Whether it has to do with recovery from addiction, developing skills for their profession, improving their physical health, or growing in their spiritual lives, almost everyone on a quest for personal transformation. My observation is that everybody seems to be looking for something new and novel -- some previously undiscovered life-hack -- that will help them in the transformation process.
That is almost always the wrong approach.
We are living in an era where our problem is not a lack of information ... if anything, we have too much of it. For 99% of us, what we need for transformation is a better process for implementation of the information we already possess.
Here's an excerpt from the introduction in my book that makes a basic -- but extremely important -- distinction about how transformation happens.
I love books. I love reading, learning, and taking in new ideas. But here’s what experience -- and pain -- has taught me: information is not enough.
Learning new concepts is not enough. Understanding the things I talk about in this book will not be enough to really help you … unless you implement them. And that’s the hard part.
Jesus once said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17). In fact, he told a whole parable about the folly of hearing the things he taught, and not putting them into practice. He said people who do that are like fools who build their houses on sand, as opposed to a solid foundation.
Knowledge is not enough to transform. We need to take action on that knowledge. If the goal is transformation, information only gets you so far. We need information, but we also need action -- to apply the information -- if we’re going to get transformation. So if you think about this as a formula, we could write it like this:
I + A = T
Information + Application = Transformation
But it gets worse
Unfortunately, it’s even more complicated than that. If our lives are going to be transformed, if we want anything more than surface change, we must take consistent action over time. Change takes time.
Please don’t misunderstand: Massive change can happen very quickly. Breakthroughs are possible in very short time spans. Miracles happen! But in order for the massive and rapid change to take root and permeate our lives, the breakthrough experience must be translated into consistent action over time.
I used to teach at intensive recovery workshops. People who came to these events had huge breakthroughs, and it was exciting. The person who created and led the workshops, Dr. Mark Laaser, has engineered a powerful transformation process that has helped thousands of people around the world.
I created a follow up program to work with participants for a three month implementation process after the workshop was over. After running this program for several cycles, I established ongoing coaching groups for people to participate in. Some people continued with me in these groups for years.
By now I think you can guess what we found in these follow up programs: People’s results varied A LOT over time. Some people did well incorporating the new knowledge from the intensive workshop into their lives. Others, not so much. And without exception, the difference was their willingness to engage in consistent action over time.
These experiences did not cause me to doubt the efficacy of the workshops. Not at all. The transformation people experienced there was real and powerful. But transformations have to be integrated and lived out if they’re going to last.
If someone eats terrible food and lives a sedentary life, they might develop heart disease. They could go to a doctor and have surgery … major transformation! Instantaneous transformation! You might even say miraculous transformation! But not permanent transformation.
If they don’t make consistent changes to bring health into their lives in the months and years following surgery, the transformation won’t last. So here’s the real formula:
I + A + D = T
Information + Application + Duration = Transformation
I've done my best in this book to share with you important things I’ve learned. I firmly believe these are essential to know if you want to leave your mark, and stay sane in the process. But let’s be honest about something: There’s a limit to what this information will do for you unless it’s translated into consistent action over time.
I’ve done the same thing with this material that I did for the recovery workshops: I’ve created a process to help people put this information into tangible action, and support them in it over time. In fact, I consider this work -- mentoring people in the healthy leader transformation process -- to be the most important thing I do.
So at the very start of this book, I invite you to do something as you read it: Keep asking yourself what you need to do in order to put this into practice, and stay consistent over time. What support do you need? What structure, accountability, and guidance can you put into your life in order to make the fully engaged -- yet sane and healthy -- life a reality for you?
