Things People Changed

About two months after they complete The Fast Change Project, we ask participants what intentional changes they made. This is a sample of responses over the past few years.

Spring 2019

I waste much less time, and feel more motivated to stay active.

I started being more organized to help myself throughout my life and make it easier. I also changed my eating habits and physical life to feel better about myself.

I ate more vegetables. I ate more nuts. I drank more water. I drank more coffee to keep me energized. I diversified my diet overall. I worked out consistently. I limited my technology usage. I read more. I looked for new relationships and made new friends. These changes made me feel better about myself. They made me a highly functioning human being.

I have spent a lot less time on technology and have focused my attention more on owning my time. I want to make more meaningful memories and not let technology make me a zombie in life.

I started expressing my emotions with more candor to my peers. I’d always been a people pleaser and, because of that, sometimes I’d take responsibility for other’s emotions. I also never truly told people how I felt because I cared about their feelings and our relationship. I stopped carrying those burdens during this project and I felt so light, because even if people do not like me or what I have to say, I am at peace with myself.

I was vulnerable with how I was feeling, I accepted where I was philosophically. These two behavioral changes over all made me feel a lot more confident in myself and lighter.

Friends noticed my physical self changes because I was going to the gym more often, incorporated swimming and mediation and yoga into my workouts. They noticed because they have been my friends for 4 years now and knew I had always talked about my daily workout goals, and until I was challenged, I did not take action.

Fall 2018

I maintained the practice of becoming more organized, completing assignments early and keeping a positive mindset throughout the week.

I stopped smoking. I stopped eating meat. I work out.

I’m more confident and cooperative around people.

Vegetarian diet, consistent schedule of sleeping, and working out twice daily.

The fast change project most beneficial for me. Productivity was one of the things I wanted to improve, and I feel that I became balanced and am still balancing as well as I did during the week of the assignment.

I consistently go to the gym at least 2-3 times a week as well as eat healthier foods.

I put myself in more social situations that give me an opportunity to interact with others as well as gave me more opportunities to be uncomfortable and grow.

Just being more confident and being my whole self rather than being what I think people want me to be.

I became more involved in the community, especially with an incident in my community, I stepped forward and made the change.

Spring 2018

Some behavioral changes I made during this project include being more comfortable in social settings and trying new things every day. I encouraged myself to go outside of my comforts/norms to be more sociable and outgoing. I also increased my daily excitement through attempting new foods, activities, etc. each day to become more well-rounded and develop a broader perspective on life.

I’ve stopped caring so much about what people think of me and started focusing more on being the very best version of me.

I started reading more and checking the news for updates, swimming every week, meditation every day, being more open, being more social, and talking to strangers more.

Overall, my behavior changes were to make myself more comfortable within my mind and body and do the things I have always wanted to do but never considered doing.

I stopped being so judgmental.

I am more enthusiastic and open to trying new things.

The main behavioral change I made with this project is speaking up. My social acceptance with others was slim to none, due to the fact that I am shy.

Fall 2017

Working out more, eating healthy, and keeping the house organized/clean. Not using technology as much. Reflecting at night and planning my schedule for the following day.

I started focusing and reflecting a lot on my relationships because they are something that I value a lot, but I do not always put in the time and energy into every one of them. I was overall more thoughtful about my actions and words towards the people that I care about and tried to really invest in my relationships.

The way I treat others has improved drastically and as a result so have several of my relationships. I respond impulsively so taking a step back and considering how my ideal self would handle situations has helped me avoid and at times handle conflict. I also realize I get out what I put into the relationship so I've been focusing on how I can be a better friend, daughter, student, etc.

I work out about five times a week, I eat a vegan diet and I go out of my way to socialize with more people.

Spring 2017

Some behaviors include waking up early and going to the gym, dietary changes, completing homework in advance, dedicating time to studying, setting time aside to be social, and attempting to remain committed to my obligations.

Some of the behavioral changes that I have made include being more patient, trying to include more balance in every aspect of my life, try to not take things personal that should not be, try to not get upset quickly especially over little things, be more accepting of other views and opinions, surround myself with a more balanced group of people.

During the fast change project I really focused on my mentality about life. It's very philosophical and complex but overall when I alter where my intentions come from and the reasoning behind my actions they fall into place much easier. Due to this change I had changed my physicality in the way I work out and how often. Before this I had gone into many ruts of rapid change and rapid motivation which caused a large inconstancy in how I was treating my body. I was more aligned with emotional self by incorporating mental breaks within my day by drawing or writing. I found this specifically kept me more motivated and energized to change a lot of things about myself.

© 2019 Jesse Pappas, Eric Pappas