Lucky 7’s: The 7 Conditions of Growth

Hello Blog Nation! I know you’ve probably been waiting for another blog posting- well, fear not blog readers! It seems that life can get pretty time consuming with a beautiful wife, and a handsome boy (who, by the way has really taken an interest to the 80’s episodes of Spiderman- how cool is that!).  So, after much deliberating (and a serving of “5 hour energy drink”- which really works!), it is time to get back to blogging.

There are many different quotes about change;” He who rejects change is the architect of decay.  The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery”, you must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler, even “change is inevitable – except from a vending machine”. The fact is Change is EVERYWHERE! Look at our cars, clothes, music, food- nothing is how it used to be. One of the biggest things to change is…us.

Now, there will be people that you may think do not have the capacity to change, well, they do, it’s just that they haven’t been properly motivated to actually DO so. For example, think of someone you know that is recently out of a relationship: often you see a change in them (hopefully this is after the “listening-to-sad-love-songs-eating-ice-cream-straight-from-the-carton”phase). They may want to go out more, go to the gym, dress nicer- something may have motivated them to change. At work? Perhaps a supervisor who was a jerk now appears to be more “friendly” to you after you hit it off with the new boss, even with you, perhaps you want to DO more, BE more. But you seemingly are stuck. Sucks, right?

Well, there is good news! You DON’T HAVE TO BE STUCK! You can start right now! Below, are the “7 conditions of Growth”- these 7 steps can help you grow and change right before your very eyes!

1. Become DISSATISFIED with the status quo: This is critical; when a person is tired of the “norm”, the “usual” and is TRULY unhappy, then growth can start.

2. ENVISION where YOU need to go: Most people already know what “growth and change” looks like; perhaps they have a picture on their desktop, or refrigerator, their phone-wherever. Recently there was a HUGE jackpot for the lottery. If you ask around, people already knew what they would do with the money- vacations, investments, etc. (most of the inquiries did start with the phrase “after I quit my job” for some reason.) Make sure that you know where you need to go, and what it looks like when you get there.

3. DEVELOP a process by which to get there:  Nowadays, most people do not use maps- we use GPS systems, which now is even an application on our phones! I love GPS! The reason? Think about what it does: it asks YOU where would you like to go, and once you enter the destination (see #2); it tells you within SECONDS how to get there! We as people, we operate relatively the same way. Most of us know what the change and growth looks like, and what we need to do, which may sound like “I need to _________________ (insert action) for ________ (insert timeframe).

4. INVOKE YOUR WILL to make it happen:  See, this is where a lot of people fall short; sure, they are tired of the situation, and know what change would look like, and even how to get there, but it’s THIS condition that often breaks people. This means total dedication and commitment from YOU!

5. TAKE ACTION to make it happen: This condition falls right in line with the one previously mentioned. DO SOMETHING! Recently I had a friend lose a job, and she was DESPERATLEY looking for another; she got her resume together, identified jobs she wanted, and after getting advice from several people, had a plan of action. The next day I talked with her, and asked her of her progress, she stated that she “just didn’t feel like” doing the things she so frantically needed just 24 hours prior. See kids, a plan of action is only a “plan”, make sure you do something with it.

6. EVALUATE your action steps:  Have you ever put together something, and it didn’t seem right? (Curse you IKEA and your 405 steps for a table!) Sometimes you need to look at your action steps and see if they are helping/hurting you towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, going to the gym 3-4 times a week seems like pretty good action steps. Heading to the nearest all-you-can-eat-buffet right after that visit to the gym? Maybe not so much.

7. RECOMMIT to your journey: Look at it this way, the things that lead to you wanting to change didn’t happen overnight, so change and growth equally don’t happen either. If you are overweight, there had to be a consistent routine to get you overweight, so equally it will take the same effort to get you where you want to be. The key here is to be realistic and optimistic about your change: will you be faced with challenges? Sure. Have some doubts? Possibly. But, as long as you realize that you have put yourself in a great situation to be successful, realize change and growth WILL happen….because “change is inevitable, and the only thing constant IS change.

As always, thanks for reading,

Garry