You may know the saying from Lay’s potato chips commercials: “Betcha can’t eat just one”. The key truth that the Lay’s people know is that it takes more self-control to stop a habit once you start a habit. And, the longer you live with the habit, the harder it is to get rid of the habit. Many of your goals for 2015 are all about stopping or changing a habit that you wish you had never started. How do you do it successfully?
Self-Control
You have some goals set for 2015, and now you need self-control. This is something so much more than just shear willpower. It is something that successful know and understand. That is why successful people have a laser focus on a few goals, they understand the incredible amount of energy required to live in the self-control necessary for success in reaching the goal.
How To Get Self-Control
The good news is that self-control is part of the work that God wants to do in you as His masterpiece: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT) Self-control is a part of the power of Him working in your life, He gives you the power, the Spirit, of self-control.
As you join your life with His, self-control is a natural by-product of Him working in you. He wants to give you help in this area of character development. And all of us need it if we are going to reach the goals that we have carefully and prayerfully set for 2015.
Making Success Easier To Attain
Reaching your goals is much easier to attain when you have the Spirit of self-control working in you. This will help you to resist temptation. This is not a time to test your will power. If you are trying to lose weight, you don’t succeed by buying your favorite junk food, looking at it daily and build resistance. Your will power will eventually give in. Self-control gives you the wisdom to simply not buy the junk food, so resisting the temptation is defeated much earlier in the process so that you can achieve your goal.
Don’t assume that you can handle temptation. Do the opposite. Prayerfully ask God to give you the self-control needed to keep you from temptation. Jesus taught that you need to pray this in your daily prayers: “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13 NLT) Jesus understands that your willpower is not enough to keep you on track; you need His power of self-control working in you to reach your goals.
They Got It Right
Lay’s potato chips folks got it right: “no one can eat just one”. As you move toward your goals this year, you will have a much greater chance of success by living in the Spirit of self-control than simply leaning on your own willpower.
Feedback:
How do you see will power and self-control as different? Leave your questions and comments below, I would love to hear from you.