Whether or not you're a fan of it, change is a part of life. If you're not a big fan of change (I'm certainly not!), it can be a really hard thing to initiate yourself, but sometimes it's necessary to make a big change in order to create a more positive, more present life.

For example, let's say you really don't like your job but you make good money and like the people you work with. If you're in a situation like that, it can be really hard to make a change and leave your job. Or, consider another situation: you're in relationship that's not necessarily negative, but it's not exactly positive either. It's hard to break-up a relationship when things aren't obviously bad (or when the bad and good somehow seem to balance one another).

Sometimes it's a challenge to initiate change when the need for it isn't glaringly obvious. And, even when you know you absolutely, 100% need a change in your life, it's still hard to initiate it (especially if you're not a big fan of change in general). Though I'm not a lover of change, I've had to initiate some big changes in my life to get to where I am now. I've had to leave careers, relationships, and situations in which I found myself feeling more negativity than positivity. Every time I made a big change, it was hard. But every time I did it, it was worth it.

Making changes (particularly big ones!) isn't easy, but worthwhile things rarely are. If you're struggling to initiate a big change in your life, here are some tips to help you get that transformation started:

EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN.

Uncertainty is part of life, and it's actually one of the things that makes life so interesting. Not knowing what's going to happen next can be a very scary thing, but the more you fight against it, the more difficult it will be to initiate change. Instead of fearing what could happen, consider accepting the future for what it is: something beautifully unknown. Or, better yet, consider all of the amazing things that might happen. Accepting that the future is unknown (or filled with wonderful things!) makes it so much easier to take action.

BEFRIEND A LITTLE RISK.

You’ve probably heard this before: "No risk, no reward." Cliched saying? Yep! But also pretty darn true. (Those cliches so often are!) The more you're willing to risks to enhance your life (positive risks, not dangerous ones!), the more rewards you'll receive. Befriending risk is no easy task (particularly if you're a risk-adverse kind of person), but if you spend your life playing it safe, you're likely to miss out on a heap of possibilities. Here's another surprisingly true cliche for you: sometimes the biggest risk you can take is taking no risk at all.

DIVVY UP THE CHANGE.

If you know what you want to do (big picture), consider how you make that happen with actionable tasks (small steps). Let's say you want to leave your job. Start out by searching for other opportunities online or asking friends if they know of any positions that might work well for you. Write down a step-by-step plan for getting from where you are to where you want to be, with each step consisting of a small task you can easily master. If you break down the change into small steps and have a plan of action, it'll be much easier to actually make it a reality.

CHOOSE DESIRE OVER FEAR.

If you're planning to initiate a big change, it's probably because you know, deep down, that something really needs to be transformed in order for you to live a more positive life. Allow what you want (your desire for freedom, happiness, etc.) to override your fear (those nagging little "what if..." thoughts holding you back). In the same way you can choose to focus on positive over negative, you can choose to focus on your attention on what you want instead of on what you're afraid of, making it a bit easier to actually take action and make a change.

SAY "I WILL..."

Instead of thinking, "I wish I could...", choose to think in terms of action, stating to yourself, "I will..." Even if you don't take action right away, shifting the way you think from passive wishing to future action can have a positive impact on initiating a big change. It will help you realize that what you want doesn't have to be an imaginary scenario. Instead, it's something you can (and will!) have. Yes, you'll have to work on making the change, but taking action becomes much more likely when you stop saying "I wish" and starting saying "I will."



