“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions.  So what.  Get started now.  With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

– Victor Hansen

I had a conversation with a loved one yesterday, they were asking why they always want to do the right thing in their life, but when it comes times to put up… they find it difficult to do what they know they should do.

I told them to join the club, we all struggle with this…

Do I get up early, or hit the snooze a few times?
Do I clean my car, or sit on the couch and watch TV?
Do my homework, or go on Facebook?
Live on a budget, or spend my money as I desire at the moment?

The fact of the matter is that most of us need someone or something to “motivate” us to do the right thing.  As children it was our parents, we feared the consequences or disappointing them, but either way we were motivated.  As we grow older it was our peers (thus the importance of choosing good friends), who motivated us to keep up with them, it was subtle but if our friends did well in school and cared about their studies, we tended to do the same.

So, now as an adult how do we keep ourselves motivated to do the “hard things” we need to do to be successful?

GROWTH demands that we do the hard things – This morning I ran 2 miles.  I didn’t want to, didn’t enjoy it while doing it, but did it anyway because if I didn’t push myself past my comfort zone I cannot grow.  Muscles must be worked BEYOND what they did yesterday to grow stronger, that is an undeniable physiological truth. The God who created you and loves you cares about your growth, and the way He has designed you to grow is through challenges.  Are you INTENTIONALLY growing stronger (physically, emotionally, spiritually) every day?

GOALS help us keep moving when we lack motivation – If we want to grow we must  get over the idea that the goal is for us to go through life with as little effort or discomfort as possible.  This is similar to the mistaken notion that we don’t need to change because God loves us just the way we are.  God does love us just the way we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us that way.  He wants us to grow and at times pain is necessary in order to gain something of greater value.  Our goals keep us focused while enduring (notice I didn’t say enjoying) the disciplines we must practice in our lives to reach those goals.  Do you have CLEAR goals that you have shared with others that you are working toward every day?

GOADING is necessary when all else fails – To goad is to stimulate, drive, push or motivate.  All of the above are needed at times, there are times when we all need to be encouraged and told “you CAN do it.”  On the other hand there is also a time when we need to be told to get up off our lazy butts and just get it done whether we feel like it or not.  Take a moment and think. Can you remember any period of growth in your life that didn’t involve effort and even some level of discomfort?  The truth is that all growth involves discomfort.  And most people don’t do uncomfortable things without someone or something thing “goading” them to just push through the discomfort and git er done.  Who is it in your life that you have shared your struggles and AGREED to let them push you to grow?

These are not new ideas.  I am not reinventing truth.  But I do want the next generation (and mine too) to rediscover what has always been true — and one thing that has always been true is that in order to grow we must do hard things. We must challenge and stretch ourselves, step outside our comfort zones and do something difficult. It’s how we’ve grown before, and it’s the only way we’ll grow for the rest of our lives.

“It is hard; but the sort of compromise we’re hankering after is harder — in fact, it is impossible…. We are like eggs at present.  And we cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.” – CS Lewis

In other words, we can’t just go on being ordinary, only doing what we want and enjoy, never pushing ourselves, never sacrificing, never staying outside our comfort zone for long.  Either we are hatched and learn to fly or we are a dud that will soon start to stink.

The choice is yours!

Dave