A book came out a few days ago. A book about small changes in the midst of the ordinary. My ordinary. Changes that weren’t earth shattering or revolutionary, but ones that would push me toward enjoying the mundane a little more. Because I didn’t want to wish this one life away, I wanted to relish in it. In the book I relay the details of a nine-month experiment right in the middle of my actual life. Where I examined a different area of my actual life and small changes to my habits to increase my contentment.

And I discovered in the midst of the experiment the power of the small.

How small changes can realign the trajectory of my reality and spin me off in a new and often unexpected direction. Dinner outside transforms a regular evening into an event. Establishing a uniform for myself and putting it on before 8:00a.m. makes me feel more put together, and even more productive, throughout the day. Setting aside time to intentionally try something creative, helps me better understand who God is in his creative process.

As I said, not revolutionary. But small moment after small moment adds up to a new outlook on the life I’m already living.

One Small Change. That’s what we want to talk about here. Tell us all what one small change you commit to trying in the next few weeks or months to move you toward enjoying the life God has gifted you with today.

• Is there something you’ve been putting off that you know would be a helpful change?
• A new tactic you’ve wanted to try to better enjoy an area of your life?
• Or maybe approach it from the other way, a problem, a pattern you keep bumping against, where you keep thinking something needs to change here? And so you’re going to try something and see if it makes a difference.

I’ve never done this before here, hosted a link-up on my site. So we’re going in with no expectations to define success. What’s a link-up you ask? It’s where people write on a common topic and then “link-up” in a central place. This post will act as our central place.

If you’d like to write a blog about one small change, great. Link below. If you’ve written another post about the book and loving your actual life, those are welcome too. And if you don’t have a blog, but want to join the conversation, just write in the comments section here. The comment box will be like your own mini-blog space.

So here are some things that I think will make the whole thing a little more successful:

• Write a post on your own blog or comment here
• Go visit a few other people’s sites and read and comment. There is nothing, I had to stop and check myself here, but yes it’s true…as a writer nothing worse than writing, risking and putting it out there… only to hear crickets. In my own writing life I’d almost rather negative comments than none at all because at least I’ve solicited a reaction. (But of course I’m not encouraging negative commenting, just want you all to respond to one another’s “putting it out there”.)
• Share about this link-up with others you think might want to participate. This is definitely a situation where the more the merrier.
• Use the hashtag #LovingMyActualLife when sharing on social media about the link-up or your specific post to connect these to the larger conversation about the book.
• Link-up by next Wednesday, May 11^th and you may win a book or two! (I have a birthday girl that day at my house, so it sounds like a good day to be handing out gifts.) I will choose from a few commenters and linked-up posters to give some great prizes I will announce right here in the comments.

Let’s try this! This was a suggestion from my fabulous book launch team and I thought it a great on. And I CAN NOT wait to hear what small changes you are going to make to better love your actual life.