All Change Starts Within

Who knew four words could contain so much power? 'If You Will Change'. Wow. Is the secret to life and success really this simple? Jim Rohn's mentor thought so. Jim Rohn thought so. And a global size self-improvement industry of $43.8B, yes that's Billions with a B, continue to think so. Even the Christian faith is based on an inward change. Now the difference is, in self-improvement you have the power to change and in the Christian faith you are powerless to change, it is Christ that changes you on the inside. Now the really cool part of change is that the 

proof is on the outside. For example, when you are changed by Christ, you then get baptized and this is an outward expression of an inward change. Then you live to pursue holiness, while sin becomes less and less in your life. Trust me, it's visible, especially to those that know you well.

The same thing happens with other areas of your life. You decide you want to lose weight. Why is this time different from the other 247 times you decided to lose weight? Hopefully, because of an inward change. First, in a 'Belief' in yourself that you can lose weight. Second, in the importance of your 'Why' you want to lose weight. Third, a strong plan that you now have in place. Fourth, a clear vision of your life after you reach your weight loss goal. Did you see what I did there?

I gave you a quick and easy outline to follow for making changes that will lead you to success. Now two things to note. The list is not exhaustive, and the implementation will not be easy. In fact, it's the implementation process that will be the tallest mountain to climb, you WILL climb it. Now I want to take a closer look at just these four things a little deeper.

First is belief, if you don't believe you can do something guess what, you won't. There is no need in even trying to do something while your belief in yourself is nonexistent. This is why 'Desire' aligned with 'Belief' is so important. If your desire is strong enough, then your belief will follow. One day I stepped on the scales, and I was up to 385 pounds. I had no genuine desire to lose weight, so every time I tried, my belief was not there because there was no desire fueling it.

Then one day something happened, I turned my television off and immediately saw my reflection. All 385 pounds of me. It wasn't pretty, this was followed by looking at some recent pictures. As I looked, I imagined what my life would look like if I was in better shape. I liked what I saw. This started a growing desire in me to lose weight, but I still had to navigate the belief that I could. Using the principles, I outline in Mastery 40, I went to work. Soon my belief was aligned with my desire. Now I needed a plan. Knowing that countless programs didn't keep me engaged long, I worked my list down to the only two I ever did that resulted in major weight loss.

From there I went through the questions in Mastery 40, and I narrowed the two down to the one. Knowing I have a tendency to quit, I enlisted some additional accountability. Now I had a desire, I had belief, I had my why and I had a plan. Within 27 days I had lost 31.6 pounds. There are 7 areas of life you need to master. I promise you to do so, the first step will be an inward change and within this inward change, the first thing must be belief aligned with desire. If either is missing the odds are stacked against your chances of success.​