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Life Is Like Starring in a Movie

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As we begin our Wisdom Note this week, let us ponder how important making the most of every moment really is.

Each of us is the screenwriter, director, and leading character in our movie of life. Our family, friends, associates, and everyone with whom we come in contact are cast members in our movie. Some of these people will be our co-stars and supporting actors while others will just be walk-ons. You are the only person that is in every scene of your life.

The important concept to grasp is that there are no practice days, and there is no dress rehearsal. Each day is an impromptu performance. Once we understand this, it may help us to perform at our best. With all impromptu performances, we must realize that we will miss cues and flub up lines, that will draw cheers and boos from those watching our performance. We won’t perform perfectly every day, but the show must go on…

All too often we get so consumed with our “star role” that we lose site of the importance of our overall, lifelong movie and the crucial role that all the supporting cast members play. We miss the things that really matter in life. Before we know it, the seconds have become minutes, the days have become weeks, and the months have become years. And, when we finally take time to catch our breath, we look back in retrospect and think, “My performance is nearing the end, where did all the time go?”

It’s so easy to be blinded by our own performance, ambition, power, and success that we miss including the simple pleasures of life into our script. For example, did your children’s birthday parties, Little League games, or dance recitals make it into your movie? Did you include the scenes where you were available to counsel your friend in need? Did you make the time to help your kids with their homework, to attend back-to-school nights, or to put down your newspaper/telephone/iPad when your family wanted to tell you about their day?

Or, were there more important plot lines that you included in your movie of life?

Now, I realize that your movie includes hectic scenes of life and that you’re getting pulled in a million different directions. The truth is, it’s not that you don’t have enough time to include the things that matter to you into your script — but rather, you allowed other priorities to become part of your movie.

It goes without saying that every time you decide to focus on one thing in your life, you’ve also decided not to spend that time on something else.

Unfortunately, once opportunities are lost, they’re often lost forever — life doesn’t come with a dress rehearsal. So, if you think you may regret the script that you are writing, it may be time to change who will be the most important supporting characters in your life’s movie.

Here are some guideposts to help you as you continue to write your script.

1. Priorities

Have you ever stopped to think about what matters most to you? Will you include these supporting characters and plot lines in your movie? Or do trivial issues sidetrack you from doing the things that you should care about the most?

2. Agenda

Do you let other people write your script for you? How much time do you spend reacting to other people’s plots and drama versus writing your own and doing things that matter? Are you asking your loved ones to take minor roles in your movie, while allowing others free rein over your priorities, making them strong supporting characters?

3. Time Management

How much of your day is spent on autopilot? Do you show up on the set of life and allow someone else’s agenda to control your role in your movie? Do you devote more time to thinking about what you’re going to do or actually doing it? When was the last time you identified and eliminated wasteful tasks and routines – that is wasteful scenes and lines?

4. Quality

How much of your day is spent worrying about problems in your script versus appreciating the moment or the current scene? What percentage of your time do you spend being physically present reciting your lines but mentally absent? Does trying to be in multiple scenes at once – that is multitasking – damage your ability to give your undivided attention to your current scene that is most important?

5. Inner Peace

Do you care more about what you want out of life or about what others think about your performance? Do you value creating wonderful memories as much as you value material rewards? Are you investing in your supporting characters – that is your family and friends – or taking them for granted? When was the last time you felt comfortable in your “star role”?

6. The Decision is Yours

It’s so easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day minutiae that we lose sight of the big picture. You must take the time to pause, reflect, and enjoy your movie.

Even if your life movie becomes a blockbuster and you secure the enviable positions of power and material wealth, understand that all decisions come with real costs — in relationships and precious moments that can’t be replaced. Make sure that your stardom does not come at a price that is too high to pay.

The script you write, the movie you direct, and the role you play in your movie is your decision and yours alone. It is never too late to rewrite the script and make the most important people in your life your supporting characters. It is your life movie, make it a great one for you, your supporting characters, and the scenes that matter most.

A successful life movie is achieved by spending time and attention on scenes that really matter to you. No matter how young or old you are, you still have time to write a great script and direct your movie from this point forward. Are you spending your precious time in the areas that matter most to you? It’s your choice.

As recorded in James 3:13, “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.”

Now that you realize you are the star of “This is Your Life Movie,” what role will we play as supporting characters?

