One of the most life-giving lessons I've learned in my seven decades is that I have the opportunity to choose many of the things I experience in life. Obviously, there are some things we do not get to choose. There are persons who are born with handicaps who would never have chosen those handicaps, but they still get to choose how they will respond to those limitations. If you doubt that you need to read What's Your Excuse?: Making the Most of What You Have. It's the story of John Foppe, a man born with no arms who refused to let that handicap limit him. It's a powerful book about how each of us can choose how to respond to the challenges life presents to us.
Foppe could have chosen to be a "perpetual victim." You know those people. They are always blaming others for the bad things that have happened to them. They refuse to take any responsibility for themselves. It's the government's responsibility to provide for them, or the church's, or their family's.
There is no doubt that some people have had rough times. They may not have had the best childhood. They may have suffered abuse or neglect. They may have faced more struggles than most people. I would never discount that, but that is in the past. Maybe there was nothing they could do about their circumstances back then, but now they are adults. They can choose to live in the past and blame their problems on the things that happened back then or they can choose to live in the present and prepare themselves for a better future.
It's time that people begin to take responsibility for their lives. That's called maturity. It's being a grown-up. Instead of demanding that the government increase the minimum wage, do something that will entitle you to earn more. All raising the minimum wage does is cost people jobs. If you want to earn more money, be worth more.
During my senior year of high school I worked at a local supermarket. I was in a class that went to school a half-day and worked the other half. I bagged groceries for .75 cents an hour. I worked about 50 hours a week (You can't do that now while going to school!). In a few weeks I was promoted to a stocker and given responsibility for ordering stock for an entire aisle of products. I requested a raise and received it. A few months later I was given responsibility for a second aisle. Now I was ordering product and responsible for stocking two aisles in that store. I got another raise. Some of the other students in the class complained to the teacher because I was making more than they were. When he challenged me about that I explained if they wanted to make more money all they had to do was to be worth more. After that conversation I asked for another raise and got it, too!
No one can hold you back except you. No one can limit what you can achieve but you. People tell me they can't get a better job because they don't have the education and can't get it. I earned my bachelor's degree at the age of 46 while working full-time in a factory and pastoring a church. I got my master's degree at 58 while working a full-time job and my doctorate at 62 while working that same job. Don't tell me you can't get the education you need. Besides, you can get a good job without a college education. There are employers who will train people who want to work. Why should anyone worry about a minimum wage job when there are good jobs out there for those willing to pursue them?
Your choices are not limited to jobs or salaries. You get to choose the kind of marriage you will have, the way you raise your children, your financial security, your character, your happiness and a host of other aspects of your life. Quit living in the past and begin making choices that will improve your life now and in the future. The choice is yours.
Showing posts with label Motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Motivation. Show all posts
Monday, June 22, 2020
Thursday, May 28, 2020
What are you prepared to do?
In the movie The Untouchables Sean Connery's character has the best line of the entire film. Elliot Ness is trying to recruit him to help Ness send Al Capone to prison. Three times in the film Connery's character asks the question, "What are you prepared to do?" The final time he asked the question was just before he died after being gunned down by one of Capone's men.
He asks the question before agreeing to help Ness because he wants to know how far Ness is willing to go to put Capone away. Connery plays an Irish cop who isn't interested in being part of any half-hearted attempt to take on Capone's criminal empire. It's not until he is convinced that Ness is committed to doing whatever it takes that he agrees to join him in his effort.
The reason I enjoy this line so much is that it is a question that each of us must ask ourselves when we want to tackle something so big in our lives that there is a good chance we will fail. Too often we settle for living lives that lack adventure and substance. We settle for the mundane, the safe, the boring because we are afraid if we try to venture beyond that we will fail. How many people have wanted to start their own business but never found the courage to do so? How many wanted to further their education but didn't think they had what it took? How many wanted to have a rich, satisfying relationship with someone but was afraid of being hurt? Living our lives to the fullest requires risk, and many of us are afraid of risk. It's only when we are willing to stretch ourselves that we can be the people we are called to be and experience all that life has to offer.
