I was at the bookstore a while back doing research about creative ways to make my Divorce Recovery Seminars, Conferences, and Boot Camps even more more helpful and effective.  I came across this great little book entitled,  You, Inc. by Harry and Christine Beckwith.  It’s mainly a business book, but it has very down-to-earth, straightforward suggestions not only about business, but about life.  I have started giving it to my grandchildren in high school or college.

One entry in You, Inc is called “Seek Change.”  During divorce we don’t have to seek change, hundreds of changes are forced on us.  The book however is talking in this case about changes we want to make, or need to make or even have to make.  In making the point about how to improve your life, the authors mention that there will be hundreds of new books printed this year about losing weight, and that Americans as a whole are more overweight than they have ever been.

What’s the problem?  People get a new book about losing weight  (or in my case getting organized!) and they think, this is the same old, same old.  The trouble is, there are only a few ways you can say “Eat less.  Exercise more.”  The problem is in not doing the things we know we should do to make our lives better.  Sometimes in writing this blog, I wonder if you think, “She said that before!  She keeps saying that!”  But the truth is, whether I’m trying to find better ways to do my Boot Camps or you’re trying to find better ways to move forward after your midlife divorce, no words are going to help unless we DO something to change.

Just reading about how to change won’t help.  Just hearing advice from an expert won’t help.  We have to change how we act.  In the authors’ chapter, “Seek Change,”  they say, “Read this book, then act differently.  Focus on a page a day.  An idea a day.  Act on it.”  When we read good advice, let’s don’t just say, “That’s great advice.”  Let’s do something with that advice.  Take an appropriate action..  If we change the actions we take, we can get to the place we want to be.  If we don’t, we’ll most likely just keep complaining and fussing that we aren’t where we want to be.  The only way we’ll get there is to do something to get us closer to that place we want.  We can start right now.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”  James 1:22 (NIV)