When To Change

The trees in the picture did not have a choice. I'm sure for weeks or days they knew they were not getting the nutrition they needed to grow. What happened? Well the picture is evident, they died because they could not change. I'm sure at one time things were going well and they were comfortable with the nutrition, but something happened, and unfortunately they could not react. We however can see the writing, can see things happening and the question is are we ready.

When to change? I’ve shared my thoughts on reflection, comfort and so many others that feed right into this, but at some point you have to pull the trigger and make a change and the timing of that change is so critical. Wait too long and you are stuck doing something that you do not like for too long or continuously heading down the wrong path till you are too far. Go too early and you can be seen as wishy washy, flip flopper, unsettled, not knowing what you want, and on and on I can go. Trying to pick that right moment is critical, but more important than finding that right moment, is knowing when you have gone too far and got complacent.

In Jerred Moon’s new book, Killing Comfort (link below) he goes into complacency and says

“Although most people believe comfort is ultimately a good thing, complacency is insidious. We have too many opportunities to settle, we get pacified, and we refuse to struggle against resistance… No one decides a dead-end job is perfect, and no one purposefully designs a relations that leads to unhappiness.

These things happen. They creep in on us.”

The idea of complacency is so true, it is like quicksand, just slowly sucking us in and before we know it we are still there years later heading down the same path. Why because it was comfortable, it felt good and didn’t cause any stress or trouble.

After reading this book, I was going through the bonus materials where he challenges you to reflect on you comfort or complacency in several areas including, Financial, Spiritual, Health, Relationship, Work… and about 4 others. I started to think through these myself and thought well work wise I’m in good shape, as I am still in learning mode, just got promoted and took on a whole new role this year, definitely not comfortable or complacent there. Without going through all of them, I just started high level thinking about them and felt good about them all till I really started to dig deeper into each one. Then I started to uncover some complacency.

See spiritually I feel pretty good, I’ve been active in my church for 10+ years, do quite a bit, teach Sunday School and other things, but I’ve been doing the same routine for a while. Am I complacent or am I comfortable. Either way, my ask, is God asking more and I’m just holding back. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says “Quench not the Spirit.” What goals does God have for me this year, where I have been holding back from him and not giving into his leading.

The truth to these questions I don’t know, but I share this to you as a way to reflect, dig in, and find where it is you need to change, what are you holding back on in your life, in your relationship, work, or walk with God. Where are there some steps you need to start taking and make some changes. We are coming up on the middle of the year, so it is a perfect time to reflect, dig in and find what steps you need to make to achieve your goals.

Recommendations:

Killing Comfort: The Overlooked Prerequisite to Extraordinary Results by Jerred Moon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1734858028/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

John Eades - Follow My Lead Podcast - How to be a Coffee Bean with Damon West - If you don’t know the Coffee Bean story or book, you need to listen to this. If you do know the story, you still need to listen to this one, so good and Damon has such great advice to share that goes beyond the coffee bean.

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/learnloft/follow-my-lead