Change Lessons

Lessons I’ve learned about change:

• Change is hard. It’s hard on the person taking the decision to change and on the people affected by that decision.
• Don’t expect to be applauded when you want to change things; we are mostly creatures of habit.  We like to stick to the ‘formula’.
• Change is necessary. In fact life isn’t sustainable without change…can you imagine if seasons never changed? If babies never grew? If you had to live today over and over?
• Positive change doesn’t bring instant satisfaction; if it did, people would not keep banging on about ‘the good old days’ (when there was nothing like penicillin or aeroplanes or cars or simple hygiene for that matter!) Classic example is the case of the Israelites. They were slaves one day and free men the next day but they still found a lot to complain about in their new found freedom.
• Change (positive change please) is hard work but it’s worth the effort.
• Decisiveness and change go hand in hand. There just has to be a deliberate decision before any change can take place.
• People say procrastination is the thief of time…I say procrastination is the greatest barrier to change. Remember all those New Year’s resolutions?
• Change is active. A decision is followed by a set of actions or else nothing happens.
• Positive change breeds more positivity (Rom 5:4)
• Change is not an end in itself. Change for the sake of change never lasts but result oriented change is another matter. If you change your diet just so you can say “look at me, I’m eating healthy stuff” you’ll soon be back to burgers and fries for breakfast. If you change your diet so that you can lose weight, each pound you lose inspires you to stay with the new diet.