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15 Steps for Finding Your Motivation

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we completed our series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life with Make Your Winters Count. This week let us explore practical steps for finding your motivation. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

While motivation is needed to complete tasks, it also requires the ability to complete tasks, and we need to understand the difference. As an example, I may have the motivation to become a quarterback for the NFL but since I am only 5’3” and 120 pounds, there is no way that would be physically possible. In most cases, though, if you are motivated to do something, you will also have sufficient ability to do so, or you will be motivated enough to learn how. As John Maxwell puts it, “You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.” It boils down to…Motivation makes things happen.

Where there’s no will, there’s no way, even if you have the ability. One of the best ways to improve your personal effectiveness is to find the drive to master your motivation. If you can master motivation, you can deal with life’s setbacks through the various seasons of life. As with success in most of life, there are certain steps that can be followed to ensure the desired outcomes. Here are 15 steps along our trail for this week that will help you to find your motivation each day.

1. Connect to your values.

This is the ultimate secret. If you can connect the work you do to your values, even in small ways, you will be motivated to succeed. One of my values is making a positive impact on everyone that I contact each day. This may be through this podcast, online, or in person.

2. Find your WHY.

Your WHY is your overriding purpose in life. You may have to drill down to find your true why, but keep asking yourself why until you find what really drives you.

3. Change your WHY.

As you continue to drill down on your why, you may find out that you are doing tasks for the wrong reason. Are you doing that task to get it done, or does it fulfill your purpose? Changing your why may be what you need to motivate yourself.

4. Change your HOW.

You may need to analyze how you complete your tasks. Is there a more enjoyable or efficient way? Are you doing the tasks correctly, or are you just trying to get through them? I like to think of it as mastering your craft. Sometimes slower is better. Other times, the key is to make it a game and actually speed it up. You can set time limits and race against the clock. Changing your how can get you out of ruts and find new ways to escape the mundane.

5. Remember the feeling.

When was the last time you felt good about completing particular tasks? How can you replicate that time? Tie the completion of your tasks to an individual reward system that will be fulfilling to you. Anticipate the outcome, and you will find the motivation for improvement.

6. Make a mind shift.

If you find yourself lacking the motivation to complete tasks because they were not pleasant in the past, make a mind shift to the future and how you will feel when it is completed. Choose your mindset before you begin, and your outcomes in the present will improve.

7. Find a meaningful metaphor.

Maybe you are the early bird that catches the worm, or a stitch in time saves nine. Place in your mind a catchphrase that will drive you on like, no tasks left behind. Yes, it does sound a bit corny, but what we feed our minds will become our reality. That is why I turn all of my projects into “epic adventures to be conquered.”

8. Take action.

Here’s a secret that once you know it can change your life. Action often comes before motivation. You simply start doing an activity, and then your motivation kicks in. Nike was right with the saying, “Just do it.” For example, I don’t always look forward to getting up at 4:30 each morning for my 90-minute workout, but once I start, I find my flow.

9. Link it to good feelings.

Find a way to link tasks to good feelings. I know that although I am tired after my workout, it is also a good tired and that I have reached my objectives. My workout time is also when I have my devotional time and listen to other uplifting podcasts which prepares my mind for the day. On days when I cannot get a workout in, I miss that feeling of accomplishment.

10. Impress yourself first.

Connect to your passion and set the bar for yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others, unless that is truly motivating. Instead, compare yourself to you yesterday. Let your internal benchmark be you.

11. It is your choice.

If you tell yourself you “HAVE” to do this or you “MUST” do that or you “SHOULD” do this, you can weaken your motivation. The power of choice and simply reframing your language to “CHOOSE” can be incredibly empowering and exactly the motivating language you need to hear. Choose your words carefully and make them work for you.

12. Partner with someone.

This is one of my favorite ways to make something fun. One person’s painful task is another’s pleasure. Partner with somebody who complements your skill or who can mentor you and get you over the humps. As King Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 4:9, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.”

13. Change your question.

Sometimes you need to change your focus. To change your focus, change the question. If you ask yourself what’s wrong with this situation, of course, you’ll find things to complain about. Ask yourself what’s right about the situation, and you can quickly find the positives and get your groove on.

14. Set a fixed schedule when possible.

Sometimes your body or emotions are working against you because you’re not giving them a break or fueling them the right way. One simple way to improve results here is to find a routine for eating, sleeping, and moving or working out that supports you. Many times this is the key to motivating you to succeed.

