Why Do I Do What I Dont Want To Do

We live in an upside-down culture. We wink at our vices as coping strategies while restricting our virtues to our online personas, where they won't interfere with our real lives. And we wonder why we feel empty, exhausted, and directionless. But why do we do things that we know are harmful for us? Jonathan "JP" Pokluda wants you to know there's a better, more fulfilling way to live, and it doesn't involve looking inside yourself for the answers--because that's not where you'll find them. With his signature wit and wisdom, he explains, unpacks, and expands on the age-old virtues we're told to pursue in Scripture: humility, forgiveness, generosity, diligence, self-control, authenticity, rest, and optimism. Far from being restrictive, these God-given goals for living free us to love and live as we wish we would. Practicing virtues is not just something you do--it's something done in you, slowly but surely transforming you into the person you were meant to be all along. Whether you're 18 or 80, it's never too late to redefine what's important to you and reclaim a life of virtue.

Change your life by changing the messages that enter your mind! Learn to see yourself through God’s eyes by spending thirty-one days feeding your heart a new, biblical message of encouragement. Every day, our hearts and minds fill with messages—about ourselves, the world, and God—that we replay again and again. Some of these messages are accurate and helpful. Others run counter to truths that God wants us to understand and embrace. In Dwell on These Things, author John Stange shows how—instead of living at the mercy of whatever thought pops into your mind—you can choose to • replace feelings of discouragement with a sense of God’s goodness • practice seeing yourself in the loving way God sees you • exchange negative self-talk for positive biblical messages • learn to face the day with hope in your heart There’s no need to remain stuck thinking unhelpful thoughts. Learn how you can fill your mind with encouraging, life-enriching truths through a gospel-saturated, thirty-one-day challenge that can help you replace a destructive mindset with a positive, empowering, and godly one.

Imagine you are a hot air balloon pilot flying high in the sky. Where would you want to go? What do you think the view would be like from up high? Hot air balloon pilots have wonderful adventures, where they get to see things they have never seen before and learn all about the world outside. Flying a hot air balloon sounds like a lot of fun to some kids. But for other kids, the idea of flying off on their own, away from their parents or homes, doesn’t sound like fun at all. What to Do When You Don’t Want to Be Apart guides children and their parents through the emotions underlying separation anxiety using strategies and techniques based on cognitive-behavioral principles. This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering children to overcome separation anxiety—so they can become the confident pilots of their very own hot air balloons! Includes an Introduction to Parents and Caregivers. This book is part of the Magination Press What-to-Do Guides for Kids® series and includes an “Introduction to Parents and Caregivers.” What-to-Guides for Kids® are interactive self-help books designed to guide 6–12 year olds and their parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques most often used in the treatment of various psychological concerns. Engaging, encouraging, and easy to follow, these books educate, motivate, and empower children to work towards change.

** A New York Times Bestseller ** NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time • The New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune • Boing Boing • The Irish Times • The New York Public Library • The Brooklyn Public Library "A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto."—Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review One of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019" Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.

The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

Employing the tenets of Zen Buddhist awareness practice, the book provides numerous exercises and self-help tools for working through problems with resistance, revealing how resistance operates in everyday life and guiding readers to consider how they can be free of it. The teachings in this book show how to recognize resistance in its many forms, not take it personally, and be free of its control. The platform is that the voice of resistance--thoughts such as I'll do it later--is not personal; everyone has it. Instead, it is the voice of a survival system that can take people from commitment to inaction in a matter of seconds. Then, self-hating voices level internal accusations for not having followed through, including thoughts of failure, shame, and lack of self-discipline.

Everyone wants to be loved--to find someone who will stick with them through all of life's ups and downs, someone who is in it for the long haul. But in a world where dating is increasingly based on split-second decisions and geared toward casual relationships rather than marriage, it's easy for single people to feel discouraged, used, or unworthy of true love and lasting affection. Reality just never seems to match up with our (often wildly unrealistic) expectations. Jonathan "JP" Pokluda has counseled thousands of young singles through the pain and heartbreak of dating the world's way. Now he wants to dispel the myths, misconceptions, and fairy tales you've believed about dating and replace them with the truth from the One who invented marriage, created you to crave relationship, and is the very embodiment of true love. With plenty of true stories about relationships healed and love found, this practical book explains God's purposes for singleness, dating, and marriage and covers why you should date, who you should date, and how you should date. If you're ready to trade the world's way of dating for the way that actually works, it's time to begin dating well.