If You Want Results Change One Thing!
In 2017, we started to make some concrete plans to change our lifestyle from our current life of responsibility and dependability to a place we had dreamed and talked about. This envisioned place was one that kept us together at all times and freed us from the struggles of the cold weather of Canada and away from the rat race of the corporate world.
To achieve this, we had to decide on multiple things, including quitting corporate life, thinking about how to wind up or alter our bricks-and-motor businesses, which tied us to a particular place, etc. The decisions to change these aspects of our lives happened in 2017, and the action plan was implemented in 2018, after which we found ourselves exactly where we wanted to be.
So, if you want to get results for all your hard work, here are some lessons that we learned along the way.
Take a step back from your routine and look at your current life – There was nothing wrong with our earlier lifestyle. We were living in a great neighborhood and happy with most of what was happening in our lives. And yet, we knew deep down that we wanted more out of life.
We had to take a step back from our daily grind and spend time on self-reflection to truly understand what we wanted from life. We had to take time off from work and other compelling needs of our current daily life to get a new perspective on our present condition.
This approach helped us see elements that were not aligned with our potential new lifestyle and those that were hindering our progress towards that life. This enlightenment helped us realize that we needed to let go of old values.
Prepare yourself to let go – Once we realized that we needed to let go of some things from our earlier lifestyle, the next challenge was to confront how to let go of them. Undoubtedly, we were quite attached to many elements of our life including the beautiful home where we spent a large part of our lives, the perks of corporate life, the stained glass business that we were so passionate about, etc.
But, then we told ourselves that letting go and learning to live without those things are all part of the journey called life. We realized the more we held on, the more difficult it became to let go. We learned the art of detachment using the following life lessons:
Observe your thoughts – The more we paid attention to our thoughts, the more we realized that letting go was all in the mind. We found our attachment to our home was founded on baseless fears such as how we would manage to live in the small space provided by our Motorhome. When we became aware of our thoughts, we could rationalize them and get rid of our attachment.
Learn to discern between your ego and reality – Ask yourself what is stopping you from letting go of your possessions. Are you scared your ego will be hurt because of what others will say? For example, when we examined our decision to let go of everything in our lives to begin a new life, we knew that people would find numerous faults with our choices.
The thing about people finding fault was that it hurt our egos because we had built a reputation for being ‘sensible and practical’ people in this rat-race world. We had to discern between this ego hurting and our real needs. When we decided that the seeming insult to our ego would only be temporary, and people would, sooner rather than later stop finding fault, letting go became that much easier!
Accept that uncertainty will be part of your new life – Actually, uncertainty is a part of any life, old or new. The fact that we get up each morning and thank the universe for a new day means when we went to sleep the previous night, we were uncertain if we would live to see a new day!
Therefore, it would be a waste of time and energy to hold on to things simply because we think we cannot handle uncertainty. The realization of this profound truth helped us let go of many, many physical, emotional, and mental possessions that were holding us down.
Try one of these options and learn to let go, and we assure you that you will feel liberated.
Start small – Start with simple things to bring about the changes you want in your life. For instance, instead of watching your favorite show on TV on any particular night, take that 30-minutes to watch a YouTube video or read up on relevant topics on the Internet regarding the changes you plan to make.
Alternately, even if you don’t have concrete plans regarding this change, you can start with little changes in your life. For example, if you do your weekly grocery shopping on Saturday morning, don’t forget to add a short walk around your neighborhood before you head home.
Yes, all these changes might be small. But, it’s a start, and can give you enough impetus to push you to take the next small step in your journey toward significant changes.
Make the transition as smooth as possible – When we shift from one lifestyle to another, there are bound to be challenges during the transition. Expect these challenges and prepare yourself to make the transition as smooth as possible.
In your mind, live a day of your future lifestyle and think of all the problems you are likely to encounter. For each of these problems, try and find a solution. Of course, you cannot be prepared for every little problem. But, pre-empt as many challenges as you can and make the transitions as smooth as possible.
It would make sense to reiterate the reason for R & R Digital Lifestyle and its making. We want to inspire people who want to make positive changes and tell them that if we can do it, so can they. Even 3 years ago, we didn’t think such significant changes as we have undergone in our lives were even possible.
But then, we put our minds to it, did a bit of research, and realized that making changes starts with the right mindset. Once you have the correct mindset in place to prepare yourself for the changes, the rest of the path is far easier than you think.
We realized that the trick of success lies in keeping the desire to change your lifestyle deep enough for things to happen with or without your continuous intervention. If you really want something, no matter how massive the changes are going to be, you will get it.
One of the most important lessons that we took on board was the fact that we could learn new things regardless of age, and age is a mere number. You are as old as you think, and your thoughts are driven by your mindset. If you choose to take a growth mindset and get into a learning mode, then there is nothing to stop you.
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