How many times have you told yourself you needed a change? Sometimes it feels like you are stuck in the same old routine, and you just simply need a change. I am always thinking to myself, “Do I need a haircut? Should I get my nose pierced? Should I dye my hair lighter?” While I always crave a change when I feel stuck in a routine that needs to be switched up a bit, I learned that small changes help me change up my routine.
Instead of doing a noticeable change to people, I decided to take baby steps and do small changes that are noticeable to me. Some of these changes include running on the elliptical 5 minutes longer than usual, drink more water every day to stay hydrated, take 10 minutes out of my day to read a book that I enjoy, compliment strangers, try to make my bed everyday (sometimes hard because I have an 8 a.m. and am barely functional that early in the morning), and try to stay more organized. I realized that whenever I have an itch to change, I step back and think what I can change in my life now and ways I can change my daily routine.
I think change is always important. Sometimes your routine gets boring, but changing my mindset from big change to small change has been really beneficial for me. Not only did I try to do small observable changes, I also made small mental shifts.
I have always viewed failure as a bad thing. If I didn’t do so well on a test or project, I would get down and tell myself that I am a failure and wasn’t good enough. Now, I view failure as an opportunity to learn. I am not afraid to take new risks, and I learn from every single failure. They are bound to happen, but you get to decide your reaction to it.
I have been working on trying not to compare myself to others. This is something that I struggle with because I am constantly comparing my looks, intelligence, talents, etc. to others because it’s so easy to do, especially with social media. I have tried to work on myself and point out my strengths as a person and realized everyone is different and you shouldn’t have to compare yourself to others. I am working on feeling comfortable with who I am, and am trying to be more kind to myself.
I saved the most important one for last; believing in myself. There has been so many times where I have been scared to take risks because I didn’t believe that I could do it. I didn’t believe that I could actually write, but here I am writing my heart away and loving every second of it. I didn’t believe that I could ever do yoga because I am the least flexible person, but there I was on a yoga mat smiling at the fact that I was actually doing it. Sometimes it can be hard to believe in yourself, but always remember that is the best gift you can give yourself as it will take you far in life.
I am continually growing as a person, and with changing my mindset from big changes to small ones, I think I planted myself in the right direction.