The pain of change

MANILA, Philippines—At the hospital, doctors informed me I had suffered a heart attack. They attended to me and tried several treatments, none of which seemed to be helping. Around 3 a.m., cardiologist Dr. Jeff Marshall arrived on the scene, and he performed an emergency operation to remove a small blood clot from my heart. His skillful care saved my life. Later, Dr. Marshall explained that the operation I had undergone was a new development in the medical profession. Had I suffered the heart attack a year earlier, he would not have known how to save me!

Pain accompanies change. One way or another it’s going to hurt to make adjustments in our lives. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can choose the pain we endure. We have two options: The pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

Of course, the wise choice is to select the pain of discipline. I love eating rich foods, from steaks to chocolate cakes, and there’s an emotional distress in bypassing the unhealthy dishes I enjoy the most. I also do not particularly enjoy trips to the gym. Especially after a draining day of work, I have little desire to go through the soreness and physical fatigue associated with working out.

Yet, had I endured the mild discomforts of eating healthy and exercising, I could have avoided the excruciating pain of a medial emergency.

The longer you wait to make changes, the costlier they are to make. In 1998, I nearly paid the ultimate price for ignoring my physical fitness. Had I simply made a few tweaks to my weekly regimen as a young leader, and maintained them over time, I never would have found myself in that situation.

If you want to change your life, then you need to change something you do daily. In my case, I have learned that physical fitness doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a succession of healthy decisions, made each day, to see progress.

We tend to stay the same until it hurts so bad that we have to do something differently. In my case, the pain was sudden, severe, and impossible to ignore. Yet, the warning signs were there all along, and how I wish that I had heeded them!

In which areas of life do you see warning signs? Perhaps like me, your health needs attention. Possibly, there are relationships in your life that, unless they change course, are headed for disaster. Or, maybe a defect in your character threatens to derail you. Wherever you see warning sings, don’t delay in making a change. It’s far easier to prevent damage now than to repair it later.

(Reprinted with permission from The John Maxwell Company and Inspire Leadership Consultancy. Attend Francis Kong’s Level-Up Leadership at The Tent at the Rockwell Center on April 1,2011 from 1-5pm. Call 6872614/7064853 and look for Kriselle. Visit us at www.inspireleaders.com.ph or add us at Facebook -Inspire Leadership Consultancy.)