Change

Let me explain. You can not say you have stopped smoking and stop smoking. You have to come to terms with why you smoke, deal with it and then you will stop smoking. That means, if you smoke weed to get high, then there must be a reason why you want to get high. If you steal, you can not stop stealing by not taking people's money. You stop stealing by understanding why you were doing it. I met a 47 year old guy who begs at event venues. I asked him why he has not changed since I met him in 1997... and he is still begging. He said "Oga Ali, what can I do? I am lazy. Moo le puro funyi. (I cant lie to you) Mo y'ole. (I am a confirmed lazy guy) Nkan Timo tifi to awon omo re" (I have brought up all my kids with begging). So, if he has to change the behaviour (begging) he can not stop begging (behavioural modification). He has to stop begging and find work (accepting his laziness and finding a job to change that). In other words, if you stop the behaviour by modification (that's faith at work) but when you start changing your identity to another person entirely, that is working on the faith you have. That is why faith without works is worthless. When you say you will stop compulsive buying... that is a modification. But if you don't change that your identity that drives you to compulsively buy things, you won't make it. Because if you buy things to belong to a particular class, or do certain things to be accepted into a clique, until you change that quest to identify... you will continue to buy to qualify. Kapish?