The Price of CHANGE

 

Chapter 3

The Price of CHANGE 

YES...

        Change is possible!

Advertisements are full of
false statements aimed
at alluring you
to buy.

                That is the good news. 

But authentic personal or professional change always comes with a price. Remember what my dad taught me when I was a boy: Nothing in life worth having comes fast or easy. Positive change is always worth pursuing and achieving, but there is always a cost involved. These costs are measured in time, effort, sacrifice, and to an extent—discomfort, and sometimes even pain.

There is no other way!

Bookstores, libraries, television, and the Internet are littered with literature and advertisements promising dramatic changes and other results with little or no effort on your part. Salespeople, marketers, and politicians are especially clever and seductive in their persuasive ploys.

        Buy our product and you'll see immediate and dramatic results!

                Purchase our service and your problems will magically vanish!

                        Vote for me and all of your dreams will come true!

Weight loss plans are infamously alluring. "Lose 30 pounds in 30 days without getting out of your Lazy Boy," they preposterously purport. My older sister, Jody, is not a professional fitness trainer or nutritional guru; yet she once set forth the clearest and surest solution I've ever heard for losing weight and staying in shape.

Her formula: Eat healthy and exercise regularly!

This perennially unpopular, yet perpetually profound method will never become a best-selling book, service, or product; but deep down, we all know it is the ultimate solution to the age-old problem of weight gain.  

This Life Leadership textbook makes no pretension of quick fixes, nor does it guarantee easy answers to personal problems and change efforts. In fact, the only thing I can absolutely ensure is that reading, studying, and applying it will most likely prove both challenging and time-consuming.

This being the case, why in the world would you try to tackle this tome?

The answer is simple, but not easy; and the answer is this: Because a lot of people, including YOU, desire change badly enough that they are willing to do whatever it takes to change, grow, improve, and succeed. 

Ironically, the hardest way in the short-run is usually the easiest way in the long-run, and vice-versa. In the words of the fitness guru, Jerzy Gregorek: Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.

"Hard choices, easy life.  Easy choices, hard life."

—Jerzy Gregorek

Truth often is paradoxical, and this is a classic example of this great truth. 

I have discovered the truth of this principle time-and-time-again throughout my life and career. As an old adage wisely points out: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

—Benjamin Franklin

Countless other self-action leaders have likewise discovered the value and veracity of this timeless truism. In the words of Henry Miller: In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.

"In this age, which believes that there is a short cut for everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest."

—Henry Miller

Eleanor Roosevelt
1884-1962

Eleanor Roosevelt said something similar as it relates to our willingness to be courageous in doing what is right. Said she: Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run it is easier.

"Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run it is easier."

—Eleanor Roosevelt

Simple Truths vs. Easy Solutions

There is a difference between a simple truth and an easy solution in the same sense that there is a difference between theory and practice. This Life Leadership textbook is chock full of simple truths (theory) to solving life's deepest difficulties, defeats, discouragements, and dilemmas. But it cannot provide you with easy answers (practice) to such things because easy answers to perplexing problems don't exist. 

Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling snake oil.

Because YOU are a smart person, understanding the PRINCIPLES outlined in this book may be a fairly simple exercise for you. On the other hand, effectively applying the accompanying PRACTICES consistently over time may be the hardest thing you've ever done. 

I therefore caution you: don't let the intellectual simplicity of the concepts fool you into thinking that persistently putting them into practice will prove easy or convenient.

Like most truths, the principles contained in these books are paradoxical because they are true, and true because they are paradoxical. They are as simple as they are difficult, and as difficult as they are simple.

It is as simple—and as difficult—as that!

With such recurring declarations of difficulty, why in the world would you want to keep reading this textbook? The answer to this potentially discouraging question is simple, and it is this: Because if you are willing to pay the price and perpetually personify the process, the results are astoundingly worth whatever effort or sacrifice may be required. 

I know this is true because I've experienced plentiful portions of pomp and victory on the other side of my own life's variety of vicissitudes. 

