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Monday, August 15, 2011

Brake Before You Break

The past two weeks have been very demotivating for me... I found myself suffering from the dreaded writer's block and felt as if something has been snuffed out. I couldn't somehow put my heart into any of my writing and couldn't put more than two words together effectively. I just had to take a time off from writing to re-evaluate myself.

During that time, I remember coming across something from the Sunday funnies where a famous female mouse named Minnie was complaining to an even more famous male mouse named Mickey... Poor Minnie can't drive her car in the garage without scratching the sides.

An idea struck Mickey and he painted the garage's facing wall with a target mark, he then asked Minnie to aim at the mark when parking the car in. This way, she can be right on course.

They gave it a go and Minnie slowly got the car in without scratching the sides. She, however, soon crashed through the wall!

When Mickey asked her what happened, Minnie replied, “I was too busy focusing on the target that I forgot to step on the brakes!”

Rang a bell, anyone?

http://claxtons.net/

 Too often for most of us, we're too busy focusing on our own goals, when sadly it blinds us to other more important things in life. We become oblivious to relationships we're losing, people we're hurting and opportunities we're missing.

When pursuing advancement in career so as to gain access to a more privileged life, wouldn't it be ironic to finally get to that position but can't enjoy life because of too much work? When wanting to provide for the family, would it be alright be able to give more but lose your family in the process? Or in ministry, who are we serving if we put God aside and just focus on the ministry itself?

In my case, I was too focused on getting my posts updated frequently and on time, that I forgot what brought me to starting Pushing Giants in the first place - the delight in using my God-lent talent to bring inspiration and motivation to others; to softly nudge people closer to God... That it's helping others first, before self-fulfillment.

There's an interesting story that John Maxwell shared in his book, The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player about how not to lose sight of what's truly valuable...

My friend Dwight Bain sent me a story of a ham radio operator who overheard an older gentleman giving advice to a younger man.

“It’s a shame you have to be away from home and family so much,” he said. “Let me tell you something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities. You see, one day I sat down and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about 75 years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in his lifetime.

“It took me until I was 55 years old to think about this in any detail,” he continued, “and by that time I had lived through over 2,800 Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be 75, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”

He went on to explain that he bought 1,000 marbles and put them in a clear plastic container in his favorite work area at home. “Every Saturday since then,” he said, “I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There’s nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

Then the older gentleman finished, “Now let me tell you one last thought before I sign off and take my lovely wife out to breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday, then I have been given a little extra time.”

We can’t really choose whether we will get any more time, but we can choose what we do with it. May the Loving Father teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

God bless!

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