Discipline

I Thought I Had Developed Good Habits until I Found Out About This One...

Change your Habits, Change your Life If you came up to me and said that you wanted to lose 50 pounds in 2015 because you found an advertisement for a “skinny pill” that would take it off in a week, I’d tell you that you should reconsider the time frame and the method by which you’ll use the weight. If you want to shave 50 pounds in 2015, you must start with modifications to your diet, workout, and sleep patterns, not simply look for the quick fix. If you desire better grades in school, you must devote time for study at night instead of wasting it on video games and Netflix. In fact, your future doesn’t change by dramatic turns later; it begins with incremental changes today. Minor adjustments today yield long-term dividends. The exact same is true with your spiritual life. You will not wake up tomorrow and be a perpetually-happy 4am riser. Not All Habits are the Same You’ve probably heard the adage, “Work smarter, not harder.” The same applies to spiritual growth as well. Even though it is God Who grows us as Christians, we can plant ourselves in an environment for spiritual growth. Lifestyle change occurs when one or both of these factors are present: your ability to do a task changes or your motivation for doing a task changes. There are habits and there are what Charles Duhigg, in his book The Power of Habit, calls “keystone habits.” Keystone habits set off a chain reaction of events that affect other areas of your life similar to a domino effect. These habits affect how we communicate, work, play, eat, spend our money, and allocate our time. Duhigg shares the necessity for fostering these practices, “The habits that matter most are the ones that, when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns.”[1] You are probably asking yourself: what are Keystone habits in my life? Let me elaborate a little bit. Read More
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