In my opinion, a man running the most organized, productive and smart company in the world would begin by starting a collection of quitting P tips. He would organize them into a Google doc's file and he would continue collecting more tips for days and weeks. Next, he would organize and analyze which tips are most important for quitting. Then he would outwork everyone in the world in putting these tips into action. But let's assume he fell back anyways. Now he would reanalyze which tips were most important, but he would still work at following “all” the tips that pertain to him. Let's say that his analysis helps him realize that his “thinking” is sinking him. So he moves “Change your thinking” up his list. Now he will work extra on that every day. But the next day, he falls again. He studies his list. Tip 7 is to read the Bible daily. Tip 5 is to spend time in prayer. He then realizes he skipped both again today and down he went. The next day he has Bible study and prayer but he falls again. He studies his list again. For some reason, tip 17, stands out to him. Tip 17 reads: Be filled with the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit will squeeze the lust right out of you. Tip 21 also stood out to him: To pray to care about souls. Then during Bible study, he had an epiphany. Porn was a huge problem, but his real problem was that he cares about money, stuff and lust instead of caring about people, souls and obedience. Then it hit him. If he was filled with the Spirit then his new desire would be people, souls and obedience. Then he read the verse: 12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. He then realized that if he is a living sacrifice his old self would be dead. His new self would care about people, souls and obedience. Abruptly he readjusted his list again, putting caring about souls #3, obedience #2 and being filled with the Holy Spirit #1. But the next day he fell again. He tried to readjust his list, but he was sure it was right. Then he noticed tip 15 which read: Most of us have at least one thing that we have to give up. Things that we know have led us to porn. That day during Bible study he read the verse in Matthew 6: You can’t serve God and money at the same time. He took this verse to heart, sold some of his stock and started a division at his company that would computerize missions and double their capacities. From that day forward he was a fanatic about making people, souls, and obedience a priority. The next day he did not fall. And now he felt more power and self-control.
Interesting thought. I sense your insight into how highly successful people go about achieving a goal. Your words describe how single minded and determined one must be. In my case (I confess I am an engineer with an engineering brain) I performed a root cause analysis of my failures in order to find the consistent mistakes that I made and the most prevalent contributing factors. With some thought, I boiled it down to two root causes and two contributing factors. I have mentioned them before, so unless someone wishes, I won't repeat them here. Root Cause analysis is a formal process, much like a flow chart, that anyone can google and easily apply. With hindsight, I wonder if I had applied this process much earlier, I might have found success earlier but I am not sure about that. The missing ingredient for me was grace. The Holy Spirit freely gives grace to those who sincerely and regularly seek it. Without grace, all of my analysis would have been wasted because I was lacking the inspiration and determination that grace brings. With abundant grace, I am not sure all of my analysis would have been necessary although the process did reinforce and clearly define what I already suspected.
