Stories

How to Change Bad Habits

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Really think about it. It might vary a little bit day to day, but overall I bet it’s something you do day in and day out, over and over again, without really thinking about it.

This is of course not a bad thing, but is simply a habitual thing. Regardless of the consequences, habits become an automatic and natural process for how we live life. The way we respond and interact in the world becomes a conditioned pattern of behaviors; often to the point where we don’t even realize the behaviors we engage in.

What role do habits play in your life? Do you have habits and behaviors that aren’t suiting the life you desire? If so, they can be changed. It just takes a little effort, desire, and commitment.

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How to Build a Longer Attention Span

By Christopher R. Edgar / 19 Comments

We often read in productivity literature that we’ll be able to accomplish whatever we want, once we take any potential distractions out of our workspace — by disconnecting the internet and phone, putting the TV in another room, and so on.

But there’s something this approach doesn’t deal with. Even if we remove every possible distraction from our environment, we’ll still be left with our own minds. Even if we can’t flee from work by surfing the internet, we can always run away by daydreaming, reminiscing, making up worst-case scenarios about what the boss is going to say, and so on.

In other words, if we find it hard to focus on a single task for a long time, just rearranging our work environment won’t help much. This is why I think it’s important to practice holding our attention.

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How to Be Less Sensitive

By Melinda Elliott / 26 Comments

I know, dumb title. If we’re sensitive, we’re sensitive. And it’s not a bad thing, to be sensitive, it’s what makes us compassionate toward others.

But, as a sensitive person, I know that it can get in the way sometimes – when I’m over-sensitive it can sour my day, cause problems in my relationships, or make me overreact to trivial stuff.

The good news is that there are ways to rein in our sensitivity so that it doesn’t get in our way:

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Eight Little Ways to Change the World For the Better

By Ali Luke / 15 Comments

One of my biggest hopes in life is that I will make a difference. I’d like this world to be a little better because I was in it.

However, “change the world” isn’t an easy item to put on a to-do list. Where do you even begin?

Here are eight great ways to change the world for a better. They’re all fairly quick – all things you could do today. Which will you pick?

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Why Is Change So Hard?

By Jeremy Day / 19 Comments

I recently wrote a blog post entitled Eating Healthy On a Budget where I talked about how I am carefully selecting what I buy at the grocery store and how I am cooking at home to save money.

I had a bunch of great comments, but one that really stood out to me was a friend who commented that I must have a lot of discipline to follow this plan.

The funny thing is that my friend is a personal finance blogger and he makes plans with his finances all the time. Why not make plans when it comes to what you put in your mouth every day as well?

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7 Habits that Will Make You Happier, Healthier & Way More Likeable

By Marcus Sheridan / 102 Comments

Happiness — I want it, you want it, we all want it. Just the fact that you’re reading The Change Blog means that you and I are on a similar path—seeking for those nuggets of wisdom that will bring us more peace, joy, and personal fulfillment.

After having owned a businesses for about 10 years in the swimming pool industry, a little over a year ago I commenced a new quest in life to satiate my need to teach and help as many possible to achieve their full potential. This is also why I asked Peter if I could contribute a guest post to The Change Blog. So if you’re looking for ‘change’, if you want more joy and fulfillment out of life, here are 7 qualities that, for me, have made all the difference:

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How to Build a Real Network (Not a List of Strangers)

By Deborah Fike / 10 Comments

In this digital age, we are obsessed with networks. We want to keep in touch with our 3rd grade friends, so we check their Facebook profiles. When we meet new people, we greedily gather their contact information and store them at LinkedIn. Even our mothers love networks, if the sheer amount of forwarded spam email is any indication. Information hording makes us feel like we are part of something bigger, that we have a network of support we can leverage at any time.

Unfortunately, that might not be true. You could have 1,000 friends and not have even a mediocre network. Like all relationships, you need to work at maintaining them in order to get anything from them. If you decide to friend everyone you know and never talk to them, you don’t have a network. You have a list of strangers.

Networks rely on real communication, the kind of bonds that keep us interested in each others’ lives. It may seem like a daunting task, but you can engage in real communication every day with your network. Doing so not only makes you part of the network, but builds relationships over time you can turn to in times of need.

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Turning Gratitude Inside Out

By Ruth Harrison Moody / 21 Comments

Discovering how to live in and with gratitude has exploded onto the personal development scene. Many of us have cultivated a deep and intimate knowledge of things for which we are grateful. This is a tremendous step towards developing a positive life. Even so, maybe its time we turned our gratitude inside out and gave it more of a real world voice.

We’ve all probably come across the idea of keeping gratitude journals, using affirmations about gratitude, and so on. Many of us work very, very hard at being grateful, at being aware of all mercies small and large. Many of us begin and end our days with written or prayerful litanies of instance after instance, person after person for which we give thanks.

These are all good things, but having made a place for gratitude to live in our hearts, minds and souls, we’re then offered an opportunity. We can lose sight of the fact that all good things in our lives have specific sources. Many people do things large and small that make our dreams, wishes, and affirmations possible. It’s far too easy to treat gratitude like a spiritual coin to be put in a cosmic vending machine, with the actual process all too often taken for granted.

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‘Rock’-ing Your Gift

By Jillian Davis / 23 Comments

I grew up with a mother that, loving though she was, believed that people with great talent – artists, writers and the like – are born with their special gift. She would often watch a program on PBS, say a broadcasting of one of the MET’s operas, and say afterward, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to….’ (Fill in the blank for the specific talent).

You can imagine how hard it was to believe that I could accomplish much, given my mother’s feelings about human genius being confined to the few born into it.

I think a lot of us were raised with parents like this.

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The Sweet Satisfaction of Positive Thinking

By Olusegun Jegede / 14 Comments

Positive thinking is a choice. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favorable results. It brings inner peace, success, improved relationships, better health, happiness and satisfaction. It also radiates to people around you, and one way or the other, they are influenced by it.

Why is it so much easier to have a negative attitude than a positive one? The situations and challenges we face in the world each day expose us to negative thinking which, in turn, pull us down. When these situations and challenges enter our minds, they generate negative thoughts and feelings. These negative thoughts begin to rule our minds the moment we choose to believe them.

The BIG question is ‘How do we develop a satisfactory positive mind?’ The following tips will help you develop one.

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Using Mind Control With Difficult People

By Patrick Mathieu / 25 Comments

Have you ever wanted to have the power to control minds? I know that I often think to myself: “Life would be so much easier if everyone would just listen to me and do what I tell them.” I doubt that I’m the only one who’s ever thought this way.

We often find ourselves trying to change others. Trying to change what they do, what they say and even how they say it. Fundamentally, we are trying to change how they treat us.

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