Are You Ready to Change?

(Beginning of chapter one)

"To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior." Maxwell Maltz

Take a good look around you. From one country to another we see evidence of a world in chaos. Even in our country, espousing a credo that “all men are created equal,” we see a continuing stream of injustices. Moving from the ideal to daily reality remains a constant challenge in the transformation of the human heart. From one end of the social and economic spectrum to the other, from polarized opposite points of view regarding human virtues and values, we see the evidence of the constant stream of inner pain of people. Far too often the end result of this persistent pain is a hopelessness and despair that leads to chronic and debilitating mental illness and a final act of desperation in suicide. From millionaire rock stars, Wall Street superstars, Hollywood celebrities, middle-aged homemakers, disillusioned teenagers, and military veterans, no one seems immune from the consequences of a toxic cocktail of painful life events, fractured dreams, empty promises, betrayal of authority figures, distorted thinking, damaged emotions, and the resulting consequences of ineffective and harmful life choices.

The good news is life does not have to be lived or end this way. Get this point and get it now – if you are capable, if you are willing, to change what you think, to change what you believe, to change how you behave – then you can influence and change the circumstances of your life. If you are willing to do these things, you can live in the words of Jesus Christ, “I have come to give you life and that life more abundantly.” Your life is a sum total product of what you believe to be true about you. You cannot change anything about your life; accomplish any of your dreams, goals and desires, until you fundamentally change what you believe to be true about you. Why believe a lie about who you are and what you were created to become when you can begin to believe the truth about who you are and the purpose for which your heavenly Father created you?

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Your life is a sum total product of what you believe to be true about you. You cannot change anything about your life; accomplish any of your dreams, goals and desires, until you fundamentally change what you believe to be true about you.

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There is an old adage that when the student is ready the teacher arrives. Sadly, pain and adversity seem to motivate a large number of people to the point where they can decide to live a different life. Very simply, pain becomes a motivator for change. Sadder still, this same pain and adversity cripple some people who become so accustomed to the dysfunction of their lives that it becomes the “new normal.” Then over time, it becomes very difficult for them to see and believe another way of living life than in their constant hopelessness and despair. Consequently, even change we want and desire, coupled with the dissatisfaction of where we are in life at the moment, can be insufficient to propel people – propel you – into significant changes in your thinking that drive different behaviors and their associated outcomes in your life.

In her book, Choose the Happiness Habit, Pam Golden demonstrates this contrasting perspective on pain and adversity. She writes, “Take the story of two brothers who are twins. One grows up to be an alcoholic bum. The other becomes an extremely successful businessman. When the alcoholic is asked why he became a drunk, he replies, “My father was a drunk.” When the successful businessman is asked why he became successful, he replied, “My father was a drunk.” Adversity, in the form of challenging life events, comes to all of us. The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to how that person chooses to respond to those life events. When adversity is self-inflicted, people need to learn to stop choosing poorly. When adversity comes from the changing elements of life beyond our control, we still need to respond in a way that improves the outcome rather than adding to the destructive elements inherent to all of life’s major challenges.

Your pathway to finding peace and contentment in life begins with your own willingness to change. Accepting Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life does not automatically cause you to be fruitful and live as an effective Christian in our current, modern world. The apostle Paul wrote, “I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling for which you have been called” (Eph.4:1). We cannot “lead a life worthy” - change anything in life - without first changing the root cause of our current condition – our thinking. Have you ever seen the toy that demonstrates Newton’s law of every action has an equal and opposite reaction? It consists of five hanging steel balls. You pick one ball and release it and it compels another ball to move at the other end. You pick two balls and release them and it compels two balls to respond at the other end. So every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So your thoughts have an equal and opposite reaction in behavior. Negative thoughts create negative outcomes and positive thoughts create positive outcomes. The idea of changing ourselves can be very disturbing and unsettling but so are the consequences of failing to change. Tragically, people will bemoan the consequences of their negative thinking and choices all the while feeding the cause. Are you ready to change?