15. Play to your strengths.

Spending too much time in your weaknesses wears you down. Investing more time in your strengths helps you renew your energy and find your flow. It’s the place where you can grow your best. Success begets success, and this helps you build momentum. What goes into your mind is what will come out.

Pain and Pleasure for Motivation

In most cases, we choose to move toward pleasure. When we do, we move away from pain. It’s that simple. We do more to avoid pain. Keep that in mind when you find it tough to change a habit. Change can often be temporary pain. Keep this in mind when you need to motivate yourself and make a conscious choice to endure temporary pain to ensure long term pleasure.

This is why sometimes you can’t think your way into something. For example, your mind wants one thing, but your body wants another. You tell yourself working out is good for you, but your body just doesn’t want the pain. Be willing to choose what is best long term. It is then that you will truly be motivated to make the most of every opportunity. As Colossians 4:5 tells us, “Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity.”

Today on our trek we hiked through the 15 steps for finding your motivation. Make a conscious effort to apply these steps to your life so that you can create and live a positive legacy for all to see. In our next Wisdom Note, we will learn the steps of how not to be ignorant. Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-days a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—Make Your Winters Count

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued our series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, Be Prepared for Winter. This week we finish this 10 part series about the cycles and seasons of life, and our focus is making your winters count. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

To be successful in life, we must fully understand the laws of planting and harvesting. Realize also that during your lifetime, there will be many different cycles of seasons. Just because particular cycles of seasons did not produce the harvest you expected, don’t let that control future seasons, or the entirety of your life. This week on our Wisdom Notes, let us continue the winter season which must be a time for reflection and planning while each new spring season gives you an opportunity to start new again. This week’s trek is titled…

Make Your Winter Seasons Count

As we continue to ponder the winter seasons of life, you need to grasp that throughout all the seasons of the year, winter can touch your lives in many small ways, as if it were testing you and providing you with subtle reminders of the plight of those whose lives are surrounded by winter. Winter can be a lost opportunity or the loss of love. A winter is when a trusted friend gives you cause for disappointment when your children, young or old, make unwise decisions that will force them into a winter season, or even when expected business goes to a competitor. Like a frigid blast from the cold, harsh words of someone you love is winter, and so is the pessimism or cynicism from someone whose advice and counsel you seek.

The major challenge confronting those who seem to be in a perpetual winter is that they don’t prepare for the arrival of spring, and lack the ability to recognize that arrival. So that you don’t become like this yourself, you must be planning, learning, and preparing so that you become part of the solution rather than allowing yourself to remain part of the problem.

If you are currently without love, money, or employment, it is a winter, and its very appearance is because you’ve missed a springtime somewhere. Even if it was not your intention, neglect is always costly, and winter is merely a circumstance—an effect brought on by some earlier cause. Dwelling on the severity of your personal winter merely makes the winter more difficult to endure. You must search the inner confines of your mind and your soul for the purpose of discovering the real cause within you.

Adversity is seldom attributable to someone or something outside of ourselves. To blame outside influences for the circumstance of winter is a convenient excuse for misplacing your responsibility. It is the normal human tendency to place blame for a winter of life on someone else, which is why most humans harvest the result of mediocrity that accompanies such behavior.

For circumstances to change, your attitudes, opinions, and habits must change. Conversation on how circumstances ought to be or on why situations aren’t fair is just that conversation! Unproductive conversation is what the lazy and unambitious engage in during the winters of life, for there is a certain euphoria that such empty conversation produces which dulls the senses from the harsh reality of how circumstances really are. The same euphoria is found on television and the internet. It will get you all worked up but does not provide a solution to your winter seasons. It is so easy to use it as an attempt to escape from an empty life. Since this will not solve the issues, many turn to alcohol and other drugs, seeking solutions in external means. Others turn to idle gossip, which allows those who engage in it to overlook their own weaknesses by attacking the weaknesses of others.

Instead, let winter find you planning for the arrival of spring, not contemplating the errors of commission and omission of last year. Let winter find you with a joyful countenance and a happy heart. Even if your winter is still dark and cold currently, share a good word for all those around you. Do it with confidence in the future, not apprehension; with an appreciation of the past, not regret; and finally, with gratitude for your achievements, adversities, and uncertainties of life, for each is a form of blessing that removes all limitations from the future possibilities of life.

