The principle to create change in your life & work quickly and effectively

Here’s the truth:

Returning from vacation is hard - even when you’re self employed. Or maybe especially so.

While you spend a week listening to the waves crash on the beach, soaking up the sun, and immersing yourself in your favourite read, the world goes on. The emails come in. They pile up unanswered. The task list you left behind remains unfinished.

You return home to the same frustrations. The same challenges. The same problems.

Why?

The outside world is, and always is, a reflection of your inside world.

Of you. Of who you are being.

When you face an aspect of your life that you don’t like, the default response can be to throw up your hands and say “that’s just the way it is”. After all, it’s easier to stay in the status quo. To hold onto the comfort of what’s familiar, what’s known. It’s easier to point the finger to something outside of ourselves and complain about it rather than do something about it. Many people would rather face their resistance to change day after day than embrace change itself. As a result, they continue to focus on what they don’t want, firmly planting the seed for it to grow. In order to move forward, to move towards that which you do want, you have to be willing to disrupt the cycle of cynicism and shift your focus.

You have to be willing to shake it up.

Which leads to today’s principle:

FLIP IT AND REVERSE IT

If you’re looking for change in your life, your work, or your business, and you aren’t sure where to start, try this:

Take your day, your routine, and flip it on its head.

That thing that you wait to do at the end of the day? Do it first. The break you take to walk the dog? Get your steps in first thing in the AM. The block you have saved for follow-ups? Try writing them at the end of the day and schedule them to be sent in the morning.

In other words, look at the sequence of events that you have come to follow effortlessly and without thinking throughout your day, and completely reverse them. See what comes up. See what works, what doesn’t. Be open to the possibility that being uncomfortable in your daily routine could open the door to change in other areas of your life - for you to see a new way to face that challenge or solve that problem.

What works about taking time off is that we experience the opposite on vacation then we do at home.

We flip it: more rest, less stress.

And reverse it: less anxiety, more energy.

How can you apply this to the area of your life where you want to experience change?

Share in the comments below!

Kirsten Schmidtke is a professional coach, speaker, and lover of lake life. She works with leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs to help them up-level their careers, businesses, and lives. Are you ready to explore what’s possible for you? Contact Kirsten to start the conversation!