2023 May 16 Embrace change every day!

Hi, this is Jim Cranston from 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com, the podcast and website all about re-imagining your life. Thanks for joining me tonight because we're going to be talking a little bit about embracing change as opportunity. If you like what you hear tonight, please leave a like, tell your friends, send me a message. I always like to hear back from you. 

This is my second try for the episode for this evening, because I spent about 15 minutes recording this outside on my phone, but I had technical issues. Life is a learning experience, and this goes along with tonight's theme, which is to try new things and see how they work. So I  won't do that one again, but why was I doing a remote shot anyway?

Why was I standing out in the woods? Basically, it comes down to what I wanted. What I find for myself is that if I keep doing the same thing again and again, it's very difficult to be excited about it. We're  wired that way. I wanted a different environment, which gives a different energy to the whole thing. When you're out there, you see trees instead of the books behind me, you see me smacking flies and stuff like that, because it's a change in season, so all the mosquitoes and little bugs are out biting people. It gives not only me a different energy, but you a different energy, because we're doing things in real time. 

This isn't in a studio. You know it's happening right now, because I’m apologizing for it and waving flies away from my head. It gives a whole different effect. That's  neat. I was talking about morning routines a couple weeks ago, and what I discovered in myself is if I do the same morning routine every morning, I don't find it invigorating. It becomes part of a habit. It becomes part of my whole day. When that happens, it becomes an automatic thing. I do three affirmations, and then I do this, and then I do that. There's nothing wrong with that. 

It's good to do them, but your mind operates in a different way because it becomes on autopilot. The whole pandemic put a lot of us on autopilot. You  slip into this pattern. You get up, you do your morning routine, you take a shower, get something to eat. Then you go walk across the living room, down the stairs to your basement, out to your garage, wherever you have your work area set up. You sit down. 

You see the same people on the same Zoom calls, where most people don't have their cameras on. You get to look at the same chart or table of figures or something on the screen, and it’s kind of  like you're watching your life go by. 

I don't want the podcast to become like that. Some consistency is very nice, but some changes are very nice too, because we're wired for change. Change is really good. Our minds are wired to look for change around us, and there's a bunch of reasons for that. 

Part of it is that it energizes us. It energizes us in two different ways. One is that we see a change immediately. We have to notice it because from our long ago history, that change could be either something walking through the underbrush that we could eat, or something that could eat us! You don't know until you get a little more information.

Our whole being is very much wired for change. The other reason is when change comes by, it may be an opportunity to improve the situation or to make it worse. So you're always on the lookout for things that bring more into your life. That's not greedy in any sort of way, but if you discover a new way of doing something, then that's invigorating. It's exciting. It's more fun, a little more interesting. I have a little more time available. It made it a little easier. Whatever it is, that change brought something good.

If you try something new, and it doesn't work out so well, you put it into your memory bank. That didn't work out so well. You set it aside for the next time you see something like it. We're naturally wired to look for change and to embrace it. It's naturally invigorating, and that's the natural feedback for us. It's invigorating, so that you want to do it, so that you keep looking for it, so that you survive (originally), and now it's so that you can improve your life. 

I decided some time ago that 2023 was going to be a year of change and growth for me. I'm looking for ways where I can introduce change to my life in a very positive way, and I'm pretty excited about that. I was thinking about the podcast. The main character of the whole thing, the weekly Lives, have gotten - not necessarily repetitious - w e covered different material, but the format is very much the same. That’s good, up to a point, but I want to start accepting people back onto the show again. I haven't done that in a long time. I think it's fun when things are a little bit different. The general focus is the same, but there are different ways to get there. 

When there's change in your life, it's  the same way. The general focus, or your vision, is probably the same, and your short and medium term goals may be the same. They might be modified a little bit, but probably how you attain those goals is a little bit different.

By doing something different, even in just a different order, that change introduces a new energy into your life. When you do that, the outcome may be the same. It may be different. The goals may stay the same, the goals may change. But you're going to have a different path to get there, and it'll give you different experiences. That's what makes life interesting and makes life fuller. You always do the same thing and everything's always expected.

One of the problems that happens is when an interesting change goes by, you're not looking for it at all, so you might miss something really neat going by if you always have little changes going on. There don't have to be big changes, but it's little changes. Always be on the lookout for what might be going by.

Then when an interesting change goes by, be open to it. It might be a lot of fun. Try it. It might actually put you much closer to your goals than you think. I would encourage you, as change goes by, to be open to it. That doesn't mean you have to embrace every change that goes by, but at least be open to it and recognize it as a change, especially if it is consistent with your goals, or it brings more energy into your life, more interest into your life.

One thing about looking for change and being open to change is that it can bring you new paths to realize how amazing life can be, and all the things that are there to just help you appreciate all the good things about life.

As always, it's not the big things that make life special. The big things obviously can make life very special, but I find it's a lot of the interesting little things that really bring all the nuance out of life and help you to see all the wonderful things that are around you. So your homework (optional, of course) is to look for opportunities to change and decide if you want to embrace them or not.

You will see things go by all the time. Some are good, some are foolish. It doesn't mean you have to take every change that comes, but try and look for some, recognize them, and say, What would happen if I did that? What would happen if I didn't do that? Just thinking about it has changed my attitude for the rest of the day. 

Just consider all sorts of changes. It could be how you view a situation. It could be how you view an object. It could be how you react to something. It could be a new opportunity. Everything in life is full of decisions and changes. Opportunities for change can enhance yourself. I'd encourage you to try and look for a couple, and decide if you want to embrace them or not.

For bonus points, also consider if accepting that change would alter your goals or even expand your vision. If you're glancing through the paper, and you see people who want to teach English in Poland for the Ukraine refugees. I know somebody that volunteers doing that for free. Just ponder for a minute, if you did that, what opportunities would that open up? Maybe you've always wanted to live in Europe, or maybe not. Just ponder for a minute and see if it would alter your goals or even expand your vision.

That's it. Thanks so much for joining me. That's it for the evening. Our page UKR7.com is still  the place to go if you want to make donations to Ukraine. The link to World Central Kitchen, probably one of the best humanitarian causes possible to get food to people in disaster areas,  is at WCK.org.

That's it for the evening. As always, remember one of the best ways to care for yourself is to care for others. Thank you for joining me tonight. There are always people who can use a hand. If you can and you're able, please try and help. There's a lot of good causes around. The best way to care for yourself is to care for others. 

Have a great week. Remember to live the life that you dream of, because that's the path to true contentment. Love and encouragement to everyone. See you next week on 7EveryMinute and 7EveryMinute.com. Thank you. Have a good night.