Self-awareness results in meaningful self-change

Although self-change is challenging, it is not impossible. You may know many people that have changed certain areas in their lives. Some of these people may have been successful in keeping the change and some less successful. Some appeared to be truly happy with the change and others appeared to be still searching for more. So, what is the difference between the two groups: the group of people who sustain changes in their life and the group of people who return back to their old lifestyle?

The major difference is the group who kept their change made a meaningful change in their life, whereas the other group made just a change in their life. To make change meaningful, it is important that you know what you want to change, why you want to change, and that YOU chose what it is you will change. It is also important you want to change for yourself and not for your loved ones or for external approval.

Many people change themselves based on how others want them to be or to achieve a certain status in society. This type of change in not meaningful change; it has no personal meaning and will not give you the results you were hoping to achieve.

So how can you make a meaningful change? The answer of course lies is self-awareness. You need to be aware of your core values and your core beliefs. Your values form the foundation for your behaviour and everything that you bring into your life. Your core beliefs determine your thoughts, decisions, and the emotions you experience.

Have you tried to change something in your life only to make no progress or to sabotage the headway you have made? The answer to your failure likely lies in whether you know what drives your behaviour and if you know how your core beliefs affect the way you think and what you chose to change.

Achieving permanent change will be difficult unless you become attentive to yourself and learn what is important to you, how you think, and what motivates you. To achieve permanent change you need to make personally meaningful change. Letting others decide or tell you what you need to change will not work and it will not make you happy. It is your job to decide what you want to improve in your life.

Take the time to learn who you are. It is a good idea to participate in programs that concentrate on self-awareness. The professionals heading these programs will teach you what techniques to use and what emotions you need to pay attention to. The time you invest in yourself will help you create meaningful change in your life. It will help you make changes that stick and changes that bring positive outcomes in your life.

Bruno LoGreco, Toronto Life Coach, Author & Television Personality

Self-awareness results in meaningful self-change

Follow your path

What do you suppose you would be today if you did not have anybody telling you what you could and could not do while you were growing up? Where would you be today if you had your very own personal cheerleaders, as opposed to critics, during your teen years?

While growing up, family and other authoritative figures, like coaches and teachers, play a big role in how we think about ourselves and who we become. The adults around us usually shape us into the people we become. Often times their insecurities and beliefs get transferred to us and we end up living a life with similar philosophies, similar achievements, and similar habits to the people we grew up around.

As teens, many of us just accepted what we were told as the truth and we believed others knew what was best for us (not surprising since we often heard the words “I know best” from our elders). Being young, inexperienced, and confused about where we should go, others’ advice may even have been quite welcoming. More importantly, taking others' advice helped avoid confrontation.

It didn’t take long however, to start wondering if there is more to life than the unfulfilling routine we fell into. To many of us, waking up, going to work that doesn’t make us happy, coming home, taking care of home responsibilities, and going to bed, only to wake up the next day and go through it all over again is extremely unsatisfactory. Most likely, this is the same path we saw our mothers and other adult role models travel. We now grew up and adapted their life philosophy.

The good news is that there really is more to life than the routine we fell into. Life can be very fulfilling when we start paying attention to what makes us happy and what activities interest us. We were all born with a purpose in life that is meant to be fulfilled. To fulfill this purpose, however, we often have to leave the path we are currently on and step onto the path that was meant for us.

Stepping onto our own path typically causes resistance from others. While they may be looking out for our best interest, they may not necessarily understand the inspiration guiding us. This inspiration, however, is the force leading us to a place where life is all that it can be. It is up to you to decide what path you want to travel and where you want to go.

Bruno LoGreco Life Coach Toronto, Author & Television Personality

Follow your path

Take that first step now

Are you willing to take the first step today to get you closer to your ideal life?
Many times we say that tomorrow is the perfect time to start working towards our goal, right after we get today’s chores and responsibilities out of the way.

Unfortunately, tomorrow brings a new set of responsibilities and duties causing us to wait for the arrival of another tomorrow before we may start working towards our goal. Before we know it, 50 years pass by and we are still waiting for tomorrow to arrive so that we may start working towards our dreams and hopes.

Does this sound familiar? Have you ever waited for the freshness of a new day to come so you may start working towards success only to find the new day is never quite “fresh” enough to start working towards fulfilling your dreams?

One of the most common issues people face is taking action. Reading self-development literature, watching videos, and talking to others interested in self-help will only take you so far. Knowing how to fulfill your goals will not fulfill your goals. Taking action today (not waiting for a ‘right’ kind of tomorrow), will bring you closer to your dreams and will eventually guide you to your ideal life.

