We all want change to happen right away, preferably yesterday. If you’re anything like me, you’ll come up with a list of thirty things that you want to accomplish—projects, habits, goals–and then you’ll jump right in, enthusiastically at first, confident…. And then, after a few days or weeks, you find yourself slowing down, hitting a road block, falling off your charging steed and into a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
 
I absolutely believe that change—big, life-altering change—is possible for anyone. It’s just that, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t start with big. It starts with tiny. Eventually, the smallest change can lead to the biggest one. This has been a hard, hard lesson for me to learn. I want measurable change. I want action! But, unfortunately for all of us “doers,” a lot of research supports the idea that habits are only built slowly, one at a time.
 
Because it’s a long, arduous road, I often find myself in need of reinforcements. What about you? Here are a few game-changers I’ve found along the way: blogs and books and ideas that have inspired me, things that I’ve been lingering over for motivation.


 
Zen Habits: Leo at Zen Habits has about a million and one useful ideas to help you live a simpler, better life. His clear, no-nonsense advice is so addictive. I suggest reading this post about “Quashing the Self-Improvement Urge” first to get a better handle on why we all long to become better versions of ourselves, and how it’s an age-old trap.
 
Once you’ve realized that you don’t need to read every self-improvement book ever written, ignore his advice and check out this post about “How to Fail at Habits.” It’s a great reverse-psychology list that pinpoints the tiny steps that can help establish long-lasting habits.
 
 
 

 
The Procrastination Equation: Do you have a problem with procrastination? I’ll let you think about that for a second. Well, if you’re a member of the lucky 5% of people who don’t admit to struggling with procrastination, you can skip right over this. If you’re like the other 95% of us who do, occasionally or chronically, put things off, keep reading.
 
This is the first book I’ve ever read on the subject of procrastination that really made the lightbulb go off. Steel guides you through the why and how of it all: the reasons we procrastinate, the emotional and economic toll it takes, the roles impulsiveness, optimism and addiction play in delay. And finally, he shows you how to pinpoint your procrastination MO and change your behaviour. Did you know that the top three life issues we procrastinate on are: health, career, and education? And the things we procrastinate the least on? Parenting, spirituality, and leisure. Imagine that.
 
Seriously, I just wanted to hit myself over the head with this book when I finished. The answers are so spot-on. Of course, like everything, implementation takes time. And probably a lot of re-reading. But with subtitles like, “Commit Now to Bondage, Satiation, and Poison,” I promise you, this isn’t a boring read.
 
 
 

 
What Should I Do With My Life? This is the very best kind of self-help book: the kind that expects you to figure out what to do rather than attempting to give you all of the answers. As Bronson states on page one: obvious questions don’t have obvious answers. There are no motivational how-to’s in this book, no bullet points or exercises to complete. It’s simply a collection of interviews that Bronson conducted with fifty people who were in the midst of or had completed major career changes.
 
There are a lot of books that claim to help you pinpoint your perfect career path. I’ve read some of those. While they serve a purpose, I think that they mostly overlook the reality that life is about trial and error. Human beings are not perfectly aligned lists of strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons (hello, Strenghths Finder). We can consciously know something isn’t right for us and do it anyway. Conversely, we can know exactly what we want but have a million different mental or physical blocks preventing us from getting there. Maybe we’re only going to get there later, by a different road. That’s the essence of the book. You have to be ready to go where you’re going. And you have to be willing to jump off-course to get there.


 
“Don’t Burn Your Bridges.” Isn’t that the old saying? While it may be wise to keep most of your professional relationships intact, I think there are plenty of bridges that can do with a good torching. When we keep all of our options open: all of the past versions of ourselves, failed careers, failed relationships, soured friendships, toxic bosses, we give them partial control over our future selves. Some things have to come off of the table. You can keep the lessons you learned. But feel free to burn those old definitions of yourself. Allow yourself to try again.
 
 
 

 
There are some things that we simply can’t change. Not today. Not ever. We all know this, but it doesn’t keep us from pushing and pulling at immovable objects. There’s an enormous amount of relief to be found in acceptance. What if we could just accept some of the things we dislike about ourselves, our friends, our lives? Wouldn’t that make life a heck of a lot easier? We have this enormous desire to change things that don’t meet our expectations. What about just dropping some of those expectations altogether? It’s amazing how content you can be if what you really, truly want is contentment.
 
 
 

 
Don’t take it so seriously. Sometimes the biggest motivator for me is realizing that we’re all slogging away at the same life challenges. We all want more and better and simpler and happier. We all want to say the right things and have the prettiest houses and the cleverest ideas and the healthiest bodies and the most brilliant careers. There are some days when I feel like I have none of those things.
 
But I have this ceramic pig. And I can dress him in a birthday hat.
 
And suddenly those big, serious things I aspire to don’t seem so daunting anymore. The road to anything worthwhile is long and tough. So why not break out your fake mustache and play a little (or a lot) along the way?
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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