Today we have learned the best way to brew an excellent pot of coffee and also learned how to become a more excellent individual.

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life – Part 7

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The Final Trail of Thinking

We have nearly completed our current trek, as we are visiting the 12 waypoints on the Trail of Thinking where we have sojourned for the last 7 notes. So far, we have stopped by waypoints 1-11 and have only 1 more waypoint to visit.

I encourage you to apply each waypoint to your life so that you can become more wise and successful. If you have missed any of the previous Wisdom Notes, please go back and read them first. We certainly don’t want to leave anyone behind.

As when we ended each of the previous notes, I asked you to deliberate on two more questions:

  • Am I continually considering others and their journey in order to think with maximum cooperation?
  • Do I stay focused on productive thinking so that I can gain the maximum results and reap the full potential of my thinking?

Study these weekly questions, and then apply them to your life. Doing so will radically change your thinking and gradually change your life. Just like our trek in life, progress is usually slow and may be burdensome but is required to become wise and successful.

As we reach waypoint #12 today, we are switching our focus from how to think and are concentrating instead on what to think about.

12. Concentrate on What You Think About

As we consider this last waypoint, I am reminded of a quote I recently came across from Peter Lord that I feel is quite appropriate as we look at how to concentrate on what you think about.

“We have no control over how we feel, how we act — our attitudes, and actions — except as they are determined by our thoughts. All these elements are irrevocably tied together. But since we do have control over what we think, it is possible to control our attitudes and actions…All thoughts can be divided into two basic categories: true and false. The thoughts that come from God are true. He is the God of all truth and has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to guide us into all truth.  If I can receive God’s thoughts, I can think the truth. Therefore I will have the right attitudes and actions. How do you get the air out of a glass? By filling it with water.  How do you get rid of wrong and untrue thoughts? By filling your mind with true and right thoughts from God. The control of our thought life, then, comes by thinking God’s thoughts with Him,” Peter Lord.

“Since we do have control over what we think, it is possible to control our attitudes and actions.”

I recently reread a short book by James Allen titled “As a Man Thinketh” in which the core foundation is taken from Christ’s teaching in Luke 6:43-45,

 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thorn bushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.  A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

Remember in Scripture that many times the word heart and mind can be used interchangeably as they refer to our internal thought process and reservoir.

“What you say flows from what is in your mind.”

In the chapter “Effect of Thoughts on Circumstances,” James Allen puts it this way, “Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth (or produce).  If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein and will continue to produce their kind…

Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and beard its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit; bad thoughts, bad fruit.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it. But few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.”

While I don’t agree with James Allen’s entire premise, the core ideas of his book are solid. Our lives reflect and are a product of what we think about.

In God’s divine sovereignty, there are exceptions to these basic laws of humanity.  There are situations where seemingly bad things do happen to good and positive people. The book of Job illustrates this concept. Also, innocent people do suffer at times at the hands of those who are not. In most cases, though, our lives reflect what we have planted in our minds.

“A person does not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

I would encourage you to read “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen. It is available to read online for free on several websites and only takes about 30 minutes to read in its entirety.

Waypoint #12: Concentrate on What you Think About can be summed up in the letter written to the Church in Philippi by the Apostle Paul.

Philippians 4:8 reads, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

We need to learn and then adopt the thinking habits described in today’s podcast. It is then we will become wise and successful people. Remember though, it is not enough just to learn something. We must also put it into practice for it to become effective.

Focus Question: “Do you concentrate on what you think about as much as how you think?”

Based on your answers to all 12 of these questions, where are you strongest? In what kind of thinking do you need to grow?

Develop in any of those areas, and you’ll become a better thinker. Master all that you can, especially the process of concentrating on what you think about.

As your guide, friend, mentor, and fellow sojourner, I encourage you to “keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you,” Philippians 4:9.

In our next note, we will take a hard look at life and realize that sometimes you just have to “Suck it Up and Deal With It,” especially with those events over which we have little or no control.

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life – Part 1

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The Most Important Change

In last week’s  Wisdom Note, we explored The Results of Thinking Big. This week we will expand on the topic of thinking and focus on how your life will change if you are willing to change your thinking.

