Johan Campbell - Speaker

Mr. Campbell is an Independent Business Owner affiliated with Harteis International of South Africa

"The most important ingredient of change is action"

How often have you thought about changing something in your life? How often have you talked about changing something in your life? I am going to give up, smoking, drinking, eating too much etc. etc. I am going to get fit, do a course on self improvement, study etc, etc. How many of these things that you have thought about, that you have talked about, have you actually done.

All too often the only change that we experience in our lives is that we get older. We talk about change but then we keep right on doing the very things that we say that we want to change. There is a saying that if you keep on doing what you've been doing you will keep on getting what you've been getting. Well that saying is no longer true. This world is changing so fast that you've got to run faster just to stay in the same place. Keep on doing what you've been doing and you are going to be left behind.

We should actually strive to get better. We should constantly be setting goals that stretch our abilities, that challenge our capabilities. Understand this, you are either growing up or you are going down. Your services are either becoming more valuable or they are becoming less valuable, there is no longer a middle ground where you can just coast along.

While it is human nature to develop habitual patterns of thinking, we have to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of our habits. Rather than spending time defending our deteriorating performance we should take action to improve our performance or to change our performance. Learn to live by the philosophy of "If what you are doing is not giving you the results that you want, then learn to do something else." It is a sure sign of mental instability to expect a different result from the same actions. 3x3 = 9 and no matter how much you want a different answer as long as you keep the formula of 3x3 you will get 9, to get a different answer you must change the formula.

There will always be change. Change is inevitable, the question is are you being changed by life or are you changing your life. You can choose to be in control and to set the course for the changes that you want in your life or you can allow the circumstances and situations of your life to change you. Positive action is the key ingredient of controlled change. Without positive action there can be no control.

Take a good look at your self and the way that you behave, the way that you live, and ask yourself if this is what you really want. If not then decide what it is that you want instead. The next step is to work out what it is that you need to do to ensure that the desired change takes place. The critical step is to do what you need to do. You cannot think, or talk, yourself out of a habit that you have behaved yourself into. You have to act yourself into the new behaviour. Remember this "Think like a general. Talk like a General. ACT like a general, and you will be a general."

You can have everything in life that you want, provided you are prepared to do what it takes to get it. So decide what it is that you want and then walk your talk because "The most important ingredient of change is action"