Winter is a time for examining, pondering, and reflecting. It is a time for re-evaluating both purpose and procedure, for rediscovering an often misplaced sense of purpose. It is a time for finding new ways of solving old dilemmas and for devising unique plans for contributing to others less fortunate than yourself. It is a time for understanding and controlling anger, that frequent human emotion which causes us to pass judgment without fair deliberation. It is a time to analyze your fairness and to overcome your tendency to hastily spew out condemnation without a full investigation, which is the height of ignorance.

Winter is a time for being sincere with yourself and about yourself when the tendency is to fool yourself. It is a time for developing the skills that allow you to get along with imperfect people, for even a fool can get along with perfect people. It is also a time for becoming wise enough to know what to say, as well as to know what to overlook and what not to say.

The wisdom that comes with the careful use of winter teaches you also that evolution is merely revolution at a slower pace and that constant gradual change is the order of God’s universe. Only those worthy human attributes of honesty, loyalty, love, and trust in God and in your fellow humans are meant to remain constant. Winter is a time for being grateful for your achievements or for having endured your lack of achievement.

The physically inactive season of winter is a time for adding to your storehouse of knowledge through continued education, which in truth does not mean learning things that you do not know but in learning to behave as you do not now behave. The facts and things of life are automatically learned when you become inspired with the excitement of high expectations and belief in your own abilities.

With winter comes the opportunity to catch up on unkempt promises and on unanswered letters. It is a time also for encouraging the young, who with their inexperience are insecure, and for encouraging the old, whom because of their experience are apprehensive of the future. Let not a winter go by without investing much of your time in assuring, teaching, and encouraging others. For in so doing, your reward will be an uplifted confidence in yourself; the teacher is always the greatest recipient of the lessons he seeks to teach to others. Let winter find you thinking first of someone else, appreciating, being kind, and being gentle. And by all means, let winter find you laughing more, even though the winds blow cold and the snows cover the soil which will soon bring new life.

Someone once said, “Don’t pray for things to be easier, rather, pray for more obstacles and more challenges, for it is out of these that man’s character and will to succeed are formed.” Nearly every success story that I am aware of began when the person first lay flat on his mental and financial back. In this condition, people usually become sufficiently disgusted to reach deep down inside and pull out talent, ability, desire, and determination, which are the basic essentials required of anyone wishing to free themselves from the winters of life. It is in the face of adversity that circumstances begin to change, and the circumstances always change as a result of the personal change that takes place.

I have discovered that circumstances never change by themselves. It’s when a human with sufficient disgust, desire, and determination to change his life finally steps up and shouts for all the world to hear, “I have had it with defeat and humiliation, and I will tolerate it no longer.” That is when time, fate, and circumstances call a hasty conference, and all three wearily agree, “We had best step aside because we are powerless to stop that kind of resolve.” Unfortunately, the masses of people don’t change, they wait for circumstances to change, blaming others or blaming circumstances for their meager progress. They accept defeat as though it was God’s design for humanity to wallow in pools of defeat and self-pity.

It is in the face of adversity that circumstances begin to change

The fact is, life is going to continue, even though you may now be defeated. The world will wake up tomorrow just as it did today, and events will continue to unfold with repeated regularity of God’s creation. Your role of present failure, or success, is a temporary condition. You can rebound from failure as surely as you gravitated into failure. The condition of any person who feels defeated and ashamed is being repeated by thousands of humans around the world at this same moment in time. You must bring to mind the phrase, “This too shall pass” each time you are tempted to think you have accepted all the negativity and failure that your life could tolerate.

For everyone who is mentally, spiritually, and financially exhausted, a few will grasp for a new beginning. When they find it, they will pull themselves to their feet and move back into the world. It is then that they will not only do well, but leave their mark indelibly impressed upon the spiritual, business, political, or social world. They will be written about, talked about, and examined by their peers in numerous ways. The world will then pass judgment upon them as being “lucky” in some way and will be unaware of the agony and loneliness that each one experienced before he or she began his or her march upward toward accomplishment.

So, foolish as it may sound, thank God for your present limitations or failure if that should be the case, for you now occupy a status from which nearly all success stories originate. You can go where you want to go, do what you want to do, and become what you want to become, right from where you are today.

