Why Most People Don't Change and How They Can

Most of us I think would agree that people can change for the better.  This is indeed a fact, and there are so many examples around to show it’s true, it's futile to argue this fact.  For some reason however, most people don’t change for the better, even if they say they want to, but why? What’s holding them back? 

Excellence Demands Sacrifice

What does it take to excel?  Pick your field, the requirements are the same.  For one thing, it takes a willingness to stretch yourself.  It also takes commitment.  In any field, if we want to excel, we need to be ready to step outside of our comfort zone.  We may have to leave pookie in the sandbox and move on.  Anyone can be mediocre, no commitment or sacrifice required.  Excellence in any field demands sacrifice.  Much of the sacrifice required is a personal sacrifice that most individuals aren’t willing to commit to.  Why doesn’t everyone strive for excellence?  Much is written about just that. 

The Pursuit of Happiness

Decades ago, our founding fathers wrote these words: ". . . endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"  So how are we as a country doing with that happiness part?  More specifically how are we as individuals doing with that happiness part?  I know, it's a rhetorical question.  We can improve on this area dramatically if we want to.

Are some people lucky, have good fortune or something else?

Most of us know people who seem to be more fortunate than others.  People often say (or at least think) these people are merely lucky or fortunate.  Every wonder why some people always seem to: be “lucky”; get the “breaks”; or “succeed”? Well luck has little or nothing to do with it. For example, were Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali & Rudy Ruettiger just lucky?  It wasn’t mere talent either, many are as talented as they were.  These guys did something special to be what they were & we can too.

Healthy Wealth & Wise

As a child mom, dad, grandma & grandpa said that what they wanted out of life was to be HEALTHY – WEALTHY and WISE.  I agree, and I’m sure most people would.  This leads to three questions:  Why don’t most people end up with these things?  Is this difficult?  Is it possible? 

Want to know more? - - -

Follow Worthy Leaders

The only thing it takes to give advice is a mouth (or other means of communication) and a willingness to use it.  Anyone can give advice and many people are all too willing to listen to anyone and everyone who gives it.  It is key that before any advice is listened to and followed, we must consider the source. Once we've considered the source, we need to evaluate the validity of the message and the motives of the adviser.  I believe one of the most worthwhile purposes of our educational system today isn't teaching facts, dates, names and other "trivia".  I believe the most worthwhile thing someone should get out of an education is the ability and willingness to learn.  It has been said that teaching is not merely spewing forth knowledge, but rather true teaching is inspiring the student to learn.

With that, here's some history I was reminded of recently in a message from Phil Humbert:

Loony tunes - a pleasant diversion

I was enjoying some late night reading when about 1:30 in the morning, I was interrupted by a loon singing out on the lake.  Soon another one joined in, then pretty soon, sound filled the air as several loons 'bantered' back and forth.  Now if you've never heard a loon sing, you're missing something special.  I have no idea what they're saying to each other, but it sure is a beautiful sound to me. I bet they have no idea how pretty their song is either, they just sing the songs they were meant to sing.  Then I got to thinking about some parallels with what Henry David Thoreau meant when he wrote, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."  Here's what I think he meant - - -

Nurturing your dream and living the life you deserve.

Most youngsters and I would argue all of us at one time or another had dreams of things we'd like to do in our life.  Unfortunately these dreams often get pushed so far back in our minds we forget about them. Worse yet, some people forget they ever had dreams at all.  Dreams give us direction, hope and a vision for our future.  A great movie was made several years ago titled, "The Bucket List".  If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch it.  I also want to mention a young lady I met this past year who told me that she only had one thing left do on her bucket list.  My response was to tell her she's pretty young to run out of things to strive for, and suggested that she start looking for more things that stir her soul, and dream bigger dreams.  At least at the age of 18, she was working toward achieving things she identified as being important to her.  Most people her age have all but given up on their dreams and convinced themselves that they were unrealistic in the first place.  It's important to realize that no matter what our age, we don't have to give up on the dreams that stir our soul. 

The question that begs to be asked is how do we rekindle or continue to nurture our dreams and start living the life we at one time dreamed about? 

Two Thousand vs Four Billion - - - HMMM - - - How to go with the winner.

A great  book written by Vince Poscente is titled "The Ant and the Elephant".  From the title, it sounds a lot like a kid's book and it could be read and taken that way.  It's actually a book written for us big people though.  The words in this book make you think it's merely about an ant riding on top of an elephant.  The story talks about a journey taking place where the ant actually learns how to control the elephant.  The book isn't actually about an ant and elephant at all.  They are just symbols that represent something much more important than an insect and a pachyderm.  They actually represent - - - -

Can you change your way of thinking?

Well the easy answer is yes, we can all change our way of thinking.  The reality is that it isn't easy for us to do so. Let me demonstrate with a math problem (bear with an old math teacher).  I first saw this problem while in college in a problem solving class and it really requires no "high-level" math what so ever.  It just requires changing the way most people are thinking about the problem.  Here's the problem:  In a rectangular room with dimensions 12' X 12' X 30'.  A spider is located in the middle of one wall, one foot from the ceiling. A fly is in the middle of the opposite wall one foot from the floor. If the fly remains stationary, what is the shortest total distance the spider must crawl along the walls, ceiling and floor in order to capture the fly?  The correct answer is NOT 42 feet, it is actually  - - - -

THE DASH

Ahh the dash. This has some different meanings. I'll mention a couple of them here. One meaning is a short quick run, another meaning is what we see on tomb stones between the birth and death dates. The point of this post is mainly the second meaning, a far more significant meaning.

Out with bad, in with good

This post is from a great short book I recently read titled, "Peaks and Valleys" by Spencer Johnson. It's an easy read and for many of you would take less than two hours. Don't let the length fool you, it's much more than a comic book. Some of the most notable things I found in this little gem that I plan on adopting into my life are what follows.

Beginning words

For some time I've been posting quotes and short phrases of truth that I've read from some great books on facebook. This blog will extend my thoughts and perspectives on some of the things I am exposed to through books and association with people much more successful than I am. I've had the pleasure of being associated with some great people and a couple of great organizations for the past few years. As a result I've changed many habits that I let control my life for years and as a result I hope I'm changing for the better myself. I got in the habit of letting what television, radio and friends "told me" to do for too long. The power of suggestion is a powerful excuse to do things, even if they're not right. Take for instance commercials we've probably all seen on television. They normally tell you nothing about their products, but through pictures, they show you what buying their product will get you. The suggestion is that almost automatically you will be surrounded by beautiful women (or handsome men) and your world will be transformed into one of joy and happiness. We know better if we think about it. The reality is that we don't think about it. Our subconscious minds see an appealing picture and then we do what we must in order to make that picture come true. The problem is that we are normally not in control of what we put into our subconscious. The important thing to realize is that we can control what we put into our subconscious. In doing this, we actually control what we act upon in order to make those pictures we have in our subconscious come true. Two important questions are: Which pictures are we going to allow to be put into our subconscious? and Who will decide what pictures get put into our subconscious?