Secrets to Personal Change

Over the next few days and maybe weeks, I will write on "Secrets to Personal Change". Many of us want to move forward in our lives. Many of us yearn to taste success. Many of us limit ourselves to the mundane and routine, wondering if this is all life is about. Over the next few days and weeks, I will write some personal notes of how I changed. When once I was a timid, scaredy-cat, now I am able to speak to hundreds of people in a seminar, class, workshop or conference, and to be able to do it, comfortably. Above all, I thank the grace of God working in and through me. At and that grace has taught me much about how to change, and I will endeavor to share some insights about affecting personal change, for sustained change.

The very first principle for change to take place, is AWARENESS. Without the awareness that we need to change, change cannot happen. We are more prone to inertia, than to the effort of affecting change. Inertia is a lot easier. Change is indescribably hard to do. And I think that the reason change is so hard is that it goes against the very grain of who are are in essence. Every change effort requires us to be aware of some sort of deficiency within us. I make this statement understanding immediately that the implication is that change requires personal responsibility. Rotter spoke of the internal locus of control. And leadership literature seems to suggest very strongly that effective leaders have a high sense of internal locus of control. An internal locus of control is an attitude which refuses to blame externals for a difficult situation. An internal locus of control leads an individual to see how elements within oneself, whether it be cognitive, affective or behavioral, can be managed to bring out the desired results.

( Part 1 )