We can all get stuck in a rut.
Frustrated that we keep repeating the same errors.
Saint Paul’s words can chime with all of us; “I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.” Romans 7:15-25
How do we go about making changes in our life?
In a podcast interview the author James Clear advises that the place to start, like Saint Paul, is with self-awareness. We need to be aware of what our struggles are and what we want to achieve. Having goals in life help us to shape what we want to achieve and what sort of person we want to be. For James Clear we can best achieve these by focusing on our daily habits and our every-day choices. What are the habits that we want to keep up? Which habits do we want to do less and which do we want to increase? Whether that’s buying different things to eat, putting a book by our bedside, creating a reminder to call a loved one, scheduling in regular exercise or putting a little bit away every month. Whatever we want to achieve in life, big or small, I have found it helpful to focus on the next one little thing that I can do.
In Matthew Chapter 7 Jesus tells a parable about two builders, a successful one who spends time and effort digging secure foundations and a disappointed builder who easily creates a home on unstable ground with disastrous outcomes. Jesus’ point is that it takes time and effort for our intentions and our actions to produce the outcomes that we want. There are no short cuts in creating habits that shape us into the people that God wants us to be.
If we keep digging, God encourages us that we can build secure foundations.
If we adjust our habits, bit by bit, we can gradually work towards our long-term goals in life.
Becoming people who do the things that we want to do.
God bless,
Alec
