How to Achieve a Powerful Personal Transformation in 6 Steps

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You have the most amazing gift in the world: the ability to choose. Do you want to transform something in your life? You can’t always control what happens outside of you, but there’s a secret: Everything changes when you change yourself. Wise people know that we can live our best lives when we take time to reflect honestly and then make changes. 

“Easy for you to say…I’ve tried and tried to change myself, but to no avail!” 

I know, it sounds easy in theory, but our experience proves otherwise. It requires effort, no doubt, but it is possible. In this article, we present six steps you could follow to get one step closer to your personal transformation.

Table of contents

  1. Define the outcome
  2. Start small
  3. Learn from others
  4. Act as if
  5. Embrace discomfort
  6. Lean on a higher power

1. Define the outcome

How to Achieve a Powerful Personal Transformation in 6 Steps

To get what you want, you must first know exactly what you want. Sit down and identify your current issues or weaknesses, and imagine what they will look like once you’ve transformed them. Don’t just think about it, either. Make it real. Write it down. Be ridiculously detailed about the outcome that you want. The more detailed it is in your mind, the more tangible it becomes to you. 

Also write down why you want to make these changes. Write down all the wonderful things that will happen once your transformation is done. These will serve as motivation for you when you feel like going back to your old habits. 

For instance: say you want to become healthier. It’s not enough to have a goal that says “be healthier”. What does “healthier” look like? Here’s an example: “I weigh 75kg, with a waist circumference of 34 inches. I can run a 5km run without breaking a sweat, and run a half-marathon if I push myself a little. I sleep well at night for 7 hours, and I’m energetic during the day.

2. Start small

Change is often a painstakingly slow process. Most big changes are made by taking small steps every day over a long time, and it’s not a linear journey—you often take two steps forward and one step back. Occasionally, though, you’ll make huge progress in just a day or two. Prepare yourself for this reality, and don’t give up because change doesn’t happen fast enough.

The important thing is to START, and the best way to do so is to start small. Say you want to improve your sleeping habit. You’re far better off making small adjustments than drastic changes overnight. For example: If you notice your phone is keeping you awake until late at night, maybe your first step is to keep your phone out of the bedroom—get an analogue alarm clock instead. 

Then the next step would be to go to bed earlier, by 15 minutes or so. Once that’s achieved, maybe your next step is to optimise your sleep environment by making the room dark. Maybe that means you’ll need to change curtains to prevent light into your room from the outside. 

I think you get the point. Make small improvements, one at a time, and soon enough all the benefits from each of these minor tweaks will compound into meaningful change over a long period.

3. Learn from others

How to Achieve a Powerful Personal Transformation in 6 Steps

Change always involves learning new things, but there is a shortcut! Instead of starting from zero, learn from the experiences and mistakes of others who have already taken the path you’re on. It can save you a lot of time and heartache—your wallet might thank you, too!

Do some research and read personal stories, tips, and tricks of people who have created their own personal transformations. Avoid the mistakes they made, and adopt the habits that helped them achieve their goals. This is one of the reasons why successful people love reading biographies of other successful people. 

At the very least, these stories will inspire you to keep going, day after day. They will let you know that what you’re doing and where you’re going is not only possible in general, but that it’s possible for YOU. On the other hand, these stories may provide you with practical steps you can take to make improvements towards your transformation goals.

The real challenge is not in finding these stories and reading them, but in fighting your own inclination to think, “This was the case for them, but my situation is different…” Yes, everybody’s circumstances are different, but the principles gleaned from others are invaluable and are often transferable to other domains.

4. Act as if

There’s a popular saying that says “Fake it ‘til you make it”. While this sounds slightly sketchy, there’s truth to that statement. When you act as if an outcome has already happened, you are positioning yourself mentally for it to happen.

Our brains can’t tell the difference between what’s imagined and what’s actually out there in the real world—studies support this! Studies done at Harvard University showed that people who simply imagined practising the piano every day physically strengthened the muscles in their fingers. How crazy is that?!

