On change. And adding more awesomeness to your life

There are two things about life that are guaranteed:
1. It will change.
2. It will end.

That's what makes life so amazing. If you don't like something, you can change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude about it and just wait, it will change eventually. Your time here is finite, so make the most of it. Get busy living it up and making it awesome.

But sometimes awesomeness is hard, man. Making positive changes can be difficult. Breaking bad habits and forming good ones can be a struggle. Totally worthwhile and rewarding? Yes definitely. But, easy or effortless? Hells no. But you can do it. I know you can. Look at you over there, blurring the line between impossible and possible every day. You know that the hard things are the most worth doing. (High fives to those of you who just thought "That's what she said.")

There are many ways to successfully change your habits or achieve your goals. Experiment. Find what works best for you. If you fail, congratulations and welcome to the club. Everybody who has ever succeeded in anything has failed at some point along the way. No worries. Learn from it and try something else. Try again. And again. Try everything until something works.

I only have 33 years of failures and successes behind me so I'm still figuring this stuff out myself. A couple of weeks ago I was making pasta by myself in my house and, standing by the stove watching the water start to boil, I had the realization: I don't think I've ever done this before. I am 33 and I have never made pasta by myself. I'm not talking homemade pasta from scratch. I mean like boil water, insert pasta from box, cook, taste, strain, eat. Sometimes it astounds me that I am still alive somehow.

All this to say, I'm no expert on anything so take this with a grain of salt. A lot of grains, actually. Better make it a whole salt shaker to be safe. But culinary ineptitude notwithstanding, I have managed to build a life that, while not for everyone, jives with my own ideas of awesomeness. And these are some of the things that work for me.

• Find your intrinsic motivation. It's so much easier to make a change or do something because YOU want to do it, not because someone else wants you to. Don't change because you think you should or because someone else expects you to. Do it for your own reasons, the more personal the better. Do it because it will make you happier and healthier and better able to enjoy this one crazy life you've been given.

• Find a way to enjoy the process. If you want to exercise more, find an exercise you thoroughly enjoy. If you want to eat healthier, find whole foods that taste good to you. If you want to quit a bad habit, replace it with a good habit that you enjoy even more. It's not willpower or superhuman self-discipline that makes me run consistently and happily. I run because I genuinely love it. This was not always the case. Sometimes love grows slowly. So be patient. Give the process a chance.

• Find your people. The secret to everything is people. There, now the secret is out. You're welcome. I accept tips in the form of nut butters and chocolate milk. Kidding! It's not really a secret. Inherently, everyone knows this. But I think sometimes we forget and we assume we have to do everything alone. Well, I'm here to tell you that you don't. Most things are much better with company. Especially supportive, encouraging, inspiring company.

• Be flexible. Success doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and effort. It's not about perfection. It's about adaptability and persistence. It's falling down and getting back up again. It's failing and trying again. It's making room in your life for both spinach and cookies. Though ideally more of the former than the latter.

• Have a sense of humor. About yourself and your life. I know I say this all the time and that's because it makes all the difference. In everything. Don't cry over spilt milk. Laugh over it. And then obviously clean it up before it gets that stinky milk smell all over everything.

Maybe some of these words will be helpful to you. Or not. Maybe you think it's terrible advice. That's ok too. All roads lead to Awesometown. But we all have to find our own path. I'd love to hear about your journey there.

Lyric of the moment: "I wanna live life, never be cruel. I wanna live life, be good to you. I wanna fly and never come down. And live my life. And have friends around..." Coldplay "We Never Change"