In the book, “Where Is God When I Hurt?” Wilson Adams tells the story of an older couple driving along when the wife spots a newly married couple in the vehicle ahead. She exclaims, “Look at them, Harold! Would you just look at them?” She continues, “She’s all scrunched up next to him with her head on his shoulder…” She sighs, “Harold, do you remember when we used to do that? I would sit next to you with my head on your shoulder…” She sighs again. “Look at us, Harold. Just look at us! You’re way over there under the steering wheel and I’m way over here next to the door. What happened to us, Harold?” She sighs even more. Harold was a man of few words. Ten miles later, he cleared his throat and said, “I never moved.” The same is true in our relationship with the savior. God is as near to us as He has always been. It is us that from time to time lose faith and move away from Him. He has promised to never leave us but like the father in Mark 9:24 we cry out “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” In other words, we never reach self-sufficiency. Growing in faith is a constant daily renewing of our trust in Him.
To forsake another person is to leave them entirely, usually in a moment of need. I’m glad our savior has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Over 100 times in the Bible we are told God will never leave us nor forsake us. To repeat it so many times and in so many different ways, He must have known we would struggle with this concept. Scholars call it parallelism, which means to restate something several different ways for emphasis. We assume if we struggle, He must not be with us. When we narrow our focus so all we can see are the challenges along the way and the things that are going wrong, it will keep us from understanding that God is compassionate, loving and faithful to bring forth His promises to us. The lyricist says, “He is moving in your life even when you can’t see it. Maybe you just haven’t seen it yet”.
Trusting He’s With You
The Book of Acts teaches that He sent a comforter to be with us, to encourage us when we’re weak, to guide us and to help us see right from wrong. In this, we can be confident. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.”(Psalms 46:1)
I am reminded of an invitation to golf at a swank Country Club in Boca. As I was parking, the car a caddie came to the car and introduced himself as Josh. Josh took my clubs and directed me to the locker room to change. After changing my shoes and a little stretching, I headed to the driving range. Josh was waiting for me there with my clubs set up. As I worked my clubs from wedges to the driver, Josh watched closely, sometimes asking me how I thought I hit a certain club and then making notes on a card. When it was time to go to the first tee Josh told me to enjoy myself he would be carrying my clubs. Now, this is important because, on the regular courses where I golf, folks carry their own clubs or put them on an electric cart. We make decisions based on our own beliefs, thoughts, and desires. We don’t have someone guiding us. In other words, the caddie knew the course and he had an understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. He knew how far I could hit various clubs. He knew the blind spots on the course and he knew how to read the greens and advise me. When I arrived at the first tee, Josh was there waiting for me. From my car to the first tee, he was developing a relationship with me. All I had to do was to make the decision to trust Josh with my total game.
On a par 5, I had hit a beautiful drive down the middle of the fairway. I asked for my 3-wood for the next shot over the water. Josh said, “You can’t get over, there’s wind down there. Lay up with your 5 iron”. I was going to show him, I was feeling good and swinging well. I could handle the challenge before me. I appreciated his advice but he didn’t really know me. I struck the 3-wood perfectly; the ball starting out low and rose like a plane takes off. As I posed in my finish position waiting for the ball to land in the fairway on the other side of the water – splash! The wind had held it up just as Josh had explained. He winked at me and told me not to worry; he would still guide me for the rest of the round. See Josh knew the dangers in front of me and he knew my swing. After that, I listened to Josh’s instructions for the rest of the round and played one of my best rounds of the year. I was able to accomplish this because Josh was carrying my heavy bag, giving me instructions, warning me of upcoming danger, advising me of my best option given my skill level and the situation. However, I had the free will to follow his lead or not.
It is the same in your relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Father has sent the Holy Spirit who is standing on the tee box waiting for you to accept Him as your life caddie. Before each shot or decision, talk it over and strategize with Him. Just like golf, life is better when we don’t play it alone. Jesus unconditionally loves you and wants to guide you around the course of life. He has provided us a yardage book, the Bible, which identifies the pitfalls of our course. It instructs us on how to prepare and how to identify for the challenges of life.
Unlike the caddie, Jesus can forgive your bad shots and wipe them off your scorecard. He wants you to reach out to Him in good times and in bad times. In the words of Ken Blanchard, “ you have a chance to have the ultimate Mulligan in your life. Someone who will forgive you for your bad shots, someone who will forgive you for your transgressions, and someone who will stand beside you and never leave you”. He promised in Matthew 28:20, “ . . . and be sure of this: I am with you always, even until the end of the age”. Always literally means all day. The Holy Spirit will never leave you. He has set you on a journey. He has a plan for your destiny. Yet, you have the free will to follow his lead or not.
