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Social Articles
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Motivation; 5 Steps to Get the Changes You Want
By Jeff Herring
Eco Bags I fully support the notion of reusing the same shopping bags for groceries. Week in and week out people fill up their supermarket trolleys and then proceed to pack the items they have bought into plastic bags at the checkout, once they have been paid for. The majority of these plastic bags only make two trips in their lifetime. One is to the supermarket from the suppliers and the other is to the customer`s home where they tend to end their life prematurely in the bin. If Eco Bags were used instead they could make hundreds of trips in their lifetime. The bags could be left ion the boot of the car after they have been unpacked ready to be used at the next grocery shop. All it takes is a little thought and a slight change of routine and the Eco Bags could become regular features down at the supermarket. Concerns about the effect that plastic bags have on the planet should be enough to prick the conscious of people`s minds. If more and more people started to use the Eco Bags when they went shopping, at least this would be one way that the planet could be looked after.
I?m glad you liked the column on change and found it useful for you. And I do have a favorite ?change tool?, and it?s called ?the 3 Picture Technique.? Here are the steps: 1. Specifically define a problem that you are committed to changing. 2. In your own imagination, create three pictures of yourself in the following situations: How the problem got started - it doesn?t have to be an exact date like November 5th, 1992. Just your own sense of when and how this problem began. How it is now - include what is painful and uncomfortable. This will increase your leverage and motivation for change. How you would like it to be - create a picture, in the near future, when this problem is solved and things are like you would want them to be. 3. Pretend that we can set up a conference call between these three pictures, as if these three people could talk to each other. 4. Create a conversation between the you now and the you when the problem got started. If you could talk to the person you were when the problem began, how would you answer these questions: What have you learned about this situation since it began? After you have answered that question, it?s important to remember that you have survived and are therefore a resilient person. If you could send that person a letter entitled ?Things I Knew When I Was You??, what would you say? 5. Now let?s have you talk with the you in the near future, when the problem is solved and things are how you would like them to be. Looking through that future person?s eyes, answer the following questions: What does the person in the future know that you don?t know quite yet? If you could walk out to your mailbox today and get a letter from the you in the future (I don?t know how you would do the postage on it!), entitled ?things I wish I knew when I was you?, what would it say? What are the very next steps and actions to take to head in that direction? This technique accomplishes at least two important things: 1) It allows you to clean up the past and remove things that are blocking you from changing, and 2) Provides you with clear direction and actions to get the changes you desire. 
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