Over the time of recorded history, millions who were in abject poverty, had significant handicaps, or had failed many times chose through faith and hope that they would not remain in that circumstance. We can think of Longfellow, Michelangelo, Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Ford, Disney, and many others.

So be grateful for your adversity for it is the seed that you can now plant in the spring seasons of life for your own better future. The world will willingly stand by and let you feel sorry for yourself until you finally die, broke and alone, if that’s what you desire. It will also stand aside for you once you firmly decide that your present winter season is only temporary and that you will get back up and go on to make your impact on your world. The fact is, the world doesn’t really have time to care which choice you make, so for yourself at least, give a run at adventure with your eyes firmly set on achievement, not merely existence and self-pity.

From this moment on, and for what remains of the balance of your life, make your commitment to excellence, remembering that it is your challenge to succeed. After all, you only have one life! Do something remarkable!

We have now completed our ten-part series of the Cycles and Seasons of Life. Let us commit to living effectively during each season. In our next Wisdom Note, we will explore finding your motivation. Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-days a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—Be Prepared for Winter

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued our series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, The Celebration of Fall. This week we continue with moving on to be prepared for winter. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

The seasons of the year are not unlike the seasons in our lives. Growing up on an apple orchard, we became very familiar with the various seasons and what each season had in store for us. If we did not complete our task during the proper season, then it directly impacted the next.

During summer there was mowing to do and gardens to weed. Near the end of August, the apple harvest season started, which lasted until late October. This was definitely our busiest season of the year. It was all hands busy picking, sorting, and storing apples. We also had a roadside stand that needed to be attended as well as deliveries to health food stores across the state. We had to work very hard because even in good years, all income generated was barely enough to keep the 12 of us fed and clothed. In the bad years, it was slim pickings in every area of life. After working hard for an extended harvest time, we kept in mind that there would be some time for resting in the winter season. Growing up as a farmer, the cycles and seasons of life mean so much more.

You must also realize that during your entire lifetime, there will be many different cycles of seasons. Just because a particular season did not turn out as you expected, don’t let that control the entirety of your life. Each winter season is a time for reflection and planning while each new spring season gives you an opportunity to start new again.

This brings us to our trek for this week as we consider moving from fall to winter within the cycles and seasons of life and this section of our trek is titled…

Be Prepared for Winter

As certain as night will always follow day, every season of life will have a time of winter. There will never be an endless summer, nor a continual harvest in the fall. Winter can make its appearance during any season, as a brief reminder of its ultimate power. In mid-summer, while you are consciously tending your carefully growing crops, a winter-like storm in the form of hail and wind can momentarily descend upon you threatening to take away the fruits of your efforts.

Winter can make its threatening appearance during the season of planting and sprouting, the spring, and if you do not quickly respond to cancel its potentially devastating effect, the season of opportunity will be taken from you by one of the storms of life, leaving you with yet another full year of waiting. We certainly experienced this in several years when the apple blossoms were hit with a late frost. Winter can also prematurely appear during the season of harvest, the fall, just as you are about to reap the rewards of expended and extended human effort, and leave you with crops, or results in your work, which are of little value.

The first great lesson of life to learn is that winter will always come; not only during the time when the winter of cold, wind, ice, and snow are expected, but at other times also. Winter within your life can rear its cold winds and snow in the form of despair, loneliness, disappointment, or tragedy. It is winter when your prayers go unanswered or when the acts of your children young or old leave you shaken and stunned. It is winter of your life when the economy turns against you and when creditors come after you. It is winter when competition threatens or when a friend takes advantage of you. Winter comes in many forms, and at any time, both to the planter of crops as well as to the person in business or even to your personal lives.

You will be prepared if you have planted abundantly in the spring, guarded your crops carefully during the summer, and harvested massively during the fall. It is then that winter can be yet another season of opportunity. It can be a time for reflection, a time for reading, a time for learning, a time for planning, a time for gathering your strength for the coming spring, and a time for taking the comfortable shelter of rest and relaxation. It can be a time of great enjoyment and a time to be shared with those you love and with those with whom you have labored. It is a time of thanksgiving and a time for the sharing of life’s bountiful gifts. Winter is a time for being grateful, both for what you have, as well as for what you can yet achieve. Winter is a time for rest but not excessive rest. It is a time to enjoy the fruits of your labors but not a time for gluttony. It is a time for warm conversations but not a time for gossip. It is a time of gratitude but not a time for complacency. It is a time to be proud but not a time to be egotistical.

