Building on Your Strengths

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veryone has both strengths and weaknesses.  The difference between great achievers and those that aren't is that great achievers have learned to capitalize on their strengths and not be limited by their weaknesses. 

     In order to begin to experience success it is important to take personal inventory of your life.  Make a list of your strengths (what you are good at) and of your weaknesses (what you aren't good at).  By having a clear picture of your strengths you have an understanding of what you can build on.

      While it is important to seek to improve your areas of weakness, it is more important to continue improving your strengths.  Great athletes have learned this secret.  One reason Tiger Woods is such a phenomenal golfer is because of his burning desire to continue to improve his skills.  After winning the 2000 U. S. Open, by a record margin, he was talking about things that he needed to do to improve.  This is what sets him apart from his peers.

     Michael Jordan became the greatest basketball player of all-time by continually striving to strengthen his strengths.  The reason he could pull off seemingly impossible feats on the basketball court are because in practice he worked on developing his strengths.  While some viewed his accomplishments under pressure as being lucky, the truth is they were the results of much practice and preparation.  If he was lucky it was because he created his own luck by doing the right things consistently.

     You too can enjoy extraordinary results if you will begin to spend more time developing your strengths than your weaknesses.  Take your strengths and begin to improve them until they are stronger.  In doing so you will begin to accomplish greater things then you ever expected.

Practice, practice, practice!

By continually working on your strengths you are constantly improving what you are good at.  Just like Tiger Woods you become great not because you are lucky but because you work hard at improving what you are already good at.  By honing your skills in practice you are insuring peak performance when the pressure is on.  In the heat of the battle you will naturally do what you perfected in practice.

Don't focus on your weaknesses.

You will always go in the direction of your dominant thoughts.  If you focus on what you aren't good at you will insure failure or defeat.  However, if you begin to focus on what your strengths are you will move towards success.  Simply put, "accentuate the positive!"

Find a coach or mentor.

Gain the assistance of someone that's "been there, done that!"  Allow them to teach and train you.  Learn from their experience and expertise.  Let them motivate, inform, and correct you as necessary.  Make yourself accountable to them.

Determine to do your best.

Always give yourself 100% to what you are doing.  Make the decision to do the right thing the right way consistently.  Demand excellence of yourself.  Don’t settle for anything less than your best.  Constantly seek to improve.  Keep raising the bar of what you expect of yourself.  You will be amazed at the outcome.

Believe you are created for greatness.

You have incredible potential and possibilities.  There is no reason why you can't excel in life.  God has given you the abilities you need to work with in order to succeed in life.  You are made in God's image and likeness; therefore you have the right to greatness.   You have the right to be a success.

Your Best Days Are Ahead

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” Wilma Rudolph

Born in 1940, Wilma Rudolph’s life started with challenges that would keep many people isolated in a lifelong prison of self-pity and despair. As if being born 4 months premature, with one leg shorter than the other, were not enough, at age 4 Wilma contracted double pneumonia and scarlet fever. Wilma’s mother spent the next several years nursing her through one illness after another: measles, mumps, and chicken pox.

When she was 6 years old, her family discovered that her left leg and foot had become weak and deformed. She was taken to the doctor where it was discovered she had contracted the crippling disease of polio. In those days there was no cure for polio and she was told she would never walk again. For two years her mother and other family members spent their time massaging her leg and taking her twice a week for physical therapy some 50 miles away from home.

At age 8 Wilma was fitted with a leg brace enabling her to walk to school like the other children. It was then she discovered her love for sports. She could usually be found spending her afternoons shooting baskets with her 19 brothers and sisters. Through her “never say quit” attitude, Wilma never allowed her disability keep her from having fun. The daily exercise proved to be not only pleasurable but good therapy as well. At age 12 she was able to discard her leg brace and walk and run normally.

Undaunted by her lifelong health struggles, Wilma went on to become an outstanding student athlete in both high school and college. Her love for running led her to track and field. In 1956, as a 16 year old high school student, she competed in her first Olympics where she won the bronze medal in the 400 yard relay. She returned to the Olympics in 1960, where she became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals in one Olympics, setting one world record on the way.

With all the setbacks and challenges she faced as a child growing up, how was she able to accomplish what she accomplished?

As a young girl facing all these difficulties, her mother always encouraged her by singing songs to her about God’s love, and telling her that God had created her to do something special in life. It was during these times that Wilma began to dream of doing something great and actually believe she would. She worked hard at overcoming her setbacks and disabilities. She worked hard at developing her athletic skills. She believed that regardless of what she had experienced, and what she had gone through, through faith in God and hard work, her best days were ahead of her.

In life we all face things that can break us or make us, cause us to become bitter or drive us to be better. The choice as to whom we become and what we accomplish is ours. One of my favorite Ann Landers quotes is, “Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become."

Maybe you’ve experienced a setback such as, the loss of a job, health problems, divorce, rejection of friends, mistakes you’ve made, etc. Perhaps you feel like the guy I was playing golf with one day. He couldn’t hit a good shot or make a putt all day. By the time we got to the 14^th hole he was so frustrated and negative, he started talking to himself or anyone that would listen. It culminated in him declaring, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all,” and then throwing his clubs as far as he could throw them, and storming off the course!

