All of the self-help seminars and books offered some good material but I still didn't seem to change in the way I wanted to. I later learned that it was because I didn't have a reason to change. I didn't have enough personal leverage on myself to force myself to change. You have to have a reason or a "WHY" must a change in order to begin the personal change process.
Will you be satisfied with your attempt to live the fullest life possible when it's all said and done? If you don't have enough leverage on yourself, you simply will not change. Why do you think so many celebrities are in and out of rehab so much that it has become a joke? It is because they don't have enough leverage on themselves. They don't really want to change. When they want to change, they will.
That's how it is with all of us. The great motivational thinker and writer Earl Nightingale once said that "each man is where he really wants to be." When I first heard that I thought it was absurd. Then I really began to meditate on that statement and I realized that he was 100% correct. We are exactly where we really want to be. Think about that.
It's like you're saying..."my child's future is not important enough for me to tear myself away from the TV long enough to build something better for them. I will pass on the same legacy of struggle and 'just getting by' and teach them to pass the same legacy on to their children so that the next generation will also live a half-life. Future generations of my family are not important enough for me to make the very most of my life by passing on a brighter future."
Can you possibly mean that?! Of course you don't mean that on a conscious level. But what are your current actions communicating to the world and your children? I realized that I was doing that to my family and I didn't like it. I went on a mission. I made up my mind that my kids would never have to go to work for someone unless they made a conscious decision to do so. It will not be because they feel that they have no other alternative. They will have choices.
Have you found your "WHY?" Do you have enough leverage on yourself to force you to want to change? When you have the leverage, there truly is absolutely nothing that you cannot accomplish with your life.