Last month we celebrated His power over death. This month we celebrate His power in our lives. Now that you understand His presence in your life, you can join Smokie Norful in praising Him for never leaving you nor forsaking you:
My prayer for each of you is that you will make the pivotal choice to tee it up with God and seek to play His course. That you will embrace the plan God has for your life. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank you for dying on the cross for our sins; yet, we thank you even more for defeating death. Help us to always remember that you are always with us. You sent the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us. Very much is promised to our believing. The enemy desires to deceive or destroy our belief. However, your Word teaches us that faith and belief prove to the mind, the reality of things that cannot be seen by the eye. Help us to always consult you before our every decision. You are a good God, and you only have what’s best for us.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Thank you for allowing me to speak into your life. Hey, spend a few moments of quiet time discovering your application of what you just read by clicking this link myTime with God
No one likes to wait. We hate waiting at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office and even in the fast food drive-thru. We simply don’t like to wait! Waiting is also one of the biggest challenges to our faith. “Waiting is actively engaging in the shaping of my mind and spirit into what God desires of me.”Regardless of your situation, God has work for you to do in your waiting. The story of Adam and Eve is a story of rebellion against God. Once they believed that God didn’t have their best interests in mind, they decided to go ahead without God and do what they wanted. They became, in effect, their own god. When we commit our waiting to God, we transfer our burdens onto our Father. He has promised to sustain us. That miserable, uncomfortable, sometimes painful state of silence is one of God’s most powerful tools to set us free. When we choose to wait quietly and trustingly, we not only honor God but encourage others to put their hope in him as well. Whoever you are, and no matter what you’re waiting for, remember that life is about so much more than waiting—it’s about living and believing.
April Devotion
“We can pray until our knees are numb, but if our praying isn’t accompanied by acting, then we won’t get anywhere. We need to put feet to our faith. After kneeling down, we need to stand up and step out in faith. If you want to see God move, make a move.”
Mark Batterson
The Personal Challenge of Waiting
No one likes to wait. We hate waiting at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office and even in the fast food drive-thru. We simply don’t like to wait! And waiting for an answer from God can be an even bigger challenge. We know God only lends His name to those things that are in harmony with His character. We feel our prayers are in alignment with His Word and yet we haven’t heard a word about our specific prayers. We’ve prayed and cried; cried and prayed and nothing seems to change. How do we deal with the faith testing time of “waiting” for the answer? Waiting is one of the biggest challenges to our faith. I understand this challenge oh so well. I myself am currently in a stage of waiting. Asking God for direction, looking for answers, and expecting some upcoming changes. Feeling deep, complex emotions while waiting, especially for significant things, is not necessarily sinful in itself. The problem comes when we decide to allow those emotions to overtake us. The hardest part is that things are completely out of our control. For those who like to be in control, that’s not always an easy pill to swallow.
John Piper in Future Grace The Purifying Power of the Promises of God says, “Waiting on the Lord is the opposite of running ahead of the Lord, and it’s the opposite of bailing out on the Lord. It’s staying at your appointed place while He says stay, or it’s going at his appointed pace while he says go. It’s not impetuous, and it’s not despairing.”
When speaking to my mentor John Adams he says, “Waiting is actively engaging in the shaping of my mind and spirit into what God desires of me.”Initially, that sounded contrary to Webster’s definition of waiting. In addition, in the midst of the wait and pressure, it was hard for me to accept this view of waiting. See, this is not a worldview but a spiritual view. Waiting can actually be a positive that God uses to make us more like Jesus. God works on a very different timetable. In his mind, there is nothing wrong with waiting. When God does not seem to be answering our prayers sometimes we stop praying, stop expecting him to act, while giving way to a spirit of cynicism, rather than thanking God for who he is and all he has done for us. While God may not answer in our timing or in the way we expect, he will accomplish his good purposes in our lives when we persevere in prayer and praise. Remember, He works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
It’s important that we guard our hearts and mind during our time of waiting. As we wait, we should be content in spite of our circumstances. The daily operation of God’s Word involves the mind. I pray you realize it’s an honor and a privilege to actively wait on the Lord. Susannah Spurgeon, the wife of Charles Spurgeon, counseled her own heart with these words:
“The Lord has strewn the pages of God’s Word with promises of blessedness to those who wait for Him. And remember, His slightest Word stands fast and sure; it can never fail you. So, my soul, see that you have a promise underneath thee, for then your waiting will be resting and a firm foothold for your hope will give you confidence in Him who has said, ‘They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.’”
