Hello friends, I’m Kati Whitledge, the founder of Be Inspired Salon. Welcome back to the Be Inspired blog where our goal is to inspire, inform, and include you.
I’m thrilled to be with you again today to share something eye-opening that I realized nobody is telling us about change. I’m going to jump right to the answer, which is, they’re not telling us that it’s going to take a long time.
This isn’t pertaining to changing your hairstyle or changing your haircare products. Rather, this is about changing the trajectory of your life in one or more life categories. I’m assuming we all have areas we’d like to change, and I’m making this assumption because in 2018, the market data showed that we spend $11 Billion annually on self-improvement. Wow. What is it that you want to change, improve, or see growth in your life?
It’s Not a 20-Day Fix
Have you ever taken a 21-day, 6-week, whole-30, or any challenge like this? There are so many of them out there! I’ve participated in many of them and I think they’re great! But there’s something they’re not telling you. They’re not telling you that real, long-lasting change will take more like 24 months—not 21 days.
We’re not being asked to try a two-year challenge because most of us would be overwhelmed to think about how long of a commitment that is. Two-years? Might as well be twenty-years! LOL.
But, for the kind of lasting change we deeply desire, we must be willing to stick with it for the long haul.
Don’t Give up Too Soon
I believe one of the reasons we may not be seeing lasting change in our lives is, we are giving up too soon. We get discouraged too easily and too soon in the process.
For example, if we work out for a few weeks in a row but we don’t notice significant changes on the scale, we might feel like what we’re doing isn’t working for us. We end up getting discouraged, overthinking our plan, and ultimately, we give up.
Or, maybe over the next month we put in extra time at work to show that we’re capable of more responsibility and more opportunities. But no one at our job seems to notice—so we’re disappointed, and figure it’s no longer worth the effort, and we stop working on our performance.
No! We are giving up too early and we’re missing the compounding effect that will occur with a long-term, consistent commitment. How different would your approach be if you stuck with small, simple steps toward change for the next two years without over evaluating your progress?
It Will Pay off BIG TIME
In our welcome blog, I shared how simple and yet impactful it is to go back to the basics. A part of my going back to the basics has been re-reading the book, The Compound Effect. In it we learn that it takes doing small, positive habits on a daily basis in order to see massive change over time.
Would you rather have a penny that doubles in value every day over the next 31 days, or would you rather be handed $3 million in cash today? Most of us would just take the $3 million! But, what if you take the penny and patiently trust the process? By day ten you may get nervous to see that your penny is only $5.12. By day twenty, you’d have $5,243. Now you’re sweating… could’ve had that $3 million right then and there. But if you stick with the plan, you’ll earn a whopping $10,737,418.24 by day 31. Incredible! This is the compound effect!
Which category or categories of your life are you committed to growth this year? How can you create simple habits today that will have a huge impact on your life two years from now? How will you overcome the times that arise that may cause distraction, discouragement, or disappointment?
May we all stay encouraged and hopeful this year, and never give up on our potential.
Until next time,
Stay strong.
