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Your Unrepeatable Opportunity!
By Tommy Newberry
As men of faith, we carry a significant
load of responsibility. From time to time, we can feel bogged
down by the continuous pressure to perform and excel in all
arenas of life. Not to mention the difference we are expected
to make in the marketplace, we are, at a minimum, responsible
for our own spiritual walk, loving our wives as they want
and must be loved, leading and positively influencing our
kids, and, of course, providing for our family's financial
future. With these immediate pressures constantly pleading
for our attention, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture.
How about you? How do you approach these responsibilities?
Do you consider these things to be exciting and temporary
challenges or tedious, perpetual problems? It's an important
question because your attitude toward these responsibilities
will shape your daily decisions, mold your future and ultimately
determine the legacy you leave for generations to come. When
you remind yourself of the awesome future that God has in
store for you, it's much easier to stay deeply inspired and
fully engaged with the important people, projects and priorities
in your life. How often do you step
back and evaluate your progress in light of your full potential?
The Huge Plans of God
You were created in the image and likeness
of God to do wise, wonderful, and grand things with the limited
time you have here on earth. This is no exaggeration! So why
not dare magnificent things with, through, and for God? After
all, how does thinking small serve the world? Accept the burden
and blessing of success. Do you really believe that all the
vast plans of God have already been accomplished? Have the
most significant lives already been lived? Have the greatest
marriages already happened? Have the most exceptional parents
already retired? Have the best books and songs already been
written? Have the most inspiring movies already left theaters?
Have the most helpful inventions already been created? Have
the best sermons already been delivered? Are the greatest
high-tech breakthroughs in the past? Have the ultimate medical
advances already occurred? Have the most creative businesses
already been launched? The best of everything may, in fact,
be yet to come. Today or tomorrow may very well be the most
electrifying day of history. When you think beyond the urgencies
of the moment, you tap into creative energy reserves that
you never knew existed. What will
your role be in all of this excitement? What legacy will you
leave behind?
Think about yourself as one of the family,
a kid of the King. You are, after all, a beautiful, wonderful
child of God! This is the absolute truth, whether or not you
know it or even believe it. Pause for a moment and marvel
at what this must mean. You are an original, irreplaceable
masterpiece. Your DNA proves it. There has never been anyone
just like you, and there never will be anyone just like you.
It's critical to recognize your true identity. When you accept
yourself as a child of God, you will not see restrictions
on the amount of impact you can have in this world. And, how
you see yourself on the inside sets the ceiling for what God
can do with you on the outside. Your life here on earth is
your special, unrepeatable opportunity to magnify the greatness
God has placed within you. How are
you currently doing with this important responsibility?
What's Your Genius
You have no greater duty than to determine
what God put you here on earth to accomplish. Without a deep
sense of purpose, life is devoid of true significance or long-term
meaning. This type of existence is characterized by going
through the motions, cynicism, pessimism, apathy, and ultimately
a life of mediocrity. It is a perpetual survival mode. It's
a life that constantly needs to be filled up with things from
the outside — busyness, distractions, and continuous activity.
How do you believe God wants the world to be different because
of your particular life? You may not have uncovered it yet,
but there is undoubtedly an answer to that question. It is
worth searching for because the answer reveals your purpose.
And in this purpose you must find your true place or what
I call, Genius. Your Genius is your
unique path to glorifying God. When you arrive in your
Genius, you will know it. You will feel a sense of destiny
as what you most love to do merges with what you do best.
This is where you will invest your life in your own way, making
the difference that you are uniquely equipped to make. The
more you experience your Genius, the more you will be drawn
to it. The tinge of dissatisfaction, which perhaps only you
knew existed, will disappear. You will enjoy invigorating
surges of self-worth, as there will no longer be a need to
compare yourself with anyone else. You will be healthier,
more creative, and full of joy. While each of us has many
areas where we can do relatively well, there is but one Genius.
God had one particular thing in mind when He made you. What
do you think motivated God to bring you into the world?
What's Your Dream?
You might initially recognize this one particular
thing as your ultimate vision or dream. For some men, this
dream will shake the entire world. For others, it will soothe
just one tiny community. In either case, the world will be
left a better place. Sooner or later, we are all confronted
with the question of whether we are living on purpose, whether
or not we are heeding the call and following our ultimate
vision. Are you now serving God by daily becoming a little
more like the man He wants you to become? Your purpose is
not something to achieve; rather, it is something to be satisfied,
quenched and eventually exhausted. No matter how far you may
have strayed from your Genius, you can always find it again.
Your Genius is always waiting for you because no one but you
can fill it. Take comfort in knowing that every experience
you have ever had, no matter how seemingly unrelated, can
be used to your advantage in your Genius when you finally
find it. And you will find it. . . if you will wholeheartedly
look for it. Throughout your life, you will constantly be
changing and becoming a new man, either slightly or extensively
different from the previous version. With each change you
will either move closer to your Genius or further away. Who
are you becoming as a result of the goals you are now pursuing?
What Are You Thinking?
Unfortunately, many men are bystanders reacting
to the change that occurs rather than creating the change
they seek. Far too many believe change is an external event
that occurs haphazardly and as a result, they are molded and
thrown off course by their circumstances. For the most part,
though, your circumstances are simply a reflection of what
is going on inside your secret world of thoughts, feelings,
and beliefs. To state it bluntly, your private thoughts don't
stay private for very long. What you think about most will
ultimately be revealed for everyone to see. Human beings are
never static. We're either growing or shrinking as we move
through our brief stint here on earth. As you renew your thinking,
your world of circumstances begins to improve as well. To
have it any other way is like pretending the tail can wag
the dog. Living on purpose requires deliberately deciding
in advance how you are going to grow more like the person
God wants you to become. This decision requires that you get
in touch with your core desires. It is these high-intensity
desires, sometimes called the DNA of success, that reveal
what role God made you to fill. God's will for you is something
splendid and magnificent — far better than anything you could
ever design for yourself. Reject anything less than His absolute
best. Refuse to settle for the average life. Instead, fight
off the pull of mediocrity and stand out by using your strengths
in service to others! If necessary, be unconventional and
even productively eccentric. Accept that you have been custom-made
by God to serve an exclusive function in this world, even
if that role and a plan to fulfill it are not yet clear to
you. This is your Genius — and it's up to you to find it. There
are no extra human beings. God has a plan and a place for
every man, and that includes you.
Are your most dominant thoughts in alignment with the person
God intends for you to become?
When Will the Time
Be Right?
When you engage in activities that demand
your special talent, your brain releases chemicals that trigger
satisfaction as an incentive for you to continue in this area.
It is a positive reinforcement mechanism that is all part
of God's perfect design. These talents then get converted
into strengths and eventually Genius if you sustain the course
long enough. Your unique conglomeration of character, talents,
life experiences, and personality merge together and spark
a dream within you. The more often you engage in your strengths,
the more crystallized your ultimate vision becomes. With this
God-given dream imprinted on your mind, you become intrinsically
motivated, needing less and less prodding from the outside.
You become inwardly directed, and self-discipline comes virtually
without effort.
This whole process is countercultural. Instead
of competing to max out their God-given potential, most men
compete to keep up with each other. They are in the wrong
race. Philosophically, they tend to desire comfort more than
character. Strategically, they often find themselves in the
wrong career. Tactically, they've resigned themselves to simply
enjoying their evenings, weekends, and vacations with no long-term
goals in mind or on paper. The single biggest reason men under
perform is because they were sloppy in choosing the right
race for themselves in the first place. With three kids, a
large mortgage, and twenty years spent in their current field,
many men feel trapped. How about
you?
The dream God plants in your heart, in your
DNA, will not come to fruition by accident. Naturally, there
is a price. In a nutshell, the price requires that you surrender
the concepts of safety, security, and comfort in exchange
for the higher reward of living the life God gave you and
leaving your unmistakable mark on the world. You must escape
from your personal comfort zone if you want to become the
difference-maker that you were designed to become. Jump and
trust that the net will appear! All along the path, you will
face resistance--institutional, cultural, relational, financial,
and mental. This is simply part of the Genius game. You must
press on in the face of all the pressure to conform. You must
take action that leaves no doubt you are committed to your
ultimate vision — and you must do this before you have the money,
before you have the confidence, and even before you have blessing
of those closest to you. You must first commit unconditionally,
then the plan will come and the resources will emerge. Only
when you give up all thought of retreat will you become an
unstoppable force. Have you asked
your heavenly Father to reveal His will for you through your
dreams, passions and instincts?
Tommy Newberry is the head coach of The
1% Club and author of Success Is
Not an Accident: Change Your Choices, Change Your Life
and can be contacted at www.tommynewberry.com
Four Clues to Discover Your Genius
- Passion — your Genius will always be characterized
by enthusiasm, intense interest and pure fun.
- Continuous Learning — in your Genius, you'll
notice that learning new information takes little time and
comes quite easily. New concepts are easily visualized and
quickly integrated into your existing knowledge base.
- Yearning — when you experience a deep desire
that just won't go away, it's a strong sign that you may
be approaching your Genius.
- The Wing It Factor — Pay attention to areas
where you can achieve great results in the eyes of others
even though you put in very little effort or preparation.
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