Is Your Envirenment Supporting Your Personal Development Journey?

“All the world is a stage,” but in the drama that is your life you continually being cast as an extra. You get to walk through the set, participate in a bar room brawl and every now and then you even get some lines, like: ‘good evening Sir, may I take your coat.’

Needless to say, your sick and tired of playing extras and human props. You want the lead role. You want to see your name first in the list of credits and the feeling of satisfaction that goes with it.

You commit yourself to a regimen of personal development that will make you finally stand out from the crowd and get you the roles and compensation that you deserve.

Early Monday morning, you awaken to the 6 AM alarm, excited and ready to put your personal growth/success plan into effect.

First on your agenda, some exercise to get your energy up for the day big ahead. After your usual bathroom ritual you pass your laptop still on your bed from last night and see there are 6 messages waiting for you on your Face Book profile. You attend to that small task in no time and move on to check your email. It’s 6:20 AM, so your in box isn’t overflowing yet. You delete the junk. Reply to the important stuff and finish off with few quick hello/what’s up emails to some out of town friends.

The duffel bag of laundry that’s been sitting behind your bedroom doorway catches your eye. In true “no more procrastination” fashion, you snatch it up in one hand and head down to the basement to drop the pile in the washer for a well deserved swim.

When you arrive back at your room you notice it’s 6:57 and your getting hungry. Time to get some breakfast into you system, to start the morning off right.

This is day one of your new “success by any means necessary”, happy, healthy and wealthy by 2011, personal development journey. Unfortunately, you haven’t gotten anything done that is going to get you any closer to the goals you have set for yourself.

You’ve fallen right back into your old patterns. The only difference is that you’re usually not out of bed until about 7:30, followed by an hour of slumbering around your apartment in a daze until the fear of lateness gets you in gear.

If you want to break away from the life your dissatisfied with and begin to build the life of your dreams, you have got to have a plan for breaking old habits. Habits function on an unconscious level. That is why making a conscious decision to break away from old habits, is oft times not enough.

To break old habits you first have to learn to speak the language of the habit mind. And that language is not limited to words. An often overlooked dialect in the language of the habit mind is that of images.

Have you ever noticed that our urgency to use the toilet increases as we get closer to our place of residence. There is no need for you to say “Wow, I’m almost home” for this to occur. As you travel home, you are passing images (streets, homes, cars, stores, etc.) that serve as unconscious psychological ques that alert your unconscious mind that you are getting close to home. Which in turn signals your bladder to relax and get your attention. It wants you to know, it’s time to open the flood gates.

The same thing happens in your home.

When you awake in the morning, your furniture, the lighting, temperature and other factors in the environment also serve as ques.
Your automaton recognizes the place and time, and begin to automatically steer you through the steps of a choreographed dance you’ve been performing over the preceding months or even years.

If you want to be successful in breaking what has become a vicious cycle, you have got to change the props on the stage of life. Here are a few tweeks to get you started.

* Change the direction of your bed.
This will ensure that your habitual wake up, is followed by an conscious wake up. You want to experience that split second uneasiness of ‘where am I?’

* Change the lighting in your bedroom.
If your presently using a 60 watt bulb, go up to a 70 watt. If your using an 90 watt. Drop down to an 80 . Shoot for a subtle, but noticeable difference.

* Have a morning ritual that breaks your old pattern.
Insert, morning prayer of meditation where reading the paper used to be. In the beginning, leave a big sticky note on the bathroom mirror to remind you of your “new next step”. The old pattern is wired in and will take off automatically if your not reminded.

* Don’t leave distracting pages up on your computer.
If you intend to spend an hour writing, first thing in the morning. Shut down all windows, tabs and alerts not directly related to the task at hand.

* Create pre-task rituals.
Before your workout, change into a pair of sneakers you keep in the house just for exercise. Don’t use this footwear to walk the dog or go out to the movies. You want the shoes to become sub-consciously associated with exercise. The sneakers will become the equivalent of a bell to Pavlov’s dog.

* Don’t set your thermostat too high.
You don’t want to feel like your still cozy under the covers. If you don’t control the thermostat, open a widow just enough to get a light breeze or to bring the temperature down a few degrees.

* Re-arrange some furniture.
Move some paintings around on your walls. If your really want to get deep into your psychic mojo, paint a few walls and throw down a rug.

* Burn some incense in the morning and when you arrive home from a day out.
You don’t have to fumigate the place. Just enough to alert the senses. Cooking new dishes. Using new spices, herbs and seasoning can have the same effect.

“All the world is a stage, and we are just players.” It’s time for you to take the lead role.

Have you ever heard of Spike Lee? In his first 4-5 feature films, he was not only an actor, but also served as director and producer.

To be successful in breaking habits, assuming the role of director, producer and lead actor, is a must for guaranteeing the long term success of the reality show called “This is Your Life.”

Have you ever noticed the awakening effect remodeling or just re-arranging household furniture has on your psyche. Drop me a line below and share your experiences with us.

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