Keep in mind though that what you do with your time, with yourself, with your friends, and with your attitudes during the season of winter determines what you will do with the coming spring. You are meant to constantly improve your conditions, your results, and yourself. During winter you either improve or you regress, for never do you remain the same. If you do not improve, it is because you do not use your intelligence, your reasoning, and your full potential. Finally, what you do not use, you lose. Through lack of use, you may lose your intelligence, reasoning, potential, and strength. When lack of use or misuse, costs you these worthy human attributes, you predictably regress.

Again, it is one of God’s basic laws of life that demands either human progression or human regression.

When you are prepared for winter’s arrival, you can use the season to properly prepare for your next season. Take advantage of the time to prepare in a relaxed and non-hurried environment. Make wise choices so that when spring arrives, your plan will already be in place.

If you have not properly prepared, the arrival of winter is a time for regret and a time for sorrow. Having lacked the willingness to pay the pain price of earlier discipline, you will now pay the heavier pain price of regret. The burdens and chains of discipline will now seem insignificant when compared to the massive weights and cumbersome restraints of regret. Regret is an empty storehouse or bank account and will result in an empty kitchen when the coming fall is yet a full year away. Even with the arrival of spring, your efforts will be expended with an empty stomach and an empty purse. If you are prepared, winter is springtime in yet another form, but if you are not prepared; winter’s arrival is full of horror and uncertainty. Love and harmony give way to accusations and anger.

Too many people live their lives in this manner. They live on other people’s money and resources until there is no more available. Without attempting to paint too negative of a picture, think about your situation if you have not prepared in the previous seasons of your life. Coming to grips with the reality of a situation may be the catalyst you need for improvement in the next season.

The time to imagine the horrors of a winter for which you are unprepared is in the springtime, and in your mind. Let this picture illustrate for you the chilling winds, snow-blown fields, and ice-covered trees. Imagine and then experience in your mind’s eye the wailing of a hungry child, and the disappointment showing in the eyes of the ones you love. Emotionally experience the fumbling for excuses and apologies for your past mistakes. The fear that comes with a knock on the door, the phone calls, or the delivery of the mail. Anticipating these scenes in advance can provide the shock that moves you into the massive effort in the spring. It is those massive efforts that will prevent your horrified imaginings from becoming reality.

There is still more to consider about the winter seasons of life, but that will have to wait as we ponder these thoughts until next week’s Wisdom Notes. At that point, we will conclude our series on The Cycles and Seasons of Life.

Planting, nurturing, harvesting, and planning are all part of the cycles and seasons of life. It reminds me of Proverbs 24:27 where the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon instructed us to, “Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.”

You might think it would be wiser to build shelter first, but if you do that, then you will not have your planting done in time so that you can harvest in the fall. If you have a shelter, but no food, the winter nights will be long and cold, and you will be hungry. Plus there will be yet an entire cycle of the seasons to endure before the next food source arrives. There is a logical order to the seasons of life. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “For everything, there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”

All of us will face obstacles and hardships in life, but that does not change God’s immutable laws of planning, planting, nurturing, and harvesting. We will harvest what we plant. We cannot allow the obstacles and hardships to be an excuse for a meager harvest. We all know of those who have overcome massive mountains of opposition to produce a bountiful harvest in their lives.

When you grasp this concept, then you can achieve a rich and satisfying life that Jesus offers in John 10:10.

Next week’s Wisdom Notes we will finish the winter season of life and recap the series covering the cycles and seasons of life. Encourage your friends and family to join us on our 5-days a week podcast: Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

We need to remain always vigilant in our quest for living productive and healthy lives as we navigate the unsure times of Covid-19 and its continued issues worldwide. Let each of us do our part.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—The Celebration of Fall

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued our series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, The Growth of Summer. This week we continue with moving onto the celebration of fall. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

With each season of life, our focus and priorities will change. We need to be flexible and willing to make those changes. Life rarely turns out how we expected and is based on the accumulation of all the decisions we have made in our lives up until now. The key to living a rich and satisfying life is to make wise decisions and then choose to enjoy life even if it is different than we expected.

