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

Primed for Progress

Just as some pumps need to be primed to work effectively, our lives need to be “primed” to flow efficiently. Good mornings and productive days don’t happen by accident, and by “priming” your day, you can set yourself up for better results. Does it mean you won’t have bad days? Of course not, but it’s making your day happen instead of just waiting for what happens. Once again, it’s a choice of being proactive rather than reactive. You will still have challenges and difficulties, but how you face those hurdles and respond to the struggles will be different with a primed mindset. I am sure there are many ways to prime your day and set the tone for the hours ahead, and what works for one won’t necessarily work for all. However, the process of creating a plan or a model of how things should unfold is a great place for anyone to start. Also, as I have mentioned before, how you actually start the morning is critical - the battle with the alarm clock is your first chance at victory for

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i