What Does it Mean to Have Something "Change Your Life?"

This is a phrase that we hear quite often being thrown around when someone was impacted by a certain experience.

But what does it really mean to say that something changed your life?

Does it have to be this big mysterious experience that is felt through your whole body while hearing a loud voice in your head telling you that you will never be the same?

Probably not.

As a matter of fact, most of these experiences happen to come in small doses that open up a door to a new way of thinking or new enhanced perspective.

Each time I hear this phrase, I can't help but remember a time when I was on a vacation in Puerto Rico and went to visit the caves on the Camuy River.

I remember visiting with a group of people on a tour bus. There was an individual there who had, let's say, a little more challenging type of personality.

He had something to say about each aspect of the excursion, frequently blurting out a rude remark or saying something rude about some of the staff.

He continued to blurt out many of his thoughts and feelings so as to make sure that everyone on the bus knew where he stood on every aspect of the excursion.

He became irate and turned beet red when we had to wait five minutes to get into the park. He began to curse and talk about how bad the service was. Anyway, you know the type.

We returned from seeing and walking the caves, learning a bit about their history and significance and gathering up to return to the hotel, he stated something that stayed with me....

In a very sarcastic tone, he said "that was amazing, I am a changed man".

Besides sarcasm and snide remarks being expected by him at this point. This particular quip got me thinking.

Well, technically you are different from what you were before you walked into those caves.

We are all now people who have had that experience and know what it is like, what it feels like, what it smells like, etc.

Which by itself does not mean much unless you make it mean something.

What do I mean by this?

I mean that every experience that we have in life carries with it the opportunity to make major life change. So...

What if the experience opened up the door of curiosity in you and you began to embark on a journey to visit caves from all over the world?

or

What if the experience would have sparked in you the idea to begin or change your field of study to have something to do with caves, natural sciences or any other related topic?

Would this experience be considered life-changing at that point?

All it takes is a spark to start a major fire within you to make drastic change in your life.

I thought to myself, how much of life is the experience that we go through and how much is what we make out of the experience?

We all have experiences each and every day, good and bad, big and small.

Should we be looking at the experiences or should we be looking for how to leverage those experiences into something life changing.

Should we even care?

If you are looking and open for change in your life, I think there is an abundance of opportunity to take one thing, something, anything and morph it into a life-changing, better yet and life-improving journey.

Have relatives who just don't understand you? Make it a point to study communication skills.

Do you feel a lack of connection in your life? Make it a point to figure out everything it takes to live with passion and purpose.

Do you keep thinking about negative past experiences? Find out how to leverage the event to live a happier life from this point forward.

This list can go on and on...

Placing the responsibility on a certain experience to change our lives may be a dead end street. But choosing to change your life based on the experiences that you have may be where the true power lies to change your life for the better.

Find a way to use your experiences as leverage for living a better and more fulfilled life and you many never have to be that person on a bus letting everyone know that the experience was for nothing.

Do you have any questions about learning how to leverage your experiences to help improve your? Join our free member forums and start having discussion with other people who are also trying to live more fulfilled and enriched lives.

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