What this shows is that there’s great power in our thoughts (we also have a series specifically dealing with how we can transform our lives by changing the way we think. It’s called TRANSFORMED. Check it out).

How to Achieve a Powerful Personal Transformation in 6 Steps

So, practically, this means you’ll need to adopt a new identity—think of yourself as someone who has already made the changes you want to, and begin operating in this new paradigm.

For instance, going back to the goal example used in the first point: “…I can run a 5km run without breaking a sweat, and run a half-marathon if I push myself a little…” Think about what a person like that would do on a daily basis. What would her lifestyle look like?

It’s likely that she goes on brief runs 2-3 times a week, keeps herself hydrated throughout the day, maintains a balanced diet, and participates in organised runs periodically. Now you begin to do these things, little by little, and before long, this identity is now yours—you will no longer be “faking it”.

5. Embrace discomfort

Change is uncomfortable. There are no two ways about it. People tend to stick to stability and comfort, but your personal transformation requires you to step into new situations, meet new people, and do things that you’re not used to. I know, that’s scary.

But you know what? Physiologically, fear and excitement are almost the same. Your heart races, you sweat, you shake, maybe you cry. You naturally want to quit or run away. So one strategy to cope with the discomfort of fear is to reframe it. When you start to feel fear, tell yourself that you’re just excited. Embrace the feeling, and push through it. But don’t let it stop you.

How do you do this practically? It’s as simple as saying out loud, “I’m excited!” Yes, that’s pretty much all it takes. When you’re nervous or fearful of trying something new, your body goes into overdrive into a high arousal state. 

Excitement is also a high arousal state, and you can trick your mind into reinterpreting that high arousal state as excitement, and not fear. On the other hand, feeling calm and composed is a low-arousal state. It’s more challenging to get your body to transition from a high-arousal to low-arousal state.

6. Lean on a higher power

How to Achieve a Powerful Personal Transformation in 6 Steps

This is probably the hardest step to do in our journey of transformation. Why? Because of the pride in our hearts. Because of our sinful nature, we are predisposed to think that we can do all things, independent of God. However, we are reminded in Philippians 4:13, “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

The common narrative out there is one of self-sufficiency—for us to look within ourselves to find strength and determination to accomplish our goals. Or to look around us to find inspiration solely in others. However, this isn’t a sustainable source of strength.

Just observe long enough and you’ll see through the glitter, glamour, and facade people put up in order to project a pristine image of themselves. Look through all that and you’ll see that we all are facing similar struggles, insecurities, and baggage—imperfect beings requiring a saviour.

We need to look to a perfect source of strength: one that is selfless, loving, and has our best interests in mind—God. The sustainable way is to look to God to supply us with strength. Even when we go through the deepest, darkest valleys of our lives, God is there with us.

How does this look practically? We seek God for his wisdom and guidance on our goals through prayer. Is our goal one that is glorifying God, or is it purely selfish? Is it borne out of an obedience to God?

For instance, “I want to be healthy because I recognise that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that all I have is from God, so I want to be a good steward of it”.

When we get our hearts and minds aligned with God and his Word, not only does that become a strong motivating factor mentally, we also position ourselves to receive God’s blessing and favour in those endeavours:

Deuteronomy 28:1-2
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

Final words

To wrap up, let’s not forget that the journey to personal transformation is both a marathon and a sprint—filled with slow, steady progress and sudden leaps forward. The six steps outlined here serve as a roadmap to navigate this complex terrain. From defining your outcome in vivid detail to submitting yourself before God, each step is a crucial component in the complex journey of transformation. Yes, the process is demanding, but the rewards are immeasurable.

About New Covenant Community

New Covenant Community Church is a non-denominational church based in Sentul, Malaysia. Our church family strives to love Jesus more, connect people to God and to reconnect the disconnected. Whether you are looking for a church, want to know some new friends or get connected with people, we are the place to be. Drop us a message or visit us on Sunday at Sentul Boulevard, Kuala Lumpur.