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Shifting Your Focus

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Focus on Fulfillment

There are seasons in your life where you have to focus a lot of time on your finances. This is to be expected and is especially true when you are a younger adult.

Each of us should be planning and structuring our lives in such a way that we can shift from a focus on finances to fulfillment. This does not mean that we cannot have a level of fulfillment during every season of life, but when you are faced with limited resources, then it also limits your choices.

I am convinced that it should be everyone’s goal and desire to become completely debt free, even it if means living a modest and frugal lifestyle.  If you are not willing to make those sacrifices, then your choices in life will always be restricted by the debt that controls you.

As you free yourself from debt, it liberates you to make wiser choices an impact others on a greater scale.  This is a way to live The Meaningful Life, or as I like to refer to is as The Rich and Satisfying Life.

When you live a meaningful life, you make your actions, your choices, and your moments count. You achieve this by deciding who do you want to be and what experiences you want to create unfettered by financial bondage.

Once you break free of financial shackles a simple strategy to focus on fulfillment is to focus on “the greater good” and give your best where you have your best to give. It’s about playing to your unique strengths and sharing your gifts with the world, or more specifically, YOUR world. This will help you rise above the trials and tribulations of daily living and help you find a higher ground. It will allow you to fulfill your God-given purpose for your life.

You will learn to do more meaningful things by making meaning in the things that you already do and choose to do. You are the most significant meaning maker in your life. A simple way to add more meaning is to identify a mission or a cause or a message you believe in. Remember John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Proverbs to Live By

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Proverbs for Abundant Living

In life, we experience so many negative influences that it becomes difficult to sort through the noise and focus on the positives of life.

With the current political climate within the United States this year it makes it even harder to remain balanced in reality and focused on how we are to live.  From what I understand when speaking to others living outside the US, it is the same throughout the world where there is the freedom to vote.

In order to help us all remain balanced in an unbalanced world, I thought I would pass on  some  “In Life Proverbs” gathered by Brian Cavanaugh. Ponder them as you read through this list:

In life, we are to encourage and build up each other;  not to discourage and tear down one another.

In life, we are to add, not subtract; to multiply, not divide.

In life, we are to leave an enduring impression; not a careless dent.

In life, we are to smooth out the rough roads along the journey; not create new potholes.

In life, we are to sing a joyful song; not just drone a groan.

In life, we are to add our harmonious strains to life’s symphony; not strain the symphony with clatter and clang.

In life, we are to soar on eagles’ wings. not to peck and cluck with our beaks in the dirt like chickens.

In life, we are to radiate light into unseen places; not permit unknown fears to dim our radiance.

In life, we are to leap in faith; not to limp with doubt.

In life, we are to give freely of our time, our love, our resources; not to cling on to them greedily.

In life, we are to lift up others; not push them down.

In life, we are to open our hands to those in need; not to clutch our hands in fists of distrust.

In life, we are to lend a helping hand to make loads lighter; not use heavy hands to hold others back.

In life, we are to be messengers of peace, signs of joy; not Chicken Little portents of gloom-n-doom.

In life we are to enjoy, to savor, to remember, to reflect; not to overlook, to forget, to ignore, to reject.

In life, we are to seek conscious awareness; not doze in the doldrums of half-awake.

In life, we are to dare mighty things; not to fear things gravely.

In life, we are to show up, stand up, step forward and speak up; not to cringe in fear, choosing to sit down, or to step back, allowing the voices of silence to speak so loudly.

In life, we are to exercise proper stewardship of earth’s resources; not pillage the heritage of future generations.

In life, we are to move forward through forgiveness; not grind to a halt mired in bitterness and resentment.

In life, we are to be wacky, weird, and wonderful in our own unique God-given way; not to be lemmings, stuck on life’s treadmill.

In life, we are to reach, to stretch, and to soar; not to slink in fear, held back by mistrust and doubt.

In life, we are to realize: “I am a remarkable Somebody!”; not listen to other’s jabs: “You’re a Nobody, an Everybody, an Anybody.”

In life, we are to comprehend, “I am worthwhile”; not tremble with feelings of worthlessness.

