Are You Immobilized by What You’ve Grown Accustomed To?

We become very accustomed to things, don’t we? We become accustomed to having oatmeal for breakfast. We get accustomed to having our clothes cleaned in a particular way. We are accustomed to a specific manner of interface with particular individuals. When we arise in the morning, we have an accustomed way that we move through our morning rituals. We are accustomed to receiving our paycheck on certain days. We’re accustomed to the way our home is maintained. Because we are accustomed, we don’t think about change much, do we? If you want to Be the Change, you may have to think about them.

If you took a few moments to think about the things you’ve become accustomed to that have your life literally stuffed with accustomizations, you might be astonished at how many there are. You might stop for a moment and make a list of yours.

You might agree that those accustomizations of yours could also be called habits. Do you agree with that? You’ve become intimately familiar with the way that you traditionally do things; with the way you most often interface with people; with the way you habitually run your life; with the manner in which people treat you. You’re accustomized to all of it. And you are comfortable with the familiarity.

The articles I write are about Being the Change. I’d like to ask you to consider if you feel ready, willing and able to change the things you’ve grown accustomed to? Can you change old habits? Can you grow new habits? There has to be a high level of willingness for you to step outside what might be your current comfort zone and Be the Change.

Are you willing to change? Here are three questions that can serve as a test of your level of willingness.

* What do you want in your life?
* What does it take to get what you want?
* Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

If you said “Yes” openly and willingly to the last question, you are definitely ready to Be the Change. If you hesitated somewhat and tried to consider all the parameters that change might mean for you, you’ll need to work on becoming more willing.

Let’s look at willingness from another perspective. You exercise willingness frequently throughout your day. You are willing to crawl out from under warm blankets, get a bit cold, so you can begin your day. You don’t know what the day will bring, but you are willing to begin it. You are willing to go into a restaurant without knowing what the offerings are on the menu, or without knowing what the quality of the food preparation is. You are willing to get into a car or bus to go to work, not knowing precisely what the traffic situation is.

Your life brings you many challenges throughout the day. It is especially challenging the first time you are required to perform: the first time you crawled out from those warm blankets; the first time you went into a new restaurant; the first time you drove to work. It always goes easier once the “first time” is behind you as an experience, isn’t it? You get accustomed to the doing. You get so comfortable, the doing becomes habitual.

What has happened on the invisible or more spiritual side of your life is that you have been bringing your virtue of courage to the forefront every time you exercise willingness. And it’s that virtue of courage that allows you to say “Yes, I’m willing.”

From the perspective that you’ve got a habit of willingness, I’d like you to examine our three questions again.

* What do you want in your life?
* What does it take to get what you want?
* Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

It’s my strong hope that you might feel somewhat more willing now, knowing how you’ve done this in the past.