What Do You Have To Offer?

Everyone has something they are good at. We all have special skills, talents and abilities that can be beneficial to others. All of us are experts in some particular area.

The exciting thing about life is you are able to share your expertise with others. Just as important as it is to ask for help, it is also important to offer your assistance to others.

Create a brochure, a blog, a website, a newsletter or write a booklet to let others know what you have to offer. When you see someone that could use your expertise don’t be afraid to offer your services.

I have learned that by helping others I put a principle in motion that causes the same thing to come back to me. It is true, you reap what you sow. By helping others someone will help you when you need help.

Problem solvers

The great automobile builder Henry Ford once said, “Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.” Our world is filled with problem spotters. What we need are more problem solvers. For every problem there is a remedy if you will only look hard enough.

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. While anyone can spot a problem it takes time, effort and initiative to find a solution. Rather than complain about the circumstances make the decision to either find a way or make a way.

Negative circumstances can either make you bitter or they can make you better. The choice is yours alone. As someone has expressed, “when given a lemon make lemonade.” In other words be proactive rather than reactive. Do something to change the way things are.

Begin today to believe that things don’t have to stay the way they are. While your situation may be real, it doesn’t have to be final. Get serious about discovering the solution to the problems around you.

Gripe Not

No one is more bothersome to be around than the constant complainer. They are never satisfied with anything. To them nothing is ever right.

It doesn’t take long for their negative complaining ways to get the best of you. Listening to people gripe and complain all the time will drain your emotions, resolve and energy. A complainer is like a cancer that eats away at your peace of mind.

Determine to not only not be a complainer, but also not to associate with those that are. You are known by the company you keep.

Griping and complaining about everything in life does nothing to change it. There is nothing productive in being a chronic complainer.

Quit griping and start doing something to improve the way things are. Seek to be a good finder instead of a fault finder.

Focus On The Now

Far too many people spend all of their time remembering the past, while others spend too much time daydreaming about tomorrow, only to miss the most important time, right now!

Today is the only time that really matters. The only way to accomplish anything great is to live in the present.

It is very important that we learn to focus on today and what it holds. By focusing on the now you can create the tomorrow that you dream of having. What you do today is a seed that will produce a harvest tomorrow, whether positive or negative. That’s why it is important to do the right thing now to have the right results later.

There is nothing wrong with remembering the past or planning for tomorrow, unless it robs you of what needs to be done today. Seek to prioritize each day’s activities. Do what needs to be done today in order to achieve peace of mind, happiness and a sense of accomplishment.

Attitude

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies in us.” While you may not be able to do anything about the past, and you can’t totally control tomorrow, you can control your attitude concerning them.

Your attitude, or outlook on life, determines your altitude. You can only go as high or as low as your attitude allows you to. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t you’re right.”

Motivational expert Zig Zigler says, “If you have stinkin’ thinkin’ you need a checkup from the neck up before you come down with hardening of the attitudes!” To be a person of achievement you must develop and maintain a positive attitude. Learn to see the good in everyone and everything. Begin to accentuate the positive.

You are the only one that can control your attitude. You determine whether you will have a good day or a bad day by the attitude you possess. Begin to train your mind to look for, expect and receive the best life has to offer. Get rid of negativity. Begin to allow your mind to dwell on the positive affirmations of God’s word.

What Are You Aiming At?

Denis Waitley says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to know when you get there.” It is important to have a destination in mind when you leave on a trip or you may end up somewhere you don’t want to be.

Anytime I think about having the right aim in life. I am reminded of the hunter that told his friends he had killed a great buck at 1500 yards. His friends told him it was luck that he hit it. His reply has always stuck with me. He said, “It may have been luck that I hit it. But, it wasn’t luck that I was aiming at it!”

The fact is you can’t hit your target (goals) if you don’t have any or if you aren’t aimed at them. When Nasa sends a spacecraft into outer space they constantly have to make adjustments to the flight plan in order to get it to the destination they want it to go. In other words they have to keep adjusting their aim.

So it is with all of life. If you are going to hit your goals, fulfill your dreams, and live on purpose you must be careful to have the right aim. When you notice you are off line, take the time to refocus. Get your aim straightened out, and you will hit your target.

The Apostle Paul wrote these words, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13, 14) Several things come to mind when I read this passage.

One, you can’t go forward looking in the rear view mirror! You can’t undo anything in your past. If you are constantly focusing on past failures or mistakes you are sabotaging your present and your future. In order to go forward you must forget the past. Let it go. Someone once said, “Don’t look back unless that’s the direction you want to go!

Two, you’ve got to reach forward to what’s before you. You must become focused on going forward. Of making progress. Of accomplishing what you were created to accomplish. Focus on what is possible not what is impossible. There will always be naysayers and dream stealers that will try to tell you that you can’t do it. Ignore them. Keep reaching!

Three, if you are going to hit your target you have to put forth diligent effort. The word press means to bear down on, to push, to give it your all. Just like a runner in a race you have to strain yourself using all the energy you have to cross the finish line. Success always requires effort on your part. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Four, without a goal to aim at you will wander through life never maximizing the potential inside you. Goals give us direction, focus, and a reason for getting up in the morning. They keep us on track. They help us to identify the distractions from our objectives and to ignore them.

Five, the prize or reward keeps us motivated to action. People work long hours because of the prize of a paycheck at the end of the week. Athletes put in long hours of training for the prize of winning the game or the championship trophy. When I was attempting to play professional golf I practice 6-8 hours per day to hone my skills and prepare myself for competition. The prize of not only the competition but also the tournament trophies (and potential payday) motivated me to spend the time necessary to do what it took to prepare.

Six, Paul said his prize was the upward call of God. God’s call to us is always an upward call. In other words it is a call to a higher level. It is rising to new levels of success, accomplishment, and productivity. Contrary to what a lot of people think, God desires for you to succeed in life. You were born to win in life. You were born with a purpose to fulfill. You were born to make a positive difference in the world around you. New levels of productivity and success afford you the ability to accomplish great things in the lives of others.

My challenge to you today is to check your aim. Do you have clear goals and objectives that you are presently working towards? Are you stretching your faith, your abilities, and your efforts? Are you being held back by past failures and mistakes? Are you putting forth diligent effort to reach your goals? Do you have a prize you are trying to attain? Do your goals lead you to a higher level and a better life?

Remember what I said earlier, “If you don’t know where you are going you may end up somewhere you don’t want to be!