DAY 22 - Time for Change

If there’s one thing we all share in common it’s that the human heart fears change! It fears change and yet without change you cannot move forward. Your heart knows that too!

Today I want to focus on one of the least discussed aspects of change: you have the power to create a positive change in your life at any point you choose and it’s never too late.

The power to make a change for the better is - The Secret of The Alchemist.

There is never a moment in my life where I don’t think about how I can make a change that will benefit myself and those around me. This was a conscious decision I made very early on in my late teenage years and here I am 50 years later still having the same thought. What can I change?

I am fortunate to have never been an addict to abusive substances but I am a great believer in the Serenity Prayer of the 12 Step Program. This ‘prayer’ can be applied by us all as a powerful basic philosophy of life, whether we consider ourselves to have an addictive personality or not:

Here is a short version of the prayer written by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971):

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.

In my book, The Secret of The Alchemist, I tell the story of how when I met Paulo Coelho at the time I was part of the publishing team for his book The Alchemist, I knew I needed to make some major changes to my circumstances but was stuck by my fear of taking the risk.

Paulo gave me a gift that enabled me to make the change I needed and my book explains the process I went through to bring that to pass.

In summary the Serenity Prayer gives us the key insights whenever we are contemplating change:

• We can receive the help of a higher Wisdom than to know what we can and cannot change.
• The Courage to make the changes we choose to make is ours.
• Now is as good a time as any to make the change despite the potential hardship we will face.

‘The enemy of change is procrastination!’ Colm Holland - The Secret of The Alchemist.

If there’s one other thing we all share because we are human, it's our heart’s love of procrastination. ‘Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?’, says our heart!

With that one thought, your heart has just robbed you of your joy for today.

Whatever difficulties we face right now, however hard it may seem, our power to change just one thing for the better today, is the secret to a life of joy.

This is another aspect of The Secret of The Alchemist:

Change always begins with a thought and your thoughts will create the change. Colm Holland - The Secret of The Alchemist.

Our mantra for today:

I have the wisdom and the courage to enact the change I want to make today.

Remember I have asked Love to give you everything you need to be the Alchemist in your world - and it all begins with a thought. Thank you Paulo for giving me the gift to make the change I needed to make.