sadeewhip

I take notes. I make mental notes. I notice everything. Well, everything about people I care about and work with. I can’t help it. Love makes me pay attention.

One thing I’ve noticed is that most people get so focused on their big goal, the big change they are seeking, that they completely ignore all the tiny changes that lead up to the big change.

It’s like we expect the big change to happen in a BANG! overnight shift and we wake up and everything is different. While this can happen, it is exceedingly rare. So, too, a great idea or an intense inspiration, while profound, is not instantly transforming, as powerful and as true as it may feel. Change requires action to go with the thought.

Big change is actually a series of little shifts. Our relationship to time is what makes it so whacky. Time is measured in a linear way. So we align our goals and expectations in a linear manner to match time. But life is actually cyclical. Everything has a cycle and there are cycles within cycles.

It is very important, if you want big changes, to begin to notice these cycles. Rather than think of things happening on a time line, think of engaging and completing cycles. In order to do this you have to notice and track small changes. Small changes reveal the cycles and also reveal where you are in the cycle. Small changes are like little affirmations that change is happening.

An example of this is parenting. You might have a personal goal and you are a parent. Your children may have a need in their own life that you tend to. Say it’s a school play and the costumes need to be made and you and your partner drop everything and do a three day marathon to get them done. It’s just part of the natural rise and fall of energy cycles. It’s life. But in a linear framework you will be discouraged and feel you got off track from your goal and can feel frustration and resentment. When in reality you just surfed a wave in the energy cycle and are still completely connected to the transformation you seek.

It’s important at times, of course, to have an end goal in mind so you know when you’ve arrived. But not everything can be measured this way. The reason is that we often get ideas about where we should be that are not actually based on who we are. So perfect health for you might mean you are still “big” but radiant and energized. Or that you remain cancer free but still have cellulite. There’s no perfect picture, only our own truth.

The little things reveal our own truth to us so we can grow and expand, not just cram ourselves into some imagined box of ideals. This is as true for abundance as for the physical body.

By noticing the little things we are not driving and pushing to achieve a goal but we are actually engaged in the journey and can be transformed and enriched by it. Otherwise we are just in judgment about what we should be and how life should be and miss all the revelations of who we really are and what life really is.

I highly recommend when you set a goal or seek big changes that you take a complete inventory of where you are when you make the decision. Notice your health, energy level, sleep, mental state, quality of relationships, career health, finances, everything.

Because everything is connected, when you seek to make a change in one area other areas often need to change to allow what you seek to happen. It is very difficult to become energized and healthy if you are surrounded by negative people who eat junk food. You might notice a little thing such as no longer wanting to spend so much time with people like this. That’s a little change that is an indication of a larger shift. But if you don’t track this you will be expecting to wake-up and leap out of bed and get discouraged if the change doesn’t happen how you think it should and when you think it should.

Tracking the little things affirms we are heading in the right direction. It affirms our efforts are paying off. And it opens us to learning how life really works thereby helping us to release the controlling grip so many have on life.

Tracking the little things will make you see how much you are changing and how much you are actually accomplishing. This alone will give you more energy and strengthen your commitment to your efforts. It becomes a positive spiral of transformation.

Try doing a weekly inventory of your life and just noticing what changes week to week. You might be surprised to learn that you are more of a lean, mean, transformation machine than you ever realized! You might also learn that you, gasp, day dream more than you act. Either way it will be beneficial and you will indeed be on your way to the larger life you are creating.