In Psalms 37, David exhorts us to be patient and guard against cynicism as we actively wait. He realized that in our period of waiting our mind can play tricks on us.
“Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!”
Psalms 37:1
God knows our minds are tempted to drift while we wait. We can allow our minds to churn with crazy thoughts about others. We live in a world where everyone is always comparing himself or herself to the other person. What they have or what we don’t have. Social media exacerbates this because on Facebook or Instagram it seems everyone has such a great life. We see post of them traveling, doing great things with friends, experiencing only the best of life. As we compare our lives, we can sink into a deeper funk. We might wonder why we have to go through this while someone else seems to be receiving all the blessings of God. I accepted you as my Savior. Why isn’t my life perfect or at least as luxurious?
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.”
Psalms 37:3
Regardless of your situation, God has work for you to do in your waiting. Do not let your waiting keep you from being useful. Instead, take whatever comfort you are receiving from God, and begin searching for others who need it. When we serve others it becomes a distraction to our problems.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalms 37:4
When we continue to praise and worship Him, He will help us endure. In the wilderness, Moses reminded the Israelites where their provision came from.
“He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:3
In your wilderness of waiting, remember God has not left you. He is preparing you to receive His best.
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”
Psalms 37:5
When we commit our waiting to God, we transfer the burdens of our waiting onto our Father. He has promised to sustain us. “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”(Psalms 55:22) Every time you start to feel burdened, anxious or overwhelmed by something in your life, it is because you haven’t given it over to Him in the first place, or if you have, you don’t want to wait and have tried to take back control. This action will always lead to feelings of heaviness because He never designed us to take on what He has promised to care for.
The Bible Teaches Us To Appreciate Waiting
Perhaps the Bible talks so much about waiting because God wants us to know that waiting is far from a passive activity in which we do nothing. In fact, Scripture teaches us that God wants us to actively participate in the work He desires to accomplish. Waiting strategically can cultivate good fruit in our lives such as patience, perseverance, and endurance. It also draws us closer to our Savior and points those who are watching us as their gospel. James 1:2-8 tells us to, “Consider it all joy when trials come . . .”
The Bible is filled with examples of believers, who waited and held on in spite of their situation. Think about Job, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David. All had to wait for many years for God’s promises. They held to their faith, even when it seemed pointless and useless. Romans 8:25 – “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”When they reached their promise, they were blessed beyond measure.
Alternatively, the story of Adam and Eve is a story of rebellion against God. Once they believed that God didn’t have their best interests in mind, they decided to go ahead without God and do what they wanted. They became, in effect, their own god. Too often, this is exactly what we do today. When God tells us to wait, we don’t trust Him, but go ahead and find ways to accomplish what we want to happen. Their decision broke their relationship and fellowship with God. As descendants of Adam, we all now suffer from this separation from God and are considered children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3).
God wants us to learn how to follow him and put down our demanding, overly anxious, selfish selves. One way He helps us do this is to say, “Wait.” That miserable, uncomfortable, sometimes painful state of silence is one of God’s most powerful tools to set us free. David understood this concept and voiced it in his psalm of praise, Psalm 62:5-8:
5 For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. 6 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. 7 On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
How To Actively Wait?
Linda Green, in Unlocking the Bible says, “We can be tempted to put our hope in things that may disappoint us in the end. We can hope a doctor will heal us, a teacher will pass us, a spouse will love us, our employer will reward us, or a friend will help us. But it is only when we put our hope in Christ that we can wait with confidence and know we will not be put to shame. It seems that God allows us to experience disappointments in life to teach us that nothing else will truly satisfy or provide us with a firm foundation to stand upon. God’s Word alone is unshakable. We can wait for the Lord knowing that, no matter how dark the night, His light will break through in our lives, bringing abundant joy through a more intimate relationship with Christ.”
Seasons of waiting reveal where we are placing our trust. Can we resist fretting, refrain from anger, be still, and choose patience (Psalm 37:7-8).
It’s easy to say we trust God, but our response to delays, frustrations, and difficult situations exposes where we actually are placing our hope.
Are we convinced God is listening?
Do we believe he’s good?
Do we accept that our circumstances are ordained of God?
Do we doubt he really cares about us?
When we choose to wait quietly and trustingly, we not only honor God but encourage others to put their hope in him as well. Yes, someone is watching how you respond. You may be the only Bible they see.
A friend once said, “Have you ever seen a Desert Flower? It grows in harsh conditions, extreme heat and cold and in parched earth. We’ve all been that Desert Flower at one point at work and in life. I’m talking gut-wrenching toxicity. An environment that perpetually calls on you to sacrifice your joy, sleep, inner peace, even your health, and goes against your very values, for people who don’t deserve it.” Like the Desert Flower, if we apply the right Biblical strategies we too can survive.
