“If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.”

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God (p. 160). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

I know, I know you’ve probably heard that thought before but did you really hear it?

Mark says, “The status-quo bias is a major impediment to spiritual growth. And if we aren’t careful, it’ll keep us from discerning God’s promptings.

“In computer science, default settings are automatically assigned to software applications, computer programs, and smartphones. Those out-of-the-box settings are called presets, and their purpose is to establish a protocol to optimize performance.

“In much the same way, we all have default settings that dictate a lot of what we do. From the way we wake up, to the way we eat, to the way we interact with others, so many dimensions of our lives become patterned. A handful of default settings dictate our thoughts and actions. And the good news is this: a small change in a preset can have a huge change in outcome.”

He goes on, “A few years ago I was trying to drop a few pounds, but I was having the hardest time shedding the weight. I was venting to a friend of mine while drinking a Venti Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks one night when he looked down at my drink and said, ‘You know you’re sabotaging yourself, right?’ A Venti Caramel Macchiato is 250 calories, and that was my second one of the day! So what did I do? I did the only thing I could do if I wanted to lose weight: I changed my default drink.”

He then says, “Heeding a little prompting today can have a huge net effect tomorrow.”

So, what is it that you keep doing that is keeping you from getting whatever it is that you really want?  What is it you need to change?