This morning I had an opportunity to speak to the honors students at a middle school in the area. As I considered what to present to them that could possibly cut past all of their distractions and ignite a desire in them to achieve great things within the time frame of ten minutes I was reminded of a popular song that many of them recognized. I know that I'm a preacher so this may come as a surprise but I'm not talking about "Pass me not oh blessed Savior." I'm referring to a song that's a little more recent and not nearly as sacred..."Successful" by Trey Songs. While some of the elements of the song are questionable the sheer popularity of the song demonstrates that many of the young people (and even middle aged and above) want to be successful. The question is, "How can this be done?" How can I take a life that may be filled with challenges and faced with opposition and use it to become successful? This was the question I considered when preparing what to discuss and four principles came to mind that are not particularly profound, and yet, if implemented may have a profound impact in one's life. Before I get into that let me first say that I realize that all of these efforts must be bathed in prayer and faith in God's ability to make them effective. But then again, as Christians shouldn't everything be? Moving right along.
1.) T:The first practical thing that we can do to begin to see more success in our efforts is to actually
think about what we're doing. I'm not talking about passively considering our actions, I mean to actually take time to reflect on our actions. Why do we do what we do? Why have we been following the path that we're following. This type of activity will help to prevent us from flying through the years on autopilot and waiting until we get to the wrong destination to change our route. Think about what you're doing (preferably before you do it).
2.) I:
The second practical thing that we can do to increase the probability of success in our efforts is to
invest in our own success. Many times we will be the first to invest in our own success (well, we are second to God's investment in us but after that we're the first). People will often jump on the band wagon, so to speak, after they have already started to see returns on the investment that we have already made into our success. Many of the success stories that we see are the biproduct of personal investments in one's own success. So how can we invest in our own success?
We can pray so that we may gain an understanding of what success for us looks like. Without prayer we can risk pursuing success that has been defined by someone other than our maker which means we may complete an objective and not be successful at all because we didn't fulfill our life's purpose. We can
find a loving, life-giving church to grow in so that we can develop a godly and biblical concept of ourselves and what true success looks like.
We can read books, articles, blogs and resources to increase our knowledge of our particular field and practices that will help us to excel. There are several ways to invest in your own success and you must be willing to invest in you before you can expect any one else to.
3.) M:The third thing that we can do is
make every moment count. Success is not usually one major breakthrough that overtakes a person unexpectedly. While this may occur occasionally, this is not the most frequent experience of the successful. Rather than waiting on one major successful instance, you could probably benefit from several meaningful moments working together to bring about success. You may not see your goal or life's calling as achievable in one swoop, and you're probably right, but if you take the steps of consistently wiring excellence into your daily routine and make the most of every day & every moment trusting that God has the ability to honor your diligence I believe that you'll be amazed by what God does through you. Thomas Edison once said that "The more I do the luckier I become." What he may have been suggesting is that the more he made the most of the moment the more he could expect success. God has a plan for every one of us and the more we see each day as an opportunity to play a part in that plan coming to pass the more we'll see that there is a method behind the madness that we've had to deal with because both the
bad moments and the
good moments can be used as
meaningful moments if we're willing to make the most of them.
4.) E:The last thing that we can do to press toward success in whatever God has been calling us to do is to
evaluate our efforts. I know you want to be successful but when is the last time that you evaluated your efforts in that pursuit? When is that last time you evaluated your productivity at work? When is the last time you evaluated your own study habits? When is the last time you evaluated the way you spend your money? Taking time to evaluate your efforts helps to determine if you have a healthy dream or if you are just suffering from a delusion. Success isn't automatic and it's not just going to overtake you one day. You must be willing to constantly "Take heed to yourself" to see if you have areas in your life that could be improved. This principle is so significant that Jesus shared a parable instructing us to examine ourselves before we begin to examine others (Take the plank out of your eye--> Matthew 7:5). Examine your efforts to see what has been working. Stick with the habits that work and scrap the habits that haven't.
If we will be willing to Think about what we're doing, Invest in our own success, Make the most of every moment and Evaluate our efforts I'm convinced that it's only a matter of T.I.M.E. before we see what the book of Joshua calls "good success".
