When you embark on anything new, it is very powerful to be your own best cheerleader. Friends and family will often not give you the encouragement you will need. In any undertaking, it is useful to be open to feedback, but it is equally important to have enough dedication to stick with the path even in the face of harsh feedback.
For simple things, you can usually expect a certain amount of support from your loved ones. Learning a musical instrument or a foreign language, starting a mutual fund or 401K, or even losing a few pounds will usually (not always) be greeted with a certain amount of support. This is because these are socially acceptable ways of changing yourself.
For more life transforming changes (learning persuasion, changing careers, changing beliefs, etc.), you will typically get more resistance than help from the people who know you. This has to do with people wanting to stay comfortable. Staying in your 'comfort zone' is the equivalent of staying asleep.
Friends, family, and coworkers will often encourage you to stay in your comfort zone because they want to feel justified for staying in their comfort zone. If you can step out of your comfort zone, it calls theirs into question. It is far easier for them to negatively judge your desire to change yourself as 'foolish', 'misguided', or 'risky'.
To overcome all the challenges you will encounter on any significant path of change, you will need to learn to be your own biggest cheerleader. You will have to reward yourself. You will have to bring yourself out of slumps. You will have to push yourself to go a little further. This will have to be planned out ahead of time for maximum results.
When you arrive at a spot where your motivation is bit low, it is best to already have a plan for it. Feeling unmotivated is a poor state to begin planning! When you realize that you are serious about the new skill or skill-set, come up with some contingency plans for times when you are a bit less motivated. Establish a series of goals to carry you further and further in your practice. Create a system of rewarding yourself and make it your habit to do so.
Having said all of this, a training partner or group can be invaluable. If you are learning something new, you will want to find some new friends to help keep you on track with the new path. If this is relatively simple new skill, like a musical instrument, it should be easy to find groups in your area that play together. If you are learning something a little more transformational, it can be more challenging to find a group, but it can still be done. Do a Google search on what you are looking for with your city and state. You should find some interesting possibilities.
You can also use MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo Groups, or any of the other online social networking sites to find like-minded people in your area. They are out there. You just have to be willing to search.
It is important to stay motivated to continue on your new path of learning. The more dramatic the change, the more self motivated you will have to be. It will always be useful to have to support of others, but ultimately your results in life will always rest primarily on your shoulders. Be prepared to cheer yourself on, regardless of how others respond!
Author Resource:-
Benjamin Langley has been studying and training in meditation, yoga, and other sciences of the mind for over 10 years. He regularly writes and shares powerful insights on his own blog. Come take a look: http://peacefulprosperity.com/blog
![[Valid RSS feed]](/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites