Self- motivation is simply providing your self with a motive to take action. When you’re not motivated, your activity declines, your skill deteriorates and your principles have little to empower. Finding fresh motivation can be a challenge, but depending on others to provide it is far worse. The great patriarchs of the faith possessed great motivational habits.
DRIVEN BY DESTINY
Think of how incredibly difficult it would be to be kidnapped as a teenager and sold into slavery. Imagine being falsely accused of a crime and being sent to jail for years. Joseph of the Bible endured these and other hardships, never wavering on his belief that God had a destiny for him. He looked at his present circumstances as a training ground for his destiny. He considered the evil done to him and said, “What was meant for evil, God intended for good, to save many people” (Gen 50:20). He knew he had a destiny and he never let go of that, even through his darkest hours.
TEN PRINCIPLES OF DESTINY
Principle 1- Everything under heaven has a purpose.
If you were created, then there was a design and if there was a design, then there has to be purpose. Since there are no two people alike, it’s reasonable to surmise that no two people have the same exact purpose or destiny. Creation implies purpose. Our mission is to find that purpose and live it out. There is a purpose in your present circumstances just as there was purpose in Joseph’s.
Principle 2- Sometimes purpose is unknown
We all know people who don’t have a clue as to their destiny or purpose in life. They have never really considered the proposition, but their ignorance is not the end of the story.
Principle 3- Just because you don’t know your purpose doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Many people don’t know the purpose of getting further education, so they don’t go to college or vocational school. That doesn’t mean there is no purpose in further education; they just haven’t discovered it yet. Similarly, many don’t see the purpose in their present job situation, and as a result, hop from one job to the next, never really mastering anything. Others see their job merely as a paycheck and miss out on the much larger picture. There is much more to life!
Principle 4- Where purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable
Give a perfectly gasoline engine to a sixteenth century fisherman and he would thank you for new anchor. Abuse is inevitable when you don’t understand purpose. In the first blood transfusion on record, a man was given sheep’s blood in one arm while draining his old blood out the other. When the transfusion was done, he felt wonderful and brought all his friends a round of drinks at the tavern. Then he kneeled over and died! The doctors didn’t know the unique properties of blood and they inadvertently abused the patient’s body.
When you don’t understand your purpose or destiny, you will inadvertently abuse your life. You might be successful by some standards in that you might acquire wealth and fame, but it will be an empty box with a very dark place inside. You need not look far to see the lack of purpose or meaning in merely acquiring things.
In 1923, some of the most successful men of their time met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. The List included the president of the largest independent steel company, the president of the largest utility company, the greatest wheat speculator, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, a member of the president’s cabinet, the greatest “bear” on Wall Street, the head of the greatest monopoly, and the president of the Bank of International Settlements. These men were envied throughout the world for their wealth.
Twenty-five years later, a nosy reporter decided to see how these men had finished their race. He found Charles Schwab, founded of the largest independent steel company, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died broke. Samuel Insull, president of the largest utility company, died penniless in a foreign land, a fugitive from justice. Arthur Patton, the greatest wheat speculator of his time, died financially destitute in a foreign country. Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, had served time in Sing Sing Federal Penitentiary. Albert Fall, member of the President’s cabinet, was released from prison so he could die at home. Jesse Livermore, the greatest “bear” on Wall Street, Ivar Kreufer, head of the world’s greatest monopoly, and Leon Fraiser, president of the Bank of International Settlements, all ended their illustrious careers with suicide. Regardless of the great heights a man may achieve, without a God-given sense, abuse is inevitable.
Principle 5- Your destiny is the result of your character.
The choices you make are made from your character. People of poor character will typically make poor choices, which will have an adverse effect on them finding and fulfilling their true purpose and destiny. Poor choices in the present moment can limit good choices in the future. There was a young mother who was serving time for a drug related offense. She happened to be in a boat with some friends who were transporting some illegal drugs. She was not a drug dealer or a drug user and was just along for a ride, but when the Coast Guard found drugs on board, she was sent to prison for ten years without the possibility of parole (others receive harsher sentences). She made one poor choice to hang out with some questionable friends under questionable circumstances and for the next ten years her choices were for the most part made for her.
Principle 6- Your character is the result of your habits.
Develop the habit of consistently doing the right thing. It will strengthen your character, and good habits can be some of your best friends, while poor habits can be some of your worst enemies.
Principle 7- Your habits are the result of your individual acts.
Make quality individual decisions. Each individual choice you make contributes to the establishment or destruction of a habit. If it indeed takes about twenty-one days of consistently doing the same thing to establish a habit, then start now. If you find you have some bad habits, focus on the individual act that contributes to the habit and gain victory over that action. When you successfully make quality individual choices, you will soon find yourself with quality success habits.
Principle 8 – Your acts are the result of your thoughts.
What are you thinking about? Someone once said “We have never committed a visible act of sin that has shamed us before others that was not first a shameful thought.” The thoughts we dwell on will sooner or later manifest themselves in some visible expression of that thought.
Principle 9 – Your thoughts are yours to choose.
The good news is that you are free to choose your own thoughts. You can bring every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 10:5). You have been given the freedom to choose, so use it wisely.
Principle 10- Choose great thoughts and reap a great destiny.
Consider the words of Paul: “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of a good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil 4:8).
You might do an average job, but if all you want is average, you won’t be ready to go to the next level. A sense of destiny will pull you out of the pond of mediocrity every time. You might not know all there is to know about your destiny! You’ll find yourself walking in your destiny before you know it.
David knew he would be king, but until God placed him on the throne, he refused to make it happen his own way. He had the opportunity to kill Saul, who had been ruthlessly pursuing him, but instead he waited patiently on God. He held together through the hardship because of his sense of destiny.
The hard times will eventually pass, but in the mean time, use the challenging times to prepare your character and heart for what lies ahead. When you lean into your destiny, you will find yourself living into your destiny, which will in turn carry you through many a storm!
QUOTES FOR TODAY
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” - Aristotle
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