How to Use a Christmas Carol to Drive Your Personal Change
Use this classic tale to affect lasting change.
Personal development is hard. That’s because personal development requires us to change. And people resist change for many reasons. It’s scary. It’s a lot of work. It may require you to be different. You might need to sweat in public. Or hug people who smell.
If you’d summarize all these reasons in a single word, it’d be pain.
Here’s the problem: most people won’t change until the pain of not changing becomes too great. A classic story illustrates this:
A farmer was on his way home when he passed his neighbor who was sitting on the porch of his home. Beside him lay a dog, curled up and whimpering in pain. The farmer approached his neighbor. “Hiya neighbor, I noticed your dog seems in pain. What is the matter?”
His neighbor looked at the dog. “You’re right, he is in pain. He’s sitting on a nail.”
The farmer was perplexed. “But why doesn’t he just get up?! Clearly, it hurts a lot!”
His neighbor shrugged. “I guess because it’s not hurting enough yet.”
People won’t change until the pain of not changing becomes too great.
