Joke: How many social workers does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb has to want to change. 
There is more than a kernel of truth in that story, and I’m not talking about the social worker needing to be only one. For change to happen, there has to be a desire to change or more precisely a decision to change followed by a change action or behavior.
Thinking Ain’t Doing
This came home to me earlier this year when I decided to cut back on my weight. This was not the first time I had thought about losing weight. Like many people I had thought about dieting, even gone so far as to read some diet books, signed up for a gym membership, gone to a personal training. I hadn’t done the Atkins diet or the Lemon water diet but I had considered detox.
You may noticed that the operative words in the paragraph above are thought, considered, I could have also used the words tried.
Changes in Results Need Changes in Action
What was missing was the decision to change my behavior. What I needed was a momentous event to push me over the edge. It wasn’t a heart attack – I was fortunate. It was just the prodding (actual physical prodding) I got from friends one evening on 2009. I don’t know if something snapped (I didn’t hear anything) but after that night I decided to change.
Whats more, once I decided to change, I started to look for support systems to help me make that change. And finally I changed how I behaved – I ate smaller portions, I exercised regularly (almost fanatically if you ask my friends).
Perhaps I went too far, my cousin thought I was starving myself – you can see from the chart below how my weight fell.
Measure the Results, Track the Change
And that was another things I actually started to monitor my diet and keep track of my weight. I found measuring my results gave me energy to pursue my goals further.
82kg to 68.1kg in under three months
To get the change in my weight I decided to change and then I changed my behavior. You might remember that old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. For me to get different results (lower weight) I had to change my actions.
This experience with my weight carries into other parts of my life – to change my other results – my income, my attitudes – I have to change my actions, I have to decide I want to change. In the blink of an eye you can become a different person.
Like another old saying: Insanity is when you do the same thing and expect different results.
End the insanity. Decide. Change. Enjoy.
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