The month of January, I am focusing on the confusion surrounding personal change, and sharing some tips from my book entitled: "Getting Better When You Can't" .

As you can see from this quote, WILLPOWER gets a lot of credit. People talk about having sheer determination, or "strong-willed" children, or the willpower to conquer all obstacles.

​My research has led me to an alternative conclusion. Once again I stray from the herd. Once we understand the function of the will, we soon realize it holds no power at all.

A radio is a transducer. It takes all available radio waves (which we cannot perceive) and transduces (changes) the one signal we want into sounds that our brains can comprehend. Waves become music.

The will is also a transducer. The will takes all available affections (which we partially perceive) and changes them into an action. Thoughts become actions. 

Therefore, if we desire personal change, the battle over our will is actually won within the non-physical (spiritual) aspects of our humanity, namely within the affections, then the intellect, and then our system of truth.

Motivation to work out, or lose weight, or get out of debt, or stop a compulsive behavior is not found for the long term in sheer effort. Rather motivation appears when a larger, more inclusive truth displaces an untruth or partial truth within our thinking and belief system. 

Once again, we find ourselves in the realm of spirituality. When we do not understand the significance of spiritual maturity, countless problems and life long struggles leak into our lives. This is because such struggle is divinely put there in order to grow us. Spiritual growth impacts all areas of our life.

Once we make this discovery, our problems can move from being derailments from our best life into the means through which our best life emerges.  Our pain becomes the beacon that signals that we are settling again for a forgery rather than desiring authenticity.

This is precisely what redemption means. It is the buying back of something lost or squandered. 

If you can see it, our problems are a profound message of hope.

May you desire your life enough to preserve it rather than distract it. Slow down and find it now.

k