What you plant in the spring season of life and then nurture during the summer season of life is what you will harvest in the fall season of life. So plant and nurture wisely, so your harvest will be fruitful and in abundance. Realize also that during your lifetime, there will be many different cycles of seasons. Just because a particular season did not turn out as you expected, don’t let that control the entirety of your life. Each winter season is a time for reflection and planning while each new spring season gives you an opportunity to start new again.

This brings us to our trek for this week as we consider moving from summer to fall within the cycles and seasons of life. This section of our trek is titled…

The Celebration of Fall

I would like to start off our trek this week with a quote from Lin Yutang who explained the seasons of life in this way, “I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like fall best of all, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colors richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow… Its golden riches speak not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kingly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content.”

I have to admit that I am approaching my fall of life, and I find this quote to be so true. As I mature, it is easier to see the richness of life but also some of the limitations of life. With this knowledge, I can be content with life how it is, not necessarily how I expected it to be.

Fall is a time for celebration as well as a time for a searching of the conscience. If you planted abundantly in the spring and fought against the insects, weeds, and weather of summer, fall can bring rewards that will give you cause for rejoicing.

On the other hand, if you watched both the arrival and departure of spring and made little effort to take advantage of its almost momentary tenure, fall can be a time of turmoil, a time of anxiety, and a time of great regret.

It is in the fall when you discover how long or short the winter will be. The fall tells you if you have really done that which is required, or if you have fooled yourself through the temporary anesthetizing of conversation and pretense of telling yourself you have worked enough when you haven’t.

Although the following truths are difficult to accept at times, you must take responsibility for your harvest during the fall. The soil and the arrival of fall together occupy the seat of judgment, which presents the final truth of your effort. There can be no disputing its final verdict, for the evidence of your toil, care, and patience is indisputable. Either the crops are bountiful, or they are not. If not, you need to look no further than to the hands of those who were charged with responsibility last spring. The excuses of poor soil, poor seed, or bad weather are better left unsaid.

Nothing is more exciting than a bountiful harvest and nothing more dreadful than a barren field in the fall. So it is as you are given the responsibility for planting the crops of your field, and so it is also when you are given the responsibilities of your life and success in every area. An unproductive and meager result in the season reserved for harvesting makes confession of your own past failures both difficult and necessary.

An empty bank account is a sign of a past ineffective effort. It is a sign of a missed opportunity. It is a sign of too much procrastination or laziness or spending on non-essential luxuries. The principles and laws found in God’s Word are faultless. This applies equally well to the farmer, to the business person, and to the individual. Just like the law of gravity is a universal law, there is a law of God that is equally applied to all things and all people, regardless of personal belief. This law has endured since the creation of the world, and for that long, humans have sought to circumvent it, or argue with it, and even to ignore it. In the end, your results demonstrate if you have obeyed or disobeyed its orders. The law is simple and known to all. The law is found in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” This law is universal in both the spiritual and natural worlds.

In all areas of the human existence, be aware that what you put into this world, you get back from it. It is God’s principle and has a way of leveling the field. Your thoughts and actions determine your results, your lifestyle, and your attitude. Lies, sooner or later, attract lies in return. Finding an easier way at the expense of quality will take its inevitable toll in decreased results whether that be in profits or in sleepless nights, or both. All effort, whether it is how you treat others personally or in the business world, be it service, marketing, recruiting, or products must bring good to all those who are involved, or the effort will not withstand the final test of time.

Corn planted in the spring will produce corn in the fall, as will wheat, barley, or melons produce after their own kind. You cannot plant one crop and expect to harvest another just because you change your mind during mid-summer.

While there may be temporary exceptions to this, it is a tendency of humans to look at those who enjoy success as having been, at some earlier time, either lucky or dishonest. Surely, the man driving the luxury car toward his expensive home on the hill could not deserve it through hard work and sacrifice.

Such is the language of the poor. For the fortunate man with the car and the house on the hill, these are crops given to him in his fall of the business season, as just rewards for efforts expended during an earlier springtime of his life. This may be the same springtime during which those who now condemn the man possibly sat back and laughed, or fished, or told stories. This is the folly of humans.