The Desert Flower survives because its root system has adapted FROM its environment. It has learned succulence, drought tolerance and drought avoidance. For us, our succulence is the Holy Spirit, which sustains us. And just as the Desert Flower stores water to survive, we are called to allow the Holy Spirit to rain on our lives. The Desert Flower is able to withstand desiccation without dying or drought tolerance because their roots are deep and extensive. So are we to be actively deep in our Word, prayer, fasting and praise. Unlike an annual plant that channels all of their energy into the current season, the Desert Flower practices drought avoidance. It understands struggle, waiting and dry seasons will come. We are not to get caught up in bad theology: the belief that as believers we won’t have troubles; Prosperity Gospel, or that we need someone to intercede to the Father on our behalf. We must also understand as believers we are in this world but not of this world. Avoid the droughts that lead to disappointment. The desert environment may seem hostile, but this is purely an outsider’s viewpoint. Adaptation enables the Desert Flower to not merely survive, but to thrive! I beseech you brothers, to understand your environment and adapt FROM it to thrive in your season of waiting.
I look back at the times of waiting, and I see that God was using the waiting to prepare me, to change me and to use me. I am learning the process of waiting has been just as important as the end result. Rather than doing nothing, I wish I had taken a more active approach during this time. Now, while I wait, I’m learning to deepen my trust in Him and to remind myself of His faithfulness. If I could know what He knows, I would choose His plan every single time. The bottom line is that worry equals a lack of trust in God. Do I really trust Him? I want my mind to say yes, even when my heart says no. If God is God, He can be trusted. I want to move in that direction during my times of waiting in my dry and weary place.
Now that I’m waiting again on something different, I am asking God to reveal to me the areas of my life that need work and prepare me for what’s to come; make me like the Desert Flower. I don’t want to waste this time anymore. Right now, through the struggle, through the pain, through the loneliness, through the chaos, through the wait He has already won, and He’s moving me in that glorious direction. No matter where I am, I want a life that’s marked not by waiting, but by worshiping. He deserves that and so much more. Whoever you are, and no matter what you’re waiting for, remember that life is about so much more than waiting—it’s about living and believing.
I ask you to join with me in an April 30-day challenge. Memorize or focus on one of these scriptures for 3 straight days and then move to the next one. These will encourage you while you wait patiently and while you continue praising Him. After 30 days, you will begin to measure the size of your problems by the size of your God:
Romans 12:12 –“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Psalm 27:14 – “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Isaiah 30:18 – “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
2 Peter 3:8 – “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
Nehemiah 8:10 – “This day is holy to our Lord.Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Lamentations 3:25 – “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,to the one who seeks him”
Micah 7:7 – “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,I wait for God my Savior;my God will hear me”
Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight”
With these assurances and understandings of how we actively wait let our good brother Marvin Sapp, a 2009 initiate, encourage you:
Jesus Is The Ultimate Display Of Actively Waiting
Adam and Eve couldn’t wait and separated us from a perfect relationship with the Father. This month as believers prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday; there is no better story of remaining active while waiting than the story of Jesus stepping down from divinity to take on humanity. While He waited He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind. He ministered to those who did not know His father. He lived a life that was an example for all to follow. Yet in His humanity, in the Garden of Gethsemane He became weak and prayed that God would take away what He had to do. But while He waited, He surrendered to the will of God . . . “Not my will but your will be done.”(Luke 22:42) His was for the greatest sacrifice anyone can make. The Bible says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15:13) Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. He became human, lived, died and rose again to both reconcile us to God and to demonstrate a new humanity saved from sin and broken relationships. It is now only through God’s grace that anyone can restore his or her relationship with Him.
When Jesus was crucified on Good Friday His disciples must have been very discouraged, confused and grief stricken. It is quite amazing that they did not leave Jerusalem to return to their own homes. Even though the Apostles didn’t completely understand how the Scriptures were to be fulfilled their faith, love, and loyalty, despite their fear, kept them in Jerusalem for three days to witness the Resurrection. Like the disciples, we can be active in the things we know to do while we wait – the rhythms of prayer, evangelism, and discipleship that flow from our faith.
