Written by: Richard Eckley, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
2024 has just began and as the song goes “another year over and a new one just begun” what will you do with this year?
We all have experiences and beliefs we carry with us throughout our lives, some of them are installed in us by others, like our parents or guardians growing up, teaching us their beliefs and habits which we often copied and installed in our own lives. Others are from peers or people who were a big influence on us, those we may have looked up to and we wanted to be like. Finally, there are the experiences we have had ourselves, good and bad, all of these have been stored in our memories for future reference, as nearly all our decisions are made on past beliefs and experiences. We can see how important these past experiences are to us.
No matter how old we are from 18 – 98 we have created our own life through the decisions and actions we have taken on a daily basis. This is how we have created our current bank balance, marital status, body and mindset. We may have often reacted to circumstances as they happened to us, thinking “why has my life ended up this way?” but if we have never stopped to think “How do I want my life to be?” there is no way to take control of it. Not until we actually think about what changes we will have to make in our life, to make it how we want it to be, will anything change. As Einstein famously said “doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the first sign of insanity”
Will 2024 be the year you actually start to change some things in your life?
If you’re happy with the way things are going that’s great, keep doing what you are currently doing and you will have more of what you currently have.
However, if you would like better health, wealth, relationships, or mindset, it’s not until you start to change some of the habits you currently have that anything will change for you. There is no white knight coming to save you, which is good because it means you are responsible for yourself, there is no blaming your parents, the government, your ex-spouse, family or anyone else, once you realize everything about your life you have created, it means you are in control of the rest of your life.
So how do you want it to be?
You can’t change your past, but you can use it as a school, teaching you the lessons you need to learn as you grow into the person you want to become. Life will often teach you the same lesson over and over again, it could be a similar relationship breakdown, or a financial loss or even a health issue, often it’s a very similar cause, just slightly different circumstances, so you react the same way you always have and bingo… you get the same result!
Once we accept it’s our habits we have developed over our life, which have often led to this result, we can start to look at ourselves analyzing where we went wrong, then making sure we don’t do the same thing in the future, as Steve Jobs said ”it’s only looking back over our lives we can join the dots” and see where our actions have led us.
A lot of people use the new year to set new goals and want to make big changes in their life, which on one hand is good, as they know they need to make some changes, but all too often they set too big a goal, going to exercise all week or stop eating all that certain food, not spend any money or 101 other things, the problem is most of these aren’t sustainable in the long term, only when we make lifestyle changes, slowly over the period of 12 months or so will start to see the big results, get rich schemes, faddy diets or any other so called “miracle cure” very rarely work. As it’s the habits we create in ourselves that will lead to the biggest results for us. As these habits have already created the life we currently have, small changes over the long term will mean you are creating a future self that you want to be. The best way to achieve this is by changing one habit at a time. Think which area do you want to change most of all in your life right now? Your Health, Wealth, Relationships or Mindset? Then look at the current habits you have in that area, which one habit can you start to change this week? It doesn’t have to be a huge one, just small incremental steps will lead to better results. As you can achieve this change and your mind will back you up as it is believable, if you try to make a big change you will often talk yourself out of it within a week or two and return to your old habits. Which as we have already discussed has given you what you currently have in your life.
So, the choice is yours do you want 2024 to be more of the same?
Or are you going to take control, so in 5 years’ time “2029” you can look back and say “thank you” to you of today, because you will create the future you with the foundations you build this year.
Make 2024 your year as it’s only just begun…
Get a free digital copy of “Your 4 Keys To A Healthier Happier You” and use it as a guide to get your new year off to a good start just contact us at egcs24@yahoo.com subject line (New Year/New You)
And we’ll send it over
Richard Eckley, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Richard Eckley is the founder of The Eckley Global Community school, a movement teaching the 4 keys to success health, wealth, relationships and mindset. After his 20-year marriage ended in divorce, he was left a single dad with 3 teenage kids, he wanted to give them a guide to know everything would be ok. He has studied personal development for 30 years giving him an in-depth knowledge. He then wrote his first book ( Your 4 keys to a healthier happier you) a starting point to this process, this led on to deeper dive books in his ( coffee reads) series and the development of the Eckley Global Community School working with local schools and individual students in 5 countries. His ethos: create the life you want
