The PressPlay Lifestyle is a series phases with tools that can be used to design your best self – even when you feel like your worst self and this time we will discuss the Dry Run. You can find a summary of
here. The first step of the lifestyle is Discover, you can learn more about discovery
here. The second step is Design, you can learn more about design
here. The third step is Develop, you can learn more about develop
here.
Test Out Your Plan with a Dry Run
One of the things I love about being intentional in developing your best self is that you can try it out. Now I can hear a lot of you saying that you have spent your entire life testing out how you are showing up in the world. I would disagree with you a bit. The thing is that if we are just winging it, we are not really testing anything. We are taking an action, seeing what others think at that moment, and then most of the time still acting the same way since our programming, or our habits, are set to behave in specific ways when we are not more thoughtful in how we want to behave.
Science Experiment
Think about a test in science, okay more specifically a science experiment when you were in school. Remember the first thing you did was develop a hypothesis. You looked at the information you had and made an educated guess on the results. Then you had a control group, something you knew the result of. Then you had a test group, the thing you were testing to prove or disprove your educated guess.
So, if we are going to test out our new role, let’s say as a more intentional parent, then we need to start with a hypothesis. Perhaps our educated guess is that if we make breakfast every morning for our child it will show that we care about them and that we are an intentional parent. What is our control group? Well, what have we been doing? If we have been throwing a pop-tart at them on the way to the bus every day and they say they don’t think we care about them then that is a control group. Now, let’s test it out.
Breakfast Challenge
Make breakfast every morning for four weeks. Why four? Well, it takes about 28 days to make a habit stick. The first week your kid likely will think it is another phase. The second week you will both be surprised you are still doing it. The third week they will start to expect it. It is that fourth week, when you both expect it and you have that time to intentionally talk at breakfast for the fourth week in a row that you can make a real assessment if the new plan worked.
Once you test out that hypothesis, you can decide if it is something your new self would want to keep doing and if it met your goal (or hypothesis). If you are just living day by day, you don’t get a chance to try out new behaviors or to make small tweaks in your behavior. And believe me, it is the small tweaks that make the big differences.
The Appreciation Skill
One of the things that is really important as you are making real and lasting change in how you choose to show up in the world is to learn to appreciate what you have and what you are gaining. It is easy to just move through the motions, as you have been doing in the past. However, if you consider how to appreciate the changes you are making and the impact it is making in others, the chance you will stick to it increases.
Even more important than appreciation of the change you are making is appreciating what you already have in your life. Making a daily habit of appreciation is a life changer. In fact, if you didn’t do any of the work in the PressPlay Lifestyle other than make it a habit of daily finding things to appreciate in your life, that one change in and of itself will make an extremely positive impact on your life. Don’t believe me, take it for a dry run!
Start Doing the Work in the Dry Run
There are a lot of things you can take out of this post and from the Dry Run phase. You cannot really do the Dry Run phase if you are not already through the first three phases. There is nothing to test if you haven’t discovered who you want to be, designed what that person would be like, developed and executed some part of that change plan. The logical next step of testing the process out is the Dry Run. If you have made it here, you are doing great. You job is to pick one thing you are working on changing and to test it out for 28 days and then let us know on the Facebook page how it went.
Appreciation Quest
If you are not yet ready to test out a behavior change, no problem. Consider a 28 day appreciation quest. See if you can find something to appreciate about what you have already attracted in your life for 28 days. You will appreciate what you learn. Looking forward to seeing you next week when we chat about the Distribution phase.
After this, if you are you looking for more details on the #pressplay lifestyle? Here are a few more posts to consider:
