Change

Hey team! Good morning. It is Workshop Wednesday and here we are.

Today’s topic is about change. Very few people want to change. It’s hard to change. Many times we talk about changing the world. If you watch the Miss Universe pageant and things like Miss America and all that kind of stuff. They say “I hope for world peace.  I love the world. Change for the better.” and you know we want this, we want that. We’re always hoping that somebody else changes.

When you get married, you all of a sudden start noticing the differences between each other. Now, I’ve been married just about 30 years here. I notice the difference between me and Karen. There have been times in my life I honestly have tried to change her. Want her to change. Be different than she is. We look at other people, and we’re always saying, well, why can’t you change? Why can’t this change? Why can’t this happen? Why can’t you do this for me?

We never actually focus on our change.

We never look inwardly. How can I change? How can I make things better by changing myself? We never want to. We always assume that we’re right. That we have the best way. That we’re perfect, or we just resist change because it is hard. It’s difficult to do something different than you’ve done before, and to create a new habit, maybe in a different way.

Growth is hard, right?  To exercise, whether it be exercise, right muscles, or it be exercising the power and will do something differently. Whether it is eating habits, or it is quitting smoking, or it is some other form of mental change.

I want to get smarter, so I need to read more. We sit down and we try to focus on that. Hey, I’m going to read a book. We might read 10,15,20 pages on the first day. Then the next day, and then something else comes up, and we don’t read for a week. Two weeks goes by, three weeks goes by, six months goes by, and then you’re going “Oh, I really need to read more books. I need to get smarter, I wanna get…” Then you go maybe pick up that book. You can’t remember those first 15 or 30 pages that you read so you have to reread them. So, that you can refresh your knowledge on where you’re at, and then the same cycle happens.

Sticking at something for growth and to truly change yourself takes commitment.

It might take a partner, or a friend to help hold you accountable. Those kinds of things might happen. Change is hard, but if you really want something to be different, and if you want somebody else to change sometimes you go first. Me first!

If I change me and my focus, then sometimes everything else changes for me. I see my wife make changes because I made changes. The things I wanted just happened naturally. I don’t know if that makes sense to some of you, but I have seen it happen in my own marriage, in my own life, and even with my own kids. I see the change transpire and happen because I changed me, not because I changed them. Not because I harped on them. Not because I yelled at somebody else. Not because I got mad at somebody one of the executive leaders, or somebody else here. If I get mad, and I just yell at people all the time, usually they just quit. If I just tell people that they’re wrong all the time, they just up, and quit or they just stop listening to me.

Anyway, this is kind of a long subject, and it could go deeper, and deeper, and wider but I think that you’re getting my point. If you want to see change, if you want to see growth, start with you. Start with me. Look inwardly before you start looking outwardly. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to have intercept, intersection. I think that’s the right word. Maybe it’s not. Introspection, I think is what it is.

 Anyway, God bless you guys. It is a beautiful Wednesday. So be valuable because nothing less will do.

 I’ll see you next week.