What a moment of sanctifying faith for this small band of believers when Jesus rose from the dead. His promise had been fulfilled. But little did they know that the coming of the Holy Spirit, would equip them in a way that would be even better than walking and talking with Him in person. The Holy Spirit would equip them to be his witnesses to “Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(Acts 1:8) Next month we will explore the Holy Spirit because Jesus promised He Will Never Leave You Or Forsake You.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to release all our concerns to you. We know that you have promised to take care of us, so we desire to rest in your assurance. We pray for your peace and contentment in spite of our circumstances. Forgive us our sins of impatience, cynicism, anxiousness, doubt, fear or lack of trust. Help us to be like the Desert Flower. We know your Resurrection is our guarantee that justice will triumph over treason, light will overcome darkness, and love will conquer death. So as we wait to hear from you; help us to continue worshiping and praising you because your working things for our good. We praise you in thisEasterseason. Change our lives; change our hearts that we may maximize every second of the day to be salt and light to others. And to be messengers ofEasterjoy and hope.
Thank you for your ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Words can’t fully express our gratitude. So we strive to let our actions be our words.
Adam is a qualified life coach residing in Melbourne, Australia. His life coaching work is however somewhat unorthodox. It’s unique and a little different in the way that Adam uses mind maps and visual thinking principles. Over a period of 8 years, Adam has developed over 300 self-growth mind maps that he calls IQ Matrices
Now that we have clarity about what consistency demands from us, it’s time to put consistency into action, and of course the key to consistency comes in the form of proper preparation and focused attention.
Preparing Yourself for Consistent Action
Before you begin taking consistent action, it’s important that you mentally prepare yourself by first establishing a goal or objective that you would like to achieve. Ask yourself:
What goal would I like to achieve?
Now reverse engineer this goal by progressively moving from the end outcome to the present moment backward step-by-step. Really take a deep look at this goal to get an understanding of how all the steps and pieces came together over time. Once done, break this goal down into parts and outline specifically how you will work through each step. To help you with this process, ask yourself:
What do I need to do to achieve this goal?
What repetitive actions or activities are required?
What specific habits and/or rituals could I develop to support these actions?
When will I partake in these activities? How? When exactly? How often?
It’s important here to identify specific timeframes you will be working with that will keep you on track as you work toward the attainment of your goal. With timeframes in place you will work with more purpose and a sense of urgency. With no timeframes in place it will just be too easy to get sidetracked or distracted throughout this process.
You should now have a very clear idea of what exactly needs to happen in order to achieve your desired outcome. It’s now in your hands to follow through with these specific actions over an extended period of time to help you accomplish your goal.
There is however one additional question you need to be asking yourself. That question is:
What repetitive activities must I avoid doing?
Often it’s not only what we focus on or do that matters, it’s also what we avoid doing that makes all the difference in the end.
Have a think about all the various distractions and counterproductive tasks that could divert you from what’s most important. Often these tasks/activities are irrelevant and will end up hurting your productivity. In fact, often they are nothing more than poor excuses for indulging in procrastination.
Maintaining a Steady Focus
Having gained clarity about what it is you will be working toward, it’s now time to get to work. However, in order to stay consistent in your actions it’s critical that you maintain a steady focus. To maintain a steady focus you need to address the following three areas:
Focus on what’s most important, not what’s fun, easy and/or convenient.
Focus on one thing at a time, not on trying to multi-task.
Focus on the execution of an activity, not on the desired outcome.
The overarching key here is of course simply to stay focused on what needs to get done without distraction. This is where your priorities must come into the spotlight. You must focus-in on the one most important thing you need to do at this moment that will help you in the long-run to accomplish your goal. However, this rarely as easy as it seems. It’s not easy because your brain will always be prone to getting caught up in distractions. It will always want to focus on what’s fun, easy and convenient. However, what’s fun, easy and convenient is probably not the most optimal use of your time.
It’s very likely that the activity you are trying to focus on can become a little tedious and boring. In such instances it’s critical that you focus on the execution of that activity. Focusing on the execution helps you stay focused with little chance for distraction.
We will typically get distracted and sidetracked when we look too far forward and tease our brains with other thoughts or things that need to get done. However, when you focus on the execution of an activity you are unlikely to fall into this trap because all your focus and attention is on what you’re doing right now in the moment. This moment is all that matters. Everything else just fades away into the background.
This kind of focus is of course not easy. It requires discipline on your part to maintain your focus over the long-term. To assist you with this focused-attention you may find it helpful to regularly ask yourself:
How must I think to stay focused?
Reminding yourself of this question will help you to stay focused on the execution of the task at hand. Afterall, everything you do always begins with a thought. Therefore if you are able to effectively direct your thoughts in an optimal way this will help you to stay focused on what needs to get done.
Now of course, at times you will naturally lose focus. Staying focused for extended periods at a time is not easy to do. At some stage you are bound to feel uncomfortable, however you must push through this discomfort and stay the course until your objective has been achieved.
