You’re so jazzed about the day ahead that you woke up before the alarm buzzed the first time! Before you finish your first rich cup of liquid enthusiasm, the family and even your dog know that something’s up.
It’s time to move the ball forward and bring your dream closer to the finish line. Today you’ll flex your creative and productive muscles. Confidence overflows and you can’t wait to get started because you know that by tonight the world will be changed because you’re in it.
When’s the last time that you woke up in expectation, with the confidence to stretch your previous best by a factor of ten? How would your life change if you knew that failure was impossible?
Beginning every day with victory in your heart is possible. This six-part Achieve Your Dream Series identifies four ways we derail our dreams or push our passions to the back of the fire. You’ll learn how we get hacked and ways to transform a smoking flax into a white-hot flame.
Check the Pilot Light on Your Passion
Passion and dreams are crushed in the dust of daily life, of to-do lists without end, and histories with more failure than success. I’ve been there and won’t wait one more sentence before telling you that the reason we fail so spectacularly is because we set ourselves up to fail. We can also set ourselves us to succeed.
The way we live, make decisions, and judge ourselves guarantees defeat. When you take the first step of the day in defeat, guess where you’ll be at day’s end? It’s time to be transformed, to begin the day in victory and refuse to change course.
Passion isn’t a flame that burns out quickly, but something that can simmer on a back burner for long periods of time without going out. With a bit more fuel, dormant passions can become a blaze. You have the potential to light up the spaces around you, and maybe even the world.
I say that with confidence because your power and potential are limitless when you pursue the purpose and vision God has for you because His power is infinite.
Pursuing God’s Purpose and Vision
When God puts a dream in your heart or gifts you with a superpower, He intends for you to steward it and produce a return on His investment.
Happiness can be defined as forward progress toward any good goal. I want to help folks move from defeat or derailment into God’s power and vision, to move closer to the finish line daily, if not hourly.
This is the first of six articles in the Achieve Your Dream Series, about four things we do to derail our dreams and how to get back on track. The good news is that we have control over all of them.
4 Ways You Deflate or Derail Your Dreams
- Inability
- Comparing yourself to others
- Lack of Commitment
- Working outside of your Giftings
We’ll examine each of these in the coming weeks. You’ll discover how each one hacks your dreams and prevents you from living the life of power and potential God envisions for you.
Dreams and Superpowers
We all have great blessings and limitations by design. I discovered my superpower more than forty years ago and continue to refine it. Not only do you have your own superpower, you also have a dream. God created you for a unique purpose.
Maybe you know what it is and maybe you don’t. But somewhere in your heart is a desire, a yearning, or the hope that you’ll be able to experience the magic of walking with Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit.
The size of your dream today doesn’t matter. What’s important is learning to live, grow, and serve God by pursuing His goal.
It’s Not What You Do, But What God Does With You
As a kid, I had a near genius IQ score, joined Mensa in my twenties for all the wrong reasons, but was a mess inside. I was a ridiculous mixture of confidence and inferiority, believing in my ability to achieve goals—as long as they weren’t attached to relationships.
My superpower didn’t come from intelligence, but a heart, soul, and spirit repaired and powered by the Holy Spirit. Now my superpower is all about relationships. Funny how God does that, isn’t it?
Getting rich is a pipe dream because you can achieve yet feel emptier than when you began. Serving God is a rich banquet that never loses its flavor. It offers the perfect combination of nourishment without dulling your appetite for more.
Coming Up Next: Inability
Next week we’ll dive into the first obstacle that derails your dreams and how to take back control — inability.
It may not be what you think it is.
Let’s move from Vision to Victory together!
Part Two: Achieve Your Dream Series — Skills Inventory
Part Three: The Temptation of Comparison
Part Four: Commitment
