Moving Past Good Intentions

We can dream and we can plan and we can hope for the best. 

But everyone knows what road is paved with good intentions.

Business books and self-help books are my favorites (well, cheesy mysteries run a close second.)  I’ve read so many that I can recognize which authors read each other and which ones are just repackaging last year’s top hits.  With each book, I just knew it would be the way forward—the key to opening that last door to real success.  Each time I would write notes in my bullet journal and plan and think about how to apply whatever the new insight was.  And then I would get a new book and do the same.  And again.  And again.

Some might have helped.  Some might have been a waste of time.  And some might have been actually harmful, but I’ll never know.  I wasn’t ready to lead with my heart.  And I wasn’t ready to let go of my fear. 

Fear of failure.  Fear of success.  Those are two sides of the same coin.  What if I fail and everyone sees?  Or worse, what if I succeed?  What will people think?  What will I do then?  Will I be the same person?  Better to keep my head down and stay in my lane.

Except this: 

“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 

My witness to the world is to show what is possible… through Christ.  I know what I need to do.  I just need to do it.  

Prayerfully.  Joyfully.  Completely. 

What is that one place for you, friend?  That place that feels empty and undone.  The one that you think about, but stuff back into the corners of your consciousness, until it pops up again.  That’s the one, the one you should consider.   What will it take to feel success in that place?  You know you’ve thought about it.  You know you’ve planned for it, prayed about it, and then ignored it. 

Start today.  Figure out that first step.  Make it easy.  Make it doable.  And then do the second step.  And the third.  So many times when we finally get something done, we discover we have spent more time planning and dreading the thing than it would have EVER taken to just do it. 

Take hold of your thoughts and make them work for you.  

You’re ready.  

You can do this thing.  

Go make your world a more a beautiful place.