New Year’s Feed and Starve

 I’m sure you’ve heard the story about the old Cherokee speaking to his grandson about good and evil.  He told the boy that everybody has two wolves fighting inside of them.  One wolf is good, loving, humble, benevolent and honest.  The other is greedy, envious, selfish, and arrogant.  The little boy looked at the old man intently and asked, “Which wolf wins?”  The grandfather replied, “The one you feed – that one will surely win.”

This is yet the start of another year and with it comes all kinds of resolutions, promises, commitments and the like.  Very few are kept and the likely reason is not so much we don’t want to keep them but we fail to starve old beliefs and behaviors and grow tired of “feeding” the new.

It reminds me of the alcoholic who decides he wants to quit so he puts down the bottle, determined to finally whip it but he continues to hang around the same spaces and places with the same faces.

…or the person who “acts” like the good, loving, humble, benevolent and honest wolf but is burning inside with greed, envy, selfishness and arrogance.

Effective change requires wholesale disruption and transformation of your life.

It is not an event, it is a process.

What is it you want to change in your life? For real change to happen you must start feeding the new change daily while starving the beliefs and actions that no longer help feed the new commitment..

If you are serious about making positive change, here are some steps that will help you:

Pray for it – Pray first thing in the morning for God’s help in starving the old and feeding the new.

Picture it – What are you trying to change?  How will it look after the change has taken place?

Plan it – Write the change down on paper and create action steps to accomplish it.

Practice it – Make a commitment to do whatever you are doing differently, in a very focused manner for at least 4 weeks.  Call it boot camp.  Tell yourself your life depends on this change.  For some resolutions like dealing with addictions, your life does depend on it…I write from experience.  Getting through 4 weeks will allow for an old habit to begin starving and a new habit to come alive.  This is only the beginning.  It takes a good year of feeding the new habit and starving the old before the change becomes a part of daily living.

People it – Surround yourself with people who have learned how to feed the new habit you are trying to create and/or have starved the old habit.  God works best through His people.

Pray for it…again – Prayer is so powerful it is worth repeating and if you don’t pray or believe there is a God either find an atheist life coach blog to read or fake it until you make it.  God wants you to succeed just like any father wants to see his children succeed.

Some sayings to spur you on as you become tempted to opt out of your new year’s commitment:

Excuses are like our hind ends, we all have them and they all stink.  As soon as you start making excuses think of this saying I first heard (uncensored) from my college basketball coach back in 1979.

If I’m not the problem, then there is no solution.  Blaming  other people, places and things for your inability to feed the new and starve the old is an excuse as described above.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Jay@EagleLaunch.com

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed; behold, the new has come.”