Episode 998: It Takes Time to Change

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 998 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Kim Avery: I'm Kim Avery author of the prayer powered entrepreneur. And I challenge you to focus on your calling as a Christian entrepreneur. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader.

[00:00:20] Scott Maderer: Through the inertia to stretch that rubber band into a new formation or to carve that river channel into a new channel that takes both time and energy. And this is why accountability can be so important because accountability allows you to borrow some of that energy from other people. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:48] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship [00:01:00] podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:09] and today's episode about investing in yourselves by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why we resist change so much. I share how change always takes time. And I also share how that means. We need to set goals to make the change happen and hold ourselves accountable to. As we talk about stewarding your time.

[00:01:30] Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show. Just that quick.

[00:01:48] If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/. Why is changing so hard? Why [00:02:00] does it take so long to make a change? Even a change we want to make even one that seems on face value to be simple is really hard. And the analogy is. Our brain is like a rubber band.

[00:02:17] Our brain has a tendency to develop routines and structure and habit, and you can stretch it temporarily. With an input of energy, just like you can stretch a rubber band, but when you let go of it, it snaps back to where it was before. Or think of it like laying down channels for water, like a river bed.

[00:02:40] And the longer you do something, the deeper that channel gets the steeper, the sides get, and the harder it gets to change. The direction of that river flow, the harder it gets to bypass that river and create a new channel. This is what [00:03:00] habit formation is like. We crazy. The familiar, we take refuge in the things that we know and understand they feel comfortable and comfortable feels safe.

[00:03:15] The idea that it's the devil we know over the devil, we don't know, even if it's something that we don't enjoy, even if it's something that we really wish we could change. Sameness feels safe while change feels like danger. So we actually have to work to overcome that inertia. It takes time to do that.

[00:03:39] It takes energy to do that. Usually at its root is some sort of belief that may even be an unconscious one. It may not even really be something you brought out, but there's this subtle feeling that if you change. Then [00:04:00] something negative would happen that you've got to keep things the same. It can even be something like depression.

[00:04:06] If I give up this state of depression, then no one would care for me anymore. Or that, that this state is somehow my natural and normal state, even something negative. Can be feeling like it's safe and something that we know and something that we hold onto very tight. This is why change takes time. It almost requires going through stages of giving up something, almost like a grief process or a grieving process where we have to give up the old self and let that die so that we can create a new self.

[00:04:46] So anytime you hear someone talking about, oh, just do this and you'll change instantly recognize that's an event kind of mindset. That event mindset usually will make a change, but that change won't stick [00:05:00] long term. It takes time. There's a process to making change. And that part of that process involves setting smaller goals, setting incremental steps, looking at what's the next smallest change that I can make that begins to move me in the direction that I want to go.

[00:05:22] If I want to change my health habits. What can I begin to do to change how I eat or how are exercise or both, but not looking to suddenly begin training for a marathon, but just begin walking around the block or just begin eating a little better each day. This habit formation is about incremental change.

[00:05:48] It's about setting small goals and then beginning to work towards those goals. That is part of working towards those goals. Usually you need some form of accountability. Now [00:06:00] you can do this with public accountability, where you post things out there, like you see pictures of people posting their pictures.

[00:06:06] As they're trying to exercise or lose weight, you can do this with coaching or some sort of accountability process with another person or group coaching or other processes. This is why things like weight Watchers. Work. That's part of that accountability piece of knowing on Tuesday, you're going to have to step on this.

[00:06:25] And the same thing has to happen with any other change that we want to make, whether it's health, whether it's wealth, whether it's time, whether it's productivity, whether it's processing our emails, whether it's something big or something small, we have to look for the small goals. And yet we also have to tie it to an emotional, why what's the reason behind this.

[00:06:46] We have to give ourselves a big enough driver to put. Through the inertia to stretch that rubber band into a new formation or to carve that river channel into a new channel [00:07:00] that takes both time and energy. And this is why accountability can be so important because accountability allows you to borrow some of that energy from other people.

[00:07:13] To borrow some of that energy through the process of having someone else work with you to hold you accountable, someone else to say, Hey, are you making progress? As simple as asking that question is it can make a big difference in the progress that you actually make. A lot of times we think of accountability as a negative.

[00:07:34] We think about it is someone beating us up for not doing something that we're supposed to do. But the truth is accountability is a powerful tool towards changing because it allows you to borrow the energy of others. As you put in those new channels, as you stretch that rubber band and make the change that you know, you need to make.

[00:07:57] Thanks for listening.

[00:07:59] [00:08:00] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.

[00:08:43] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.