4 Tips to Change Your Life and Create a Personal Revolution

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Categories: self improvement

Do you want to change your life but struggle to make it happen? There’s a reason it’s so difficult, and the recent unrest in the Middle East provides us a glimpse in to the challenges we face when we try to improve our lives.

The president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, recently stepped down after presiding over the country for nearly 30 years. Thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce his power. They threw rocks and shouted for his resignation. Apparently after three decades, the people had had enough. Uprisings have also started in Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and other countries. While I’m not going to pretend to understand what this means for U.S. relations or the stability of the Middle East, I can tell you how these revolutions illustrate why it’s so hard for you and me to create radical change in our lives.

When I saw the uprising in Egypt, I was struck by two questions. First, why did they decide that now was the time to make a change? Second, why did they wait three decades to do something? The more I thought about this, the more I realized that the roadblocks to creating change are universal. These large-scale uprisings illustrate one of our greatest strengths as well as the greatest roadblock we face when trying to create a richer life.

Your body was designed for one thing, and, contrary to popular self-help gurus, it’s not success or riches. You were designed to … survive. In 2011, “designed to survive” can sound awfully anticlimactic and underwhelming (and probably wouldn’t sell too many self-help books), but it has served us well over the millennia. Homeostasis is our body’s attempt to maintain equilibrium. Because of homeostasis, you have the incredible ability to survive even in the harshest conditions – extreme temperatures, diets, oppressors, etc., but because it takes very little effort to survive in the 21st century, you’re left feeling conflicted. You want something better, but years and even decades can lapse with little progress or action.

So how can you create a personal revolution that will radically transform your life?

  1. Stop looking up, and start looking down. If you’re lucky, you’ll hit a breaking point when things get so bad that you can’t stand the status quo any longer. It might be the decision that no relationship is better than a bad relationship, or the notion that starting your own business is less scary than continuing to work for a critical boss. Hitting bottom can trigger a momentous ascent.
  2. Live in the gap. If you wait for the bottom, it may never come. To create the emotion needed to drive action, focus on the one area of your life that you try to avoid. The one that you know desperately needs to change, but that you pretend doesn’t bother you. As painful as it may be, face the reality of the situation and focus on the gap – the space between where you are and where you really want to be. Feel the pain, frustration and anger. Live in the gap; it will drive you to the bottom, which is where you need to be so you can push off and move up.
  3. Go for big change. What do all revolutions and uprisings have in common? They demand large-scale change. Small change doesn’t motivate. So when it comes to your personal revolution, make sure the prize at the end is worth getting off the couch for.
  4. Find a friend. Have you noticed the domino effect in the Middle East? What started in one country has now “spread” to several others. When you face a huge challenge, it’s nice to have some support and others to look to who are also struggling and succeeding. Find a friend to join you who’s hit bottom and who wants to create a personal revolution too.

Whether you’re in Tunisia or Tucson, Libya or Los Angeles, Morocco or Manhattan, we all face the same challenges when we want to create radical change. Get mad. Protest the status quo. Demand something better. And then make it happen.

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*Photo credit; Premasagar

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  • http://grapefruitjuicyfruit.blogspot.com MAIR

    JUST WHAT I NEEDED. THANK YOU.

    MAIR
    http://grapefruitjuicyfruit.blogspot.com

  • http://lies4lives.blogspot.com/ Daniel

    Good post!
    I did not see that perspective of the Middle East issue. Great insight.
    I totally agree that it’s homeostasis vs. change. I think especially if you’ve grown in a bad environment, bad role models etc. the change is even greater. You could initially be in an unhealthy homeostasis state, then change is a tough one. Following my shock-event, what worked for me is something simple I call trading lies for lives, just facing your own truth(s). Yep, with me it was that simple (and the rest of the complexity of life just followed :) ), now I’ve recently tried to start describing it in a Blog (http://lies4lives.blogspot.com/), hopefuly it could help someone.

    Again, great post!

  • http://www.livingwords.net Douglas Cartwright

    I’m going to try this in the area of personal finance! thanks!

  • kodjo

    That points have proved themselves many times to be real. Harsh but true. A human can do unthinkable things in extreme situations.

  • http://www.thoughtful-self-improvement.com/Time-Management-T2.html Natalie

    Pain is a great motivator, as long as you can see that change is possible. That’s where many people fall short. They cannot imagine a different life. Life without the abusive relationship. Life without bills to pay. Life of freedom. It is when they see that there is an alternative that is possible that change really starts happening.

  • http://www.anthonybasich.com/ Anthony Basich

    Hitting rock bottom is a great driving force for a personal revolution. When you have your back against the ropes and have nothing to lose you just let the punches fly. This is when a lot of people seem to turn their lives around; when they no longer really pay homage to the fear that was once held them back.

    Anthony

  • vidhya

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  • http://lies4lives.blogspot.com/ Daniel

    But here’s the big conflict for me. Say that we all know that and usually there’s some loved one, maybe a spouse or a parent who is deep in his mud. It seems like that the obvious thing is to tell him this story, show him the ‘light’. Of course, this never works. Usually you get blamed for pointing out the demons, the messenger gets shot.
    I find that just being a role model, just containing and accepting that person will work. The downside is the endless time that this takes, but I guess there’s no control over that anyways. Has anyone found any better ways to go through with this?

  • http://ferragamoshoes.org/ ferragamo shoes

    great i love this line..When I saw the uprising in Egypt, I was struck by two questions. First, why did they decide that now was the time to make a change? Second, why did they wait three decades to do something? The more I thought about this, the more I realized that the roadblocks to creating change are universal.

  • http://www.daretodeviate.com James

    Thanks for the post. I’ve been wondering about both these things so it’s interesting to read a comparison about them.

    Something else that I’ve found works is to start small without putting any pressure on yourself. The momentum eventually builds up and you’re on your way.

    This worked for me when I was trying to live with less stuff. I started by getting rid of the really obvious stuff. I took it slow but once I started down the path it became addictive and soon enough I was living out of a couple small backpacks.

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  • Samar Ali

    Peace Be Upon Everyone & Hello Everyone

    First, thanks about writing about our Egyptian Revolution and our Middle East Revolutions by the way the Middle East region is called the Arab World.

    Second, I’m really grateful about the personal revolution you’ve just written about it but if we wished a big change, we must seek good steps to move on.

    for what you asked about why we decide to make our revolution now and not from three decades before, the answer is that we’re born in the period that Hosni Mubarak was a president to us. Most of us are 20th and 30th & the situation in Egypt was too much difficult after that last parliament elections so we just moved to make our choice and raise Egypt again among the world’s countries.

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