I am about to tell you something that is the most important concept I could possibly give you. This will change your life. That is not some marketing hype…it is the truth. But what I am about to say will be missed. Most of you will see this through the eyes of a type A personality and relegate it to a mere exercise. Others will see this and say they are too “outside the box” for this. I know…because I used to say that too. Are you ready to hear what it is? I didn’t think so…not yet. So let me prepare the soil.
Everyone is looking for solutions to problems. But frankly, we look in the wrong place. We look externally. People who need motivation go to rallies and books. People who need financial help look for employers and banks. People who need spiritual guidance go to churches. Though I recommend people go to rallies, read books, interact with businesses and work with banks, none of them are your solution.
Your solution is within. Now I can hear you reacting, thinking “hear we go again, another positive thinking deal”. Well it’s more than that. What I want to encourage you to do is come alongside your Creator, and create. We will not just repeat a positive thought, but actually connect with your personal passion and purpose. And the key to this internal process is to bring it to the external. To act on it.
I realize that you probably have heard these catch phrases before, but frankly, I rarely find anyone who walks you through HOW to do so. So let’s do that!
First step: Dream- Take a good pocket of time…several hours to brain storm or dream storm. If money was no object, what would you LOVE to do? This is not an unrealistic question, it is an essential question. I ties you to why you are here. You have desires and interests for one reason…they were given to you by God. The most important days of your life are the day you were born, and the day you discover WHY you were born.
Step two: Categorize the dreams- whatever fits your life. Social, financial, spiritual, emotional, recreational, etc. This helps you see how your interests might interrelate. Right now you may think you have opposing interests, but when you do this exercise, you will discover that nothing is by accident. I used to be a cartoonist and a journalist, and when I moved on the other venture such as ministry and business, I thought those interests were incompatible. Now I see how those skills interrelate.
Step three: Prioritze and Set Time Time Tables. A Goal is a dream with a deadline. People make the mistake of setting deadlines first. Don’t do that. Hold off on this step, until you are emotionally connected to the dream and it becomes an imminent passion that must be fulfilled. THEN set up a time table. Prioritizing goals helps you clarify which ones are dearest to you and more tangible. The bigger dreams will seem more tangible once you tackle the smaller goals.
Step four: Ask:What is in my why? Actually, this may mix with step three where this may have to happen first, because this is where we overcome hurdles. This is where we reflect on our emotional response and follow the “smoking gun” to the source of the fear. For instance, I had a desire to at one point to flip houses with a friend. But I had a fear of money, so for years I just simply wouldn’t allow myself to do anything about it. I would submit to my fear and would simply say, “well that’s just not me”. The reality was “that’s just not what I’ve settled for”.
So I started to ask myself “why” I avoided this area. I found my “smoking gun” in a time when I had a financial crisis and I interpreted it as “we are just not good with money”. I would then ask myself….and God, if that was true. NO, it is not. I would then ask for a different perspective and I saw that the problem was my interpretation of a bad day. You won’t get a new perspective unless you ask for one. The key, is when you get a new perspective, you MUST act on it. Otherwise, you will tend to drift back to old habits.
This will be plenty to chew on, so I will share more on a later article. Let me know how this goes…or if you have questions, contact me at rob.kolosik@mail.com.
Here to help…
Rob