Having said that, the key here to staying focused is to work in bursts. Focusing on something for several hours at a time without a mental and physical break is extremely taxing on the brain. As such, it’s important to introduce short breaks of only a few minutes in between your focus-time. This will effectively help you to recharge your batteries and allow you to refocus on your work when you begin again.
IQ Matrix strives to help you improve and maximize your potential through the use of a potent combination of mind mapping and life coaching principles that provide you with the guidance you need to overcome life’s toughest challenges. Visit IQ Matrix at www.iqmatrix.com
Adam is a qualified life coach residing in Melbourne, Australia. His life coaching work is however somewhat unorthodox. It’s unique and a little different in the way that Adam uses mind maps and visual thinking principles. Over a period of 8 years, Adam has developed over 300 self-growth mind maps that he calls IQ Matrices
Okay, so let’s say that you are intrigued by this idea of staying consistent and committed to a daily set of actions aligned with a specific goal you have in mind. On the surface staying consistent seems quite straightforward. It’s all about repetition, right?
On a surface level most people are quite aware of the value of repetition. Repeating something over and over again forms the foundation of any skill we are wanting to learn. What’s however not quite as clear is what repetition (consistency) demands from each individual.
Consistency-in-action is not purely about repetition. It’s rather about evolution.
This is not about mindlessly repeating an action over and over again. It’s about learning, growing and adapting your actions that can help lead to incremental improvements over an extended period of time.
Consistency-in-action is about gaining ever greater insights and understandings about what it is you are doing, and subsequently making the necessary adjustments to these actions to help improve your results and performance over the long-haul. In other words, it’s all about improving your effectiveness and efficiency at each step along your journey. Therefore consistency demands that you stay vigilant and focused on making incremental improvements and not just sticking with the status quo.
To be consistent means understanding that the greatest power lies in the present moment. Therefore consistency demands that you stay vigilant, mindful and present on the task at hand without losing focus. It demands that you are able to discipline yourself to this moment, and only to this moment without exception.
I discipline myself in this very moment…
Right now is the only moment that matters…
I only need to be consistent in this very moment…
Many people struggle with consistency when they fail to see immediate results from their actions.
We live in a society that thrives on instant gratification. We feel hungry we dial for a pizza; we get bored we switch on the television; we get lonely we call up a friend. As we have grown up we have been hardwired to expect that our desires will immediately be satisfied. However, when it comes to achieving any worthwhile goal, the rules are a little different.
Typically success in any field of endeavor initially requires that we commit ourselves to taking consistent daily action for next-to-no-reward. The rewards will of course come over time, however early on success demands that you put in the work with very little to show for your efforts. And this is of course where consistency-in-action comes into play.
You must consistently apply yourself to something over an extended period of time in order to reap long-term rewards. This sounds simple on the surface, but because we all live in a world built upon instant gratification, is it any wonder that only a select few people achieve any worthwhile long-term success?
IQ Matrix strives to help you improve and maximize your potential through the use of a potent combination of mind mapping and life coaching principles that provide you with the guidance you need to overcome life’s toughest challenges. Visit IQ Matrix at www.iqmatrix.com
Adam is a qualified life coach residing in Melbourne, Australia. His life coaching work is however somewhat unorthodox. It’s unique and a little different in the way that Adam uses mind maps and visual thinking principles. Over a period of 8 years, Adam has developed over 300 self-growth mind maps that he calls IQ Matrices.
Even though the concept of staying consistent seems very simple on the surface, most people do struggle with this idea. They find it difficult to stay consistent because there are just too many distractions. People are simply not focused, committed or disciplined enough to stick with something in the short-term for long-term results.
The key reason why most people struggle with staying consistent over the long-term is that they only live for the short-term. In other words, if they don’t get immediate results from their actions, they don’t see the point with continuing with those actions over the long-haul. However, the habit of consistency isn’t about obtaining quick results. It’s rather about making incremental progress and improvements over an extended period of time.
Consider for a moment a skill that you have developed over the years. Maybe you’re a good singer or guitar player. Maybe you’re a great dancer or can speak a foreign language very well. No matter what skill you developed, you developed this skill over many weeks, months and years. And you developed it because you applied yourself consistently toward learning that particular skill.
A Practical Example of Consistency-in-Action
Consider for a moment a child learning how to shoot a basketball. In the beginning the child is shown the proper technique of how to shoot the ball. However, early on things aren’t easy. They practice and practice the proper motion and movement but results are just hard to come by. The basket just seems too small and too far away. However, the child persists with practicing their shooting technique over many weeks, months and years. And through repetition they start shooting more baskets.