But as we think about doing that we need to pause and ask ourselves the question: What are we prepared to do? How far are we willing to do to realize our dreams? What are we willing to give up to gain what we want most out of life? John Maxwell says that we have to give up to go up. In other words, we have to be willing to sacrifice some things in order to achieve the things we want most. Jesus Christ challenged us to count the cost because there is always a cost to achieve the most out of life.
While sacrifice will be required, we must not sacrifice some things. Our integrity for one thing. Some people are willing to sacrifice their integrity in order to gain material things. They will lie, cheat, steal and do anything else to get what they want. That is too high a price to pay. So is sacrificing our families. How many people have thought they had it all only to look back to find out they had lost their family in the process? It's also not worth it to sacrifice our health in order to achieve the things we want in life. I think of the many famous performers whose lives were ruined by the drugs they used to keep performing. Certainly, we can never sacrifice our faith in our pursuit of whatever we want in life. Many have abandoned the faith of their childhood in order to live their dreams. If our dreams cause us to sacrifice our integrity, our families, our health and our faith those dreams will turn into nightmares. We will find we paid too high a price.
What are some of the things we will need to do in order to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life? If I may again quote John Maxwell, he often says that each of us has a choice. We can either pay now and play later, or we can play now and pay later. There is always a cost if we want to achieve more in life. We just have to decide when we want to pay it. He would say it's best to pay it early in life so as to be able to enjoy the fruits of your efforts later. I would agree.
This requires a dedicated focus on doing the things that will achieve what you want. While others are playing you are focused on doing the things necessary to achieve success in your chosen field. While others are going into debt to buy cars and homes they cannot afford, you are avoiding debt, living within your means, putting money into your retirement account and investments. If that sounds boring, just wait until your friends can't afford to retire while you have a few million in your retirement account. Then you can see who's bored. We can make similar comparisons about any area of life you want. When you focus on doing the right thing in those areas you may miss out on temporary pleasure at first, but you will reap the rewards of your discipline later.
It's very unlikely to will achieve the things you want most in life by accident. It will require dedicated focus on your part, a willingness to pay a price and a steadfast commitment to achieving your dreams. So, what are you prepared to do?
He asks the question before agreeing to help Ness because he wants to know how far Ness is willing to go to put Capone away. Connery plays an Irish cop who isn't interested in being part of any half-hearted attempt to take on Capone's criminal empire. It's not until he is convinced that Ness is committed to doing whatever it takes that he agrees to join him in his effort.
The reason I enjoy this line so much is that it is a question that each of us must ask ourselves when we want to tackle something so big in our lives that there is a good chance we will fail. Too often we settle for living lives that lack adventure and substance. We settle for the mundane, the safe, the boring because we are afraid if we try to venture beyond that we will fail. How many people have wanted to start their own business but never found the courage to do so? How many wanted to further their education but didn't think they had what it took? How many wanted to have a rich, satisfying relationship with someone but was afraid of being hurt? Living our lives to the fullest requires risk, and many of us are afraid of risk. It's only when we are willing to stretch ourselves that we can be the people we are called to be and experience all that life has to offer.
But as we think about doing that we need to pause and ask ourselves the question: What are we prepared to do? How far are we willing to do to realize our dreams? What are we willing to give up to gain what we want most out of life? John Maxwell says that we have to give up to go up. In other words, we have to be willing to sacrifice some things in order to achieve the things we want most. Jesus Christ challenged us to count the cost because there is always a cost to achieve the most out of life.
While sacrifice will be required, we must not sacrifice some things. Our integrity for one thing. Some people are willing to sacrifice their integrity in order to gain material things. They will lie, cheat, steal and do anything else to get what they want. That is too high a price to pay. So is sacrificing our families. How many people have thought they had it all only to look back to find out they had lost their family in the process? It's also not worth it to sacrifice our health in order to achieve the things we want in life. I think of the many famous performers whose lives were ruined by the drugs they used to keep performing. Certainly, we can never sacrifice our faith in our pursuit of whatever we want in life. Many have abandoned the faith of their childhood in order to live their dreams. If our dreams cause us to sacrifice our integrity, our families, our health and our faith those dreams will turn into nightmares. We will find we paid too high a price.
