Feed Your Dream

 F.E.E.D. Your Dream 

Four Elements That Drive Success

 1. Focus     2. Effort     3. Evenness     4. Discipline

 

“If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price.”  - Bud Wilkinson

If you have some significant goals you would like to accomplish, or desire to live a life that makes an impact, there are four key elements critical to your daily routine.  These are essential to incorporate into your life as you push towards achieving those goals. 

  

These keys to success are very simple, yet sadly for most people, they are often just too difficult to even implement, much less maintain.  However, if you can continue with persistent determination to make these elements part of your life, the rewards will be great indeed!
 

1 - FOCUS – Possibly the most important element you must possess to get where you want to be is focus. Think of a laser - light that increases with power and intensity the more it is focused.  Being focused means that no matter what distractions come your way, you will remain relentless in your pursuit of your goals.  You will stay the course… regardless.

I was traveling through the airport not long ago and had a very tight connection.  As a coffee addict, the one aspect of air travel I choose to enjoy is a good "cup o' Joe" between flights.  This particular trip only afforded me a brief few minutes to hit the Starbucks on the way to my gate.  So, I exited the plane, focused on two things – the board showing my connecting flight information, and the nearest coffee bar.  (Actually, my focus was really on the coffee.  I already had a good idea of where I was going.)  But once I got my gate info, I was off to get the coffee - no restroom detours, no stops to chat, no newsstand detours.  I was focused on my objective! 

Do you have that one big goal? Have you determined the steps necessary to achieve it? Then lock in on those steps, and do them daily with a laser like focus until to reach your destination.  You will have many distractions on your way to greatness, mostly from those who want to protect you from failure.  Anyone or anything that would deter you from your mission should not get a single look!  Focus on that dream and don’t let there be any room for average in your life.  Demand excellence from yourself!

2 - EFFORT – Apply the effort of a champion.  A winner is one who does those little things that make a big difference, even when no one is watching.  Whether you want to shred those last couple percentages of body fat, or be the number one salesman in your firm, you do what it takes – eat only clean and healthy foods, do the extra rep on the bench, make the extra sales calls or work that extra hour instead of meeting up with those “just enough, only what I’m paid to do” people at the bar.

Anything worth doing is not just worth doing well, it’s worth doing great – doing whatever you are focused on to the very best of your ability.  Don’t do something halfway, go all in and do it with everything you've got!  If life has thrown your ox in the ditch, it’s going to take some serious effort to get him out!  So don’t just give him an occasional, casual tug.  Bear down and pull until you’re back on track!

3 - EVENNESS – This applies to your daily habits.  The successful don’t live in an up and down manner.  Their lives are not a roller coaster ride.  We all experience bumps in the road, but what kind of “suspension system” we have determines our outlook, and all winners have internal shock absorbers that provide consistency and protect them emotionally.  That evenness in their attitude, regardless of outside circumstances provides them the ability to operate and move toward their target consistently each and every day.

Evenness also means consistency, and consistency is the opposite of complacency.  Achievers are never satisfied.  They wake up every day hungry for more.  You are the only person you need to compare yourself to, and the only person you should desire to be better than… is the person you were yesterday.  Those that are meant for greatness are consistently looking for ways to improve, learn new skills, and even fine tune the skills they already possess.   They are consistently performing the necessary and often mundane daily tasks that the unsuccessful refuse to do.  Without consistency, there can be no success.

4 - DISCIPLINE – I read the other day that you haven’t seen discipline until you have tasted discipline.  Man that rings true!  I know athletes that eat the same thing over and over and over again, run the same trails, or perform the same exercises with ever increasing intensity, hundreds, or even thousands of times… not because it tastes good or feels good, but because it is what their body needs to perform at peak levels and get them the results they are looking for.  Simply put, discipline is what gets results.

If you’re reading this, most likely you are someone who already has some specific goals for your life.  If not, figure out really what matters most to you and write down some specific life goals before life gets away from you.  And since that is the source of an entirely new conversation, I’ll leave it for another time… But take those written goals, and after you have formulated a plan – which ultimately should include some coaching or mentorship – apply these four key elements in your quest to achieve what you truly want out of life.

1.      Focus on those goals and living a life of significance… 
2.      Apply effort to each component of your plan… 
3.      Make that effort focused and consistent, maintaining an even spirit throughout the process… 
4.      Discipline yourself to maintain consistent, focused effort and stay the course.

