You’ve done something amazing during the past month.
You’ve proved to yourselves that you can change.
If you can change, then you can improve.
How did you prove that you can improve?
By making many small changes.
Changes in Tefillah
I’m not going to mention all of the changes that we made. I’ll just give a couple of examples that illustrate the point.
One of the changes we made was just one word to our Shemoneh Esrei. Instead of saying “ha-el hakadosh” we changed it to “hamelech hakadosh.”
Why is it that virtually everyone successfully makes this switch in their daily tefillah?
Focus
We focus on the significance of this one word change as we strive to crown God as our King during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Right now, we’re in the midst of making another change in our tefillah. On Simchat Torah we stopped saying “morid hatal” and started saying “mashiv haruach umorid hageshem.”
I think many people find this change much more difficult. Why?
Lack of Focus
The days after Simchat Torah are not as intense so we tend not to concentrate so much on our tefilah.
And yet, eventually, we all make the the transition and we easily include “mashiv haruach umorid hageshem” in our tefillah. Why?
Repetition
Each of these small acts are repeated daily. Some of them several times a day.
That which is repeated eventually becomes a habit. Therefore, it’s up to us to ensure we are repeating positive actions.
Action Plan
I think you have here a model of how to successfully make changes in your life:
Find a way to focus on that change.
Repeat the change as often as possible.
Tutoring
Just a quick reminder that I have room in my schedule to work with 2 or 3 people who want to learn Chumash or Gemara. Could you or a friend of yours be one of them? Take a look here and get back to me if you’re interested.
Comments are closed.