homework

Read the last post. Does this remind you of you?

It’s critical to define the changes we want to make in our lives and in ourselves before embarking on the journey of change. The goals may indeed shift while we’re working towards them and become more self-aware, but without a direction to move, we can be paralyzed. Here are some tips for preparing for change, from Shape Magazine’s Ultimate Body book.

Before you set out on your journey, get a notebook and write down:

• the changes that you want to make in your life
• what the positive outcomes will be upon making them
• what challenges you could encounter
• your strategy for dealing with those issues
• who might help you
• who might try to sabotage you
• how you’ll deal with those people who aren’t supportive
• ideas that will help you just in case you get “off course” occasionally
• rewards that you’ll give yourself for making progress

The temptation, as always, is to skim them and think out the answers in your head without writing them down, but you all have blogs, you all have a place for self-expression, for making a mark, and we encourage you to use it for exactly this kind of journey tracking. If you want, make the post password-protected so that only you and those you allow can read it. Write it on a piece of paper. Whatever works for you. But put that record out somewhere external to your fleeting thoughts.

You want to be able to track how far you’ve come, and that means tracking your starting point as well.

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