In life, we are to create, to laugh, and to live life nobly; not to despair, to moan, or to live life less.

Encourage yourself with these words and then go out and encourage others. “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing,” 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

Seasons for Everything

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The Ever Changing Seasons of Life

If you have been listening to the Wisdom-Trek podcast over the past couple of weeks, you know that Paula and I have made the decision to sell our home in Charlotte and move back full time to The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. This was a significant decision for us since we enjoyed our home there and had many friends and an established routine there.

After analyzing the strong housing market in the Charlotte area and measuring that against some of our life goals from a financial perspective, we felt that it was a prudent time to make the move now. Also, since we were traveling between the two locations frequently for client work and other responsibilities, it was difficult at times to maximize our time at either location.

The details came together much faster than we anticipated, and in less than two weeks of making the final decision, we have moved and will be permanently residing at The Big House, God willing for the remainder of our natural lives. This is yet another example of the ever-changing seasons of life.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” We are excited about moving back at the beginning of the fall season. While we enjoy all seasons, fall holds a special meaning for us, in that it was when we first met and started dating. We love the trees changing colors, and the crisp fall air. For me growing up, it was the busiest time of year, because it was apple picking time, which was a lot of hard work, but one where we spent most days outside.

This year I will be able to continually look out the large windows of our newly renovated office and watch the leaves on the large maple and oak trees change from green to bright yellow, orange and red before finally falling off.  It is then “the leaf harvest” will commence.

So as one season of life is ending and we morph into a new one I am reminded of what Dr. Suess once said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

How about you? Are you welcoming the ever changing seasons of life with open arms?  Yes, fall will eventually turn to the cold of winter with its ice and snow, but instead of dreading it, enjoy its beauty.

Embrace whatever season of life you are currently in today, enjoy it, and always be preparing for your next season.  For as surely and night follows day, the seasons of life will continue on throughout your life. If you prepare properly, every season can be enjoyable.

Waste Nothing

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Don’t Waste Your Breath

What a waste we make of words. They gush out of us like a torrent, void of redeeming qualities. We speak before we think. We wound people carelessly. Though we curse not, we fail to bless; and therein we lose the opportunity to demonstrate grace and initiate healing. Words are weapons against our true adversary. We should use them skillfully to rebuke him.

But words are also tools with which to build one another up in faith. Are our tools sharp and well-maintained, or are our toolboxes cluttered with rusty tools? Are we using words for the advantage of the Kingdom of God, or are we wasting our breath on idle chatter? Who can estimate the value of a word of encouragement? What price can be placed on a word of sympathy?

How we underestimate the simple words of recognition, spoken in passing. If you could only speak one hundred words per week, what words would you speak? If time was running out and you were given an opportunity to speak the last word into someone’s life, what would you say? Time is running out. Tomorrow may be cancelled at any moment.

Choose words that save, and love, and heal. Decrease volume and increase value. A word is a terrible thing to waste. Practice 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”

Overcoming Life’s Challenges

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Facing Challenges in Life

We all face challenges in life – some we create for ourselves based on our choices and actions, while others are thrust upon us by the uncontrollable events of life. One challenge that you can control is to understand that you can have more than you currently have because you can become more than you are.

I have found that income, or any other achievement, will seldom exceed your own personal development. Once in a while income will unexpectedly increase, but unless you grow yourself to the level of that income, it will soon retreat back to the level that you have developed yourself.

I have read that if all of the money in the world were divided among everyone equally, within a matter of one generation that all the money would be back in the hands of the same families. While I am not sure of the absolute validity of this premise, I do know that you can have more money than you currently have only if you choose to become more than you currently are.

The reverse of this is also true. If you do not plant in the spring, you will have no harvest in the fall. A personal life plan or mission statement won’t make a difference until you take action. You have to work the plan. It is the human effort that counts. The major thing that makes the difference is what YOU do.

Most all achievement and advancements in life can be traced back to the unchanging and undeniable law of planting and harvesting. As one of my mentors, Zig Ziglar would say, “You have to BE before your can DO, and DO before you can HAVE.”