Rinse & Repeat

So I've been thinking a lot about change lately.

Not change as in "got some spare change?" - though I do like

Julia Cook's book about Penny! - but

real,

transformational,

sustainable

change.

Today I'm pondering

the Carrot,

the Egg

and the Coffee Bean

story.

Click the graphic below to watch it on You Tube:

Trying to help her granddaughter learn to accept adversity as an inevitable part of the growing-up process, a grandmother uses boiling water to represent adversity in this clever metaphor.

All three items - the carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean - are subjected to the same change agent, and the hot water does, indeed, change them all.

But it is their responses, their outcomes, that vary significantly.

The carrot becomes soft,

the egg becomes hard,

but the beans transform and become ... coffee.

So I'm spending a lot of my time reflecting on author

Ann Voskamp's words that

"training is the essence of transformation."

In her bestseller, One Thousand Gifts, she suggests getting better at gratitude by being grateful ... and by naming it ... you know, actually writing a list of the things we're thankful for ... until we get to one thousand.

I've decided to try it.

I'm on number 65.

If we want to transform, to change significantly,
then we need to train.

To practice.

To do it over and over again.

Intentionally.

On purpose.

For at least 21 days.

Sometimes even longer.

To perfect our practice.

Until our new skill becomes a habit.

Kind of like rinse & repeat.