The results become more consistent over time because of the muscle memory the child has developed through the act of repetition. Furthermore, repetition has helped the child to better understand what works and what doesn’t work while shooting the basketball. In other words, they have learned from their mistakes and errors and made the necessary adjustments along the way.
Years down the track shooting a basketball has become second nature, and it’s all because they committed themselves in the beginning to consistent daily practice through repetition.
This is of course just one example of consistency-in-action. It’s just one example of how doing something consistently over a period of time can reap incredible results. However, what if the child didn’t commit him or herself to daily practice? What if they just practiced once or twice per month? What difference would that have made years down the track? Obviously a tremendous amount of difference.
You Are Already Applying Consistency-in-Action
There are no quick results when it comes to a commitment to consistency. Consistency is rather about making incremental improvements over time. The results you are after will eventually come, however they will only come over an extended period of time when you commit yourself to consistency-in-action.
Now of course if for any reason you feel that this is something that’s difficult to do, then consider for a moment all the poor habits that people develop over time.
For instance, regularly snacking on that candy bar or overeating just a little each day over the course of many years can lead to major health concerns, obesity and mobility issues. But of course you probably won’t notice what overeating “just a little today” is doing to you, because it really doesn’t make much of a difference “today”. It probably won’t even make much of a difference tomorrow or next week, and maybe not even next month. But over the course of several years, overeating a little each day makes a significant difference; for that is when you finally start seeing the results from your consistent daily actions, and therein lies the power of consistency.
This is just one example of many where we use consistency-in-action in a very negative and limiting way. I’m sure you can probably think of at least a dozen more examples.
Given this, it’s quite clear that we are certainly capable of applying the consistency habit into our lives. However, from here-on-in it will all be about applying it in the right way to help you achieve your desired goals and objectives.
IQ Matrix strives to help you improve and maximize your potential through the use of a potent combination of mind mapping and life coaching principles that provide you with the guidance you need to overcome life’s toughest challenges. Visit IQ Matrix at www.iqmatrix.com
Adam is a qualified life coach residing in Melbourne, Australia. His life coaching work is however somewhat unorthodox. It’s unique and a little different in the way that Adam uses mind maps and visual thinking principles. Over a period of 8 years, Adam has developed over 300 self-growth mind maps that he calls IQ Matrices.
Have you ever wondered how some people are able to achieve massive amounts of success in their field of endeavor, while others work just as hard but achieve very little?
It could be said that those who achieve high levels of success are simply more intelligent, or maybe more ambitious, or maybe more persistent, or possibly just luckier than the people in the second group. These are of course all key factors that certainly can help people achieve their goals. However, there is just one ingredient that goes into success that is more important than anything else. And that ingredient comes in the form of consistency.
To be consistent means to fully dedicate yourself completely to a task, activity or goal. It means to fully stay engaged without distraction.
To be consistent requires a commetment on your part. It requires that you commit yourself to a sustained effort of action over the long-term. What this essentially means is that you keep your word to yourself and others that you will follow through with what you set out to do consistently over a period of time up until the moment your objectives are achieved. As such, consistency is all about your ability to be dependable, reliable and responsible for all your choices, decisions and actions.
Consistency is about building small empowering habits and rituals that you partake in every single day that keep you focused on your highest priorities and goals. It therefore essentially comes down to your ability to hold yourself accountable for the daily choices you make with no excuses and no complaints. You and you alone are accountable for what you do and what you fail to do. All responsibility lies solely in your hands.
To be consistent means to focus on the present moment while maintaining a long-term view that helps you measure your results and the impact of your daily actions. With this regular feedback in your hands you are better able to learn from your failures and mistakes to help you effectively alter your course of action where required.
Consistency is therefore all about repetition. It’s about repeating the same actions (habits and rituals) over and over again; gaining feedback from these actions, and adjusting them accordingly to help you stay on track as you work towards your goal. And that in essence is the difference between success and failure in any field of endeavor, and the key to high levels of achievement.
IQ Matrix strives to help you improve and maximize your potential through the use of a potent combination of mind mapping and life coaching principles that provide you with the guidance you need to overcome life’s toughest challenges. Visit IQ Matrix at www.iqmatrix.com
The life narratives of young people significantly impact their motivational profile as responsible agents and owners of their choices and actions. Duke University professor of philosophy Owen Flanagan defines life narratives as “imposing continuity on those salient experiences that serve to define the individual and enable persons to understand themselves and to be re-identified as the same entity over time.” The experiences that provide meaning to young people are framed by an amalgamation of lived experiences and memories. An adolescent’s assumed identity will be based on how well they have been prepared to process the sum of the identifications, real or perceived, superimposed on them by the common societal narratives within their community. The continuous and constant messages they receive influence the decisions and choices they make about who they are (identity) and how they feel about themselves (introspections).
