Why Do We REFUSE to Change Until There’s A CRISIS?

I broke a tooth recently, which caused me to look at ways to improve the strength of my teeth.

One of the things I decided to do (besides being careful about ingesting processed sugar) was to drink milk again–for the calcium, phosphorous, Vitamin A and D. And for additional protein too as I’ve been lifting heavy weights.

And yet, deep down, I knew that there are other ways to get the nutrients I need without having to drink milk.

This morning, like too many mornings I’d care to admit to, I woke up with a heavy, uncomfortable feeling in the belly caused by drinking a couple of glasses of milk last night.

I have had health crisis’ in the past, including passing kidney stones (trust me, you don’t want this!), and it occurred to me this morning that often I just REFUSE to make a change until I’m hit with a crisis.

The bottom line, for me, is that I tend to get stubborn with my “decisions.” If I believe that something is “supposed to” work well, based on sounding good, or on what some expert says, I find myself too often sticking with it until it proves itself unbearable–usually through pain!

A old friend of mine liked to talk about “bought” lessons being best–meaning the mistakes you have to pay for. Otherwise, we tend not to learn the lesson, unless we are wise. And not many of us are truly wise.

Similarly, only pain seems to wake me up that I’m on the wrong path. How many people have refused to make a change until a crisis–often a health crisis–gets their attention?

What makes me comfortable? There are certain things that just make me feel better, like eating sugar and milk products. Can you relate? 🙂 And it’s often related to time of day. For instance, at the end of the day (in the evening/at night), I’m more inclined to want to eat for pleasure. I know there are many who do the same. In fact, I’d say the vast majority of people eat for pleasure, not for health.

Food–since the time we were small–has been offered to us as a source of pleasure and well-being. It is ingrained in our psyche, and going without our trusted source of comfort is like dying.

I have to admit, I haven’t been ready to face “death” yet–the death of my false self. And that is the crux here.

So in effect, God is making me face it. “Making” may be too strong a word–how about He’s “strongly suggesting” I face the music, before the music kills me.

How many deaths occur in this world simply because people will not stop indulging in that thing that is killing them?

So the only solution forward is to step out on faith–faith that we won’t actually die by giving up our favorite comforts. Faith that far from dying, we may actually live, and live more abundantly.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

John 10:10 KJV We are actually giving in to the “thief” when we choose indulgence over true life.

And so I must make a choice to live. I believe that God will help me when I do. I just need to take the next step into faith.

Patrick Rooney is the Founder of OldSchoolUs.com. He communicates clearly and fearlessly during perilous times about natural health, success, and freedom. To reach Patrick, email him at info@oldschoolus.com.

For the most part, we don’t change things until we have to. Part of it is habit. Part is we are comfortable with what we’re doing. A fried who wanted to quit smoking found he also had to quit going to bars. If he had a drink, he had to smoke. All those around him were drinking and smoking. (This was back when people smoked in bars.) Finally, to quit smoking, he had to quit drinking and going to bars. Going to a bar and ordering a non-alcoholic drink didn’t work because of social pressure.

Carpenters who use a hammer will keep at it until they get an injury and must switch to a power tool.

I always closed my email at work even though I could have left it open but minimized until my boss insisted I leave it open. It was just a habit.

It’s called being human.

(Disclaimer: I’m not criticizing this great thought-provoking article, but just adding some of my own ideas, which have been going in the same direction lately.)

I’m not 100% sure “indulgence” is the problem; it’s convenience that people are hung up on. If you indulge in something over and over, it’s just a habit and not a pleasure. You’re wallowing in whatever it is and not appreciating it properly.

True indulgence is a one-shot deal and shouldn’t make anyone feel too guilty, unless you’re indulging in food and your kids are starving, or your favorite indulgence is other people’s suffering.

Trust is more a culprit: We trust what doctors tell us, what the TV tells us, what our favorite blogs tell us, etc. And today we’re finding out that a lot of these trusted sources have been lying their butts off to us for a really long time now. (We lie to ourselves, too, as the writer mentioned, to keep from having to go out of our comfort zone, to keep from having to learn and grow. That’s an unholy problem.)

