One Thing That Changes Everything: How to Create the Life You Want By Changing Just One Thing

Thought

INTRODUCTION

CATALYST:

SOMETHING THAT CAUSES AN IMPORTANT EVENT TO HAPPEN.

My first job in TV was as a host on a television shopping network in Australia. All the products you never knew you couldn’t live without for sale on your TV screen – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each show would last an hour and would be dedicated to a different category of product. My job was to interview specialized guests while they demonstrated said products.

From wonder vacuums that really sucked (some literally, some figuratively) to blenders that could destroy rocks in 12 seconds, for that special occasion when a cake recipe demanded finely ground masonry.

There was one show I would do once a month with a cleaning product. A great cleaning product, in fact. The owner of the company would always come into the studio and do the demonstration with me. The show would consist of a variety of very dirty items (a window pane, wash basin, football boots, etc) strewn along a bench. We would then demonstrate this fab product. Before he started though he would always say, "Jamie, I could use this cleaning solution as it is, but it wouldn’t do the job. What I need to do is add water to it because water is the catalyst that releases the power of the cleaner."

It seems that what we were endeavoring to use as a cleaning product was just a normal, mild mannered substance that, with a lot of elbow grease, would do an average job at best…Ahhh, but when water, the catalyst, was introduced, the power held within it was released. It was turned into something completely different. It was empowered and enabled to do exactly what it was truly designed to do. It cleaned the windowpane, the football boots, the sink, and the stovetop with ease.

Why? Because the power contained within it was released.

How? By changing just one thing.

One thing changed everything.

This book was written for one reason and one reason only: to trigger the catalyst in your life so that you too would be empowered beyond belief to do what you were designed for.

CHAPTER ONE

ONE THING

The Other Side

Jesus had been preaching to a bunch of people beside a lake when he turned to his disciples and said, Hey, lets go over to the other side. (Mark 4:35 paraphrased)

I find it’s not always what Jesus says but sometimes what he doesn’t say that’s so incredibly powerful. By saying lets go to the other side he was also saying, Lets leave this side.

You gotta leave somewhere to go somewhere.

You can’t go somewhere if you don’t leave somewhere. Even if you really want to go somewhere but you won’t leave somewhere, you can’t go somewhere. Even if you feel called to go somewhere and you don’t leave somewhere, you can’t go somewhere.

Sometimes it’s not what you’re willing to go for that’s stopping you but rather what you’re not willing to let go of.

You gotta leave anger if you want to go to peace.

You gotta leave doubt if you want to go to faith.

You gotta leave comparison if you want to go to contentment.

You gotta leave disappointment if you want to dream again.

Leave it on the shore and wave it goodbye. You’re going to the other side.

Burn The Ships

I love the story of the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez. In 1519 he landed in Veracruz, Mexico ready to take new land and plunder the incredible amount of Aztec wealth that was there. For more than 600 years conquerors with far more resources, far more weapons and far more soldiers had tried to take that land and failed. He landed with 11 ships, 16 horses and about 600 men.

But rather than take the usual approach of immediately attacking each city head on, he spent time encouraging his men with stories of the heroes they were about to become. And just as they were all ready to finally head into battle he said, "Oh yes, one more little thing. Burn the ships."

You can imagine the response, What?!! But how are we gonna get home?

And that’s just the point. Retreat is easy when you have the option.

They knew the unspoken answer to How are we gonna get home?

We don’t, we win or we die. There’s no going back.

Did Cortez take the land? He absolutely did. First one to do it.

Maybe you need to burn some ships.

Dead relationships that seem to hang on.

Past failures that, If you had known…

Disappointment in yourself, in others, in God.

Missed opportunities that you woulda, shoulda, coulda.

I mean, how long are you going to hold onto that garbage for? Don’t hold on to that dead wood any longer. Burn it!

Forget It!

Paul said, "I forget what is behind and I pursue what is ahead."

Notice he didn’t just say, I pursue what is ahead. He didn’t just say, I’m going to the other side. He also said, I’m leaving where I am.

That word ‘Forget’ that Paul used means: To lose out of mind, to neglect, to no longer care for. In other words, Paul was saying, That stuff in the past? I purposely don’t think about it, I don’t spend time on it. I don’t care about it. I pursue what is ahead.

