Have you ever decided to make a change and then felt overwhelmed?
You know you want to change something but it feels like it would be impossible for you or maybe you even plan out what you need to do but then find it hard to take any action? For some of us, we actually make a start on the change full of enthusiasm but within a few days, we quickly fall back to where we started from. This applies to many aspects of our lives that we want to change, maybe it’s habits or we’re not happy in a job or a relationship and we either stay stuck because we’re overwhelmed with what may happen if we change and we create lots of scenarios in our minds about what might happen. Alternatively, we bury our head in the sand or we start making changes but feel so uncomfortable that we stop.
There are some of us who keep ourselves in limbo land because we don’t know what our BIG DREAM even is, so we stay where we’re comfortable and do nothing waiting for our BIG IDEA….
When we develop habits, patterns of behaviour and routines, these become our comfort zone and therefore even when we know we do want to change things in our lives we often don’t because it all feels too much and we naturally (even though we’re not aware of it) choose to stay in our comfort zone rather than making the changes that would enhance and improve our lives. Sometimes we stay stuck in horrible situations just because it’s become our uncomfortable comfort zone!!
How Do We Move Out Of Our Comfort Zone?
The 90 Day Change A Habit Challenge How To Join Brilliance Within’s 90 Day New Habit Challenge suggests chunking down any habit change, into something that feels possible, realistic and achievable. So for example:
- Rather than setting myself a target of exercising every day for 30 minutes, I tell myself that I’m going to exercise for at least 5 minutes every day.
- This feels far more comfortable to me and yet when I start my 5 minutes, on 4 of the 5 days so far, that 5 minutes was actually 30 minutes because once I set out on my bike, I enjoyed the ride and kept going for longer.
- Yesterday, I was out all day, dashed back in to get changed and was due to be picked up at 6 p.m. to go out with some friends. I literally had a 10 minute slot and because I knew I’d have to re-set the calendar to Day 1 of the Challenge if I didn’t fit in my minimum 5 minutes of exercise, instead of catching up on facebook or my blog reading perhaps, I dashed out into the garden and hoola hooped until my friend arrived to pick me up. She was 5 minutes late therefore I hoola hooped for 15 minutes (it’s a good job she wasn’t any longer or I’d have been looking like a sweaty Betty when she arrived…)
Sometimes we set ourselves those BIG challenges or we think we should have BIG life changing dreams. Maybe you’ve set a goal in the past to lose 3 stone (like I did) but it just feels too much. I broke my weightloss challenge down into losing 2 lb per week which immediately felt more achievable. Maybe you think I’d love to TRAVEL THE WORLD but then the negative committee in your head kicks in “don’t be ridiculous, you can’t afford to give up your job to go off travelling” so your ‘dream’ simply remains a ‘dream’.
What if you started to chunk it down into mini dreams or 5 minute actions?
I read a great post about how to change your life 5 minutes at a time by Dr Andrea Dinardo and she also talks about making changes in life by chunking actions into small 5 minute changes, which will help you to feel much more comfortable and the action more realistic and achievable. Take a few minutes to have a read: https://drandreadinardo.com/2017/08/18/change-your-life-five-minutes-at-a-time/
Take the example above “I’d love to travel the World” and our negative committee’s response “You can’t, it’s not possible”, now take the chunking down principle and ask yourself “how could I do that – how could I break it down?
You could then make a list of all the countries in the World that you would like to travel to and prioritise them starting with the place that feels the most realistic and achievable for you to be able to visit. Then start planning that single trip.
- How much would it cost to visit that place?
- How long would you need off work to be able to go there?
- How much could you save each month toward the cost?
- How long would it take you to save up for the trip?
Once you’ve planned out how you could achieve your first trip in your Travel the World ambition by chunking your dream into one trip at a time… it begins to feel more realistic and achievable doesn’t it. A weekend flight to Rome would tick something off my bucket list and with a bit of saving, it would be realistic and achievable.
Suddenly my vision of ‘travelling the world’ just feels easier!!
This principle of chunking down into 5 minute actions really can be applied to any change you want to make, be it a happy or a BIG dream in life. The key is breaking down any action into small chunks that feel much more realistic and less frightening than the BIG CHANGE that we never achieve because it just felt overwhelming and impossible.
It even applies to the BIG DREAM that you don’t have!!
Maybe there are some of us who think our dreams aren’t even BIG ENOUGH or we’re unclear what our dreams are so we simply stand still and remain in our limbo land, waiting for the BIG DREAM to suddenly make itself clear to us – yes you know who you are!!!
I was definitely one of those and I recognised that I was waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect dream etc. as the sign I needed to start taking action. When I attended Andy Harrington’s great Power To Achieve Event earlier this year, I realised that the time to start doing something was definitely NOW.
