Change

The current buzzword for all things lately is change. I think about change often. All things change, but how does change really take root? To really make a change, what are the steps to take? I see this daily as the chronically cluttered make declarations of cleaning their desk, sorting through their finances or straightening out their storage unit. But what do the words really mean? Surely saying them is the first step in triggering the change. But change is really about making a commitment which takes more than words. I just completed another Lenten season where I said no to the martinis and the cabernet for forty days. It was a commitment, a promise kept and once again, a total challenge. Did I change in the process? The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. I learned much more than white knuckling my desires when out with friends. I flexed my change muscles. I changed the way I normally do things. Seems like the very definition of change in and of itself. The next idea was sustaining this change over time, with consistent action. Key word consistent, like anything else change takes maintenance, it takes commitment. And most of all it takes courage. As so aptly put by one of my heroes, Thoreau, "Things do not change, we change." So with all this change conversation happening, it seems the perfect opportunity to go about making a personal change. And who knows, maybe this change revolution will catch on... and who knows what could happen next?