A message from Sandy. How do you navigate the self-improvement gaps? How do you get through the slumps on your journey of change? Sometimes the gap between where you are and where you want to be can feel like a bottomless pit. Maybe gaps make sense, maybe it’s nature’s way of forcing us to initiate a change. To close the gaps, we must set goals. Thus, the question, are gaps our friends?

When you first begin taking steps to reach your goal, you have a great feeling, you may even be excited to be closing in on your identified gap. As time goes by, closing the gap can get more and more difficult, willpower wanes and may be replaced by “oh, this is awful” or “who thought this was a good idea?–oh yeah–me!” You are now face to face with your own personal abyss. The gap is no longer your friend.

When your motivation is wavering, when your get-up-and-go is more like give-up-and-no, there is still hope.

1. Commit to 21 days, 3 days at a time. Three weeks is all the time needed to form a new habit. Try breaking it down into 3 day chunks, in small easy to manage steps.

2. Be clear. Why do you want to make this change? What will you gain by making it?

3. Do it for you. When changing for someone else, often it won’t last. Change for you.

4. Make a mental shift. Focus on what you want to create, rather than what you want to get rid of.

5. Pick habits that reinforce one another. Habits do not stand alone they are intertwined, and can help make the change feel easier.

6. Notice the small stuff. Little things that you do to take care of yourself  matter; it proves to your brain that you are worth it. Celebrate the small stuff.

7. Tune into feeling good. Focus on the positive feeling you get when you implement a good habit.

8. Focus on becoming better, not perfect.

9. Be willing to fail.

10. Daily visualizations. Visualize yourself already having achieved that goal.

As we continue through life, many gaps will appear. What  difference would make to you, if you would embrace them and not fight them?