Our beliefs about change itself, affect the speed and nature of the process we’ll experience

by Dr. Fern Kazlow

Pop Quiz time!  Which of the following do you believe are true?

1. It takes 21 days to break a habit.
2. How long it takes to change depends upon your motivation.
3. You need willpower.
4. Change is painful.
5. The longer you have a problem, the longer it takes to change it.
6. It is harder to change an emotional than a physical problem.
7. It is harder to change a physical than an emotional problem.
8. Fear motivates you to change.
9. The harder you work at changing or overcoming your
   problem, the more success you’ll have.
10. It takes one month of natural healing for each year
    you have had a problem.

Whether you believe change happens quickly or slowly, frequently or rarely, you usually find out that you are absolutely right! That is: what you believe about how changes will occur sets the stage for the creation of your personal reality. Your own thoughts project a time-line for changes to be played out into the future.

We wish for a quick change to certain problems, but underneath that wishful feeling we really don’t believe it’s possible to undergo a swift and lasting transformation. In the end, we create a reality that exactly matches our thoughts, in the time-line projected by them. But this important piece of information is exactly what we can use to turn things around and get the desired result we want!

From the physical to the emotional, many of us have patterns that we’d like to change. We resolve to make the shift, and then procrastinate and make misguided attempts. We focus on what we’re doing wrong which reinforces the bad habits rather than directing ourselves to achieve the desired goal. For example…

Joel wanted to use positive reinforcement with his staff, rather than getting frustrated and showing that frustration with sarcasm. He tried giving his staff praise and even began a point/reward system based on sales. Results started to show but Joel’s focus shifted back to being frustrated. Despite his good intentions, he fell back into his habit of making demeaning and sarcastic remarks whenever he thought or feared a staff member wasn’t doing his best.

What Factors Actually Lead to Effective and Rapid Change

Let’s go back to the pop quiz at the beginning of this article. Keep in mind your responses and let’s see if we can shift them to better prepare you for the changes ahead:

1. It takes 21 days to break a habit. The 21 day rule has merit if you are trying to change using conventional methods. However, when you learn to work with your energetic patterns, habits can often be broken much more quickly.

2. How long it takes to change depends on your motivation. Motivation is important but it is but a piece of the puzzle. In fact, you may be very motivated and stuck, or minimally motivated but open to change. Also, you can be highly motivated but if your energetic patterns don’t support what you want, the change won’t happen.

3. You need willpower. Willpower is interesting as many people rely on it for their very survival. However, while it may appear to work in the short run, functioning from that standpoint can cause rigidity and eventually burn-out. However, willingness to put your attention on what you want, willingness to do what it takes to create the opportunity for change and support it is essential.

4. Change is painful. Change is not necessarily painful — resistance usually is. When you have correct principles and tools to support change, it flows gracefully and naturally.

5. The longer you have a problem, the longer it takes to change it. While it seems logical and is often in practice the truth, if you are working with the root causes of a problem and the associated energetic patterns, length of time that a problem has existed doesn’t determine the speed of change.

6. & 7. It is harder to change an emotional than a physical problem, or vise-versa. Whether a problem manifests as a physical or emotional issue has little to do with the speed of change. Rather, it is the confluence of factors that contributed to it and the person being aligned in a way that supports change that determines how quickly transformation can occur.

8. Fear motivates you to change. Fear is often used to motivate yourself or others, but if you get stuck in fear, it may be more difficult to change. It is far more helpful to recognize your fear, deal with it, and work with the positive energies of what you want. For example, fear of becoming ill can actually make your more fearful and ill, and attract other things you are afraid of as well.

9. The harder you work at changing or overcoming your problem, the more successful you will be.Actually, the more you focus on your problem the more you attract the same. You attract what your energy resonates with; you attract what you put your attention on. So if you are trying hard “not to get sick” you are creating illness rather than the health you desire.

10. It takes one month of natural healing for each year you have had a problem. Although working with some systems of natural healing takes one month of treatment for each year of the problem, other energetic approaches can accomplish deep transformation more quickly.

Setting the Stage for Making Deep, Fast, Lasting Transformations

The good news is that you can examine your beliefs and if they don’t support what you want, you can change them! If you resonate with thoughts that ‘slow is better’, or ‘people don’t change’, or ‘good things come to those who wait’ – consider re-evaluating those ideas from a fresh perspective to remove the limitations they create.

Follow these three principles to help you accelerate the physical, mental, emotional or spiritual changes you want to make:

• Be energetically strong for whatever it is you desire. Willingness to focus on what you would like to create and commitment to see it through, fills your being with new energies, feelings and ideas that will support your goal.

• Be energetically centered. Prepare yourself energetically to make a smooth, successful transformation. One quick, effective way to become centered and energetically strong is to simply focus on the vertical line going down your body. Try it, it works!

• Be in an open, non-resistive state, letting go of preconceived ideas about how the process of change should come about. Let go of attachment to ideas about how long a change will take. You will be freer to move towards what you want and more likely to succeed.

Joel’s Success Story:

Joel had to work on his own process of change while trying to motivate his staff.  He learned that the more he pressured them, the less they performed, which caused him to react even more. He recognized the more he was afraid that his staff would under-perform, the more he intensified that focus.  His staff met those negative expectations: they under-performed.
Joel finally learned that by creating an environment that supported his staff he also supported their desire to achieve. The point/reward system was a nice added bonus but the real prize was the change in focus that allowed everyone success.

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The key to rapid and lasting change is not worrying about how long it will take. Accept what is, while being positive and open to change. Shift limiting beliefs; focus on the benefits you desire. You’ll soon see that when your energy is focused on the change, feeling it – not pretending to feel it – but really feeling it as if it’s already here, will make achieving your goal happen faster than you ever imagined!

c 2006 Kazlow International LLC. All rights reserved.

Dr. Fern Kazlow, Ed.D., is CEO of Kazlow International LLC. A licensed clinical psychotherapist, consultant, author, and pioneer in mind-body healing, Dr. Kazlow founded Integrative Therapy and Integrative Action™ in New York City in 1981. She has expanded this work in the Kazlow Method™, providing a pathway to increase your authentic wealth and power in every area of your life.Dr. Kazlow has served as mentor and consultant to entrepreneurs, Wall Street executives, and business professionals. She created Shattering Financial Limitations and the Rapid Wealth System™ to increase your income and expand the riches throughout your life.

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