Blogger’s note: Please see our updated views based on reference to Rachel Hollis.

Over the last two weeks, I have been painting our bedroom and bathroom.  It’s been on my list for a solid year, but it has been hard to motivate myself for such a task.  I have painted our entire house more than once over the years.  Some rooms I have painted more times than I care to count.  We have been the through the neutrals, florescent orange and greens, lavenders, pinks and chocolate browns.  Why?  Because it’s just paint.  I have always felt that if the kids wanted to live in an orange room, why not?  It’s like hair color; it can always be changed.

As I was saying though, it was difficult to get started because I knew the amount of time and patience it was going to take in order to complete this task and there never is a good time to uproot you entire bedroom and bathroom.  Uproot it I did though.  For me, painting is a little therapeutic…until it’s not and then I just want to be DONE.

The first week was a little like that.  I got into a groove, I painted until Reese got home, watched Netflix and just enjoyed the fact that I had nothing else to do. Then I took the weekend off and getting back to it wasn’t easy.  Then again I had 3/4 of a wall that was still chocolate brown and at least half of my our bathroom that needed painted, so I kind of had to finish.

I decided that the thing to get me through was podcasts.  I listened to one, then stumbled onto a recommendation from that one and so forth.  Before long I was on a self-help journey that would leave me personally begging for a fresh start as well.

Three podcasts that spoke to me the most were  one by Rachel Hollis where she spoke about her daily habits and goal setting, Brendon Burchard and his “High Performance Habits” which is a book by the way and finally Kelly LeVeque on “being well.”   My morning routines, goals and thoughts about carbs have been turned on their head.  Okay, nothing in these podcasts was revolutionary.  In fact, most of these things I have heard in one form or another many times.  The thing that was different was that I was in a place to hear what they were saying. We all know what it’s like to tell our kids four million times that they “need” to do something and they don’t. Then one day they are spouting to you about the benefits of that same thing.  Just like our kids weren’t in a mindset to “hear” what we were telling them previously, I wasn’t in a mindset to hear those things the first twenty times I heard them either.

I believe change happens one of three ways.  The first way is because we are tired of living in our current situation and we decide to seek out ways improve our life. We actively search for an answer to our problems, we ask for help, we read books, we research ways to make a change online, but we don’t stop until we find a solution.

The second reason we change is because we are open to the possibility.  We have all heard people talk about the fact that they weren’t  looking for, you fill in the blank, and the opportunity presented itself to them.  If that person is open to the possibility of change, it happens.

The third way I believe change happens is by brute force.  Sometimes in our lives we are just hit upside the head with a devastating illness or injury and we have no choice, but to change.

As I listened to these podcasts and began reflecting on changes in my own life, I realized that I have been on all three of these paths in the last year.  I have sought out the best way to make changes in my life, I have been awed by opportunities presented at just the right moment and I certainly have felt the blunt force trauma of change.

They have all left their mark and while I wish I was a little further down the path in some areas, at least I am on the path.

If you need some inspiration, motivation,  a good talking to or a fresh start, go check out the above mentioned podcasts.  I promise they will get you on some kind of path.