{There are hundreds, probably thousands, of bloggers around the globe participating in 30-day challenges where you post about something every day for thirty days. For most, it's a way to jumpstart the creative juices, to get into a daily habit of writing. For me (yes, I'm joining the bandwagon) it's a way to document my program for repair and renewal — spirit, soul, and body.}Today I picked up my second copy (I gave the first one away... Note to self: Do not give away books that have transformed your life unless you already have another copy at hand.) of Bill Epperhart's Correct Change Required. This book carried me through one of the most difficult times I can remember, motivated me to complete my first full fiction manuscript, AND helped me lose more than 20 pounds. And it's not just a poundage issue ... Epperhart's subtitle is "Becoming Who You Really Want to Be." Who doesn't want THAT?
As I've regained about 10 of those pounds in the last six months or so; have multiple writing projects started, but nothing completed; and am at a time when I really need to redefine myself because the old ID doesn't fit anymore, I ordered another copy of Epperhart's book.
Day One:
If you are too far removed from your own angst to grasp this concept, go to Walmart and check out your fellow consumers. Walmart (and Target, and Starbucks, and every church, restaurant, resort, and shopping mall) are full of people trapped in Thoreau's description of "quiet desperation." They might be:
"Most people lead lives of quiet desperation." ~Thoreau
Desperate to save their marriage or other relationship.
Desperate to make their financial ends meet.
Desperate to regain their health.
Desperate to find peace and joy and satisfaction.
There are only two responses to desperation: apathy or change. You either continue to accept the way things are as your fate in life, or you choose a course of change. Imagine yourself as a caterpillar...
Too fat to eat another bite, so heavy with what you've already consumed you run the risk of falling right off the next leaf into oblivion, all the while knowing you are called to something better, something MORE.
Change happens to us all. Sometimes it's forced upon us by circumstance in the form of tragedy, trauma, or other people's choices. Sometimes we're tricked into it by a combination of internal and external pressures. Often, change is just a product of our temporal existence in this realm. But above and beyond all of those is proactive change: the kind of change that brings about a desired result. It comes when we choose to change and follow through with those new choices to the desired result.
- Easy? Not even. As someone has said, "If it were easy, everyone would be doing it."
- Essential? Only if you have that hunger for something better and higher than what you're experiencing.
- Available? Absolutely. You are a child of the Most High God, designed in His creative image and given a free will so powerful you can even make choices that are self-destructive (you know that, you've made some of them already).
1. What change(s) do I desire to make in my life?
2. Am I willing to die to old ways of thinking, believing, and doing in order to make those desired changes happen?
Some of you are clinging to the past—past hurts, losses, griefs, victories, or self-destructive methods and patterns of life. Others are clutching at present circumstances, painful though they may be, unwilling to release situations, roles, relationships, etc., in order to move on to the next phase of your existence. As one who has played the game both ways, may I encourage you? Don't wait until change is forced upon you by the "sands of time in the hourglass," begin NOW to make the changes you most desire to make.
More on the process tomorrow!
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