Those who condemn the successful man or woman for their apparent good fortune or dishonesty are unaware of the price often paid for success. They cannot see the massive disappointments, the shattered hopes, or the broken dreams. They do not understand the risks incurred in both raising and investing capital for an idea yet unproven. They do not see the legal involvements, the tax burdens, the challenges of labor, or the restraining governmental regulations. Nor do they appreciate the family dissent that seems to automatically accompany the pursuit of success. Those who condemn see and scorn the result, being unaware of the cost as well as the cause that produced the success.

In the fall, we either enjoy, or we excuse. For those who failed to take full advantage of the spring, who failed to guard their crops carefully throughout the heat of summer, there can be no legitimate reasons, only excuses, and excuses are merely apologetic attempts to place blame on circumstances rather than on ourselves.

The difference between an inadequate apartment and a mansion on the hill is the same as the difference between average effort in the spring and massive effort in the spring. Nature always promises that a cup produces a bushel, that we will receive more than we plant. Knowing this, as all of us do, we forget that to reap many bushels, which is the measure of success, we still must plant many cups. Massive action in the spring of life is still the requirement for massive success in the fall. Forty hours a week invested in the fields of opportunity may not be enough, especially if it is invested in the wrong field. Sometimes, to improve your results, you must make the painful admission that your present field is too rocky, or thorny, or that the fertile soil is too shallow. And while there is great difficulty involved in changing one field for another more fertile field, that difficulty is insignificant compared to the ultimate difficulty that comes from not changing.

The truths of the fall season are difficult for us to accept. I also struggle with these concepts, even though they are universally true. I realize that there may be overriding exceptions, but we cannot allow that to be an excuse for a meager harvest.

We all know of those who have overcome massive mountains of opposition to produce a bountiful harvest in their lives. It is my prayer that all of us, including myself, will take to heart, consider, and understand these truths. The immutable laws of planting and harvesting are set by God and cannot be changed or violated any more than we can override the law of gravity. When you grasp this concept, then you can direct and achieve a rich and satisfying life that Jesus offers in John.

The Cycles and Seasons of Life—The Growth of Summer

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In our previous Wisdom Note, we continued series called The Cycles and Seasons of Life, Prepare During Spring. Today we continue with the growth of summer. If you miss any of our Wisdom Notes please go to the blog to read past newsletters.

Success in life is not an easy matter, nor is it an easy matter for the seed to push away the soil in its quest to find the light and airborne chemicals that give it health. Progress in any form and happiness or success in any form requires constant effort, for obstacles exist that might discourage you if you are weak or if you feel undeserving. Overcome one obstacle in life, and another appears to fill the void. Life is designed to be a story of achievement in spite of adversity, not in the absence of adversity, for without adversity achievement could not exist.

Do not blame the problems and challenges of life for your humbling circumstances. Does the seed complain because of the rocks it must grow over, under, around, or through? Would any worthy life exist on earth if all life were to surrender when first confronted by difficulty? The constant, unrelenting pull of life is downward—giving cause for disappointment, despair, and discouragement. There shall always be a reason to give up; there shall always be cause for complaint. But if you engage in complaining, you add to the downward pull of life. The only automatic thing in life is weeds and insects. They need not be planted, nor cared for. Their existence is assumed in that they feed and survive on the good efforts of the industrious.

The summer of life is a time to protect; it is a time for the constant daily effort to guard against the busy insects and the harmful weeds. The spring is a time for the creation of things of value, and those things require the season of summer for growing and gaining strength so that you might yield your results in the coming fall. The end of spring cannot bring an end of your effort. Your spring effort ends, and your summer efforts remain yet to begin. If your effort ceases at the end of spring, your neglect will make its haunting appearance, and your growth will turn to stagnation and decay.

Develop an understanding and awareness of the fact that all good will be attacked. It is life’s way of qualifying those who are worthy and those who are not. The weeds of life are designed to turn confidence into doubt, trust into suspicion, patience into impatience, and effort into procrastination, worry, and eventual defeat. Do not invest valuable time arguing with how life is.

The weeds, insects, rocks, and storms of life will all laugh at you if you take the time to viciously accuse them of being unfair. Are they unfair? Yes, but you cannot seek something for nothing or seek the rewards of life without paying the price of waging war against obstacles by increased activity and determination. Invest no time chasing the birds who seek to peck at your seeds or the insects who seek to devour your coming harvest. For if you make diligent efforts to plant, protect, and preserve, there are not enough birds, insects, or other obstacles to destroy all the efforts invested in the spring season of life.

