Skip to main content

The Price the Status Quo


Most people won’t seek transformation until the pain of their current circumstances is greater than the discomfort of making the change:
 - It’s a couple who waits until their marriage is almost unbearable before actively working on the relationship or seeking counseling. 
- It’s the 9-5 corporate employee who hates his job and dreads going to work but doesn’t leave until he’s finally fired (years too late) and is forced to find something different. 
- It’s the grandmother who sacrificed years of her life to obesity before finally deciding to commit to diet and exercise when she is faced with the harsh reality that she can’t play with her grandkids without getting out of breath. 
- It’s all of us when we complain about the situation around us and the shortcomings of others without making the necessary adjustments in ourselves.

Please don’t put off the progress you must make. It’s hard to pay the piper while you are comfortable, or at least not miserable, in your current circumstances. But he will be paid, sooner or later. You will pay him with lost opportunities, with the increasing discomfort of your current choices, or with the pain of regret. You may pay him now on your terms or you must pay him later on his, with interest. Either way, he will collect his price.

You can boil a live frog as long as you turn up the heat slowly. It’s amazing what humans will accept for their life as long as the stove warms up gradually. Don’t wait until you are cooked before you climb out of the pot. Make the move now before the cost is too great.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on

Glutton for Punishment

I’ve learned over the years that being comfortable can be a dangerous thing. I try to find paths to discomfort to push me out of my realm of “safety.” However, I have noticed my ability to develop comfort zones amidst discomfort. I’ve found ways to be comfortable in uncomfortable circumstances. I wonder, do I need to be stretched beyond those areas as well? One of the areas in which I have adapted to the discomfort is the gym. I don’t go to the gym to exercise, to get stronger or even to be healthier. It’s grown beyond that. Now, I go to the gym to clear my head by testing my will and resolve. I do it to see how hard I can push my limits and I strive to outwork everyone else there. I may not be the strongest, the fastest or the fittest. I may not lift the most weight or even do the most reps – I can’t control any of those variables – but I can control my effort. So one of my goals for each workout is to unleash more effort than anyone else at the gym. But along with this

Commitment

  You know what the problem is with a lot of goals and grand plans? They are mostly fueled by emotion rather than commitment. It is why most New Year’s Resolutions are long forgotten by now and many aspirations quietly fizzle out over time. True commitment is sticking with the effort even – if and especially when – the emotion has diminished or disappeared. Emotion can be a great initiator of action, like kindling on a fire, but it lacks staying power. Commitment is the logs that keep the fire burning long after the kindling is consumed. The butterflies after falling in love, the best intentions of waking up at 4:30am every day to work out after you join a new gym, the excitement of your first day on campus, even the sleep-deprivation induced euphoria of a new baby: all kindling. But it is commitment that keeps you working hard on the marriage twenty-three years after “I do.” It is what causes you to keep going when you do not want to make one more sales call, do one more presentat