What will you become?

The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, and this you will become.

James Allen.

Many times we read quotes such as this and we think, good quote but it's not for me, other people should get this, it would be good for them.

It amazes me at times, just how low some people shoot. They sometimes appear to be aiming at nothing at all. Sadly that's just what they hit.....nothing.
Expect little, get little.

Last night I attended the Christmas production at Calvary Christian Church here in Townsville and I must say what a great production it was.
The thing is, it was just a bunch of ordinary people who had an extraordinary vision for what they could do.
And do it they did. Exceptional!!

Over time I have met many people who have done extraordinary things in the business world. I'm not talking about corporate high fliers who ride on the success of huge companies, I'm talking about individuals who have achieved great things.
They all have two things in common, firstly they have a vision for great things and secondly, they are very ordinary people.

You see, great things are achieved by great people, though it should be remembered these great people are simply someone's brother, sister, mother or father.

They're just ordinary people who have an extraordinary dream, this ideal that is enthroned in their heart. That which they build their life by.

Dare to be you.

My advice to you is this: Learn to be you, learn to go with your passion and your vision. Yes, listen to people. Yes, read books. But learn to make your own decisions and do not allow other people to set your vision. This is what Peter Ivrine, C0-Founder of Gloria Jean's Coffees, had to say about being an individual.
He goes on to say; Another principal I have learned is that as you grow and develop, you need to take the high road. By this I mean that you and I should always look to take the innovative road, the road of excellence. People with large vision find that their road is less congested. On the other hand it's extremely busy and congested on the low road. Everyone expects to operate there. It's the expected route. It's the route that often presents fewer obstacles, although I believe that on the low road you are going to face obstacles. Whether you take the high road or the low road, you cannot actually avoid problems and difficulties in life.

Benjamin Franklin described insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Author John Maxwell says he has met people who tell him that they've had ten years experience, and yet he discovers they've actually had one years experience ten times. They have been doing the same things the same way for ten years.

Look around you. Look at people who are successful. Odds are they are the ones who have dared to be different. They will be the ones who stopped doing it the way everyone else was doing it. They will be the ones who took the high road. They knew that in order to be successful they were going to face obstacles, they just wanted to face different obstacles in order to reach a higher level. These people took the innovative road, the road of excellence.

They took their vision, took a route of innovation and excellence and they achieved higher levels of success than their competitors even thought possible.

Do you have a vision? Do you have goals? What are you doing about it?

Learn to be you. Dare to be you.

Getting There.

One of my friends recently commented that he had not sat down and written out his goals and dreams. He wasn't leading himself or heading towards anything in particular. Drifting.

Fantastic to recognise this early in life. 

I've witnessed so many who are in the same place today as they were five, ten or twenty years ago. They start at a place and just don't move on. Consequently their life becomes a treadmill of sameness. They go to the same job, do the same tasks, watch the same programmes on TV, have the same friends and do the same things each week-end. The only thing that changes, is their age.

They are not challenged to be better, to be different or to stand out. They are happy being where they are. 

The trouble is where they are today, as say a twenty five year old, may not necessarily be a great place to be when they are forty.

I watched a show on TV recently that covered binge drinking. They highlighted how, in Australia, binge drinking had become an enormous problem among our young people. Teenagers and young adults in particular were drinking way beyond levels that the human body can sustain. They were partying and having a good time. 

The programme did show the distasteful side also, such as the violence which often breaks out when large groups of people are drinking, and the severity of these altercations. All young people interviewed were adamant they were doing it for just a good time.

The common belief is that this is a phase and young people will "grow out of it". Well surprise, surprise it was discovered that many do not. For many, binge drinking became a culture, a habit which, as they grow older, they continue to maintain.  

A twenty year old who has had too much to drink can be viewed as someone who is having a good time. A fifty year old who has had too much to drink is viewed as a drunk.

These people have not moved on, they are stuck in a time warp. What was once a good time is now simply a habit and a large headache in the morning.

Dr David M. Burns says "Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life".

We need to identify when we are on the wrong course, we need to have the guts to say "I was wrong, what I once believed was a good path to follow, I now recognise as incorrect". We need to question what we do and continually ask if we can do life better or differently.

My friend was right in questioning his direction. He has recognised that if he doesn't, then he'll wake up in twenty years and find neither he nor his circumstances have changed.

Where will you be in twenty years? What will your life look like? What will you look like? Will you be the same, will you be doing the same things?

Where are you heading? What are your dreams?