How much of our daily lives is spent wishing and dreaming about what will be? And how much is spent actually working to achieve those ideas. How much is just wishful thinking, or looking at someone elses success and saying “it must be nice.” We all have some sort of desire to achieve and excel, and yet very few people actually seem to get any where. We all cannot be the leaders of fortune five hundred companies, or presidents of our countries, but we all have dreams of what could be.
And yet how many of us have sat down and began to write out and focus our lives on those dreams? If we have never put any thought into what we want to become we simply spin our lives in circles and sit in frustration because we never seem to get anywhere in life. We never seem to get past the hurdles and our lives simply run their course focused on little and accomplishing nothing. What will your contribution be to the society around you? And what will you be remembered for? Two questions that have begun to haunt my thoughts as of late.
Solomon, the wisest person to ever live, wrote that where there is no vision people perish.
Helen Keller, a women who was both blind and deaf and overcame both to receive a bachelor of art degree, and become a famous political activist and author said “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.”
There are very few people who have taken the time to focus their lives on a single vision, and then spend their lives working towards that vision, constantly adjusting themselves to ensure they remain on course and we remember them because of the impact they made in our lives and society. People like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King to name just a couple. And yet there are many more who’s contributions, although not as great, have been just as significant. There may be a local social worker who has changed the lives of young people, or a teacher in high school that spent their time pulling the best part of us out so the world could see. Not all contributions become famous, but every contribution is noticed. Billy Graham, the most famous evangelist of our time, was changed forever by an unknown man who never became famous, but whose contribution will always be remembered, at least by Billy, Mordecai Ham.
But we must choose to focus our lives today on the vision we have of tomorrow. It’s a mistake to daydream about “One day when you’ll be on top” instead of handling today so that it prepares you for tomorrow. John Wooden, a hall of fame basketball coach, said “When opportunity knocks it is too late to prepare.” We Delay our Destiny when we choose not to focus on what is important, and spend our time chasing fantasies, or fun. Achieving our destiny involves focus and discipline. Two things we dislike. We must focus our lives on our vision, and then discipline ourselves to daily achieve what needs to be done so that one day we will be who we thought we could be. The leaders of the fortune five hundred companies did not get there overnight, and it wasn’t a surprise that plopped into their lap. It was something they focused on and persevered toward until finally they attained their goal.
Much of our lives is spent in fruitless activity, spent wasting away and then after many years we wonder why we have never accomplished anything. Today is the day where we can begin to focus ourselves and begin to attain the destiny we were all created to achieve. It can begin today if we choose to focus ourselves and determine where we want to go, and then begin to follow that map and discipline ourselves to stay on course. Then one day we can look back and actually see what we accomplished and not what we wasted.
The Blog of Tom Sanders 