{"id":402,"date":"2012-12-12T07:52:12","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/?p=78"},"modified":"2013-04-19T04:23:04","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T04:23:04","slug":"the-secret-ingredient-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/2012\/the-secret-ingredient-for-change","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Ingredient For Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may not care, but I\u2019ve lost about 15 pounds in the last month. Many would say that\u2019s pretty impressive. I must say that I\u2019m pretty happy with the results. I\u2019m not exactly to my goal yet, but I\u2019m seeing change.<\/p>\n

Have you ever wondered what it takes for us to make change happen?<\/p>\n

Many of us recognize things in our life that need changed. I would be willing to bet you could list 3 of them off the top of your head right now. You want to get to bed earlier. You want to exercise more. You want to read more of the Bible. You want to be a better parent. You\u2019d like to break a habit. Or maybe you\u2019d like to start a good one. The magical question is \u201cHOW?<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t claim to be an expert. But I do think I\u2019ve discovered the secret ingredient that plays a huge<\/em> part in making change actually happen. It\u2019s the secret ingredient that has helped me lose a little weight. It\u2019s also the secret ingredient that helped me complete writing my first book a couple months ago.<\/p>\n

Ready?<\/p>\n

Motivation.<\/em><\/strong> Oh, now you\u2019re thinking I\u2019ve just wasted your time. Because of course you need motivation if you want change. That\u2019s a \u201cduh\u201d answer. I don\u2019t think it is, though.<\/p>\n

Think about it. I\u2019m not talking about a reason<\/em> here; I\u2019m talking about real motivation<\/em>. Reason is why you probably should do or not do something. But real motivation is why you need to do or not do something. How many people know there\u2019s a good reason for them to eat healthier but then don\u2019t actually make real change until they have a bad doctor\u2019s appointment or even heart attack? How many people know they need to be closer to God but then seem to only do something about that when it\u2019s clear they need <\/em>something from God?<\/p>\n

It never ceases to amaze me how many of us (yes, us!) procrastinate. It\u2019s not something we\u2019re often particularly proud of. But we work best under pressure, don\u2019t we? Or is it that in that moment of last-minute pressure our motivation has kicked up? The importance of the project hasn\u2019t changed. Our level of motivation (or need) to get it done has.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s what I\u2019m offering. Think about the change that you want to experience in your life. It could be anything in any area of your life. Why is it so important that you make that change happen? Maybe you should write it out. And as you\u2019re writing, allow me to sit across the table from you in your imagination arguing that it really doesn\u2019t matter. Then argue back with me why it really does.<\/p>\n

See, we often argue ourselves out of making decisions we know we should do. And we do this because we haven\u2019t truly accounted for what\u2019s at stake. When you see the long term results or possibilities suddenly you\u2019ll find that you\u2019ve discovered the secret ingredient to starting that change in your life.<\/p>\n

Clearly there are other ingredients to real, lasting change. I think motivation is crucial. But what are some of the other ingredients that you see as important to the mix as well? Do you think motivation is something we can control?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may not care, but I\u2019ve lost about 15 pounds in the last month. Many would say that\u2019s pretty impressive. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}