On an average day, the assumption is that nothing special is happening in one’s life. Everything is normal and unremarkable. You wake up, you tend to whatever matters, go about your day, feeling somewhat stressed or distracted perhaps, but nothing significant happens; no milestones are achieved, no events happen that could mark this day.
As such, you can easily conclude that these kinds of days have no importance. They actually do and influence almost everything.
Many people operate under the premise that a change will happen later on in their lives. Later, when life will slow down; later, when they will become more confident; later, when all the conditions will fall into place, thus forcing them to change.
As such, average days become mere transitional stages, necessary for the moment before actual life starts. However, there is no separate period of time in which things would change. Life is just one continuous present repeated over and over again.
What You Repeatedly Say to Yourself Shapes What You Believe and Do.
Learn how to use affirmations effectively to rewire your thinking, build positive habits, and attract the outcomes you want — with over 900 affirmations for almost every goal and purpose.
Discover the Book →Small Shifts that Actually Create Change
An interesting way of reframing is to view everyday activities not as empty spaces to be filled with something worthwhile, but as the substance of your life.
The slightest change of consciousness will alter the way you live. For instance, leaving your morning routine without grabbing your smartphone may make some difference in the degree of your lucidity; your mind receives an opportunity to start the day from its own point of view rather than to react to everyone else’s.
It is a misconception of personal growth that one always experiences the changes and feels the transformation taking place.
We usually think that any transformation involves some kind of enlightenment or inspiration, breakthrough, and motivation or clarity.
But it is actually quite the contrary: the real growth is subtle and takes place through tiny and often unremarkable changes such as being able to pause when you would otherwise just react, being patient rather than frustrated, starting over after a lethargic day, speaking less harshly to yourself, and persisting a little longer than before.
The Power of a Simple Pause
One of the best things to do is to take just a second or two before reacting during the day. This may sound insignificant, but it will make you deal with situations entirely differently.
With this little pause, you create distance from emotion to action, giving you a chance to make a decision and not react. By doing so, you build emotional stability and self-confidence, which are much more valuable than motivation all the time.
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Everyday life is often underestimated since there is nothing special about it. However, these are exactly the days when your habits show their true colors.
How you talk to yourself without anyone else around. How you react when things are going wrong. What decisions you make when you feel like falling asleep, and nobody else is there? All these little insignificant things silently form your outlook on life in a way motivational moments never could.
Building Small Grounding Habits
To go along with this, instead of fighting it, you might try incorporating some simple grounding practices into your schedule. There is no need for you to go into deep detail here; rather, it is sufficient to take a short walk alone, spend five minutes quietly, or simply write down a few of your thoughts as you finish the day. Perfection is not the name of the game; consistency is.
The other helpful technique is not to focus on changing things but rather to simplify your life so that you will not have an excess of stress in it. It is not necessary for you to introduce ten new habits into your life. Rather, what is important is that you become a little bit more aware of the habits that you have.
When Learning Becomes Noise
People tend to try and develop themselves through constant acquisition of new knowledge. New advice, new books, new videos, new methods.
However, even though learning is important, it could also be used as an avoidance strategy for thinking.
Sometimes the problem is not in the lack of knowledge. It is in the absence of presence. Personal development occurs when one’s life becomes quiet rather than loud. When it finally gives room for realization of what you already know.
Simple Ways to Reconnect with Yourself
Since life can be hectic and the mind tends to wander off, people have developed means of grounding themselves.
Some choose to write their thoughts down in a diary. Others prefer to repeat positive affirmations to themselves. Still others take a few quiet moments every day just to reflect on themselves. While there are those who create a video featuring pictures, sayings, and music that represent the kind of life they wish to create. Not as an escape from reality but as a source of direction for them.
What You Repeatedly Say to Yourself Shapes What You Believe and Do.
Learn how to use affirmations effectively to rewire your thinking, build positive habits, and attract the outcomes you want — with over 900 affirmations for almost every goal and purpose.
Discover the Book →Why Progress Is Hard to Notice
The difficulty in identifying personal growth lies in the fact that there is no moment at which we can look at ourselves and declare that we have changed. It is only in retrospect that we discover that we react differently under stress, that we are not affected by situations in the same way anymore, that we recover from failures in shorter periods of time, and that we become a bit more tolerant than before.
When we think about it, we come to realize that personal growth does not happen through one major decision, but rather through everyday life conducted in small different ways.
A simple way for us to experience this is to spend just a few minutes reflecting on our day, not to criticize, but to observe. Some examples of reflective questions might be, “How was my day?” and “When did I act out of instinct?”
Ordinary Days Are Where Life Is Built
Life’s importance is often determined by significant events, but not all significance arises from those special times. It emerges through ordinary life itself – in the way that you think, in your responses, in your presence during insignificant moments.
Without this awareness, life’s significance would be passed up in much of life, which could happen. However, with just a bit of awareness of ordinary times, the changes begin to happen slowly but surely.
Final Thought
Maybe ordinary days were never actually ordinary. Maybe they were always the real place where change happens. Not in the big milestones we wait for, but in the small, unnoticed moments that slowly shape who we become.
And perhaps the real shift begins when we finally stop waiting for life to start, and start paying attention to the life already happening.
What You Repeatedly Say to Yourself Shapes What You Believe and Do.
Learn how to use affirmations effectively to rewire your thinking, build positive habits, and attract the outcomes you want — with over 900 affirmations for almost every goal and purpose.
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