Do you have people you admire? I do.

People I admire inspire me to become better.

In fact, I’ve observed that much of life is often in the modeling of small things.

Even modeling WITHIN ME works! When I’m modeling for myself what I need to do to move forward, it gets done even on rough days.

Small things influence my attitude.

So, I seek patterns that influence better attitudes.

Because when I get my attitude in a better place, life tends to become adventure rather than ordeal.

No, my attitude doesn’t make pain go away.

What my attitude does do is help me to encourage myself on a moment by moment basis. Improving my attitude improves the effectiveness of my encouragement of me.

That makes a difference.

From time to time throughout your life, you’ve seen people you admire, right?

People who inspire you to become better in some way.

Sometimes that inspiration takes root. Change happens!

Change can be difficult.

It’s easier to keep doing what you’ve always done.

Yet there are times when you’re willing and able to add things in to your life. Or to take things out!

What helps you to make a change?

I’ve found that my own feelings help me do the actions I need to do to make a change.

Partly it’s that attitude of adventure I mentioned. Plus, my own feelings about WANTING that change enough to DO something about it.

When I feel ready to become better in a specific way, my feelings of wanting those results come to my aid in mustering up the energy and effort to follow through.

When I feel I want something badly enough that I’m willing to take action – when I’m willing to do something new BADLY while I figure out how to do it BETTER? Here’s the thing, my feelings can lead me to an attitude that guides me in doing what it takes.

How do I figure out what to do to make a change happen?

It’s challenging to figure out what to do!

I must admit, I get it wrong more often than I get it right.

I suspect I get it often simply because I’m willing to be a fool and keep trying.

Yes, the reason why I keep moving forward is probably more about my attitude of being willing to experiment as wildly as it takes than about any natural ability I may have to figure out what to do.

I’m daring to be taking the role of researcher!

I’m allowing myself to assume the role of a baby who’s continually falling down in learning to walk!

Plus, here’s another important ingredient: I’m persistent.

Maybe I can’t get it right on my own. But I can be persistent and get help and keep poking at whatever and approaching it one little bit at a time.

Along the way, folks I admire help me in real life and through their writings. Because I’m a reader – and that means I’m constantly doing research through reading.

As I do all this, another aspect that helps me is to look at the behaviors involved.

For example, if someone I admire has a trait I want to copy into my own life, I consider the behaviors of that person.

When I’m aware of a behavior, I can look for ways how and when that behavior might most naturally fit in my life.

How can you do this?

Let’s look at a specific example.

If the trait you admire is kindness, you might challenge yourself to come up with examples of ways that you can be kind in your own situation.

Kind to yourself; kind to others.

Then you could try the smallest way that might be able to take place in your life, right here and now, today.

One place to start might be being kind to yourself and looking at what inspires you in an adventure kind of way.

Dare to break that down to the smallest aspect you can do – and treat yourself to exactly that as “What’s Next?!” for you.

Author's Bio: 

By the way, do you want a boost in how to encourage yourself to keep moving forward? If so, you may want to download my free ebook on that topic by clicking here.

While you're here, do you want a bit more on growing today? If so, here's a quick blog post on growing.

Here are words of encouragement on YouTube to give you gifts of inspiration.

Oh and here's a bit about how I learned: Cynthia Ann Leighton.