It’s day two of Keys to Change week. For today’s topic, I want to take you to a very popular type of television programming. It started in the late’90s and is still going strong more than 10 years later. Look at the shows that you have programmed to watch this week. How many of them are reality TV shows? When they started with this type of show I have to admit I often found they were interesting to watch. The first series I watched faithfully was Survivor. I think the second season is the one that I watched every episode. I had my favorite characters and those that I could not wait to see voted off.
While I stopped watching a lot of shows over the past 15 years of my life, from time to time a new reality series would come on that got my attention and I had to watch. There were series about building unique cars like Monster Garage, to American Chopper building motorcycles, to the rock star shows featuring Ozzy, Bret Michaels and, most recently, Gene Simmons. While I don’t have direct knowledge about all of the shows that I’ve watched, I have been on the set of a reality show or two and watched from behind the scenes as they are filmed. I have watched as they were scripted together to make what you see on TV look “real.”
So this brings me to the subject for today: if a reality show can write a script to make them seem real, why don’t you re-write your thinking to create a new reality? We are where we are due to our past. Some of us like where we are. My friend, Tammy, who told me she is so happy to be living the life she lives, is one of those. But there are many people I meet in my travels who want to spend time with me just to get those answers to how they can find a better life, because they are not happy with where they are and they want change.
So what is the process to re-write your life in order to make a change? This week I’m in the process of changing hard drives in my laptop. It’s not that it needed an upgrade; it’s more that the hard drive locked up from time to time and that was so frustrating as it got worse and worse. All the tests I ran on the drive show it was a hard drive failure. To isolate that failure in hopes of fixing it, I had to reprogram it many times to fix what I thought the problem was. It was a trial and error deal but the end result was the entire drive had to be replaced. Well in my life I’ve been through times when others could not give me the answers so it became trial and error. I had to change my programming because what I believed in was not working. It turned out my way of thinking needed to be replaced.
If you change jobs several times and find that you always end up with the same type of boss you hate, it could be the programming you have that sends you to work in the wrong places. Or it could be your personal programming when it comes to interacting with people who have authority over you. The things to focus on to fix a problem like this were part of the questions we talked about yesterday when you wrote down what was not working. You have to see where the program is not working and change the code. Remember the words of Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are probably right.”
So, like a computer programmer would find the line of code that is not working and change it to a line that makes the computer work again, you must do this with your mind: find that line that is not working and change your thinking – change the code.
The problem with most people is that the programming inside us that has not been working has usually been around a long time. So how do you change a long-term, burned in line of personal programming? Many people tell of how they have it burned into their minds that they are a loser, they are just not capable of becoming successful. Well that is wrong. You can change, you will change over time, but with a belief system like that you will be fighting positive change in your life. So, you need to re-write the code.
If you cannot change it with one simple line, you may need to write out an affirmation and read it to yourself for days, maybe months. Years ago when I first started teaching people my concepts about creating a new you, I used an old-fashioned, non-tech way that still works if you try it. Go to the store and buy a pack of 100 3 x 5 index cards. On one side of the cards there are lines and the other side is a blank. Write on the blank side a goal you want to achieve. Then flip the card over and write 10 positive things you must say to yourself each day to help make that goal happen.
Rewrite the goal card each day anew, keep them dated, and carry and read them to yourself a minimum of ten times each day. With a new card each day, at the end of three months look back over your cards. You will see that you have achieved goals and your process of writing the words to say to yourself has changed. And you will see two, maybe three different major changes that you have reached in your life.
While this is one of the secrets I get to do with people who want to reach personal changes in my personal coaching relationships, I have shared it with you today hoping that it will help you be able to change your life for the better. And mostly, I hope you begin rewriting your reality today so it becomes the life you want.
I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time for you to live the dream life you always wanted, by loving what you do and learn to be the RockStar in your world.