The best way to take action is to first plan out what you want to achieve and the steps you want to take each day to move yourself closer to success. Having a clear outline set out before you will let you know exactly what you need to do each day and it will allow you to measure your progress. Having day to day plans also simplifies your goal. Vague plans tend to appear intimidating and are more likely to be put off. Daily plans will also make it easier for you to be accountable to yourself for not completing today’s step.

Although today may not feel right to begin working towards your new goal you will find that no day will be ‘right enough’ to take the steps to bring you closer to your ideal life. Don’t worry about today not being the perfect day. Instead, focus on the perfection of how it will feel when you achieve your dreams. This will encourage you to take the first step today.

Bruno LoGreco, Toronto Life Coach, Author & Television Personality

Take that first step now

Limiting thoughts lead to a limiting reality

What do you think about from day to day? Researchers say that we have about 60 000 thoughts per day. 90% of these thoughts are repeat thoughts from the day before! This fascinating result suggests that many of our thoughts are habitual. Most likely, we are not even aware of what we are thinking and as a result we are unable to detect patterns in our thoughts. For example, if you do not think you are smart enough to present a new solution to your boss at work today, chances are you will not think you are smart enough to solve a complicated problem tomorrow, or smart enough to create a new business, and so on. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of their day to day thoughts and eventually start to believe their thoughts are facts.

If you are to make any sort of change in our life, you first must clean up any thoughts that decrease your chances of success. Without changing your thoughts you cannot become who you want to be. You are literally able to do and become anything you want, if you are willing to open your mind and accept new positive facts about yourselves and your abilities. Your potential is enormous, if only you are willing to let go of old beliefs and thoughts and start believing you are capable of anything you want. Decide who you want to be and let go of any thoughts that say otherwise. These thoughts are false beliefs and their only purpose is to hold you back from being who you want to be.

Bruno LoGreco Life Coach Toronto, Author & Television Personality

Limiting thoughts lead to a limiting reality

The emergence of talent: genius and precocity: newyorker.com

“I felt like I’d stepped off a cliff and I didn’t know if the parachute was going to open. Nobody wants to waste their life, and I was doing well at the practice of law. I could have had a good career. And my parents were very proud of me—my dad was so proud of me. . . . It was crazy.”

The emergence of talent: genius and precocity: newyorker.com

The emergence of talent: genius and precocity: newyorker.com

The inferiority complex: Measuring up to societal standards can be expensive

Despite the fact that many of us are quick to compare ourselves to societal standards many of us don’t realize how often we think poorly of ourselves or of what this can cost us.

Many of us suffer from feelings of inferiority in many areas of our lives. Whether we compare ourselves on our ability to speak multiple languages, our fitness level, our level of attractiveness, our ability to sing, our ability as a parent, or our ability to do our job, it appears that we can never quite measure up to others.

Although it is true that there are individuals (and sometimes a long list of individuals) who are better than us, feelings of inferiority do not originate from facts or objective information. Feelings of inferiority originate from our personal conclusions regarding facts. Our feelings of inferiority come from self-evaluation based, not on our own standards, but on society’s ever-changing norms. Many of us believe that we need to and should measure up to society’s norm, though hardly any of us actually do.

The bigger issue is that we have a hard time separating society’s norms from our personal norms or ideals. In fact, the majority of us no longer bother forming our own norms and ideals but accept societal norms as our own measure of what a person should be. As a result, we are destined to feel a lifetime of negative feelings because of our perceived inadequacy.

More importantly, feelings of inadequacy can be expensive as they serve as a barrier to our success and happiness. When we feel like we do not measure up to the person we believe we should be, often times we’ll believe we do not deserve or can’t achieve happiness or success.

To improve our level of happiness we must understand that we, just like everyone else, are unique with unique skills and talents. The ideal person defined by society is non-existent, fake, and often times shallow. When we fully apply our true selves we rise above this petty standard and we demonstrate the enormous amount of good we have to offer to our community and the world. When we, however, belittle ourselves because of societal norms we hold ourselves back from living to our full potential and from fulfilling our life person. This lack of achievement and progress brings us unhappiness and feelings of failure, reinforcing our feelings of inferiority.

To make the most of our experiences in life it is time to create our own norms and our own ideals we can use for self-evaluation. By doing this we set realistic standards with personal meaning. This process will allow us to eliminate feelings of inferiority that are caused from unachievable standards. The process will also allow us to express ourselves, our strengths, and our skills. It will help us to become the person we were meant to be while being blessed with joy, love, and success.

Bruno LoGreco Life Coach Toronto, Author & Television Personality

The inferiority complex: Measuring up to societal standards can be expensive