Understand this… If you make a mistake – and you will probably make many if you are chasing your dreams - don’t make an excuse, learn the lesson!  The most successful make the most mistakes.  Failure is not failure unless you refuse to learn the lesson it is trying to teach you and lie down and quit!  An excuse is 100 times more deadly than a lie, because an excuse is a lie that is protected!  So don’t look for pity when you fail.  Look for the lesson and go back to work! Give 100% to everything you do, and nothing less, because 99% of the way is still only 99% of the way... 

So you have a decision today.  Make a determined choice to dominate these four things, never look back, and discover your greatness.  I promise you.  If you do this, you will lead a life worth living - a life that will make a difference in the lives of others.

 

Change Your Image

    

Change Your Image 

Romans 8:24-25 For by hope we are saved; but hope which is clearly seen is no longer hope.  Who hopes for what he clearly sees? But if we hope for something that we do not see, we then patiently wait for it.

• What is the image you carry of yourself?
• Do you see yourself as healthy? Overweight?  Wealthy?  Broke? 
• Are you where you thought you would be at this stage of your life?
• Do you see the person you dreamed you would be as a youth?

Hard questions no doubt, but ones we need to be asking ourselves regularly.  We only get one shot at life.   This is not a dress rehearsal, so if things are not as they should be, then another all-important question we need to ask ourselves is this, What needs to change?

If life as you now know it is not what you ordered, change the order – change the image.

According to scripture, hope is actually looking at something you cannot see.  But that’s crazy!  How can one look at something he cannot see?  By looking with the eyes of his or her spirit - God’s word is full of amazing promises – internalizing God’s word, reading and meditating on it until your inner eyes form the picture necessary to effect change.  Because what you see is what you get, what you see won’t change until your inner man sees the change.

Where there is a strong desire for something, and a corresponding expectation of obtaining it, which constitutes true hope - then we can wait for it with patience.  Where there is a strong desire without a corresponding expectation of obtaining it, there is impatience.

You see hope that is seen, that is, enjoyed, is no longer hope, it is fruition: and a man cannot hope for that which he has in his possession.

If the image you have had of yourself all your life is of a physically fat person, it will be very difficult if not impossible for you to lose weight. And your outer self will exactly match your inner picture.  

Or if the image you have of your life is one of just getting by, second hand or discount shopping, poverty or lack… guess what?  No abundance will appear in your life.  Again, your outer reality will line up perfectly with your inner reality.

So how do we change the image that has been so deeply buried within us over the years?

1-   Set aside some serious time for introspection and self-evaluation, perhaps with a very close friend or spouse who will help you.  You need some good input to offset the bad.  We are already too adept at bashing ourselves.  What we are looking for is hope, not utter despair.   Compare your inner images to what God says about you!

2-  Admit to yourself what the image is.  This could be the biggest and possibly most difficult step on the road to lasting change.  Identify what doesn’t line up with God’s word and ask Him to help you see yourself as He sees you – a miraculous work of divine creation, imbued with His likeness.  

3- Find scripture and positive, uplifting books, audios, and magazines that address these unhealthy images, and meditate on them daily.  You can’t change a very dark colored wall to a light color with only a single coat of paint!  In fact, the darker the color, the more coats of paint it will take to go light.  Plus the under coat will affect the lighter top coat.  You spent years getting where you are now, so don’t expect a “one coat” change!  The more you want or need to change, the more you will need to read, meditate on God’s word, and pray for divine aid.  Some of our issues are deep strongholds within us and will only be removed when there is a proper image to replace them.  The way you drive out the negative image is by developing its positive replacement.

4-   Finally… Commit to the process.  BELIEVE that the God in you can change the images inside you!  Speak His word and what it says about you into your spirit! His word, daily communion with Him, and prayer combined with worship and that positive self-talk, will move you from those feelings of despair to the hope that only comes from a life in Christ!  Create a blueprint of the image you desire yourself to be and develop your faith to build upon it!  

Romans 4: 17a …”the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that don’t exist into existence. ¹⁸ When it was beyond hope, he had faith in the hope that he would become the father of many nations, in keeping with the promise God spoke to him: That’s how many descendants you will have.^{[d] 19} Without losing faith, Abraham, who was nearly 100 years old, took into account his own body, which was as good as dead, and Sarah’s womb, which was dead. ²⁰ He didn’t hesitate with a lack of faith in God’s promise, but he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised.” (CEB)

Crabs, Grasshoppers, and the 2%...

