If change is going to be significant and long term I am coming to realise that it has to be taken in very short steps. If it is not taken in very short steps, it quite often doesn't last. I guess we have all started that new diet or that new fitness scheme and we dive into this great and life changing program to find after a week or two (sometimes less) we have given up. We simply bit off more than we could chew, we tried to change too much too soon.
I guess on a converse note sometimes we get frightened by what we see as the sheer enormity of the change required. We then consequently come up with the only logical conclusion .... to procrastinate! I once did a study at university on procrastination and procrastination not is the problem. Procrastination is actually our answer to something that frightens us - to simply delay doing anything about this thing that frightens us.
A baby does not make huge progress all at once but takes small steps over time to develop any skill. I believe we should do the same as the baby, it gives us time to practice a little bit at a time. It also allows us to practice our new skill, habit or idea in the least threatening way. It also allows us time to think carefully about what we are doing and why we are doing it. We can give it back to God in prayer, we can meditate on it. "As he thinks in his heart so is he." (Proverbs 23:7) As we do this we enable God to enter our lives in a meaningful way, rather than relying solely on our own will power to "guts" it out.
This is very real for me as I am changing the way I work in my daily life. I am now doing 3 days at one job and 1-2 days at another, rather than doing one job a week as I have for 34 years. This is a big change! How do I adapt.... one small step at a time! ... I will keep you posted.
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time!!
