Did you wake up on November 5th with a sense of change?

Politics aside, I did wake with a good feeling the day after the election. I felt a sense of excitement in the air. I was at the bank and heard people saying that they felt excited, proud and ready for change!

What expectations we have of the President-elect, are yet to be proven. Wall Street continues its roller coaster; Palestinians from Gaza are sending rockets on innocent Israelis, and the Russians want missiles in Poland. I guess not all of those guys are looking for a positive change.

But I, for one, felt the need to implement changes I have wanted for awhile. I would like to share my thoughts on a three-step plan for change (maybe Mr. Obama will take note).

I went on a jog that morning. That’s something I have not done in quite some time. I started my day with changes that I have wanted to implement at work for a while. Whenever I got distracted and heard that voice inside saying: "Oh, leave that in the car; you will take it out another time," I went ahead and did it then and there!

You see Step One in change is about seizing the moment, not a promise and hope. It is about doing something NOW, not just strategizing. How do we capture this wind of change in our own lives?

Change is a difficult thing to accomplish; there are myriad volumes of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis books where writers and doctors try to preach how to change a habit and how to overcome an addiction. There are books on coaching, and quick-fix methods how to lose weight, how to be more motivated and how to be a better person. Truly these are life-long challenges in man’s pursuit of growth, improvement, fulfillment and happiness. But how do we change? How do we be the person we always wanted to be?

The holy Rabbi Zushe of Anipoli, a 17th century Chassidic Master, was quoted as saying: "When I go up to heaven, the heavenly courts won't ask me: ‘Tell us Zushe why were you not like Abraham? Why were you not like Moses or King David?’ They will say: ‘Zushe, why were you not Zushe?’"

So, Step Two is to stop measuring up against the successes or failures of others; rather be honest with where you are at and where you want to be.

And finally, Step Three: Too often we think that change means an addition to our lives. We think that change is about meeting a new face, going on a new diet, getting a new brand of makeup, a new car or a new toy.

Real change comes from within. Real change is looking in the mirror and saying to ourselves as G‑d said to Adam after sinning in the Garden of Eden: Ayekah - Where are you? G‑d knew where Adam was. G‑d meant: Where are you making progress? What are you doing in this world?

To inspire this tangible change, we need to get in touch and start communicating with ourselves, about our insides, our inner being and faculties—our inner emotions.

We need to learn how to find ourselves—touching the part of us that is so often hidden deep within ourselves and hardly exposed. That inner self is what we call the Neshamah, the soul. We get in touch with that part of ourselves when we pray, when we sit down for a Shabbat dinner and when we learn some Torah.

Identity crisis strikes us all, and temptations drive us from the path of truth. Let's learn to say no to the negative inclinations and influences. Let's do more than we are expected to accomplish. Let's take on another Mitzvah—let's do another kind deed.

This is the change that we should believe in—change from within. And may G‑d, in turn, grant us the change He promised us so long ago, a change that heralds the coming of Mashiach.