A lifelong journey of personal and professional growth is not easy for anyone who undertakes it. It has not been easy for me; and it will not be easy for you. In the candidly compassionate commentary of our pal, M. Scott Peck, M.D.: "Even when we truly understand [SAL], the journey of [personal change and growth] is still so lonely and difficult that we often become discouraged."  (1)

That is the bad news. 

The greatest GROWTH of all is the
growth that occurs amidst difficulty

The good news is that growth and change are always possible and no matter how challenging it may be to achieve it, it is always worth whatever expenditure of time, effort, and sacrifice is required. That means that no matter who you are, where you live, or what your present circumstances may be, a better, happier, and more successful and fulfilling future always lies ahead of you if you are willing to travel the authentic course that leads thereto.

Comprehending these possibilities can be incredibly motivating.

Furthermore, positive and productive personal change and growth is only the beginning. Relationship change, family change, organizational change, community change, national change, and even global change is always an outgrowth of personal change. Individual growth and progress always precede collective growth and progress.

That's just the way things are.  

Thus, change in all arenas of life—and the world—can be ignited by the fires of personal change. This is because all macro changes are preceded by micro changes. Change always begins with the ONE; it begins with you and it begins with me.  

So...

   If you have a sincere and authentic desire to:

        Overcome a bad habit,
            Gain confidence,
                Establish or regain your mental health and hygiene,
                    Strengthen and shore up you integrity,
                        Develop greater emotional intelligence and resiliency,
                            Turn a weakness into a strength,
                                    Earn personal growth,
                                        Transform a relationship,
                                            Reorient an unwanted natural inclination...

Acquire new knowledge and skills,
    Become a person you like and respect,
        Influence others in positive and productive ways,
            Make a difference for good in the lives of those you live and work,
                Leave a meaningful and lasting legacy for your posterity,
                    Become great in the eyes of those you most admire and respect,

Live,

    Love,

        Win,

            And take charge of your life,

Then YOU can!

But only if you want to change more than you desire to remain as you are.

For change will

Not be easy,

Come quickly,

Or prove painless.

It will take time,

Demand your very best efforts,

The help of others where needed,

And the blessed aid of Serendipity.

But...

Change is always possible if change is what you most want.
    So, don't let anyone steal your self-sovereignty.
        This is YOUR life to win or lose...
            YOU CHOOSE!

Because...

You have the power.

How?

    Why?  

Because...

    YOU

        Are

            SOVEREIGN.  

The True Meaning of Courage

Courage means different things to different people. At Freedom Focused, we define courage as: doing what is right when doing so is difficult, inconvenient, unpleasant, or unpopular.

COURAGE

Doing what is right when doing so is difficult,

inconvenient, unpleasant, or unpopular. 

Great quantities of courage are required to earn personal growth and change. The most courageous—and enlightened—actions involve exercising your determination and will to either do what is right (especially when it is personally difficult and/or socially unfashionable to do so) and to abstain from engaging in natural inclinations that are wrong (i.e. harmful). And the harder it is to do or not do a thing, the more courageous and noble your actions are—and the greater your reward in the long run.

In the wise and clever words of Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Wayne, respectively: He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life; and courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.

"He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."

—John Wayne

In Your Journal

1. Reflect upon a time in your life or career when you acted courageously.  Then, think of a time in your life or career when you acted cowardly.

2. What was different about the time you acted courageously?

3.  What is something you could do to act courageously more consistently in your life and career moving forward?

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 369th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 181st consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

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Chapter 3 Notes

1).  Peck, M.S. (1978). The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth. New York, NY: Touchstone. Page 311.

2022 New Years' Resolution Update

Avid readers of the Freedom Focused blog may recall a goal I set for myself back in January of 2022, approximately 14 months ago, a goal that I postured as my "ONE New Year's Resolution."

My goal was to lose #25 pounds, which, if achieved, would slim me down from #200 pounds to my IDEAL weight of #175 pounds. For a complete review of this New Year's Resolution and my plan of attack to achieve it, click HERE.  