There is no perfect time or perfect dream and taking those small steps toward something – anything…. is better than continuing to live in limbo land. Allowing one small step to lead to another and before long, things look much clearer than they did when I was simply stuck in limbo.
Now is definitely the right time to start taking action toward any goal or dream, no matter how large or small, because who knows who you may bump into along the way or what you may discover about yourself and your inner dreams that you weren’t ever going to become aware of sitting in limbo land?
Taking a small step toward somewhere is definitely going to enhance your life more, than taking no step to anywhere!!
If you’re interested in joining the Brilliance Within 90 Day Habit Changing Challenge, leave me a comment and I’ll be in touch and I’d also love to hear from you if you have some BIG Dreams that feel impossible… Set me the challenge of helping you break it down into small chunks!!
Remember:
Thank you so for this inspiring post, Wendy! 😀😀 Small steps is the way to go and I’ve found if I set bigger goals they disappear very quickly…oh, I had to laugh at your hoopla hooping in the garden. Fifteen minutes of that is impressive! 😀
Author
Oh how lovely – thanks Annika! Yes it really works to chunk our plans down into achievable mini goals. It helps us not to become overwhelmed and then we can build on each little success.
I impress myself with the hoola hooping (haha!!) – it took me a while to get the hoop to stay up… and once I got over the BIG bruises on my stomach and hips, I’ve got to really enjoy it. xx
Great post, I love this page. Really inspirational 😀
Author
Wonderful and I’m delighted you found some inspiration! xx
Waiting for that big dream or big idea that seems so elusive, feeling stuck and in limbo … oh I know that feeling all too well. You know I do. But things are shifting Wendy and I’ve started with those small steps and changes. Thank you my friend for an inspirational read and a much needed kick up the rear. This gal is up for a challenge. Big hug and love to you xo
Author
Wonderful – I’m delighted and wish you could see the smile on my face!! I’ve definitely decided that the key is the small step challenge of ourselves and who knows what the next corner we turn will hold for us. Wonderful!!! xxx
Oh yes, I couldn’t agree with you mite Wendy. I’ve just woken up, it’s Saturday morning and despite it being grey and drab outside, inwardly I feel this growing sense of something brewing , and I’m visualising those small steps … xo
Author
Fantastic!!! Have a BRILLIANT day.. keep gardening! xx
Thanks Wendy. Just about to head out again for some more! xo 🌿☘
Great ideas Wendy! So practical & colourful. Love the photos!
Also – Thank you so much for sharing a link to my 5 minute change post on your blog. You are one of the most generous bloggers I know!
p.s. My 5 minute change begins with flossing.
A journey… a step… 💃🎉
Author
How lovely – thank you so much for your fab feedback. Good for you – yes, how amazing our journeys that just take one step at a time! xx
Very powerful post, I simply love it! If you’re willing, here’s something you may like a lot. A powerful and free tool that can help to increase your manifestation power 10-fold, have a good day :p https://tinyurl.im/AzmLP
Author
Thank you xx
I love it! Very powerful post here. If you are willing, here’s something that you may like. A free tool that can help to increase your manifestations 10-fold. Have a good day 😛 https://tinyurl.im/AzmLP
Author
Thankyou x
I love this post Wendy. You’re so right, breaking things down definitely makes the feel more achievable. You should definitely visit Rome, I went two years ago gor my 40th. It was somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. We had the most amazing time and I can’t want to go back and discover more of Italy xx
Author
Thanks so much Catherine. I’ve never been to Italy and it’s definitely somewhere we want to go to. What a lovely place to go for a ‘biggy birthday’.. Italy does look wonderful – particularly off the beaten track. It’s somewhere I’d love to drive through stopping at different places along the way.. who knows what next year will bring. I’ve added it to my Vision Board!! xx
Sounds like heaven! That’s how I ended up there because it was on my vision board! Happy planning. Xx
Author
Wow – amazing! Planning is definitely half the fun! x
Beautiful inspirational post Wendy. You are just amazing, love all your posts and would like to join 90 day habit changing challenge. Let’s try to make that big dreams make possible. Spread us more positive energy and wisdom. Keep Inspiring us with more amazing posts!!
Author
Fabulous Sumith and thank you so much. I’ll add you to the facebook community group and if you can add a comment in there to let me know which habit you’d like to kick off changing or adding into your life first.. I’ll add a printable download of the 90 day challenge cards over the weekend. Yes I’m hoping this brilliance within community group can help to inspire each other with making fabulous changes, no matter whether they’re big or small changes.. I’m delighted you want to join!!