Okay, today I have to admit that I totally stole the title for this blog from a book written by John Maxwell. In fact, that book is currently sitting on my shelf, and is one of the few that I haven't had the opportunity to read yet.
Over this week's blog entries, I've been talking about how our thinking affects who we truly are as people. Again, we can only do this in a limited way. We can't start thinking of ourselves as sinless and suddenly start becoming sinless. In other words, we cannot change our nature by the way we think. But we can change some of the actions and behaviors that define us simply by changing the way we think about ourselves.
And the point of today's post is simply that thinking for a change is not an easy thing to do. Just like we get caught up in our routines, we also get caught in our routines of how we think. I'll use myself as an example. I typically am not someone who enjoys talking on the phone a lot. I especially have a difficult time initiating the phone calls. However, given my employment and role in life, there are many times where I have to be the one to pick up the phone and initiate contact with other people. So, in order to bring about that change, I remind myself of the importance of connecting with people like that. I remind myself that I actually seem to have pretty decent conversations on the phone. But even though I've seen the improvement in myself, the pattern of thinking is still there, and is battled against. Thinking for a change is not the easiest of things in the world!
And yet, if we don't change the way that we think, how can we expect any kind of change to really take hold? If it's enforced upon us by another, we'll rebel against it, and then, once the outside pressure is removed, we'll likely start to revert back to what we were before. But if we start to become more internally motivated, if we change the way we think about ourselves, our words, and our actions, we can start to see that change, even if it's a battle, and even if it doesn't completely happen right away.
Agree? Disagree? I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Over this week's blog entries, I've been talking about how our thinking affects who we truly are as people. Again, we can only do this in a limited way. We can't start thinking of ourselves as sinless and suddenly start becoming sinless. In other words, we cannot change our nature by the way we think. But we can change some of the actions and behaviors that define us simply by changing the way we think about ourselves.
And the point of today's post is simply that thinking for a change is not an easy thing to do. Just like we get caught up in our routines, we also get caught in our routines of how we think. I'll use myself as an example. I typically am not someone who enjoys talking on the phone a lot. I especially have a difficult time initiating the phone calls. However, given my employment and role in life, there are many times where I have to be the one to pick up the phone and initiate contact with other people. So, in order to bring about that change, I remind myself of the importance of connecting with people like that. I remind myself that I actually seem to have pretty decent conversations on the phone. But even though I've seen the improvement in myself, the pattern of thinking is still there, and is battled against. Thinking for a change is not the easiest of things in the world!
And yet, if we don't change the way that we think, how can we expect any kind of change to really take hold? If it's enforced upon us by another, we'll rebel against it, and then, once the outside pressure is removed, we'll likely start to revert back to what we were before. But if we start to become more internally motivated, if we change the way we think about ourselves, our words, and our actions, we can start to see that change, even if it's a battle, and even if it doesn't completely happen right away.
Agree? Disagree? I welcome your thoughts and comments.
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