Change is something that one either embraces or rejects.

Change is something all of us have to deal with, and the more open we are to it, the better the outcome typically is.

Some people are great at taking whatever life throws in their path and taking it on with the strength of a superhero. Others, would rather fight a bad cold than deal with the discomfort of change.

Change happens

Not long ago, someone came to me so upset over a change she had to face with her job. She loved her existing position, and could see herself working in it for the rest of her life. She understood her role, breezed through assignments, and got along perfectly with her coworkers and boss.

Everything Changes

So when my friend’s boss approached her with some bad news that she was leaving the company, my friend wanted to toss her hands up in the air and throw a tantrum right there in the middle of the aisle.

Everything would change.

She’d have to deal with a new boss, likely renegotiate her flexibility, earn someone else’s trust, and have to justify every little thing she did with her day just to prove her value.

Change is uncomfortable

She cringed as she continued dumping her unfortunate news on me. “My new boss is a known backstabber, and no one respects her. She once took credit for a project I worked so hard on, and she did this without any remorse. I hate change.”

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” I said with a slight pull on the end of each word.

“That’s absurd.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

Change is a Chance to Grow

“What if this is happening not so much TO you, but FOR you?” I asked. “In other words, maybe you’re supposed to work with this person because it’ll be a new challenge and offer you a new chance to grow.”

She twisted her gaze sideways and contemplated my thought. “I don’t see the good here.”

I took a step closer. “Maybe your purpose is to help your new boss to become a better leader and person.”

She rolled her eyes at me. She left me that day with a shrug and a shallow attempt at a friendly goodbye.

The Upside of Change

A few days later, she called me. “The new boss treated me to lunch.”

“And?” I asked.

“And,” she rolled out, “She likes ceviche.”

I laughed. “All is right with the world again. See, I told you so.”

“It’s a start,” she said.

I swallowed more laughter, knowing by the following week, they’d be best friends going to The Loft at lunch time to browse racks of their newest styles.

Change is Going to Happen

Whether we embrace or reject change, it’s going to happen. The best thing we can do is bend with it, and make the best of its presented opportunities.

Here is a perfect opportunity to use the principle of keeping it simple. To get results, you don’t have to drive yourself crazy cramming in all sorts of nutty activities. That will just set you up for failure. Instead, keep it simple by doing this one effective thing: Schedule your Priorities.

You Get Results When You Focus

A great way to achieve focus is to create habits or routines around a certain action that will help advance you forward towards your goal. When you create an action step routine, it’ll likely get done. And, if it’s a priority, it should get done!

Get Results by Zeroing in on Top Priorities

Here’s what I do to keep my priorities in check. I list out my top three most important things that I want to accomplish, and then I put them on my vision board. From there, I create a habit or routine around each priority.

For instance, my health is my top priority. So, to get results in this area of my life, what I do is take my calendar, and I physically schedule my workouts every single day. Well I take one day off as a rest day, but you get the picture. It’s on my calendar, therefore it’s something I’m committed to and have decided is something that has to get done.

Make It a Priority to Get Results

When you do this, you have a greater chance of achieving your goals and your priorities, and hence you get results!

Don’t leave what’s most important to you up to chance. Schedule it, get it done, and, feel great that you accomplished it. Simple as that.

Do you agree? Have you done this before? And has it worked? Do you think you can get results by scheduling actions steps towards them?

What’s the Secret to Being Creative?

For some people, getting the creative juices to flow is easy. For others, just thinking the words “I must be creative” stops all color, all ideas, all flow. If you’re like me, and you find yourself in this category at times, don’t despair. There are solutions.

Creative Energy is Elusive.

A creative spark can appear and disappear just as quickly. The secret to staying productive as any kind of artist is to discover how to switch that light on and off at your will.

A Creative Muse Can Help.

A creative muse can be found in everything. It lives in a sunset, in a star, in a bird’s chirp, and in the melody of a beautiful song. The greatest part about this is that every creative person has access to this inner muse.

The trick to finding yours is tapping into your senses and letting them fly freely. Once you set your senses free, you enter a zone where you can create a world that touches and inspires others.

So how do you tap into your creative inner muse?

You have to clear your mind and here’s how. 
I challenge you to experiment with the following actions to see which one most effectively gets you into that creative zone.

1. Sit quietly and listen to music.

2. Create a collage of colors, shapes, and words. Then, stare at it through unfocused eyes.

3. Free write for ten minutes. Set a timer and write without any regard for grammar, spelling or logic. Just write whatever pops into your mind and don’t stop to analyze or think.

4. Get up and move for ten minutes. Break out into a light jog, brisk walk, jumping jacks, whatever you can safely perform.

5. Read quotes.

6. Meditate or pray.

7. Go out into nature. Sit on a park bench. Stare up at a tree. Admire a flower.

8. Play with color. Get a paint brush and splash paint on a canvas or color on paper with a crayon.

Okay so there you have it, eight solutions that can help free your mind so you can find your inner muse and get those creative juices flowing.

Try them and please share your feelings on this little challenge. Did it work? Are you feeling more creative?

As a novelist, I’m always interested to learn what motivates people to go beyond their comfort zone to that place where real growth happens. When creating characters, I enjoy learning lessons through them. What makes them act the way they do? Why do they care so deeply for certain things? How did they become so cynical, so happy or so fearful?

A Comfort Zone Can Steal the Magic

We’re all driven by different things. Our past experiences shape the way we view the world and the way we interact with others. We all come equipped with driving forces that dig deep and push us towards or pull us away from defining moments. Getting stuck in a comfort zone robs us of defining moments.

How do I get out of my comfort zone?

I’m driven by the word CAN’T. When someone tells me I can’t do something, I do it double-time. The catalyst for this motivation to jump out of the comfort zone digs deep.

When I was in kindergarten and sitting in a circle for story time, a girl bullied me. Each time I’d raise my hand to answer a question, she’d hit me. After several grueling rounds of this, I stopped raising my hand and eventually lost all confidence to speak to anyone but my best friend, Todd, and my immediate family members. For two years, I spoke only to them. Talk about getting stuck in a ‘comfort zone’ that was anything but comfortable!

Bribed with adventures and treats that would make any well-adjusted child leap for joy, I turned my back on any hope of being a ‘normal’ kid. Then one day, my best friend begged me to speak to his mother because that was the only way I could go to his baseball game. For three hours, I stood next to his mom as she watched soap operas and waited patiently for me to whisper something, anything, in her ear.

Todd begged and cried for me to brave up and say something. By the end of the third hour, my best friend knelt down exhausted and said to me, “I knew you couldn’t do it.” This little action switched something in me so powerful that I managed to whisper ‘yes’ into his mom’s ear.

I haven’t been able to stop talking since.

Fast forward to high school English class. To graduate, I needed to present my book report to the class. I refused, deathly afraid of public speaking. My English teacher allowed me to present it to him after school.

When I finished, he told me, “You won’t succeed in a professional setting, so get used to working harder instead of smarter. That little insult sparked an inferno inside of me, and I marched off to college shortly after and majored in public speaking, and graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Whenever someone tells me I can’t accomplish something, I accomplish the S*#T out of it!

That is my fuel. What’s yours? What gets you out of your comfort zone?