What are some of the things we will need to do in order to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life? If I may again quote John Maxwell, he often says that each of us has a choice. We can either pay now and play later, or we can play now and pay later. There is always a cost if we want to achieve more in life. We just have to decide when we want to pay it. He would say it's best to pay it early in life so as to be able to enjoy the fruits of your efforts later. I would agree.
This requires a dedicated focus on doing the things that will achieve what you want. While others are playing you are focused on doing the things necessary to achieve success in your chosen field. While others are going into debt to buy cars and homes they cannot afford, you are avoiding debt, living within your means, putting money into your retirement account and investments. If that sounds boring, just wait until your friends can't afford to retire while you have a few million in your retirement account. Then you can see who's bored. We can make similar comparisons about any area of life you want. When you focus on doing the right thing in those areas you may miss out on temporary pleasure at first, but you will reap the rewards of your discipline later.
It's very unlikely to will achieve the things you want most in life by accident. It will require dedicated focus on your part, a willingness to pay a price and a steadfast commitment to achieving your dreams. So, what are you prepared to do?
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Welcome
I want to welcome you to our new blog Choices.
Each of us have the incredible freedom to make just about any choice we want in our lives. We have the ability to choose the person we want to marry, if we want to marry, to work in the career of our choice, to have children or not, to be persons of faith or not, to choose where we want to live among other things. In fact, in just about every area of our lives we are allowed to make choices. However, what we are not allowed to do is to avoid the consequences of those choices. Every choice has consequences. As I like to say, we make our choices and our choices make us.
For 20 years I served as the pastor of a small church. For 14 years after that I was a judicatory minister with responsibility for over 130 churches before I retired. My ministry allowed me to see how people's choices impacted their lives. Sometimes, people made poor choices that had a negative impact on their lives. Some of those individuals were repeat offenders. They just kept making bad choices until their lives were much different than what they wanted. Yet, in too many cases, they did not know how to turn their lives around.
I also knew many people who often made good choices in their lives. Those good choices produced positive results for them. Their lives were much better than those who consistently made poor choices. But, one thing we never want to lose sight of is that our lives can always improve, no matter how good it is today. As we learn to make even better choices in the future, our lives will continue to reflect those good choices.
I had the privilege of hearing one of the greatest motivational speakers of all time, Zig Ziglar, speak several times. He would often begin his message by asking the audience some questions. He would ask, "How many of you believe that regardless of how bad your personal, family, and business lives are at this moment there are still some things you could do that would make them even worse?" That generally got a laugh from the crowd. He would follow that question by asking, "How many of you believe that regardless of how good your personal, family, and business lives are there are still some things you could do to improve them?" After giving the audience a few moments to think about his questions, he would say "If you honestly do believe there is something you can do to make your life better or your life worse, you have reached a profound conclusion. It's this: I don't care how bad my life is, I don't care how good my life is, there is something I can do to change it - and the choice is mine."
This blog is dedicated to helping people make better choices in their lives. As a retired minister, I still have a passion to see people live their lives to their fullest potential. Every Sunday I would share messages designed to do just that. In this blog I want to do the same thing.
We will address just about every aspect of our lives, point out mistakes that people sometimes make, and offer better choices for your consideration. We will address important topics such as marriage, raising children, personal finance, business and career choices, pursuing success, job security and a host of other subjects that affect us all.
I hope you will want to follow this page and check out all the articles. Be sure to click on the blue FOLLOW box on the right side. If you add your email address, you will receive an email whenever a new post is added. I sincerely believe they can help you live your best life. I also invite you to share these articles with others. Encourage them to follow this blog as well. Making choices in life is inevitable. We should each strive to make the best ones we can.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)