I had one of those weeks last week when I kept thinking about authenticity and honesty. Do I do what I say what I’ll do? Do I keep my word to myself and others? Do I walk my talk? After some philosophy (and a glass of red) the answer was ‘yes, most of the time’. But not always.
The reson for this reflection started with the concept of ‘I know’. You see, over the past few weeks I’ve noticed that both myself and others have said ‘I know‘ quite a few times around various subjects. It seems that we often know what to do in order to get results (and often many of us are quite happy to tell others what do do as well). In all honesty we know that we need to eat healthy and exercise to loose weight. We know that we need to actively study to learn new things. We know that we need to drop some old emotional baggage to have better relationships. How come then that it’s so easy not to do what we know we need to do in order to be better off?
The brutal truth is that what you know has little to no value unless you’re willing to change your behaviour. Whether that’s regarding weight loss, relationships or making a big move overseas. I realised this myself last year when I noticed that I often turned to anger or frustration when I felt like my partner did not understand me. As a trained coach I knew that I needed to throw out some old baggage and accept what was now important in order to let that old frustration drift out to sea. But I still held onto it for quite a while. Even though I knew that it was not good for me and the only thing it really did for me was keeping me safe, yet misunderstood and pretty miserable at times.
What it took for me to actually start doing things differently was a high amount of emotional pain. The old way simply was not worth it anymore. I was sick and tired of being frustrated. Maybe you can relate to this in something you find challenging at the moment?
Because if we are truly to walk our talk and be an inspiration for ourselves and others we need to train that muscle. To stop talking about doing some and just go ahead and do it. If you’re dreaming of taking some time off and travelling around the world there are plenty of people who have done so before you.
The happiest people I meet are the ones who say what they do and do what they say. And it does not have to be hard. A friends dad shared with her a while back how he kept so fit well into retirement. He just focussed on today and did his exercises. The next morning he got up and did the same thing. Years of good habits equated to a healthy life for many, many years.
When you’re onto something good, just keep training the muscle. Instead of talking about loosing weight – bring a healthy lunch. Instead of talking about travelling around the world – sit down and research ticket prices. And then do the same tomorrow. The first week might feel a bit weird. But just think about it. If we stop saying we’ll do something and actually start doing it – imagine where we’ll be in just a few weeks!