As we continue our thoughts about thinking, we are beginning a several week series of  Wisdom Notes during which we will stop at twelve waypoints or rest areas along the trail. At each waypoint, we will have the occasion to reflect on and change how we think. By changing our thinking, these waypoints will allow us to change our lives in a positive direction. The discussions for those waypoints will be based on the perspectives and wisdom that I have gained through a life of studying wise individuals that have trekked the trails of life and provided us wisdom and insights from their journeys.Before we reach our first waypoint, let us contemplate this question. Can changing your thinking really change your life? As I have studied and observed wise and unwise people for over 35 years now, I have found there is a distinct difference between wise and successful people and unwise and unsuccessful people. It usually boils down to how they think! Correct thinking is the one thing that separates the wise from the unwise and the successful from the unsuccessful.

Correct thinking is the one thing that separates the wise from the unwise.

As we wander down a rabbit trail a bit further, I think it is necessary to explain a little about how we will view each of these waypoints. I will be using a wise and successful person as equivalent or the same. In order to do this, we must first separate in our thoughts that a successful person is not necessarily just a wealthy person. Wealth does not determine overall success in a person’s life.

Now, those individuals that are wise, many times, are also wealthy. This is because of the wise financial choices that they have made during their lives. But, there are many individuals who are wealthy financially but are not successful in the most important areas of their lives. This is because they have made unwise choices in areas that matter most. Proverbs 28:11 says, “Rich people may think they are wise, but a poor person with discernment can see right through them.” 

To be truly successful we need to have achieved success in all areas of life. We need to have a well-rounded “wheel of life” so that our overall ride in life is smooth. During the next several weeks of Wisdom Notes, we will explore how to be successful in all areas of life, but for this week’s journey, let’s focus on the 1st of 12 waypoints along our trail in order to change our thinking and change our lives.

The good news is that it’s possible for you to learn how to think like a wise and successful person. But, before you can learn from a good thinker, you need to know what he looks like.

For me, the primary trait of a good thinker is a person who blends his wisdom and experience into every thought that he has and every decision that he makes. In addition to wisdom and experience, I believe that good thinking isn’t just one thing. It consists of several specific thinking skills.

Becoming a good thinker means developing those “thinking skills” to the best of your ability. Like a finely tuned vehicle with thousands of moving parts, a beautifully sounding orchestra with dozens of instruments all playing at the same time, or a smartphone or computer with thousands of integrated circuits all interconnected, you can’t point to any one single item that makes the whole thing work. It’s the entire work — all the pieces working together to create an overall effect — that leads to a masterpiece.

Good thinking is similar. You need all the thinking “pieces” in order to become the kind of person who can achieve great things. I believe that those pieces include twelve essential skills, which we will cover in the next several weeks of our Wisdom Notes

We have taken some time on our rabbit trail today to lay the groundwork for the 12 waypoints that we will investigate. As with any worthwhile and difficult trek, planning and preparation are crucial for success. We will just get started on our trek today with Waypoint #1. At each waypoint, I will leave you with a question that you can ask yourself to measure your own thinking. Let’s begin.

1. Cultivate Big-Picture Thinking

We have covered this subject matter in detail in our two previous Wisdom Notes. If you have not done so already, I would encourage you to read the previous two notes, as they will greatly help in your understanding of cultivating big-picture thinking. As we are investigating the details of this waypoint, let’s expand on the previous two Wisdom Notes.

A big picture perspective brings a level of maturity to an individual’s thinking. Big picture thinkers tend to learn continually, listen intentionally, look expansively, and live completely. Through lifelong learning, big picture thinkers are able to connect ideas that appear at first glance to be unrelated to one another.

Big picture thinking is beneficial for people who want to become leaders. Good leaders are able to create a compelling vision, map a path for attaining that vision, and seize the right moment to proceed. Big picture thinkers are better able to see things from other people’s points of view. They think of others first as mentioned in Philippians 2:3-4, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

“Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

Big picture thinkers exhibit the following four traits:

  1. They do not require certainty. When dealing with new or complicated ideas, it is necessary to accept some degree of uncertainty.
  2. They learn from every experience. It is essential to learn from both successes and failures.
  3. They gain insight from many different people. Important insights can be gained from family, friends, associates, and mentors.
  4. They are not afraid to expand their world. Although most people are satisfied with the status quo, big picture thinking requires people to go beyond what is commonplace.

The question that I will leave you with at this waypoint is, “Am I thinking beyond myself and my world so that I process ideas with a holistic perspective?”