Crabs in a barrel, 

a whole mess of grasshoppers, 

and the 2%…

 

Crabs in a barrel

 

I was reading somewhere of how crabs when caught in a trap, or placed in a barrel without a lid, will not only stay there after the bait is consumed, but also will turn on other crabs who try to escape, tearing off limbs and even consuming their own!  What it brings to mind, however, is the striking similarity of such behavior to modern day humanity.  Such is the condition of our current society, and it even rings true among families and close friends!  

Known as “crabs in the barrel,” many people often envy the successful, and will even go out of their way to restrict the progress of others, and those closest to them.  While this can be very troubling, it should not keep us from striving to move forward in life and achieve the life of our dreams, regardless of all the claws that may be snapping at our backsides 

But here's a thought... Could it be that when we try to impose upon those closest to us, our own low expectations of ourselves, we are just compensating for our own shortcomings?  I'm afraid the sad reality is this...  "The crab that mostly keeps you down is you."

A whole mess of grasshoppers

     

                         Nu 13:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them."   3 So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.

                     17 Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them  , "Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains,  18 "and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many;   19 "whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; 20 "whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land." 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.  27 Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.  28 "Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.

                    30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." 

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.  33 "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. (NKJV)

Just like the story of the crabs keeping each other in the cage, even killing those who try to climb out, so were the Israelite majority set against Joshua and Caleb.  They chose to believe the majority, the ten naysayers, the ones who saw themselves as grasshoppers, the ones who had forgotten that they were in fact giant slayers and mighty men who had overthrown every enemy in their path, a people in fact, who instilled fear in the hearts of all the kings and nations who had been exposed to the great stories of their conquests! 

Powerful nations and alliances vanquished by a nation that now wished to go back to slavery and a life of hard labor.  Somehow they chose to believe this lie over all the facts, the victories, all the miracles, all the years of deliverance, all their history in Jehovah.  They chose to believe 10 faithless men over all of that… and even over their God… and forget all He had done for them!   A nation of giant-killers was convinced by 10 grasshoppers that they needed to stay in the barrel!

Numbers 14: 1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.  2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!  3 "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"  4 So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt."

6 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.  8 "If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.'  9 "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."

           10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.   11 Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me?  And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?

           36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land,  37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the LORD. 
           38 But (only) Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of (all) the men who went to spy out the land.  The 2%!

Why just 2%?

 

This whole story started a long process of thought…

Why do so few really succeed?  Whether one looks at traditional business, sales organizations, direct marketing companies, politics or athletics, the cream on the top is always a very thin layer!  These are the 2%!  The 80/20 rule to be generous with the percentages, the top 2% of wage earners paying all the taxes, controlling most of the world's wealth...   Well, as the late Jim Rohn would say, “It's just the way things are!  Don't sign up for that class!”  

Why do so many criticize and demean others who try to rise above the crowd?  Why are well-meaning family members our biggest dream-stealers?  Does our pursuit of some great goal or ideal threaten their comfort and remove the facade covering the multitudes who have self-medicated themselves into mediocrity?  Perhaps we need to consider that as we try to impose upon those closest to us, our own self-imposed limitations and lack of vision in compensating for our failures.  Again, the sad reality,,, "The crab that mostly keeps us down is us."

Are we going to allow such low expectations of ourselves that we choose to remain crabs trapped in the barrel?  Will we believe we are one of the grasshoppers or mighty warriors?  Will we choose to identify with the valiant and powerful and go vanquish our enemies?!

So then, does God want us to be great and succeed?  Why did He want to annihilate an entire race that didn't believe and raise up a MIGHTIER one?  Did God not promise the children of Israel great things and do great wonders in their midst?  Yet they still chose to live small!  Are things any different today, especially among Christians?   They CHOSE to be grasshoppers!  One of the greatest honors we can bestow upon God is to believe Him above what we think, see, or feel!   How must it break the heart of our loving Father when we choose wrongly and fail to believe he wants the best for us!

*Only 2 out of 12 chose to believe God would do what He promised and went on to achieve their dream.

Seems like the numbers still remain the same today…