Do you want to transform your life this year? If you’re ready to level up and reinvent yourself, this post covers the easiest way to do that! Make all the changes you desire to live your absolute best life.
Introduction
When we want to change our life, we usually begin by changing our environment and our behaviours. This is great since we get our action plans in, we make our to-do list, and we start to get organized. We have all the best intentions.
These are all wonderful, but did you know…the more we make changes internally, the more we can experience powerful transformations! If we instead start with changing our purpose or our identity, the rest will trickle down and you can make changes more powerfully and with ease and flow!
By choosing to transform your internal programs first, you can succeed in all areas of your life! You can have anything you want, with ease and confidence.
The Levels of Change
Ever wondered why some types of changes are easier to make than others? For example, isn’t it much easier to change your living room decor than changing your personal values?
This has to do with the different Logical Levels of Change, a Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) model developed by Robert Dilts. The logical levels are comprised of a hierarchy of 6 elements: Environment, Behaviour, Capability, Values and Beliefs, Identity, and Purpose.
Any change we make in our life, whether big or small, is associated with a logical level of change. Changing your living room decor is an environmental change, where changing your personal values sits on a higher level of change.
What’s important to know is that each level on this hierarchy directly affects the levels below it. This means if you make a change on a higher level, that change will also reflect on the different levels below as a result.
On the other hand, lower levels may, but not necessarily influence levels above them. If I change my environment, it most likely won’t change my identity, for example.
The fascinating part about the levels of change is that we can be more strategic about the changes we make in our life! If we want to transform and reinvent ourselves, we can use the appropriate logical levels of change to ease that process.
Instead of making changes on lower levels, we can instead create bigger and more powerful transformations by changing from a higher level.
Now, let’s explore each logical level to understand how we can make the changes we desire!
1. Change your Environment
Environment is about the external conditions or surroundings that we have. This is the lowest level of change and is usually the easiest for us to make.
Thus, if you’re possibly in a rut or craving a simple change in your life, start with changing your environment. It’s usually low-risk and can be enough of a change to get you going.
Here are a few ways to change your environment:
- Change your home decor
- Move your furniture to a new layout
- Complete usual tasks in a different context (eg. work in a cafe instead)
- Explore new places each weekend
- Get a different apartment
- Move to another city
The overall intention is to consider where you are when you complete different tasks. If that is no longer working for you, change your context and explore how that change affects your life!
2. Change your Behaviours
Behaviour refers to our actions and reactions. It’s about the things that we do on a daily basis, the words we use, and how we react to different situations. It describes how we operate and the routines and habits we live by.
This level of change is more powerful than changing our environment, as we begin to make internal changes. Behavioural change requires changing our thought processes and how we act.
How to change your behaviour:
- Start to track your daily actions and behaviours
- Switch up your regular routines
- Create new routines
- Implement new habits
- Let go of habits that no longer serve you
- Understand how you react in certain situations
While this level of change can seem more challenging, it starts by simply reflecting upon the behaviours you have in your life.
How do your actions influence others?
What routines would you like to have?
What habits really don’t work for you?
How do you react in different events or situations?
As you understand more, then make those relevant changes.
3. Change your Capabilities
Capability refers to our skills, competencies, and how we do things. This influences our behaviours as a result.
This level of change is about the ‘how’. It’s how we approach things, the different strategies we implement, and the methods we know and prefer.
If we want to truly level up, it can start by changing our capabilities and expanding our competencies. In doing so, we open up our awareness on how to accomplish things more effectively and purposefully.
How to change your capabilities:
- Decide what skills you want to learn
- Sign up for a course
- Buy a relevant book
- Take a time-based challenge to level up your capabilities
- Change your methods, approaches, strategies
The more skills and competencies you gain, your knowledge will increase and you’ll be more capable of changing your behaviour in different areas of your life.
For example, if you want to eat healthier, sign up for a course that teaches you about nutrition and healthy eating. You can bet that doing so, will influence your daily habits too.
4. Change your Values & Beliefs
Values and beliefs are the guiding principles that each of us lives by. It is about our personal beliefs, the values that are most important to us, and thus can influence many different areas of our life.
If we want to make a powerful change, we can start by changing our values and beliefs. This logical level of change sits higher on the hierarchy, as it is a fundamental part of who we are as people.
How to change your values and beliefs:
- Deep dive into your values and beliefs
- Change beliefs that don’t serve you
- Monitor how your beliefs influence your capabilities and actions
- Write down beliefs you want to have and work to embrace them
- Recite daily affirmations to reinforce new beliefs
- Keep a journal to review your values and beliefs often
If these seem like overwhelming changes, you can start with first gaining awareness about what you believe and value. Oftentimes these are ingrained within us, and if we don’t make time to intentionally think about them, they go under the radar and remain in our subconscious.
What is important?
What is true for you?
What motivates you?
Do your values need to change?
Are your beliefs helping you live the life you desire?
As you explore these questions, let yourself discover the values and beliefs that are most aligned to you and who you want to be.
5. Change your Identity
Identity is about your self-image and ‘who’ you are at your core. How do you see yourself? How do others see you? Who are you, really?
As we go higher up the logical levels of change, we dive deeper within ourselves. Identity also describes our personality, the type of person we are, and our likes/dislikes.
Changes made on this level are truly transformational since we are usually defined by our identity. It is what makes us unique.
How to change your identity:
- Change the way that you see yourself
- Reinvent yourself
- Discover new passions or hobbies
- Surround yourself with different people
- Explore different things to discover what you like
- Act in alignment with the identity you desire
By implementing any of these changes, you start to influence how you see yourself and also make changes in your life that reinforce identity change. For example, if you discover that you love painting, and you start to paint daily, you essentially become a painter. It can be as simple as that.
Making changes on this level can truly make a difference, and thus it’s really important to be intentional and purposeful about what changes to make.
6. Change your Purpose
Purpose is the highest level of change and describes our mission and reason for being. It’s the ultimate change we can make in our lives, that will affect everything else including our identity, behaviours, and so on.
For example, if someone’s purpose changes from “running a successful business” to “building a loving family”, you’ll notice that everything would also change. Priorities would be different, identity would change from an entrepreneur to loving parent, and behaviours would change instantly. This is merely one example, and remember that we all have different purposes that guide our life.
The question is, what is that one purpose that we aspire to live up to most?
How to change your purpose:
- Review your current life purpose and if you align with it
- Answer the big questions of life:
- Why are you here?
- What is your unique purpose in the world?
- What is the meaning of your life?
- What is your legacy going to be?
As you answer these questions, you’ll discover what life you’re meant to live. When your purpose is crystal clear, everything else clears up as well.
Changes in the different areas of your life will simply be a byproduct of living up to your purpose. It gets easy, as long as you keep that purpose and vision in mind.
Conclusion
The challenge many of us face is that we only focus on changing our environments and behaviours. Changing the things we do on a daily basis may not be enough to experience the transformations we desire.
If we start making changes from a higher level, the more transformation we experience. Change will trickle from the top, making it simpler, easier, and more transformational in your life.
So if you’re looking to truly change your life this year, I suggest starting from the top of the pyramid. Discover your purpose, and begin from there.
How do you want to change your life?
Leave a comment below!
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