In an earlier newsletter, I wrote about the changes we sometimes almost don’t notice. We may suddenly realize that something which once intimidated us no longer does. That we handled a difficult situation differently. That we followed through on something we would once have postponed. Or perhaps we simply recognize that we are not quite the same person we were a year ago.
We spend so much time looking at the distance still ahead of us
that it is easy to forget how far we have already traveled.
Those changes are achievements, but I have been thinking about another way of looking at them: they are also the result of work.
What Do We Mean by Work?
We tend to think of work as something we do for a living. It is what happens between the time we start our working day and the time we finish it. And, very often, we associate work with effort. If something is difficult, exhausting, or requires enormous discipline, we call it hard work. If we enjoy doing it, somehow it can feel as though it doesn’t quite count. But work doesn’t have to be hard to be worthwhile. In fact, some of our best work happens when we become so engaged in what we are doing that work begins to feel like play.
And work can become something more than a way of earning a living. It can become a form of service. You don’t have to be doing something extraordinary. Perhaps you are simply the person who smiles at a customer, remembers someone’s name, solves a problem, encourages a coworker, or makes another human being feel appreciated. Sometimes the most meaningful part of our work isn’t even in our job description.
The Work of Becoming
But there is another kind of work that I think deserves recognition: the work we do on ourselves. Becoming more confident. Learning to manage our time or money more wisely. Improving a relationship. Developing healthier habits. Becoming more creative. Learning something new. Letting go of a fear that has limited us. Becoming more comfortable in our own skin. Following through on something that matters to us. These are achievements too.
And perhaps this is where today’s message becomes especially important. The results of this kind of work aren’t always accompanied by a diploma, promotion, trophy, or paycheck. Sometimes the changes are small enough that we barely notice them at first. We make a slightly different decision. We take an opportunity we might once have dismissed. We persist a little longer. We speak up when we might once have remained silent. We try something we previously assumed we couldn’t do. But small changes accumulate. Change your direction by even a few degrees and, over time, you can arrive somewhere very different.
That is why I think we sometimes underestimate the significance of these quieter achievements. A small change in a belief, expectation, habit, or response can put us on a different path — one that takes us more directly toward whatever success means to us.
The change itself may seem small.
Where it can eventually take us may not be.
When You Don’t Know What Is Holding You Back
One of the things I have learned over the years is that trying harder isn’t always the answer. Sometimes the real difficulty isn’t the thing we are trying to accomplish. It is the resistance we bring to it — and very often, we don’t even know the resistance is there.
Think about driving a familiar route. You can arrive at your destination with almost no conscious memory of the journey. You stopped at the lights, made the turns, changed lanes and responded to traffic, but the process was so familiar that much of it happened automatically.
Our inner beliefs can become just as automatic. On the surface, you can tell yourself that you deserve to succeed. That you are capable, talented and worthy. That this time you really are going to follow through. But underneath those conscious intentions may be much older messages telling you something quite different: “I’m not good enough.” “I’ll probably fail.” “I never stick with anything.” “I’m terrible with money.” “I’m just not creative.” “I’ve always been this way.”
When beliefs have been repeated and reinforced for years, we don’t necessarily hear them as thoughts anymore. They can simply become part of the background — assumptions we act upon without consciously recognizing that they are influencing our choices. Oftentimes, we only begin to recognize them when we notice — or someone else points out — how frequently we seem to repeat the same kinds of failures. And this highlights a peculiar kind of struggle. Consciously, we are trying to move in one direction while some of our deeply habituated beliefs are quietly pulling us in another.
This is one of the reasons I believe working on the inner environment matters so much. When we begin changing those underlying messages, we aren’t simply telling ourselves to try harder. We are working to reduce the resistance that made change harder than it needed to be in the first place. Perhaps that is one of the most useful definitions of working smarter rather than harder.
Why InnerTalk®?
This is precisely what InnerTalk was developed to address. InnerTalk has been studied by independent universities and research institutions, with research demonstrating its effectiveness in changing self-talk — those internal messages that can influence what we believe, expect, notice and ultimately do. Change the inner conversation and new choices and experiences can naturally follow.
InnerTalk is also a patented technology. It isn’t simply a collection of positive affirmations hidden beneath music. The technology was specifically developed to deliver positive messages in a way designed to work with subconscious processes. That distinction matters. To our knowledge, InnerTalk remains unique among technologies of its kind in having both patent protection and independent scientific research supporting its effectiveness.
For me, that has always been important:
Don’t just believe that change is possible.
Take control and restructure the beliefs that may be getting in the way.
What Would You Like to Work On?
Today, let’s also recognize the work that has made us who we are — and consciously choose some of the work that will help shape who we become next. Not what somebody else thinks you should change, or what you are “supposed” to want. What would make your life better for you?
Perhaps there is one area you would really like to strengthen. Perhaps there are five. Or perhaps there is one important goal you would like to approach from several different directions. Wherever you would like to begin, our InnerTalk library offers many possibilities:
- Success — Turn more of your potential into accomplishment and create your own definition of success.
- Better Life — Often it is the small details of everyday life that make the greatest difference to our quality of life, joy, and peace.
- Relationships — Create the inner environment in which strong, healthy, quality relationships can thrive.
- Health and Wellness — Support the thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs that contribute to well-being and the body’s natural self-healing abilities.
- Habits and Addictions — Change the deeper beliefs and patterns that can so easily undermine your best intentions.
- Body Image — Build a healthier, kinder relationship with your body and yourself.
- Sports and Fitness — Strengthen the mental game behind physical performance and achievement.
- Children and Parenting — Help build stronger foundations for growing minds — and for the people guiding them.
- Learning — Strengthen the attitudes and inner messages that support learning, remembering, and making better use of what you know.
- Spirituality — Explore the inner beliefs that shape meaning, connection, purpose, and your experience of life.
Start by asking yourself: What would I most like to change, strengthen, accomplish, or become?
And then, maybe think about the people you care about. Perhaps someone close to you is working toward an important goal of their own. Supporting their success can be a wonderful gift, and the people closest to us also become part of the environment in which we grow. Their attitudes, expectations, habits, enthusiasm, and accomplishments influence us just as ours influence them. When the people around us grow, our world grows with them.
Real transformation rarely comes from changing one thing.
It comes from changing the environment in which everything else grows.
Perhaps, starting today, we can create a little more of that environment for ourselves — and for the people we care about.
Celebrate the Work You Have Already Done
Before you decide what you would like to work on next, though, I hope you will do one other thing: look back. Notice some of those changes we talked about in the prior blog. Notice something you handle better now. Something you understand that you didn’t understand before. Something you have overcome, learned, strengthened, accomplished, or simply become better at.
Then look forward. What is the next small change that could alter your direction? What would you like to be able to look back on a year from now and realize is different?
The work we do on ourselves doesn’t always look dramatic while we are doing it. But small changes accumulate. New beliefs influence new choices. New choices create new experiences. And, little by little, those experiences become part of the life we are creating.
The change itself may seem small.
Where it can eventually take us may not be.
Today, let’s celebrate both: the person we have already worked to become — and the person we are still becoming.
Warmly,
Ravinder Taylor
“Your recordings are like gold to me! I was overweight, a junk food eater, never exercised, a complete mess. I’ve listened to my recordings (approximately 4 years now), and they have helped me more than anything. I listen all night on repeat. Thanks so much.”
P. H.