Comprehensive Change Continues

As I begin to get my financial house in order, I have noticed some major inconsistencies in my life. I work very hard at my job. I do an exceptional job and produce very good results. But in my personal life, discipline is missing in a number of areas. Understanding that deficiency is a good beginning. Now the time is coming for me to get control over these areas one at a time.

Target Practice

A few weeks ago, I went to a friend's house and he got out a couple of rifles. We went out back and crossed a property line so that it was legal, and began shooting up a storm. I envision the same thing happening as I undergo dramatic, cataclysmic transformation in my life. This is far more comprehensive than any change cycle I have ever attempted before, and the change here is coming from the inside out. Stephen Covey refers to a need for paradigm shifts to come from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. Most of the attempts I have done before have been externally motivated to one degree or another. This is different.

Evidence

The proof is in the way that I feel now compared to the way that I have felt before when I have tried these kinds of things. I am clearly in control. Before, it has merely been a "well, let's give this a try" kind of feeling. Here, it is fundamentally different. There is no question in my mind that the motivation is there. I simply need to correlate some of these other issues into the intrinsic drive that is under way in getting out of debt.

Essentially, I don't want to wake up in a year and be struggling with the same junk that I have been struggling with for years. I don't want to wake up in a year and still be completely out of shape, overweight, financially controlled by debt, spiritually controlled by my flesh, and living a life of occasional victory, occasional failure, and constant fear. Perhaps this is an oversimplification of my condition, but black and white works best for me. I have begun working on the finances, now I must begin working on the health.

Because a rich person who has spent all his time acquiring wealth at the expense of his health would give all he had to regain the health that he lost. I am tired of being afraid to look at pictures of myself. I am tired of avoiding certain stores because of the number of mirrors they have in them. I have a handful of health problems that contribute to poor breathing. Asthma, a lung that collapsed 9 years ago, the other lung that had a tumor pressing against it, etc. Being overweight and out of shape merely add to the problems, and I am tired of all that junk. My heart is tired, too. If I were to lose a single pound a week for the next year, I will weigh 50 pounds less at the beginning of July, 2007. Very conservative plan.

Patience

I am extraordinarily competetive in a lot of what I do. And yet, God has been teaching me over the last three or four years that patience is definitely a valid character trait that I have so oft neglected. The tortoise beats the hare. Dave Ramsey says that "the best way to get rich quick is to get rich slowly." The best way to lose weight fast is to lose weight slowly. Methodical and consistent always beats out flash in the pan. Our microwave culture wants the quick fix. It frustrates us if the cable company gives us a two hour window in which to install the cable. We are a sad lot, aren't we?