Wow. When Paul said ‘forget about it’ he was being brutal. He was burning ships. Maybe the reason you haven’t had victory is because you haven’t burnt that ship. You may have threatened the ship, you may have held a match to the ship and waved it around. You may even have set fire to a tiny bit of it then stamped it out.

Today, grab the kerosene bottle and start throwing that stuff around. Douse that ship, every single part of it. Every part that’s keeping that thing afloat. Then stand back, light the match and throw it. Let that thing burn.

I’m On Fire, God!

I remember having a huge ‘on fire’ prayer session one day. It was around lunchtime and there was no one home but me. I locked myself in my bedroom and started jumping around the place. I don’t know what got me so pumped but whatever it was it was working.

I started jumping up and down on my bed yelling some wild crazy prayers…God, I’ll do anything, go anywhere, preach to anybody, anytime. I want to see the power of God move, I want to smash the devil’s head in, rip people out of wheelchairs, raise the dead… I mean I was on fire baby!

Then I felt God speak to me, and he said this…

If you want to do the things you want to do you need to spend more time with me.

And do you know what immediately came out of my mouth?

But I’ve got little kids.

I went from, I’m going to change the world!, to, But I’ve got little kids in about half a second! Here I am, on fire, full of faith, laying before God the true desires of my heart, dreaming bigger than ever before, seeing further than ever before and it seems that from his reply he’s saying, Great, lets go for it. But just one thing: spend more time with me.

…and I’ve balked at it!!

Not only that but I then proceeded to explain to God why it would be impossible for me to spend more time with him. I kid you not. Here were my excuses:

I can’t get up earlier to pray because:

a) If I do I’ll wake the kids and if I wake the kids my wife will turn into Satan.

b) I’ll just fall back to sleep again.

And I can’t pray late at night because:

a) My mind is full of all the stuff from the day and I can’t concentrate on changing the world.

b) I’ll just fall asleep.

And…. Forget praying during the day because having small children is like living with zombies. You can’t get away from them! It doesn’t matter what room you try to hide in. They will find you. Even the bathroom’s not safe. You know what it’s like. You create an elaborate diversion, then run on your tip toes so as to not make a sound down the hall and throw yourself into the bathroom, shutting the door as quickly and quietly as you can. And there you sit on the loo, staring at the door knob praying it doesn’t move. But you can hear them coming…babbling incomprehensibly as they slowly stagger down the hallway dragging a half dismembered teddy covered in slobber and jam by the ear as you sit whispering to no one Just give me five minutes…that’s all I ask…five…minu… Too late. The door knob turns, the zombie has found you.

To this well justified and completely true argument God said…nothing. Don’t you hate that?

Later in the day it really struck me though. What’s wrong with me? God tells me the secret, the answer, the catalyst. The one thing that will change everything, and I stumble at it. What’s wrong with you Jamie?!

A few weeks later I was catching up with a buddy of mine who was a relatively new pastor of a church. I was asking him how things were going and he said, Okay.

But then he stopped and he said, "Jamie, you know what? I know what I need to do to grow the church. I know I need to spend time with God to get creative ideas, to get fresh vision, to get faith…And here’s the thing: not only do I know what I need to do, I have the time to do it and because I’m now a full time pastor I’m getting paid to do it!…But I still don’t do it!"

I thought, Woo hoo, somebody else is as messed up as me! Nothing like hearing other people’s failures to make you feel so much better about your own life. That’s why I make sure I watch ‘Extreme Horders’ at least once a week. It makes me feel so organized. But seriously, it made me think, this is crazy! It seems there’s lots of people, like me, who know right now what the one thing is that will change everything, but still don’t do it.

We act like monkeys instead.

How To Catch A Monkey

I’ve been told that in some parts of the world they have a very simple but effective way of catching monkeys. They don’t dig a pit or try to spear them. Instead they do something quite unique. They take a heavy hollowed out log, cut a hole in one side and place a small piece of sugar in there. The tribesmen then hide in the bushes and wait. Next thing you know, sure enough, a monkey drops down from a tree, smelling the sugar, slowly walks over to the log, squeezes his hand into the hole and grabs it.

Here’s the clever bit. The tribesmen cut the hole in the log just big enough for the monkey to squeeze his hand in but small enough that when he makes a fist he can’t