Please Pursue Your Greatness

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! 😊

I just want to share a few things with you this morning. Hopefully we will be able to tie this all together and it will make sense. So, grab a cup of coffee and let’s chat for a few…😊

My Beautiful Bride, Kathy, has me hooked on American Idol. I absolutely love that show and, while I appreciate these incredibly gifted singers, what I really love are the stories. Said it before and I’ll say it again…we ALL have a story and they ALL matter! On Monday I was struck by how many of the singers talked about lacking confidence, not believing in themselves or their abilities, etc. It was profound and got me thinkin’…

First, kudos to them for fighting through the doubt and insecurities and going for it! It was so courageous and so inspiring! And to see the tears of joy stream down their face as they realized and/or recognized that they really could do it…well, let’s just say it got a little dusty in our living room causing my eyes to water quite a bit! 😊

How about you? Is there something you would like to do however you are afraid? What would happen if you bet on you, and the passion that is burning within you, and you tried? Yes, it is possible that you will fail however it is also possible that you will succeed. What life has taught me is there is a reason there is that gnawing feeling in your stomach. I simply want to encourage you this morning to pursue it. Let’s find out where the border of our potential really lies and give it everything we got. Right now, I am thinking of the Theodore Roosevelt quote that states in part:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who at best, if he wins, know the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

Now let me pivot here for a moment…

What role do you play in others’ lives? One of the things that was so fascinating to me when I served at an academic health center was when I would visit with the physicians. I loved to ask them when they knew they would be a physician. Time and time again I would get answers like, “My teacher in 4^th grade told me I was really good at science” or “I had a high school teacher who told me she believed in me.” Over and over again…someone believed in me, told me I could do it, etc. So let me ask you again, what role do you play in others’ lives? Are you one who shows them their strengths, or do you search for their weaknesses? Have you told anyone you believe in them lately? Let me just tell you, that annoying little 4^th grader that you will cross paths with later today very well may be the one to cure cancer someday…if someone believes in them, encourages them, and speaks life into them. Trust me, I have met more than one physician who can point back to that time in their lives and the words spoken to them carried them through their undergraduate education, medical school, residency, and they are now using their gifts and abilities to serve others. Powerful, isn’t it?!?! So one more time, what role do you play in others’ lives? I want to challenge each one of us to look for the good in others, and then be courageous enough to speak life into their souls!

O.K., one more pivot…

I want to encourage you to look up, and then sign up for, The Jon Gordon Companies Power of Positive Summit…it is free and the messages are so powerful! Yesterday I was listening to Ben Newman. Ben is a Performance Coach, Top 50 Speaker, a #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of Uncommon Leadership, and host of The BURN podcast. I want to share just a few notes I took from Ben’s message.

“We all have a choice…choose whether we will go all in.”

It goes back to our first point! 😊Each one of us will choose how to live this life. We can go all in or we can stay on the on the outside… one will lead to fulfilling our destiny and the other will lead to regret. Either way, the choice is yours!

“Everything you need is already within you.”

Go ahead, read it again. 😊 You have everything within you to fulfill the purpose of your life…you just have to choose to live all in!

And then he closed with this statement:

“Go beat down the door of your destiny!”

I have nothing to add…😊

I want to close by respectfully asking you to pursue all you are capable of becoming every day of your life and please, find the greatness in others and speak life to it! 😊

Please feel free to contact me at any time if there is ever anything I can do for you. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, please stay well, and please go beat down the door of your destiny!

Kev

You Never Know

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day has dawned in my Sweet Home Alabama! This is going to be a special day…I can just feel it! 😊

I want to start this Happy Friday by sharing one quote and one scripture:

“You don’t have to be a ‘person of influence’ to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.” – Scott Adams

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. – Hebrews 13:2

I have shared these statistics before however I want to share them again, as a brief reminder… Research has shown that the most introverted person will influence more than 10,000 people in their lifetime and the average person will influence more than 80,000. Please think about that for a moment… Just by the life you live, whether you are very introverted, average, or very extroverted, you WILL influence 10’s of thousands in your lifetime. Did you have any idea that you were so powerful?! 😊

Now, this is usually when I go the route of challenging us all to thoughtfully consider what our influence will be. Today, however I want to go a different route and simply encourage you… 😊

Whether we realize it or not, people are always watching us. They are watching our words and our actions, measuring as to whether or not they line up. And it is in the most difficult, challenging situations/circumstances of life that our lives preach the most powerful sermons! There really is no off-day or off-moment, we are always on and the lives we live are always testifying to our faith, beliefs, values, priorities, etc. Does this scare you or make you nervous? I hope not… 😊

