The Changing Face of You

   I’m starting to think of myself as a “change” advocate because I always seem to find myself writing or speaking about it. I’m never one to say that change is always good, or bad...but that change simply always is. It happens if we want it to or not, for example...Happy New Year! Regardless if you wanted a new year, it’s here to stay for 344 more days (as of this posting). Many people make resolutions for the new year. Perhaps you’ve looked ahead at 2013 and decided that some changes were going to occur? Well...if so, I hope they are all positive and they all come to pass, but I’m also here to tell you that change was going to happen anyway.

   Ok...so let me get this out of the way so I can concentrate on another aspect of change that I find is more in-line with the arrival of the new year. On a very basic level, change is always happening. With each word of this you read, there is a change (as simple as your eyes viewing one word to the next, to the complex thought process these words evoke). Every breath brings change. Every passage of every moment is change from one moment to the next. The point being change will occur...we cannot stop it, we cannot control it as a whole. So now that we got that out the way, lets dig into the meat and potatoes of the changes we can control.

   Your personal choices are the catalyst for the changes you control. Many people, no doubt, decided (once again) that the new year is going to be the year they take charge of their health and fitness...and went out and joined a gym. Others may have decided that they would put more effort into their business endeavors with the goal of being independently wealthy. I could list resolution after resolution and they would all have the same basic ring to them of people deciding to change themselves for the better. A self imposed decision to make a personal improvement. Applaud yourselves for taking the first step in the right direction...then get to the hard work of making the decision to change take effect.

      The truth is that the changing face of you is a constant process that will happen to your desires according to how much of the control you want to relinquish...and how much you want to retain. If you have decided that you want to lose thirty pounds this year, and to do that you will take it upon yourself to diet and exercise...and after said decision, you actually change your diet and exercise regularly, then it’s safe to say that you are on the road to successfully reaching your goal. You will control this particular aspect of your changing face...and any slips in your routine, any lapses in your diet, will also contribute to the change that will happen...although these contributions won’t compliment your goal.

   Since there are so many elements of change that will remain out of our control, I implore you to take as much control as possible in causing positive change in your life. All change isn’t good, but even a change that doesn’t seem good at the moment might result in being good for you in the long run. Who among us can tell the future? I’ve tried, but lets be real, if I had any substantial consistent success in future predictions, you’d be reading about me in Fortune 500. Instead, I can share by experience that a “bad” change can actually turn out good. For me, catching chicken pox at age twenty-six was bad (a understatement if ever there was one)...but because of that, I quit smoking and maintained a smoke-free lifestyle ever since.

   The changing face of you is the experience of living your life. It’s a journey we all take together, while simultaneously taking alone. The face you see can be a face mostly of your making, or that of a stranger that left the sculpting of their visage to be dictated by circumstances that didn’t have to run amok. Change happens regardless of choice...but choice can dictate the nature of some change, so get about the business of dictating. Probably the only time that being a dictator is a positive thing.