There’s a reason that a plethora of self-help books are written and published every year. There’s a reason self-help guru’s make a ton of money traveling around the world speaking to large crowds of people and selling their own “system for greatness”. There’s a reason that self-help is estimated to be a 10 billion dollar industry in the US alone.
There’s also a reason why we don’t apply the gems we pull from the bible or hear during homilies at church.
It’s because we human beings tend to stumble immediately after being inspired. How many home work out systems are eventually used to store clothing? You get the idea.
We think that the next book we buy will be THE one. We all know those books – make a million dollars, find the perfect relationship, find happiness, lose weight, find the perfect job. I have on my bookshelf a first edition (1937) of “Think and Grow Rich” owned by my grandfather so this is not a new phenomenon. You might even have THE book – the bible which in summary says that your eternal life is gained by loving God and your neighbor.
Back to our temporal situation. Although the books and guru’s might actually have the “secret” to your success this simple equation keeps you in a perpetual state of false starts and stagnation.
The equation is this:
“C = P > SQ”
Where C = Change, P = Pain and SQ = Status Quo
This equation is worth 10’s of thousands maybe even 100’s of thousands of dollars. Why?
We tend to only make a change in our lives when and only when the pain of living out the status quo eventually becomes greater than the pain of changing it and we scream from the hilltop “I’ve had enough and I’m not going to take it anymore!!”
Simply, the pain of staying where you are at has to become greater than changing the situation. We humans will endure a lot before that happens!
It’s the reason why people stay in unfulfilling and poorly paying job for years or even decades or who stay in bad relationships or who perhaps never even try to start one. It’s 100% the reason why we don’t act when God calls us to action.
It’s that the pain of change, the fear of the unknown, the potential future unknown outcomes of that change that keeps people frozen in their life’s status quo no matter how much it may be hurting their future.
So before you buy that next book, join that on-line seminar, go to that live event to learn about that potential inside you to live an amazing life, first simply contemplate this simple equation. Just how much pain can be endured (and the whining the goes with it) until a decision is made to actually change?
I guess the guru’s are right! The answer IS inside you.