Identity and introspection play a significant role in determining the self-conception and value adolescents ascribe to themselves. Identities are composed of self-identity, cultural and racial identity, collective identity, and identity in Christ. David Jopling defines identities as “the repositories for much of what we absorb in the world and are filters through which our lived experience is processed and interpreted.” Introspections are composed of self-awareness, self-understanding, self-experience, self-respect, self-worth, self-evaluation and self-verification. Ulric Neisser defines introspections as “levels of consciousness of oneself as the subject captured through self-specifying information from differing origins and social experiences.”
Youth are active agents in a broad ecology of relationships and every adult brings or provides different sets of social supports. Author Bonnie Benard, credited with creating the Resiliency Framework, says, “Studies have shown that caring and support are the most powerful adolescent development tools because they address a shared humanity and transcend ethnic, social class, geographical, and historical boundaries. It is the need for love, respect, connectedness, meaningful involvement and belonging.” Social support can be defined as “an individual’s perceptions of general support or specific supportive behaviors (available or enacted upon) from people in their social network which enhances functioning and/or may buffer them from adverse outcomes.” The development of resilience is disrupted when social location, social interaction, and individual experiences challenge normal youth development.
Protective factors such as family support system, a good educational environment, a church home, after school activitiesand sports play a role in helping youth overcome the potential negative effects associated with experiences and interactions faced in their community. The National Research Council defines protective factor as “a characteristic at the biological, psychological, family, or community (including peers and culture) level that is associated with a lower likelihood of problem outcomes or that reduces the negative impact of a risk factor on problem outcomes.” While the parents and family members have the primary responsibility for providing the protective factors to overcome risk, on a symbolic or experiential level, mentors are an important contributor to the adolescent through their relational activities. Researcher Dennis Roedder says, “Relationships socialize youth and subsequently encourage identity development.” The adolescent’s development and ability to process their experiences depends on trustworthy interactions with the adults, peers, and community in which they reside. Erik Erickson says, “Identity formation employs a process of simultaneous reflection and observation, a process taking place on all levels of mental functioning, by which the individual judges himself in the light of what they perceives to be the way in which others judge them in comparison to themselves.”
When provided the tools to grapple jointly with developing a resilient response to their challenges, youth can use societal challenges as motivation to fuel their destiny rather than as roadblocks that lead them in a negative direction. Some use things like academics, athletics, or the arts as agency and motivation to succeed and disprove the narrative. For others, their awareness of societal inconsistencies overwhelms their identity development. The constant internal negotiation of their identity, contextualized by their surrounding conditions, can lead to the conscious choice of an oppositional stance in order to survive. They ignore the real consequences of embracing a high-risk lifestyle as they internalize mounting frustrations and make life-altering decisions to define who they are by what they are against.
Well-formed identities can only be incrementally changed by social context and relationships. Youth make thousands of decisions each day in response to their understanding of their experiences; each decision having a cumulative effect on their future. Their experiences lead to a need to share not only their hopes, dreams, and experiences but also their questions, disappointments, and fears while depending on adults to help them discern unspoken moods and desires to ensure proper decision making and implementation. Never stop speaking and living truth into their lives, but don’t be surprised if they don’t immediately care to hear or embrace what you are saying. On one hand our youth are living lives that create a common source of conflict about their future:
They don’t know where they are;
They don’t know where they are going;
They don’t know when they will get there;
They don’t want to be told what they should be doing;
They are in a great hurry to go somewhere.
While at the same time they are moldable, tender, wanting guidance; capable of great loyalty and commitment. When youth have no vision to see down the road, they don’t know how to live their lives. Their present has meaning only when they see the purpose and plan of their future.
The imperatives of how adults respond are based on the indicatives of who they are and the order is not reversible. In other words, what we think or believe about someone will determine how we define them, which will influence the way we treat them. Charged with providing developmental guidance to young people, we are called to seek the knowledge and understanding to become culturally attuned and prepared to support the challenges of identity development. Youth need adults to understand them and invest time to build relationships. Human nature is relational by definition. Relationships shape understandings, expectations, desires, and ideas about what is possible. We all can thrive in relational communities. The importance of this is that experiences affect their self-concept; self-concept is key to an achieved identity and social location plays a significant role in authenticating one’s self-concept. If we can compassionately accompany young people as their identities are amplified, challenged and rearranged by adolescent experiences then their identity will be secure and their decisions and choices will move them in a positive direction toward their DESTINY. Youth just need support and direction. Who knows, we may be helping the next doctor, lawyer, business owner or president.
