Changing your life from where you are today to living as the masterpiece God created you to be requires you to change something you are doing on a daily basis. That means the routine of your life has to change. You have to develop new habits that lead down new paths to new destinations. A behavior or lifestyle change can be difficult. The reality is we often make the decision to make the change but never take the necessary steps; application. Until we discipline ourselves to applying change to our dreams and decisions we are simply having happy thoughts.
Application is the bridge that will take you from where you are with a dream to living out that dream as a reality – an accomplishment. And application is a bridge that you must cross daily. The more you cross this bridge the more you will make it a habit and habits are what truly determine our realities.
An Illustration
Let me illustrate this; have you ever had a dream to lose weight and get into shape? You know, a new outlook for a New Year, or summer is coming and you want to look good at the beach wearing your swimsuit (or be able to wear a swimsuit for the first time in years)? So you make the decision – “this is the year or the season I’m going to get healthy, get into shape, loose those extra pounds.” And you are going to start tomorrow morning. The morning comes and you are feeling pretty good about things, you start off the day with a healthy breakfast and a brisk walk, then off to work. Lunch is a little harder because you have all the temptations of the menu where your boss decided to take you and after all she is paying – but somehow you stay the course. Evening comes and you get home. Your spouse says they have had a tough day – “let’s go out to our favorite restaurant”. This is going to be hard – not only is it your favorite restaurant, but your favorite meal of all time is on their menu and it’s definitely not on your new diet.
Sitting at the table of your favorite restaurant – staring at a picture of your favorite meal that’s not on your diet – it’s the moment of crossing the bridge. Are you going apply the new habit that came from a decision to get healthy and get into shape – or put off crossing the bridge one more meal? During that split second you are making a decision that determines your habit – application of a new habit will lead you across the bridge to seeing the reality of your dreams and accomplishments.
The Formula
This is the formula: Decision + Application = New habits = Fulfilled dreams
It’s true of any dream; you have to make the right choices (application) to get from where you are (bridge) to where you want to be.
Next Steps Towards Application:
What bad habit do you need to un-do today? What new habit do you need to start today? What are the applications that you will make today to begin to bridge from your dreams to accomplishments? Write out a simple plan and determine ahead of time the choices you need to make.
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (James 1:22 NLT)
