If You Want It and Need It Just Do It

In our Free Store conversation on Saturday morning we talked about the importance of will power to effect positive change in our lives.  This is one of the key ideas in Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.  He says that effective self-management requires that we learn to proactively take responsibility for our lives and to use the power of our will to do it.

We started the conversation by talking about the difference between wanting and willing.  Sheila said that she knew what it was like to "want something, really want want it" which made us laugh.  She said that she had actually wanted her deceased husband Dave to come back and appear to her and hold her again.  Rick said that "wanting is dreaming" and "willing is doing" which made a lot of sense.  George said that he knew something about will power because "you gotta have will power to cut seven yards in 3 1/2 hours in the heat of the day."  We agreed that there are many things that we may want but only a few of our wants become reality because we don't will them into existence.

Sheila said that when it comes right down to it "let's see if you're lazy or what."  We talked about how we may want something, and need something, but ultimately nothing happens if we don't will it and do it.  We think Nike got it right with their slogan, "Just Do It."  Sheila said that she wanted and needed to exercise but that she just kept putting it off.  She also said that when Dave died she just didn't want to do nothing but friends encouraged her to get out of the house and start living again.  She said that it made her feel better to get out and do stuff even though it was hard.

Our friend Donald said that he was glad I had kept my promise and taken him out for lunch at Showmars on Thursday.  Although we weren't sure how that fit in we thanked Donald for taking part in the conversation.  He also told us that he feels like giving up at times but doesn't because of his faith in God and "cos I believe the bible."  We encouraged Donald to never give up because his life mattered no matter how bad he felt.

At this point we talked about the fact that we have the power of will which means that we ultimately create our own lives.  The life that we create for ourselves ultimately has an effect on others.  At this George said that he had recently seen his step daughter who he had helped raise for a while when she was little.  He said that she has a job now and six kids and it makes him feel good to think that his influence had helped her as she became an adult.

As the conversation moved to a conclusion we talked about how it might be difficult to exercise our will power to make positive changes but that it is well worth the effort.  Someone said it is like having to push a car that has run out of gas.  Rick said that when he was a young man that he had an Austin Healy 3000 and that "I pushed it more than I drove it" which made us laugh.  It is an amazing thing to realize that the human will has the power to put life in motion.