(ThyBlackMan.com) Every year the number changes: this time from 2017 to 2018. We get older; we grow more gray hair; maybe even a pound or two. The number changes, but do we change? Or is it just another number?
I believe that we are wired for change and created for evolving. Within each of us has been placed a yearning – often overshadowed by the tyranny of living – to be better, to do better and to live better. There are many things we can do to achieve this; the list ranges from physical exercise to meditation.
Attitude matters greatly. Here are five steps we can take toward becoming a better person.
Don’t Be Bitter
Bitter people must become better people. To arrive at and enter into a New Year with a bitter and broken spirit is to live in perpetual infamy. Time now to rise above the bitterness of broken love, failed ventures and forgotten dreams. You have too much ahead of you to remain stuck in what’s behind you. Take time and reflect on what’s good for you and what’s bad for you.
Embrace Change
It always amazes me when people say “Accept me for who I am”! Truth is, we are always changing; life changes us constantly – whether we are prepared for it or not. Everything we engage on a daily level changes us in some subtle way. When you go shopping and interact with others, you’re being changed; when you report to work daily, you’re being changed; when you determine to be in relationship, something is changing within you. Change is a constant, everyday experience. We must embrace change or become a victim to it.
Be an Influencer
One of the greatest powers we can ever be in possession of is the power to influence results. That’s a hard sell in a culture that relishes control as the opposite of influence. We want things to go our way; we wish to see the results we believe matter the most. Truth is, we’d become happier people if we learned to embrace influence versus the egocentric desire to control. An influencer does not need to constantly be at the wheel; rather, this person uses experience, wisdom and practicality in attaining what they want.
Spend Time in Silence
To slip away and find time in repose is one of the greatest experiences one can muster. The benefits are timeless: mental peace, better control of bodily functions, less stress, mental clarity and creating a deeper spiritual experience are just a few. It’s hard to find silence in our technological-based society. We live in our devices constantly; it literally requires a concerted effort to put our cell phones down and just sit still. Once we do it, though, it’s priceless!
Tap into Your Inner Kid
We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing, writes George Bernard Shaw. There is an Inner Kid in each of us that, if we summon the courage, can afford us new ways at solving old problems. The problem is we are afraid of this Inner Kid because, among other things, we are afraid of being ridiculed for wanting to think a like a kid again. Okay, well don’t think like a kid. How about you hang around a kid? Take a kid to lunch, perhaps your grandchild, and marvel at the innocence, the total lack of fear and remorse that kid shows. You at one time had those same qualities. Then life happened. You had to grow up. But what if you could just become a kid again for an hour or a day? What would you do?
We have within us the ability to become better people!
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.