Small Changes Go A Long Way

The trend of the last few decades has been towards quantity over quality. Increasing amounts of things to do and an unending list of must haves have crept into our lives eating up our time, our finances, affecting our relationships and cluttering our spaces. Overbooked, stretched on all sides, juggling one thing or another and a sense of feeling continually exhausted are all indicators that reveal one is not living the quality of life we all really dream of. What ever happened to the saying: “Less is more”?

Small Changes go a Long Way

Would you describe your week to be punctuated with spurts of excitement, vitality, aliveness, energy, spontaneous bouts of joy, a little buoyancy, a little playfulness, peacefulness, serenity, a good measure of contentment and harmony? Sounds impossible? Not really. You may not experience all of these all at once; that wouldn’t be realistic, but small changes can go a long way in helping you maximize your quality of life.

More often than we care to admit we are unconsciously being led by the dictates of this present culture with results that are less than desirable for the life and things we cherish and value. Consider taking the time to evaluate and take inventory of how you spend your time in a week; that is a total of 168 hours. Sleeping and eating are a given, however, even these important components of your week should be evaluated to measure their quality and the pleasure you derive from them. The goal is to identify one or two things that are draining your physical energy, nipping precious hours of your time, eating your resources and at the end bringing you very little satisfaction.

You are the “gardener” of your life so take the time to give it a good measure of tender loving care.

A reputable gardener will tell you that pruning your rose bush is absolutely necessary to get beautiful, vibrant healthy roses your next door neighbor will be envious for. Without regular pruning the average rose bush will turn into a gnarly tangle of flowerless branches. Pruning encourages new growth and blooms, removes dead wood, improves air flow and gives shape and style to the plant. The experienced gardener will give you two important tips: begin pruning at the base of the plant and prune to open the center of the rose bush to allow light and air to flow.

You are the “gardener” of your life so take the time to give it a good measure of tender loving care. Pick up the pruning shears and consider trimming off some of the things that are weighing you down.

Don’t tackle the bigger mountains yet! Start with something within your reach.

Start by evaluating what already works well enough but could use some tweaking for even greater efficiency and results. After making the necessary adjustments you can always evaluate again and determine what difference, if any, those changes brought. The next step would be to tackle some other aspects of your life that need a little tender, loving, care. Don’t tackle the bigger mountains yet! Start with something within your reach.

In some cases small changes will have a wonderful almost incidental problem solving result. Be inspired by those results and use that as leverage to move ahead in opting for more small changes. If per chance you don’t see results immediately don’t give up! A recently pruned rose bush never looks very pretty! Immediate results are good, long term is even better.

Now if you don’t even know where to start, Life Coaching might just be what you need to launch you in the right direction. If you want to know more about Life Coaching just go to the home page of this website and you can read all about it under “Services available to you.” Please don’t hesitate to contact me. Life Coaching can take as little as one or two sessions to get results and can happen through my Online Services or in a face to face meeting. I would be happy to help!

Nicole Lafrance
M.Ed. Counselling, CCC Certified Lifeskills Coach