An Enemy Called Average
An Enemy Called Average – John Mason
Nugget #1 – Be on the offensive
Never try to defend your present position & situation. Choose to be a person who is on the offensive, not the defensive. People who live defensively never rise above being average. Many times the attempt to maintain balance in life is really just an excuse for being lukewarm. When you choose to be on the offensive, the atmosphere of your life will begin to change. You will find that when all of your reasons are defensive, your cause almost never succeeds. Being on the offensive and taking the initiative is a master key which opens the door to opportunity in life. Don’t ever start your day in neutral. Every morning when your feet hit the floor, you should be thinking on the offensive, reacting like an invader, taking control of your day and your life.
What am I on the offensive about?
Nugget #2 Build on talents, gifts & strengths
One of the most neglected areas is the giftings and abilities that God has put within people. People ignore their God-given blessings while continually seeking to change their natural makeup. Growth comes from building on talents, gifts, and strengths – not by solving problems. Even if you’ve never done anything with them, even if you’ve failed time and time again, God’s gifts and calling are still resident within you. Gifts and talents are really God’s deposits in our personal accounts but we determine the interest on them. The greater the amount of interest and attention we give to them, the greater their value becomes. God’s gifts are never loans; they are always deposits. Gifts and talents are given us to use not only so we can fulfill to the fullest call in our own lives, but also so we can reach the souls who are attached to those gifts.
Nugget #3 – Don’t Quit
Persistent people begin their success where most others quit. We Christians need to be known as people of persistence and endurance. One person with commitment, persistence, and endurance will accomplish more than a thousand people with interest alone. The more diligently we work, the harder it is to quit. Persistence is a habit; so is quitting. Never worry about how much money, ability, or equipment you are starting with. Just begin with a million dollars worth of determination. Remember:It’s not what you have, it’s what you do with what you have that makes all the difference. Consider the postage stamp. Its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to something until it gets there. Many times our dreams and plans appear not to be succeeding. We are tempted to give up and quit trying. Instead, we need to continue to water and fertilize those dreams and plans, nurturing the seeds of the vision God has placed within us.
Nugget #4 – Questions we should ask ourselves
What one decision would I make if I knew that it would not fail?
What one thing should I eliminate from my life?
Am I on the path of something absolutely marvelous, or something absolutely mediocre?
What can I do to make better use of my time?
What impossible thing am I believing and planning for?
What is my most prevailing thought?
Of the people I respect most, what is it about them that earns my respect?
In what areas do I need improvement in terms of personal development?
What gifts, talents, or strengths do I have?
Nugget #5 – Tell time where to go
All great achievers, all succesful people, are those who have been able to gain controll over their time. We need to choose to give our best time to our most challenging situation. It’s not how much we do that matters; it’s how much we get done. We should choose to watch our time, not our watch. Don’t spend a dollar’s worth of time for ten cent’s worth of results. These vulnerable times are the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. I have heard a minister say that what a person is like at midnight when he is all alone reveals that person’s true self. The greater control you exercise over our time, the greater freedom you will experience in your life. There is a basic leadership principle that says, if you want to write a book, learn to play a musical instrument or anything else, you should devote one hour a day, six days a week to the project. Sooner than you think, what you desire will become a reality. There are not many things that a person cannot accomplish in 312 hours a year! Just a commitment of one hour a day, six days a week, is all it takes. We all have the same amount of time each day. The difference between people is determined by what they do with the amount of time at their disposal. The future arrives an hour at a time. Gain control of your time, and you will gain control of your life.
Nugget #6 – Obey The Ninth Commandment
Only a person with honesty and integrity can be acurately motivated or directed.
Nugget #7 – Time Managment
When the human mind is in doubt, it is most easily swayed by the slightest of impulses. THe greater the degree of wishful thinking, the greater the degree of mediocrity. Being decisive, being focused, committing ourselves to the fulfillment of a dream, greatly increases our probability of success. It also closes the door to wrong options. Some questions cannot be answered, but they can be decided. Decisive people typically prevail and rise to the top because most people are indecisive.
Nugget #8 – Don’t Consume Your Tomorrows on Your Yesterdays
The more we look backward, the less able we are to see forward. We should choose to be forward focused, not past-possessed. The key here is forgetting those things which are behind in order to reach for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The past is past. It has no life.
Nugget #9 – The Best Time Of The Day Is Now
When you choose to kill time, you begin to kill those tgifts and callings which God has placed within your life. If you wait for perfect conditions, you will neverget anything done. The first step in overcoming procrastination is to eliminate all excuses and reasons for not taking decisive and immediate action. Life is a question of activity or accomplishment. Procrastinators are good at talking versus doing. As Christians, we are called to make progress – not excuss. THE FACT IS, THE LONGER WE TAKE TO ACT ON GOD’S DIRECTION, THE MORE UNCLEAR IT BECOMES.
Nugget #10 – Dealing With Fear & Worry
Nugget #11 – A Goal Is A Dream With A Deadline
Habakkuk 2:2 Firest the vision must be written down. WHen you keep a vision in your mind, it is not really a goal; it is really nothing more than a dream. There is power in putting that dream down on paper. When you commit something to writing, commitment to achievement naturally follows. You can’t start a fire with paper alone, but writing something down on paper can start a fire inside of you. We are to run with the vision. As long as we are running with the vision we won’t turn around. WHen you walk with a vision, it’s easy to change directions and go the wrong way. You can’t stroll to a goal. You will find that achievement is easy when your outer goals become an inner commitment. Always involve yourself with something that’s bigger than you are, because that’s where God is.
Fear is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow. Worry is simply the triumph of fear over faith. Worry is the misuse of God’s creative imaginantion which He has placed within each of us. The word “worry” means, “to strangle” or “to choke off.” There is no question that worry and fear in the mind does choke off the creative flow from above. Worry is the route which leads from somewhere to nowhere.