FROM THE GROUND UP

If you aren't making things better, then things are going to be whatever they will be. In a sense, change is essential to thriving. The ability to change begins with yourself. Behavioral modification in the present derived from focus on fundamental life values, something I learned about in my visit to the psychiatric hospital. They give you this sheet when you're discharged with 'keys to a healthy life'. A list of things like exercise, sleep, cleanliness, sunshine. It seems so elementary to list these things but when you approach life like something to be managed and mastered there's no room for the noise that invades and distorts the goal--living better. You always return to the basics. If you can champion the basics you can accomplish quite a lot. It is arrogance to ignore this simple truth. You go about attempting to modify neurochemical pathways by performing basic tasks diligently. This is the basis of habit formation. Once you understand and appreciate how simple the process of change is you can apply it to anything. Break down your goal into bite sized actionable tasks that can be absorbed and performed routinely. Once these are mastered others can be taken on building to a more complex pattern of success which was once difficult and all of sudden it's easy. There will be a point in every journey where it becomes perceptibly difficult and usually seems impossible. This is the point where you remember that no-one said it would be easy. If it were easy everyone would be doing it. So you step back, rediscover the basics, and keep going.

The only thing you have in this life, are the choices you make. So live like you mean it.