The Changes You Want- "Coffee House Conversations"

By Devlyn Steele

Everywhere you go, you hear people talk about the changes they want to make in their lives. Certainly while your getting your coffee or tea at the coffee house you do.

"I want to lose weight." "I want a better job." "I want to make more money." Maybe for you it's travel, education, meeting someone or improving a current relationship. We all have goals and changes we want that go unresolved. So we talk a lot about wanting them to change. How often does anyone really do anything about changing? In fact, after a while you'll start hearing the wants turn to complaints. Then the complaints turn into reasons why success is not possible. "I don't have the time or money or ability." There are an endless number of reasons.

As a life coach, people are always telling me why they are stuck and why they can't do certain things. "I don't like to workout." or "I'm too forgetful." Basically what they're telling me is, "I have no control over my own behavior." Here's one we have all heard from someone, "I'm not a morning person."

What if I offered a "non-morning person" a million dollars to be a morning person tomorrow morning? Most people would say, "Well, for a million dollars I could be." So in truth, it's not that you are not a morning person, or that you don't have the time or any of the other reasons you give that prevent you from the changes you want, you simply haven't found the motivation.

With the right motivation, and it doesn't have to be money, you can change and create winning actions in your life. You are not locked into any behavior. Stop placing limits on yourself and talking about the changes you want and the reasons you can't achieve them. There is no definition of you other than the definition you give yourself.

We all have the power to redefine ourselves and create the lives we want. Let me show you how powerful you are. Take a sip of your coffee or tea and let me ask you this: Right now, could anything stop you from taking that sip? Oh, you don't have a coffee or tea?

Then get one or imagine you have one. Barring a sudden, catastrophic natural disaster, the answer is no, nothing can. The only thing that could stop you from taking a sip is.you!

In fact, nothing can stop you from going to the gym, eating right, getting an education, looking for a better job, paying attention to your relationships, not spending money on your credit cards or doing the things you should to make your life better. Nothing can stop you from anything you want to improve in your life except you. You are the only obstacle in your life.

We need to stop blaming outside factors for our behavior. There is no boogeyman keeping you from creating the life you want. We also have to stop looking for shortcuts. We tend to fall into the trap of wanting instant gratification and there are plenty of folks trying to sell this junk. I hate to be the one to tell you this but there are no magic pills that will make you thin, cure your life in seven days, get rich over night or have great abs in two weeks.

There is only one sure way to success and that's doing the work. This means we must get into action. Get motivated to change right now! Motivation is power and we have established here that being powerful is as simple as taking a sip of coffee or tea.

So enjoy the rest of your coffee or tea and smile while you take that sip, because right now you are powerful and right now you've decided to get into action to achieve the changes you want.