Experiencing Total Life Change

  

 

What does it mean to experience total life change? For me it started when my former wife was diagnosed with leukemia. I wanted to be a better person than I was and that I needed to change. What I found out early was that she needed as much encouragement and positivity that I could give her. I was very negative at the time, but I learned that the more I helped her the more I helped myself. The total life change for me when I started a website called Fight CLL to help people with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).

   As I began writing articles to try to inspire people on Fight CLL I inspired myself. My life was changing by trying to change other people’s lives. I started practicing life changing principles and everything I had done before was changing. Then I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This book changed it all for me. I learned how to think about my life and what I could do to continue the changes I had already made. Napoleon Hill taught me that the way I viewed my life was flawed. It had to change.

   I have devoured the book several times. It moves me any time I study it. I found new gold nuggets whenever I read it. The book was truly life changing for me and began my obsession with personal development. I have a beautiful copy of it and it’s one of my most prized possessions. That was how life change began for me.

   How can life change begin for you? It starts with figuring out how you do things in your life. Eric Hoffer said, “To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.” You have to figure out what you do wrong and start changing it. If you continue to do the same things you’ve always done you will continue to get the same results. It needs to change. If you want to know how the next five years of your life are going to go? Look at the last five unless you change. Don’t repeat the same mistakes you made during the previous five years. Make the next five different.

   I sat down and listed all the things I did wrong, and believe me it was a long list, and I was determined not to do them again. It isn’t easy and I still struggle in certain areas, but I am always working towards changing it. Life change doesn’t happen overnight. The epiphany to desire life change was instant for me, but the changes have taken years.

   You have to be committed to make the changes in your life to get the results you want. When you make real changes to your life the results are immediate. That’s what I have found. The more I commit to doing the right things then more often the right things happen. One of my favorite quotes is this gem by Charles DuBos, “The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we would become.” I couldn’t have said it better.

   There are sacrifices that need to be made to affect life change. You have to be willing to give things up that are not valuable to your life. Surround yourself with things and people who bring value. There will be things that you don’t want to give up and it can be difficult. It was for me. However, having the discipline to do it will allow you to reap the rewards of the sacrifice. What you will find is that what may seem difficult to give up wasn’t difficult at all. Why is that? Because you will see the results. It’s easy to make changes when you see how making the changes improve your life.

   When you see your life changing you will want more. That’s what happened to me. As good things happen in your life then nothing will be able to stop you. This may surprise you, but achieving life change isn’t the ultimate goal because you will never achieve perfection. The key to life change is the person you become in the process. The changes you make will impact you and the others around you. When you become more from making life changes that’s when you have truly achieved.