Click here to return to Blog Post Intro
To Be All You Can Be, make it your goal and your discipline to do a little bit of growing every day… Leaders stretch with challenges. Followers struggle with challenges. Losers shrink from challenges.
Life is like a mirror; what you show is what you see; what you put in is what you get out. When you encourage others, you’ll find that they will encourage you. Attitudes are contagious.
Jesus gives us a three-word formula for fruitfulness in John 15:
- Remain: Throughout John 15, Jesus tells us to remain. In fact, the word abide in the original language can be translated “remain.” “Remain in Me,” Jesus says.
- Receive: Jesus says in John 15 that if we remain in him, we will begin to receive certain things. What we’ll receive is good, fruitful living.
- Reproduce: If we remain in him, we’re going to receive what he has for us; then and only then will we begin to reproduce in our lives.
Worldly success means power, but a Christian definition of success has to include more than that: choosing to enter into the arena of action, determined to give yourself to that cause which will better mankind and last for eternity. Success is more than just power or not violating the rights of others; it is the privilege of contributing to the betterment of others.
Maxwell takes each letter of the word success and makes the following acrostic:
S—SELECT YOUR GOAL
Success is continual. It’s not an event but a journey, an ongoing process. It’s not an accolade that we receive for a race won or a job well done. Success is the positive result of steady forward movement. Research shows that approximately 95 percent of us have never written out our goals in life, but of the 5 percent who have, 95 percent have achieved their goals.
U—UNLOCK YOUR IMPRISONED POTENTIAL
Most people only use about 10 percent of their potential; if they use as much as 25 percent, they’re called geniuses. If you want to unlock your hidden potential, spend your time with people who will stretch you. Find somebody who thinks faster, runs faster, and aims higher. Those are the people who will lift you up.
C—COMMIT YOURSELF TO GOD’S PLAN
Ted Engstrom said, “Success means a person is reaching the maximum potential available to him at any given moment.”
C—CHART YOUR COURSE
This has to do with planning. It’s better to look ahead and prepare than look back and regret.
E—EXPECT PROBLEMS
Paul Harvey said, “You can always tell when you are on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.”
S—STAND FIRM ON YOUR COMMITMENT
The Word of God encourages us in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” Napoleon Hill, in his book Think and Grow Rich, records that he studied five hundred of the wealthiest men in the world and concluded that all wealthy men are persistent.
S—SURRENDER EVERYTHING TO JESUS CHRIST
Don’t ever forget that although you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).
We need to grasp what it means biblically to be a success—to love God with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength; to allow him to unlock the imprisoned potential in our lives; to set godly goals and not be content to settle for second best when we realize that God gave everything he could give so that we could have the very best of life; and to realize that one of the greatest sins we commit against God is not reaching the potential he has placed in us.
We have in our society a lot of false hopes for happiness. We have what Maxwell calls destination disease. People think that when they arrive at a certain point, they’ll be happy. When they retire, when they get rid of this job, when they take that trip, when they meet that goal—then they’ll be happy. They’re goal-oriented, and there’s nothing wrong with being goal-oriented, but they have not learned to enjoy the journey as much as the arrival.
Instead, we should be purpose-oriented. In fact, what makes a person extraordinary is purpose—the consuming desire to accomplish something in life. A purpose will cause you to:
- Pray more than the ordinary person.
- Unite more than the ordinary person.
- Risk more than the ordinary person.
- Plan more than the ordinary person.
- Observe more than the ordinary person.
- Sacrifice more than the ordinary person.
- Expect more than the ordinary person.
When you need to tackle the Goliaths in your life, use the acrostic “Plan Ahead”:
- Predetermine your course of action.
- Lay out your goals.
- Adjust your priorities.
- Notify key personnel.
- Allow time for acceptance.
- Head into action.
- Expect
- Always point to success.
- Daily review your plan
After David slew Goliath, the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, and they fled. The men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines (1 Sam. 17:48–52). That last verse is key to the whole story. The reason we need to kill the giants in our lives is this: Those whom we lead will never kill the giants in their lives until we first kill the giants in our lives. When did the people shout? When did they charge? They did it after David had killed the giant.
In studies of the leadership of American businesses, it has been shown that executives spend three-fourths of their working days with people. The largest single cost in most businesses is people. The most valuable asset of any company is its people. All executive plans are carried out, or fail to be carried out, by people. Our relationships with people will determine the success of our leadership. In John 10, we can find three things to do to cultivate relationships:
- Know them: Jesus called his sheep by name.
- Grow them: They heard his voice and came to him.
- Show them: Jesus walked ahead of his sheep, and they followed him.
People who are willing to die for a greater cause than themselves share three characteristics:
- A purpose worth the price. People who don’t have to survive have a purpose that is worth the cost of their very lives.
- A vision that is bigger than life. They have the ability to see beyond their horizons. They are willing to make a sacrifice that they know will affect future generations.
- A power that is greater than theirs. People who don’t have to survive aren’t limited by their own weakness; they have a God-given power.
Their purpose is God’s purpose; their vision is God’s vision; their power is God’s power. His Spirit living in them makes the difference.
May God be the source of your strength and power, as you shoot for the stars!