Thoughts From The Wilderness – 360 Degrees of Change

Often as we bump and grind along in life, new and exciting opportunities will from time to time seemingly and magically present themselves out of nowhere. Or we may on the other hand, diligently pursue a new direction or change(s) in our life.

These new paths, whether it be a big change or a minor one always require us to deviate from the current heading we may be on.

Change always requires a course correction.

Nevertheless, whether big or small, minor or major, we all have the opportunity for 360 degrees of change in front of us.

This should come as no surprise, but change can be difficult and often seems insurmountable by many. Within my circle of influence, there aren’t many who run towards change with reckless abandon.

We tend to accept change reluctantly when forced upon us. And take ourselves to the brink of mental collapse when taking on change of our own accord.

Perhaps the last bit about mental collapse isn’t fair. Nevertheless, implementing change in our lives does tend to put us on edge.

All change, however, doesn’t have to be earth-shattering and momentous in scope.

Change in your life of that magnitude may certainly be necessary. Your journey may be going in one direction and within a split second whether of your own accord or through circumstances, life, as you know and have experienced, is changed and altered 180 degrees.

But putting aside changes in direction that we have no control over such as serious illness, or the passing of a spouse or loved one, what about when changes WE decide to implement in our lives.

360 Degrees of Change

This morning you woke up and decided to change something in your life. Not your socks or underwear, although those are wonderful changes, especially to those around you, but a real change in your life.

So, the question might be – how big of a change are you making or contemplating?

For the sake of this illustration, if we assume that the direction we’re currently on is zero degrees, deciding to move your life in a direction change of 45 degrees seems pretty major. A course correction in our life of 90 degrees is like heading north, then changing directions and heading east. A much bigger change, usually fraught with more challenges and issues.

Moving 180 degrees is akin to dramatically altering your life and going in completely an opposite direction. Need I say more?

Big changes at times require much resolve to make them. Major changes have fear, the unknown, the expectations of others and a whole host of other items churning around in some cauldron and thus forming the recipe of the change.

Which is why for many people, although not all,  major changes or the contemplating of making these changes in and of their own violation, chase people back to continue along the same path they were trudging along before.

But, remember we all have 360 degrees of change to choose from!

And……..

Often it is the smallest things that have the biggest impact.

Ever had the tiniest pebble inside your running shoe? Try walking four kilometres with that little devil pushing into the ball of your foot.

Little thing – big impact.

A one-degree change of something in our life can have a huge significance. It may not seem like when we decide to implement it, but over time it could be big. Real big!

I’m going to change my life.

You’re going to change your life.

If I utter those words or if an acquaintance spews them forth, my mind heads off along the path of major life changes.

But, notwithstanding, any of this. In reality, how often do we think about and even undertake major life changes?

Is it often, or perhaps not often at all. Might it be seven times during our life?

Difficult to say I guess because we’re all different and “major changes” is a bit of a relative term. It will have a completely different meaning and energy attached to it for each of us.

However, what might a one-degree change look like?

I don’t know how much a coffee or slightly more expensive drink at a coffee bar might be.

But let’s say whatever you have cost $5 and each day on the way to work you stop and get one. Assuming you work five days a week, you spend $25 per week on coffee or whatever it suits your fancy. If you cut down to only stopping four times a week, you’d save $5 per week.

That first week, you saved five bucks. Big deal!! That’s a one-degree change, but only for one week.

After 52 weeks, that’s $260.

A one-degree change in our life over time can make a huge difference.

Every decision, every change in the direction that our lives are headed don’t necessarily have to be earth-quake shattering direction changers.

Even a slight change can take us to a new and exciting destination.

We all have 360 degrees of change before us.

Whatever direction we may be headed, could require us to use scores of those degrees.

On the other hand, it may only require one-degree of change to get us to where we need to be.

You’re the only person who knows how many degrees to use.

You’ve got 360 of them.

Remember…

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