing is going to be a challenge. Many people are dealing with this dilemma by doing just that. They are thinking about how hard it will be to change. When you do this, it is even more difficult.

The difficulty often comes in the anticipation. The thought of change is worse than change itself. Think about the prospect of changing everything in your life in order to improve your health. We all know that you don’t have to change it all at once, but this feeling is common.

When you have been doing something for many years, it is hard to even imagine not doing it. Likewise, when you have not done something for many years it is hard to imagine doing it.

When you turn on the news and hear about the risks of not changing your lifestyle, how can change be scary? By comparison, isn’t changing a small habit easier than dealing with a major health issue? On paper that may make sense, but many people are not able to see it that way. The thought of change remains scary and therefore it gets avoided.
What is happening while we avoid change? Well, the title of this article says it all. If you don’t make a change, you will see other changes occur. The changes that you will see are not positive. They are the things we fear and never want to see happen.

This happens in all areas of life, but in health it just feels more cut and dry.
If you don’t exercise, you gain weight. If you eat fast food every day, you gain weight. If you smoke, you damage your lungs and your body is constantly full of toxins. All of these things lead to more serious illnesses. They lead to problems that none of us want to deal with.

I would think that these problems would be enough to help us change. Avoiding the change may be easier, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to deal with. Heart attacks are no fun. Aches and pains are no fun. Buying fat jeans is no fun. There is a whole list of things that are not fun. You get to deal with all of them if you try to avoid dealing with change. That’s life.

The title of the article came from a quote. That quote really hit home because I am talking to people every day that are dealing with this issue. They are looking at two options. One feels easy because it is what they have been doing for a long time. The other feels difficult because it requires them doing something different. The problem is that they aren’t seeing the entire picture. They see the immediate changes, but they don’t see the consequences of not making them. In reality, they are not seeing the worst part. They are letting the initial challenge of changing a habit be the scary part, when the real fear should come from the results of not changing that habit.

Don’t fear change. Fear what will happen if you don’t make change. The quote says it all: “Create change, or it will create you.” It is true. We are a product of our habits. Our health, our success and all of the results in our lives come from change. We either make changes to create the outcomes we want, or we let things happen and deal with the consequences. We always have a choice. What choice are you making?