Learn to accept the perpetual existence of negativity, and also learn that negativity always yields to your constant effort coupled with your constantly growing faith and positive attitude. As is written in Galatians 6:7, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

This is one of the many basic principles or truths of life and arises only when you combine the efforts of planting with the mental effort of believing, and the physical effort of constant attention to those things of value. Smile at adversity, and take action quickly to eliminate it. Expect adversity, for it shall surely appear. Be grateful for adversity, for it forces your spirit to grow. Your character is formed not in the absence of difficulty but in your response to difficulty.

Both of us, you and I, live in a world of causes and consequences. The harvest, which is our life as we now live it, is the result of seeds planted at an earlier time. Some of the “seeds” we planted ourselves through unbreakable habits. Others were planted for us by parents, teachers, and other well-meaning, but often misguided, people whose own poor thinking habits were passed on to us. In either case, our current attitude, finances, environment, lifestyle, and view of our own future possibilities are called circumstances—and to change circumstances, we must change the cause of those circumstances, which is ourselves. We must change our habits, our attitudes, our opinions, and often our occupation, residence, and even friends if circumstances are ever to change.

Think about it in this analogy…A man visits the shop of a gardener and, without thinking or even inquiring, selects what appears to be an attractive plant, which he purchases, takes home, and plants in his yard. Months later he discovers that the plant has grown, matured, and now blossoms into a healthy poinsettia to which he is allergic. To wish now that the plant were a rose or a tulip, would be foolish. The circumstances will not change because he dislikes the result. He alone is the cause of his watery eyes and running nose.

And so it is if you are a person who lives amid mediocrity—whether the seeds which brought about that condition were placed into the soil of life by yourself or by someone else is unimportant. To accuse others, to feel sorry for yourself, or to continue rationalizing or making excuses is foolish. Only a massive, voluntary and effective assault on changing causes is important. Direct your thought, conversation, and full attention to that if you wish to change circumstances.

Concentrate a good share of your idle hours upon self-development by planning more, reading more, and investing more. Invest your time in worthy projects; invest your thoughts toward a worthy purpose; invest your talents toward a worthy occupation; invest your affection toward a worthy recipient; and finally, reserve your greatest respect for yourself, for it is that image – what you perceive yourself to be – that determines your quality of life. Never forget that you are created in the very image of God as is written in Genesis 1:27, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Let’s face it. People and events are going to continue to both hurt and disappoint you. Among those people will be those you most love as well as those you least know. Seldom is it their intent to purposely hurt you, but rather a variety of situations mostly beyond your control will cause them to act, speak, or think in ways that can hurt you, your present feelings, emotions, and the way your life unfolds. It has been this way through six thousand years of recorded history, and your hurt or grief is not the first time a human has been deeply hurt by the inappropriate actions of another.

The only way to avoid being touched by life, the good as well as the bad, is to withdraw from society. Even then you will disappoint yourself, and your imaginings about what is going on out in the world will haunt you and hurt you. Knowing this, there is but one solution that will support you when people and events hurt you—and that is to learn to work harder on your own personal growth than anything else. Since you cannot control the weather or the traffic or the ones you love or your neighbors or your boss, then you must learn to control yourself. It is only your response to the difficulties of life that really counts.

Do not doubt yourself, for where doubt resides confidence cannot. Do not neglect yourself, for with neglect comes loss. Do not imagine yourself to be less than you are nor more than you are, but seek always to become all of which you are capable of. Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or discourteous, for both are characteristics adopted by those who seek to cover their weaknesses. Do not waste time regretting the past, but invest that time wisely by preparing a better future. You are a fertile seed of the creator of all things, destined not to lie dormant but to spring forth from the soil called life and grow upward toward the unlimited horizons— overcoming all obstacles in the process.

It is your destiny to tap your talents and to achieve all that of which you believe yourself to be worthy…to love more, anticipate more, overcome more, plan more, attract more, and to enjoy more than you ever dreamed possible. Such is the standard of life awaiting your mental decision and outstretched hand.

This has been a rather lengthy trail on today’s trek, but one that we really need to take to heart, consider, and understand. The immutable laws of planting and harvesting are set by God and cannot be changed or violated any more than we can override the law of gravity. When you grasp this concept, then you can direct and achieve a rich and satisfying life that Jesus offers in John 10:10. In our next note, we will change our season to fall which is a time for harvest.