Are you on the wrong path?

There is often a change that happens between childhood and adulthood. We go from dreaming of thriving to settling on surviving.

Somewhere in the transition of life we fell for a lie that we are trapped in our current situation with no exit. 

The doors are locked with phrases like: It's always been done this way. I'm too old to change. I'm too broken to dream again. I'm too addicted to quit. 

Maybe we have been traveling the same road for far too long. A shift in direction would seem like a loss. We've invested time, energy, and emotion into this path and leaving it means failure. 

I get it. I have invested myself in the wrong things. I have spent years chasing after realities that weren't for me to be realized. I tried to measure success by other's standards. I have failed or so I thought until I realized my story isn't finished. It's still being written. So is yours. 

So what if we have been been walking in circles wondering through the wilderness! That was yesterday, but today we can chart a new course. We can declare a Do Over! 

No longer is changing courses when needed seen as failure? It is seen as leadership. Stephen Covey puts it like this: "A leader is the one who climbs the tallest trees, surveys the entire situation, and yells, 'Wrong jungle!'"

So if you don't like results of your past wanderings, why not make today the day you chart a new course? 

I know it sounds scary, but it really comes down to making one decision for the better and building on it. 

Remember you are still writing your story. Make it a good one. 

It's Not About You.

 

It's not about you. That's the opening line from Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life.

Even though it has been roughly eight years since I first read those words, they still resonate in my mind. However instead of being a reminder of my purpose, they have become a warning about my thinking. 

You may suggest that this makes me shallow. I may agree. Yet I believe one's thinking is directly related to the success in fulfilling one's purpose. 

I must confess that my thinking has been known to be broken from time to time leaving me in desperate need of the reminder that is isn't about me. 

So what has caused this flawed thinking? I believe the answer is insecurities which are the adversary to a healthy mind. 

Insecurities misinterpret comments, misread looks, and misunderstand actions. Then they create a new story to tell. A warped story with too much drama and not enough balanced perspective. A story that raises me higher or pushes me lower than I really am. Either way the story always revolves around me which is a clear sign that I'm off track. Because we all know that it's not about me. 

Will I ever get this right? 

Maybe not, but I can be better.

Here are a few steps I am in the process of taking to help:

• Dismiss thoughts that someone is against me unless they have come to me directly to express this.
• Resist the urge to get offended by comments, looks, actions, or social media rants that are not directly (like using my name directly) for me. 
• Focus on my work without comparing it to others. 
• Remember that I'm just a small piece of the puzzle we call life.
• Honor God with all I have.

Will you join me? Let's quite the insecurities and win back our thoughts.

You Once Were Extraordinary

                                                                                                                                  (Picture via dogonews.com) 

Here is a conclusion drawn from the ramblings of the mind, the stories of the broken, and the society at large:

Although our hearts are filled with desires to be extraordinary and to standout, we take the paved path. The one where the multitudes gather and walk in unison. We do this not because it is who we are. We do this because it's safe. Here we find the illusion of acceptance because of the absence of tension.

In our quest for unique, we become ordinary; just standing in the middle of normal trying to be extraordinary. 

Visions die and dreams are no more. We are quited by the voices that encourage us to conform or be rejected. Our faith dissimshes, and we no longer believe the possibility of the impossible. 

We'd like to escape this routine, but where do we start? 

Let me ask you, could it be hidden in the heart? Or course not just any heart will do. It must be the heart of the child who was once you. 

The heart of the child once full of adventure and belief. That one who asked a thousand questions of why and would never  accept because I said so as a valid answer. 

That child who could imagine "what if's" for hours even when your parents told you none of them were possible. The child that would one day fly, or invent a time machine, or rule the world. 

The child who dreamed in color and painted a picture for all the world to see. 

Could it be that in the heart of that child there is an extraordinary adult the world needs? 

Let's reclaim the zeal that once lived inside. No more trodding safely down the paved path, bursting instead into the life we were created for where unique people like us dare to do extraordinary things.