We all want to make a change. But it’s never as easy as it seems. Sometimes we want to lose ten pounds, only to find that after we lose ten pounds, we gain twenty within the next few weeks. Maybe we want to quit smoking cigarettes, or start a chores routine only to find that our houses still being messy makes us want to smoke our cigarettes.

We find ourselves spinning in circles whenever we try to initiate a change in our lives. But there’s a reason for that. We’re not ready. And we cannot force things to happen when we’re not ready for them to happen.

We may think that making a change will fix our problems, but in reality, we need to fix our internal problems first. When we take a step back and face our emotions and suppressed issues, we begin to break the old habits we so forcefully try to change.

The law is that change is inevitable. However, change is also impossible when you’re not ready for it. Maybe you’re still smoking cigarettes to help you deal with the stress, and that stress can be rooted in a desire to keep busy so that you don’t need to need to know what’s going on inside.

However, whenever you start to face your traumas, you will soon realize that the old habits start to slip away with minimal effort. You don’t feel it necessary to smoke a pack a day. You don’t feel like you need the ice cream bar to give you a temporary reprieve from your internal sadness. You will start to desire more exercise, strawberries and water.

So before you try to make a change, first take a few moments to ask yourself why you have the habits that you do. Change comes from within, and in order to really make a change in our lives, we must first get to know ourselves again. Then, change won’t be a New Years Resolution struggle, but a genuine shift in the way you live.