I truly believe that we were all created on purpose for a great purpose for which we have been perfectly equipped to fulfill. I believe that we all matter and that we are all enough. There is no person who is insignificant, whose purpose is worthless, or who is of no value…not one! Please let these words wash over you, Friends, and claim this truth in your life! You are not an accident or mistake! You have great value, your life has great meaning, and you have a purpose that only you can fulfill! You are beautifully unique! Yes, that is who you are! 😊

So this morning I simply want to encourage you to live your life to the fullest! Pursue your faith, strive to become all you were created to become, and love, care for, and serve others in the unique way only you can! The things you are passionate about are the things that are – whether we realize it or not! – used to influence others. There is not a “right” or “only” way! The way this beautiful, crazy, blessed life that we live works is that we use our own passions, gifts, abilities, time, and resources to preach our sermons.

I do want to focus, for a brief moment, on one truth; it is in the valley’s that our most powerful sermons are preached. Everyone can put on the happy face, have the great attitude when everything is going great, or at least the way we think we want it to go…whether or not it is really good for us – another Happy Friday for another day! 😊 It is during the trials and tribulations of life that we revert to the core of who we really are and what we really believe comes to the surface. This is why it is so critically important what we do on a consistent basis because it is these things that will come out during the most critical times, whether we want them to or not.

And one more thing… 😊 We all have failing times, failing moments, however these do not make us failures. It is one of the great lies of the great Deceiver – that you are not enough, that you are disqualified. The One who qualifies us will use every situation and circumstance to transform us into all He has created us to become, if we let Him. So, when you are in the valley, or have had a failing moment, please realize that if you are willing to turn to the One who called and created you, if you are willing to learn and grow, you are actually in a position of great strength.

In closing, you never know who you are influencing, whose life your life is impacting for great good simply by living yours fully. Please pursue all of who you are, all that you were created to be, for what this world needs most is YOU! 😊

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev

It Takes A Lifetime

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new opportunity begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! This one is going to be a great one…I can just feel it! 😊

This week I simply want to offer a big dose of encouragement…

What is your purpose? What is your passion? What is the thing you love to do? What makes your heart happy when doing it? What is your vocation? Hopefully you are able to express through your vocation your purpose and passion, the thing you love to do and that makes you happy…that would be absolutely awesome! 😊

I want to encourage you this morning to keep showing up and keep working on whatever it is that sets your soul on fire. By our nature, and in our instant gratification society, we want to be experts at whatever it is we do right away however this is not how life works. While we might have a natural bent towards a certain skill, while we might have great potential, our gifts and skills are only fully developed through consistent effort and growth. And the saddest thing of all? The failure to fulfill the potential that resides within! I might not know you personally however I know that there is greatness within you. The only thing that must be decided, the thing we will all decide, is whether or not we will pursue it.

I want to share 3 quotes with you…

“I trained 4 years to run only 9 seconds. There are people who do not see results in 2 months, give up, and leave. Sometimes failure is sought by oneself.” – Usain Bolt

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo

“It took me a lifetime.” – Picasso

Powerful, isn’t it? They accomplished greatness and many want the success they achieved however few, very few, are willing to pay the price they had to pay to attain it. Profound…

A 1993 study of accomplished violinists found that they had spent an average of 10,000 hours practicing by the age of 20. This led to the popular belief that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. However, a world-renowned expert on peak performance, Anders Ericsson, points out a couple of flaws with the 10,000-hour rule:

1. While the students were very good violinists, they were not masters. He suggested that it sometimes takes 20,000 to 25,000 hours to truly become experts or masters of a subject or skill. It takes a lifetime…
2. Not all skills are the same…some take more than 10,000 hours and some take less.

And here is a critically important component of becoming an expert or achieving mastery (taken from How Hard Is It to Become an Expert? by Kendra Cherry. The article was written on October 24, 2020. You can find the full article at verywellmind.com):

“Just putting in 10,000 hours rehearsing the same thing over and over again is not enough to become a true expert. Instead, concentrated, goal-directed, deliberate practice that stretches your abilities beyond your comfort zone is what you should pursue if you want to gain expertise in any area.”

Michelangelo’s quote starts making more sense, doesn’t it?! 😊 Concentrated…goal-directed…deliberate…stretches your abilities beyond your comfort zone...not for the weak of heart!

So I simply want to encourage you this morning, Sweet Friends; whatever it is that makes you feel fully alive, please pursue that every day of your life. Concentrate, establish your goals, and challenge yourself every day to go beyond your comfort zone. Like so many other things in life, this is not an event but a process. It is the journey in becoming all that you were created to become that the real meaning and significance of life is found.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev