My heart to encourage your heart
“Aim at nothing and you’ll hit it every time.”
Zig Ziglar
Repeat
It was a hot day, miserable in fact. The road was radiating heat like a red hot engine overheating on a summer’s day. I was that guy outside on a jog soaking up the heat like someone who has lost their mind. I swear I saw buzzards circling! Next thing I noticed my eyes were gazing down, looking at my feet, counting the cracks in the sidewalk. What followed is illustrative, my posture began to slump, my steps became harder and my breath got shorter. In short, my running got harder because my eyes changed what they were fixed on. I became aware of this and changed my focus for just a moment. I lifted my eyes towards a fixed point in the distance and my entire posture, gaze, and breath changed for the better. The only thing in my circumstances that changed was my focus.
You go where your eyes go.
Want to change your life?
Change your focus.
Step 1: Take a moment at each meal of the day to simply think about what you have been focusing on.
Step 2: If your focus is misdirected, willfully change it.
Step 3: If distraction is common then place a visual reminder such as a photo, or a word, heck get a tattoo!
13Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 3: 13-14
Want to wreck your car?
Drive while looking backward.
Want to wreck your life?
Live while looking backward.
We were meant to live out of the windshield, not the rearview mirrors.
Focus forward and glance back.
God has called YOU to strain toward what is ahead.
Strain for the prize!
The great cloud of witnesses applauds you.
I was discouraged this morning, the writing tank was empty yet there were plenty of ideas. I had time to write yet the process was not producing fruit. Some of my frustration could be found in the quote above namely that at times I am my own worst enemy when seeking to accomplish something. Ideas are like pitches and I keep swinging for a home run. As I type this my mindset is to simply make contact with the ball and see where it goes. There is much more freedom in the realistic expectation.
I wonder how many of us are hung up with unrealistic expectations in our lives?
I think back to one of my favorite movies, Christmas Vacation, where Clark Griswald suffers from unrealistic expectations at Christmas time. He got so wound up with his expectations that he kicked over into a mode where he grabbed a chainsaw and began thrashing away at his problems…..a CHAINSAW! I’m ashamed to admit that I am a chainsaw wielder at times as well. Man, I can get so wound up that I go to a thrashing mode and anything that gets in my way gets hacked and whacked with my chainsaw.
The next time you feel the crazed manic mood come over you, check your expectations about what is going on.
Are you striking out because you are swinging for a home run? Are your expectations in line with a daily life lived with curveballs, knucklers, and fast pitches? Do yourself a favor, read the pitch, and adjust your swing accordingly. What does this look like practically? For me, I simply identified that the pitch coming my way came in the form of ideas to write about. I expected to write the next best blog that would go viral and change the world! My swing didn’t match the pitch because the pitch coming at me were base hit balls. My job is to swing and make contact. This blog entry is the result of slowing down my swing to match the pitch.
How’s your swing?
Resist the urge to blend in.
Blending in is easy and builds the wrong kind of muscles, the easy muscles.
Instead build the weird kind of muscles, the kind that gains the type of results you want anyways. Need some help? Try these as some examples of ways to be weird and build weird muscles:
This is a start as you set out to be weird.
Why weird?
Because so few people are actually doing this.
Begin today!
Application:
What is one thing you can start doing today to break out of the ruts? Share your story here.
Dave Scott 