Change

The Art of Becoming Someone

Yesterday, my fiancé and I were given the keys to our new home in Tulsa, OK. We will move in just before we’re married at the end of the month. She’s graduating medical school in a few weeks and starting residency this summer. We’re in a great season of change, which will demand a lot from us.

Change: A word that can be exciting, terrifying, or both often falls at the center of any big improvement. Change is not about shifting the world to meet your preferences. Rather, it is shifting your behavior to address the challenges the world throws at you. Changing the self ties closely to discipline, which I covered in some of my recent posts. Check those out below if you haven’t already.

If we want to change ourselves, it means we want to be different. To be something, you must first become something. To become something, you must first do something. Finally, to do something, you must first think something.

So, with that blurb out of the way, ask yourself what you want to be. What change do you want to make in your life? Where do you want to improve? It could be being a better husband or wife, a better friend to others, having more faith, or being more fit. Next, imagine how you would think and act if you were that way.

“I was mentored by C.S. Lewis, John, Maxwell… and you might say ‘there’s no way you met all those people, and Lewis has been gone for decades’ and you’re right. But each of them wrote their thoughts and guidance into a lot of books - most of which, I have read.”

If we need models for how to change, we want to look for a good mentor. Before you make any assumptions what mentors are supposed to look like, I want to show it as a much broader term: A Mentor is *Anyone* (Older or younger) who can guide you to learn new things and grow in a direction that you are seeking to grow in. Keep in mind - you don't have to physically meet someone to be mentored by them. Many great mentors wrote books, have YouTube videos, record podcasts, etc.

So, this distills us to the root of change. You must first want to change. From there:

Want→ Seek→ Learn→ Think→ Do → Become

Let the following be a template:

"I want to become ______, so I'm going to seek guidance from trusted sources. I will find a mentor and learn what they do to be better at this, and how they think about what they do. Once I learn from them, I will think more about what my life would look like if I was a _____ and what I would do in my day-to-day life. I will begin to do those things, and slowly, I will become a _____."

So, I hope this sheds some light on perhaps the most difficult part of the fitness journey. If nothing else, it might bring some light to the old philosophic quote:

"I think, therefore I am."