We all strive to become whole. We use education, self-help books, bible studies, church, new year resolutions, and sheer willpower to live into the person we are meant to be.
I have used all of the above and more. I saw where I was and attempted to implement strategies to help me be better. Strategies to be a better listener, neighbor, follower of Jesus and strategies to get more done, achieve more, and be more disciplined. Even if the strategy seemed to work I would eventually get stuck or stopped and would slip back into my old way of being. This pattern led to me believing I cannot be better and that I should just own the way I show up as “who I am.”
Then I was introduced to Faithwalking’s mental model to transformation during a 101 retreat I attended in early 2013.
What is a mental model?
Wikipedia defines a mental model as “an explanation of someone’s thought process about how something works in the real world.” It goes on to say a mental model “can help shape behavior and set an approach to solving problems…”
So what I had been introduced to is a thought process about how personal transformation occurs in the real world. As I take it on it can help shape my behaviors and the ways I respond to problems, moving me towards the person I am meant to be.
Here is the Faithwalking mental model to transformation as I learned it in my 101 retreat.
I realize individual pieces of theory and strategy in Faithwalking are not completely original. However, since trying on Faithwalking’s mental model to transformation a little over a year ago I have seen genuine transformation in my life.
Changing the way I think about transformation has helped me lean into the person that God is calling me to be in ways I have never been able to before. My behaviors have changed and the ways I respond in anxiety has changed.
Living into the mental model to transformation is not something that happens overnight but in my opinion is something worth trying on.
