Have you ever known anyone who pays a lot of money for a gym membership but never actually goes to the gym?
(Don’t worry, you’re not alone. 😉)
Some people fork out a ton for special diets and eating plans, but don’t actually follow them.
Others go to expensive conferences, learn a lot of great stuff, then come home and change – nothing. They put the notes in a file and keep doing what they have always done.
Secret Sauce
These are good people who mean well and deep down really want to change, but they haven’t applied the secret sauce of real change.
Change’s secret sauce is accountability.
Here’s when people start making changes and seeing real progress.
When we get a coach, hire a trainer, find a therapist or a spiritual director. In some cases, we might team up with a partner who won’t let us off the hook.
Wants the Best
Many people shy away from accountability for fear that someone will bring the hammer down. That’s not the kind of process I’m referring to here. The best version of accountability always places one word in front of it: Loving. It’s when we know the other person truly wants the best for us that we can trust their words – even when they bring us up short at times.
Loving accountability can be used for all kinds of desired changes from exercise to business goals to improving our marriage. The first time I ever read the Bible in a year occurred when I found a plan and committed to do it with someone else. We each fell significantly behind at different points, but our mutual encouragement and loving accountability enabled both of us to do something we had never done before.
Sustained Change
That’s because loving accountability gives us the structure for sustained change. For most of us, a one-on-one relationship delivers the greatest pound-for-pound change. That’s what makes individual coaching so powerful.
We see this in sports all the time. Every professional athlete has a coach. But the best athletes have several coaches for different aspects of their sport: technical skills, physical strength and mental toughness, to name a few.
Want to Change
However, even the best coaches can only do so much. It the end, it comes down to one issue: how much the coachee wants to get better.
We only change when we want to change.
So, let me ask, are you tired of being stuck? Would you like to see a change in a crucial area of your life? It is totally possible.
If you really want to be in a different place one year from today in your relationships, your spiritual life, your work, your health, or your family, find someone to help you. You’re only regret will be, “Why didn’t I do this sooner!”
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)
To receive Roger’s weekly posts about spiritual leadership that inspires change, please subscribe here: https://rogerross.online/subscribe/
Roger Ross
A native of Cambridge, Illinois, Roger has served as a pastor in Texas, the British Channel Island of Guernsey, and Illinois. While in Illinois, he led teams that planted two new churches and served for 10 years as the lead pastor of one of the largest United Methodist Churches in the Midwest. It was his privilege to serve as the Director of Congregational Excellence in the Missouri Conference before coming into his current role with Spiritual Leadership, Inc (SLI).
Roger now comes alongside pastors, non-profit leaders and their leadership teams as an executive coach, specializing in leadership that inspires change. As a side gig, he loves teaching evangelism and church planting as an adjunct professor at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas.
Other passions of his include SCUBA diving in warm blue water, Krispy Kremes, and board games with family and friends. He also has a weakness for golf.
Roger is the author of three books, Meet The Goodpeople: Wesley’s 7 Ways to Share Faith, Come Back: Returning to the Life You Were Made For, and Come Back Participant Guide, all through Abingdon Press.
Now for the best part. Roger is married to Leanne Klein Ross, and they live Bloomington, Illinois. God has blessed them with two adult children, a son-in-law, several tropical fish, and one adorable granddog.
Recent Comments