I’ve been talking about change since I started writing this column years ago. I even called my first book Change Your Home, Change Your Life. Now, all of a sudden, everybody is finally catching on. You can’t turn on the TV without hearing all about change! The entire presidential campaign is all about change. It would be an incredible blessing for us to have a president who believed in change, wouldn’t it? Obviously, nothing different will happen unless there’s a change.
Now that we’re getting close to choosing a Democratic candidate and have already chosen a Republican candidate, there are a lot of political conversations taking place. The number-one most shocking part of some of these conversations for me is that a lot of people out there aren’t even considering voting! They want to hide their heads in the sand, take the passive approach, and let the chips fall where they may!
I want to scream, “How in the world are we going to make a difference or change the world unless we vote?” As Andy Warhol said so eloquently, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
It’s like anything else in life. You can’t make someone happy, they have to do it themselves. You can encourage them, give them the tools to help themselves, but they have to change their lives themselves. Likewise, we have to get out and vote. Participate. Be a part of the process. You can’t complain about anything going on in the world and then do nothing. Change can have a wonderful ripple effect. Change can also be a fabulous character-builder.
Have you ever noticed that change always has a way of separating things, situations and people out? Think about it. It’s like God saying, “OK, you’ve been sitting on the fence long enough and you’re stuck. Nothing is happening, so I’m going to change a few things, stir things up. I’m tired of you complaining about the same things year after year.” So things happen, and guess what? We change, they change. Situations, jobs, marriages, relationships, houses, cities, countries—all experience change. I’m here to tell you that change is wonderful, exciting and positive! We can’t grow unless there’s change. If you embrace change in your life, find the positive attitude and adjust to what might be around the corner, you never know what incredible thing, person, president, job or experience might be coming to you.
As always, it’s a choice—every morning when you wake up and every night when you go to sleep. You can choose to participate in life, choose to be happy this day, and chose to live. It’s your life, and you’re the director of it. Take control of you and live as though it’s your last day on earth. Can you imagine all the changes you’d make immediately if you knew this was it? You see, it’s all about change!
So now that I’ve pointed this out to you, what are you going to do about it? OK, here’s the test: Close your eyes and breathe slowly until you can hear your breath coming in and out. Let’s pretend you have just 10 days to live. What’s the first thing your heart tells you you’d change to make the most out of your last 10 days on this earth? Does the prospect of dying give you the courage to take control and make you feel entitled to be happy? Now ask yourself how it makes you feel to imagine your life with the change you desire. Imagine yourself free in your heart and soul, free to be happy, free to take care of yourself and your life!
Now come back to the now. Close your eyes again and breathe. Examine what you feel now that you’ve confronted what you’d change in your life. How does that make you feel?
But the most important and only question that you need to ask yourself is this: Why am I only entitled to change my life without guilt if I’m dying? Why do I not love myself enough to take care of myself today with my life ahead of me—however many days God gives me? “Live like you were dying”—Tim McGraw sang it so well.
Change, change, change! Say it over and over again, and smile when you say it! Dance to music and feel how good it can be. Don’t fear it—embrace it and remember you have to make it happen. So let’s hear it for change in our country, change in our jobs, change in our relationships, and change in our hearts, so we can really live.
What are you waiting for?
Change Your Home, Change the World
www.mollandersonhome.com