So... how did I do on my "ONE New Year's Resolution" for 2022?

Well, I'm a little embarrassed to say that more than one year after setting a goal to go from #200 pounds to #175 pounds, I was right around #200 pounds when January 1, 2023 rolled around. In other words, I not only did NOT achieve my goal; but I did not make a single pound of progress in the attempt.

I ended up exactly where I had started. 

Yeah, I know... that's a little embarrassing. In fact, that might even be a lot embarrassing. It has certainly been a bit deflating for me, especially considering how much overall effort I invested in my goal.

Nevertheless, at Freedom Focused, we are always dedicated to the TRUTH, even—and perhaps especially—when the truth hurts, or shines an embarrassing light on the results we get (or fail to get) in our lives and careers. For if we fail to be thus dedicated, we will make little progress in identifying the REAL roots of problems we face. Indeed, until we open our eyes wide to those authentic roots, we are unlikely to make much lasting progress in our efforts.

So, what went wrong in my plan?  

I skipped a LOT of meals in 2022 as part of
my Intermittent Fasting plan.

First of all, I am proud to say that I actually put quite a bit of time, effort, and energy into my goal process, which involved intermittent fasting. To wit: over the course of 365 days in 2022, I fasted 96 times. Seventy (70) of those times were 15-plus hour fasts (dinner skipped) and 26 were 20-plus hour fasts (two consecutive meals skipped).

That means I skipped 122 meals in my efforts!

     That's a LOT of fasting!

In fact, that may very well be the most fasting I have ever done in a single year's time. So, with all that effort, how could I have possibly not made any progress toward my goal?  

Good question!

In actuality, I did make some progress toward my goal. In fact, at one point I was down to #193 pounds—and in the first trimester of the year no less. 

So, what in the world went wrong in the end? 

The answer is simple. I was not consistent enough in my efforts. Thus, as the months wore on I grew less and less committed to my goal, and eventually gained all the weight back.  

For example, after a pretty strong January-April, my efforts began to dwindle in May. I then took the entire summer off. Yeah, I know... not the best recipe for success! And while I sort of got back into the swing-of-things during the fall, I never regained the same consistency I achieved in the first trimester of the year. Then, in the month of December, I only fasted once the entire month!

My greatest single weakness and vice in life
is probably my love of junk food.

I also remained completely intransigent in my unwillingness to alter my diet in any meaningful way. And while it is possible I could have achieved my goal without significant dietary changes had I only been more consistent and committed to the fasting regimen, my less-than-stellar dietary habits certainly did not help my cause.  

In some ways, it is pretty disappointing—even a little depressing—to have to face up to (to say nothing of having to publish) the realities of my underperformance in this particular goal. But in other ways, I remain both optimistic about and excited for the future.

Why?

Because despite this reality, I remain very much committed to my goal and am willing to continue to make further changes and invest significant amounts of effort into the cause.  

In doing so, however, I have to face up to reality and be more realistic moving forward.  

Unfortunately, ONE reality I presently face is that as a 43-year old man, I simply don't have the same fast-burning metabolism I enjoyed in my teens, 20s, or even my 30s. In fact, that is one of the reasons I didn't have more success with my fasting last year. Simply stated, the natural aging process is making it naturally more difficult to lose weight—a conundrum that virtually every human being experiences eventually in one's life.

Ironically, this has not been all bad for me because, on the plus side, I am finally starting to look more like a full-grown man as opposed to a long, lanky, youthful fella. And I'm not gonna lie... that appearance change is actually helping my professional credibility since, like it or not (and I've never liked it much), the natural aging process simply provides writers and speakers with a certain credibility and gravitas that youth can never truly imitate, no matter how intelligent, talented, or skilled a younger person may be.  

