001 How To Stick With What You Start

The Faith Applied podcast is about forward movement and growth.

To start this podcast, I was led to focus this first episode on how not to stop – how to stick to what you start.

Show notes with time stamps:

01:12 This episode is for individuals who at some time or another haveset a goal, a good goal. Something that you want to fix in your life that needs fixing. Something you want to uplift or improve. You are excited. You get started and are cooking with steam. You go for awhile and then all of a sudden something shifts and you stop. Then sometime later you start again, and you stop again and thus begins a start-stop cycle that I call startitis.

01:45 – Maybe you’ve had this experience related to nutrition or trying to lose weight…

03:00 – Or perhaps, you’ve lived the the same song with a different tune and instead of starting and stopping eating well, the start/stop relates to exercise.

03:50 Or perchance your startitis doesn’t connect with physical wellness – it impacts your spiritual wellbeing. You desire a closer walk with Jesus and want to spend more time in God’s Word. You start regular personal study with a plan to complete the bible and fall off somewhere in Leviticus…

05:00 Can any of you relate to any of this? I can tell you with all honesty and sincerity that I can. We are not alone. We all have some area(s) where we start off on a path the better, but stop and cycle through a pattern that is active but goes nowhere.

08:07 We fall off the wagon so many times we refuse to try again. We know the truth that ‘he who Christ has set free is free indeed’, but we continue to walk around in bondage to behaviors that hold us back.

09:12 Permanent positive change. Is possible! It may not be easy, but it is possible.

Let’s dig into three helps to stick to what we start.

10:29 Start small. Small changes are more sustainable. Starting small and going steady builds self-efficacy, protects our progress, and delights the Lord.

19:08 Find your fit. If we repeated try to make a positive change, and keep falling of that wagon – wagon, perhaps the wagon ain’t ours to ride. Don’t jump on the bandwagon of what is popular. Examine thyself so you can change yourself. Find and flourish in your path to better.

24:39 The most powerful tip to help you stick with what you start doesn’t deal with what or how – it looks at why…your motivation to start. Honestly answer the question Jesus asked the lame man at the Bethesda pool….

30:46 Talk to God about it. Engage the intersection of the divine power of God and human responsibility and obedience for consistent and effective action.

Helps and resources mentioned in this episode: