Initiating Change
By Stuart Temple, author of MeTime: How to get what you want in life and more

Change is magic, there’s no two ways about that. The only difference between where you are now and where you want to be is change - positive change. Where you are now, is point zero: equilibrium. You're either satisfied with that or not. If you don't want to be where you are now, and you want your life to be something other than this, your only true option is to make some changes.

Life doesn't stop for you. It's not going to pause whilst you get yourself sorted out. It just keeps rolling on and pushing us with it and where we end up is not normally where we want to be at all. However, it doesn't have to be like this, and it's never too late to change. Once you've snapped that current, once you've stopped being passive with life, you are free to create a life that you really want and this is a really exciting position to be in. All of a sudden you are a designer, the designer of your life and your future.

The current of life, those external influences that are pushing you along, are actually a lot weaker than you may think. Your own will is a million times stronger, and the more you practice taking charge and initiating the changes you want, the easier it gets. The thing is, to break free from that grind, that feeling of not being in control, of being a passive force in your own life, it may be the case that you only have to change a couple of small things to get to where you've always wanted to be.

However, change takes courage, especially if you are feeling safe and secure as things are. Sometimes change takes a risk. The truth of the matter is that if you want things to get better, if you want your life to change, you have to be willing to make changes. Changing your life is not a passive thing. Stand up and be counted, stop letting your life push you around.

Ask yourself who the boss is here, in this relationship that's called 'your life'. If you answer honestly and you feel that the boss is all those outside influences, those obligations, that job, these relationships, those bills, do yourself one massive favour, right now. Stop it!

Honestly, you are the master of your destiny. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just holding you back and the worst thing you can ever do is tell yourself that you don't have control over your own destiny. I hear what you're saying, "if it were that easy I wouldn't be sitting here today, worrying about these things". My answer for you is this, what have you actually done about it? Have you actually started to initiate change? Have you gone out there and started to make the small changes that and are going to initiate the large repercussions in your life that you are longing for? And if you have, and they haven't paid off yet, why have you stopped?

You've heard of the butterfly effect, right? Where a butterfly in Asia can flutter it's wings and cause a hurricane in Europe? Well, just as a pebble in a pool causes ripples that spread, some small changes in your life could really cause major consequences for the better, growing and gaining strength and momentum in very little time.

Right now, today, start identifying small things that you would like to change, just tiny things, things that are holding you back, little behaviours, something. Promise yourself you will change it, stick to your promise to yourself. Once you've tackled that small change, you'll find that bigger changes don't seem too much effort after all.

I've had a plant for years. It's one of those 'money trees', and it's followed me every time I've moved house. At the moment it sits in my home on the windowsill in the dining room. It's never been a very healthy plant. It's never really grown, but it's always been alive, so I never threw it away. Everyone seems to have one of these plants. I'd go to see my friends or family and their plants were huge, healthy and happy. I'd get home, take a look at my scrawny twig and wonder what on earth I was doing wrong.

After I moved in here, it started to shrink and wither. It was close to death. I tried everything I could to bring it to life: different plant food, more water, less water. Whatever I did the thing just wouldn't perk up. Until one day it dawned on me: it was too low on the windowsill, and the window frame was blocking the light. Ah - ha! I lifted it up, placing a small box under it, almost overnight the thing flourished. Now it's growing into a real monster!

The answer was right under my nose the whole time. I think we can learn a lot from my little money tree. Sometimes it's the most simple and basic things that we overlook. Change just a tiny thing, and it begins to flourish. You know, it's easy to put your life on the path you want - one of happiness and abundance. It's most probable that you too just have to change a couple of things, or a couple of attitudes that have been holding you back. It is so easy to change them; there really is no big mystery.

I wonder what tiny little disruptions in the right direction could do to help you change your world. The thing to remember when deciding on the small things you want to change is that the hardest bit is to instigate the change. Start instigating positive change in your life and the rewards will come, just like a ripple in a pool, small at first, close and associated to where the change was made. Soon these ripples will spread to touch and change every aspect of your existence for the better.

Don't let yourself down, change the things that are holding you back so that you can have the really important things that you want and need.

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Reprinted with permission from Stuart Semple, www.lifeyouwant.co.uk