If indulgence makes you feel guilty, then you’re wallowing in something and of course you’ll likely have a bad result even if it’s just lemon drops.

Being able to hog out makes me thankful. Realizing I’ve trusted a source that gave me wrong information can make me feel guilty.

In terms of faith, your devotion to pleasures and comforts may not be what’s working against you - it could be misplaced trust.

Of course, one time-honored method to discover and reinforce one’s faith is to fast and undergo hardship; to remove distractions; to stop listening to so many different voices and find Gd’s voice. No arguments with that!

But here’s where I’m at with it: It is no sort of struggle whatsoever, for example, for me not to watch TV. I really hate TV and started hating it when I was young. I looked at siblings watching Saturday morning cartoons in a slavish manner and felt contempt! I didn’t even have a TV in my home for the longest time. A relative was horrified to see there was no TV and forced one on us. (Most of the time when I did watch TV, it was because I was in some sort of mental anguish or physical pain and needed it for a distraction.)

So many people waste precious hours of their lives watching TV and via this mechanism many lose their faith as well; that’s what TV is for, folks! It makes you doubt everything! And a lot of people don’t think of watching TV as a pleasure - that’s how bad it’s gotten. They think of it as a kind of obligation so they can “know what’s going on in the world.”

So, in order to boost my faith, should I force myself to watch TV? (All the vomiting will help me keep my weight down, so maybe it will be a positive benefit!)

If indulgence is truly the problem, then it’s easy enough to remove all those obstacles to your faith. You just need a little willpower and maybe a storage shed.

And yet being able to indulge in those things could be a sign of Gd’s favor toward you. Like milk; do you ever look at a gallon of milk and think of how many people’s time and effort went into getting that milk to you? If you think about it, it’s a miracle! And you’re just chugging it down (probably straight out of the container, if you’re a man) like all you have to do is send someone to the store to get another one! (Wait! That IS all you have to do! Maybe we’re on to something here...)

Perhaps I’m not making a lot of sense but I just started reading this and it struck a chord with me.

I guess if I was to sum it all up: In my opinion, the thing most Westerners need to stop indulging in is TRUST. Start looking at that gallon of milk like maybe it won’t be there tomorrow, or maybe tomorrow getting another gallon of milk will be a whole new ball game involving risk and inconvenience. Stop trusting and start appreciating.

“A old friend of mine liked to talk about “bought” lessons being best–meaning the mistakes you have to pay for. Otherwise, we tend not to learn the lesson, unless we are wise. And not many of us are truly wise.”

And where else does he think that wisdom comes from than not the school of hard knocks - ie, personal (and painfull experiences.

Wisdom is not some magical thing handed out from up above, rather it is a set of rules for living learned through often painful experiences over the milleniums of human existence, which if followed result in an overall happier life in the long term.

Most of us tend to not follow them because “things are different now” and those rules are just for old fogies - until we personally learn the rules ourselves.

Well, that’s what they lead themselves to believe.

Meanwhile we should be thankful to the Lord for the so-called Robber Barrons who, with the exception of bankers like Morgan, actually built their fortunes on making goods people wanted at prices they found attractive and all as part of voluntarily participated in commerce.

Yes, the Robber Barrons did engage in abuses but they certainly didn’t fill the countryside with mass graves whilst industrializing America the way the socialists did in too many places.

But it gets worse for even big government that still falls short of socialism because government is a net consumer of resources and only in very rarified conditions have they produced anything of actual value. Government makes everything more expensive, distorts commerce and misallocates resources to fit ideologies that really often have nothing to do with what actually works. And of course since free people will still want the good life they have to slave away even harder to make up for the increased cost of government in their lives … which only highlights the absurdity of growing the biggest net polluter (in terms of consuming vs actually producing value) to enforce environmentalism.

And then there’s actual socialism, where career politicians, bureaucrats and other apparatchiks — who probably couldn’t make much more than coffee or tea personally — direct industry to make what they think people want and the crap that results are what people have to just make due with it.

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