In my 50 years of life I have discovered that life isn’t always fair. As the scripture says, “It rains on the just and the unjust alike!” Things don’t always go as we would like them to go. Sometimes we feel like the Old Testament Patriarch Job, who said, “Mans days are short and full of trouble.” If anyone knew that truth, he did. In one fell swoop he lost everything he had, including his health. However, what’s interesting about Job is, he never quit believing for better days, even when his wife and friends encouraged him to do so. The Bible says he maintained his integrity towards God, maintained his faith in a better day, and in the end God blessed him by restoring double all he had lost.

Regardless of what you have experienced in the past, you’ve got to believe your best days are ahead of you. History is filled with two types of people, those who give up when the going gets tough, and those who refuse to quit. You can read the accounts of the lives of those who kept on keeping on; no one remembers much about the ones that quit.

Your best days are ahead of you. Days of success and not failure. Days of abundance and not lack. Days of health and not sickness. Days of purpose and not confusion. Days of joy and not pain. But, you say, “You don’t understand how tough things are for me right now.” Maybe not, but this I do know to be true, if you can believe for better days, and diligently work towards them, you will begin to experience them. Jesus taught, “I you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.” The first step to enjoying the better days that are ahead of you is simply believing they are yours.

Action Steps:

1. 1. What setbacks have you allowed to stop your forward momentum?
2. 2. How is your faith? What do you really believe for?
3. 3. What steps can you take to begin to overcome the setbacks and negative circumstances in your life?
4. 4. Decide today to spend at least 30 minutes a day reading or listening to inspiring stories of others that have faced similar circumstances as you, and how they overcame.

I'm Starting Over!

Have you ever wished you could have a do over in life? I mean, if I could just start all over from the beginning things would really be different in my life. Someone once said to me, “Live each day so you have no regrets tomorrow.” I wish now I had paid more attention to such sage advice.
I must admit, I’ve done some things in life that I regret doing. I’ve acted in ways that were unbecoming to me and others. I’ve treated others badly. I’ve been way too critical and judgmental of others. I’ve been too self-centered, concerned only with my own well being and not the well being of others. Finding fault with others, yep I’m guilty. I could go on but I think you get the point!
Have you ever heard someone say, “If only when I was younger I would have known what I know now, things would be way different in my life?” If I know anything about humans, you no doubt have said, or at least thought, the same thing.
Here’s kind of what it sounds like when we start looking back over our lives and taking a real hard look at what we’ve done, where we’ve been, and what we have accomplished with our lives. See if you can identify with any of these statements:

• I wouldn’t make the same bad choices, or do some of the things I have done.
• wouldn’t have associated with some of the people I did because they were toxic to my life.
• I would have handled finances differently if I could just go back to yesteryear.
• I wouldn’t have treated others that were important to me the way I did.
• My priorities would have been different if I could just go back.
• I wouldn’t have burned some of the bridges I burned.
• I wouldn’t have just lived as if I were going to live forever.
• I would have been more intentional with my life.
• If I could just go back I would treat my body better. I would eat right, get more exercise, and more rest.
• I wouldn’t have taken some of the foolish chances that I took.
• If I could just go back I would show more compassion, be more merciful, extend kindness more, been concerned with others and help them with their struggles.
• I would forgive more.
• I would love more.
• I would be more grateful.

Unfortunately, none of us can go back to our childhoods and start over. However, that doesn’t mean things are hopeless. No. In fact we can start over. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you’ve made, how many times you have blown it, how many times you have fallen down. What separates “True Christianity” from all other world religions is God gives us the ability to start over.
First, starting over begins with a recognition and admittance on your part that you need to start over. Most people are too proud to admit they need a do over.
Second, you need to make the decision to start over. Everything in life hinges on the choices and decisions you make. It is impossible to start over until you make the decision to do so.
Third, you need to repent. To repent means to have a change of mind, a change your heart, and a change of attitude. It means to get rid of the “stinkin thinkin” that’s brought you to where you are right now. To repent is to renew your mind to how God feels about you, what Jesus did for you at the cross, and who God says you are in Christ. (More on this later in another posting.)
Fourth, you’ve admitted you need to start over, you’ve made the decision to start over, you are beginning to change the way you think, now you need to have a made up mind that you are going forward in a new way. Don’t allow anything to distract, dissuade, or discourage you from following through on your new path.
Fifth, ask God for help. He is willing and able to assist you in starting over.
Sixth, find someone you can trust and allow them to mentor and coach you as you move forward.
Seventh, don’t stop. Even if you fall down, get back up. When it seems like you aren’t making any progress don’t give up.
Conclusion: We should all strive to be all that God intends us to be. My strongest desire is to be the man God made me to be. To do the work God has called me to do. To lift and encourage others that are struggling in their lives. To be a better husband to Holly and a better father to all my children. To exemplify Jesus in my life. To not be judgmental or critical of others that may have lost their way. I want to offer hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless. I want to turn my pain into power for the purpose of ministering God’s love, mercy, and grace to others.