Another reality I presently face is my continued intransigence toward making necessary dietary changes. Now... I know this may sound sad—even pathetic—to those out there who are stronger than I am in this life arena. After all, what's the BIG DEAL about eating healthier and consuming less soda and sweets? Well, for me, at least at this point in time in my life, it's a big enough deal that when I'm super honest with myself, I just know I am not willing to do that right now. I'm hopeful that at some point in the future, I will have more desire, motivation, and will power to make necessary dietary changes. But in the meantime, I have to be honest with myself about what I am actually willing to do, and unfortunately, after all the fasts of 2022 and nothing to show for it, I don't feel very motivated to change my diet or do much fasting any time soon.   

I love treadmill running;
and I'm willing to do a lot of it it—
consistently.

Fortunately, something I do feel motivated to do this year is exercise more consistently. I especially enjoy walking and running on my treadmill. The treadmill is a nice exercise option for me because I can read or watch multimedia platforms while on the treadmill—two things I love to do.  

Now... I've been exercising regularly for most of my adult life, including the past several years. However, "regularly" for me has meant 3-4 times per week, on average. So my new goal is pretty simple. My new "ONE New Year's Resolution" for 2023 is to run on my treadmill for at least six (6) times per week every week of the year—and to continue this effort until I feel good enough to give intermittent fasting and/or dietary changes a renewed effort.

In other words, instead of exercising regularly (approximately every-other-day), I am committing to exercise (run) every day (and occasionally twice a day if I have the time and energy). The one exception to this program is that I always rest on Sundays, for religious as well as physical, mental, and emotional reasons.   

I am confident that if I am consistent in this new goal, I will eventually lose enough weight and make enough progress to be able to either achieve my goal or (more realistically) gain the needed desire and motivation to make some other, necessary long-term changes involving fasting and/or dietary improvements that will further empower me to ultimately return to my IDEAL adult weight, which is #175 pounds. 

For the last three (3) weeks, I have been diligent in this new effort, completing 17 runs for a total of 129 miles, which is an average of 7.6 miles per run. In the process, I have dropped from 202 pounds the first week to 199 pounds the third week. Small as my progress may be so far, this positive development is motivating me to continue this new effort and be strong in my resolve!

See SAL Daily Task Tracker below for my efforts in 2022 and to-date in 2023... 

I will publish another, follow-up, article to this blog post at some point later this year (or early next year). In the meantime, wish me luck—as I wish YOU luck in your own personal and professional goals for 2023—and remember to follow SAL life lessons when it comes to GOAL SETTING, which can be found amidst the "SMARTIES" Goal Setting principle as covered in the SAL Textbook, Volume 2, Pages 74-76. 

When setting goals, make sure they are:

Specific
Measurable
Accountable (to others)
Realistic
Time-bound
In competition primarily with yourself
Engaging (motivating)
Sane

This last item, SANE, refers to running your goal through the Insanity Test.

What is the Insanity Test?  

Here's to never giving up on a worthy GOAL...
CHEERS!

It has been said that doing the same things over and over again whilst expecting different results is one definition of insanity. At Freedom Focused, we agree!  

As such, whenever you are setting a new goal, or a follow-up goal to a previously set goal, remember that you are not likely to get different results unless you are willing to apply a different (better) formula of action. In my case, my different formula of action involves a significant increase in the consistency of exercise I am willing to invest in my weight loss goals.

Here's to never giving up on a worthy goal!   

—Dr. JJ

February 22, 2023

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 309th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 135th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 308 FF Blog Articles. 

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES.  

Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS.   

Click HERE for a complete listing of Self-Action Leadership Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Fitness, Heath, & Wellness Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Biographical & Historical Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Current Events, Cultural, Philosophical, & Miscellaneous Articles

Click HERE for a complete listing of Dr. JJ's Autobiographical Articles

.........................

Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.  

And if you liked this blog post, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and students—and encourage them to sign up to receive future articles for FREE every Wednesday.

To sign up, please email freedomfocused@gmail.com and say SUBSCRIBE, or just YES, and we will ensure you receive a link to each new blog article every Wednesday.  

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