What do you want out of life? Are you following God’s plan for your life? In the Lord, we are able to change our path. It starts with our thoughts.
That sounds great but how do we get there? It’s easy to pitch a tent and dwell on the negative but is that what Jesus wants for you? For some reason, it’s easier to gravitate to the negative instead of looking at the possibilities. It’s ok to acknowledge the difficulty but staying there is not. If you want the fruit and longterm benefits of something better you must walk by faith, take action and give room for the Lord.
You Have To Train Your Mind
The first step to seeing change and enjoying the fruit of change in your life is you have to change your mind.
Do you have an Eeyore mindset? You do have a choice. You can keep that mindset or you can make a decision to change. Our minds can be conditioned to gravitate to particular ways of thinking.
The first step is to bring your thoughts captive. You must take your thoughts captive and shift your thinking to dwell on the promises of God. It’s time to put an end to that Eeyore thinking and allow the light of God’s word to fill
The negative thoughts will come, but it’s important that you put down an anchor and stop drifting with every negative thought that comes your way. If you don’t drop an anchor, those thoughts are only going to keep you drifting in the same direction year after year.
It’s Time To Make a Plan
Having a plan is the foundation for future success. Without that plan, you’ll drift from idea to idea. I know because I have sailed that ship before.
If the sound of making a plan leaves a bad taste in your mouth you are not alone. Failed attempts, work and commitment seem overwhelming. I understand. We don’t like change. We get comfortable and lazy which makes it difficult to make a change.
This kind of thinking must be brought captive. It says God is not in this; it’s going to fail; it’s going to be uncomfortable and the excuses go on and on. Drop the anchor! Take that thought captive. Replace it with words of hope. Ask him to change your thinking.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…
Hebrews 6:19
As you bring your thoughts captive and begin to make a plan you are well on your way to expanding borders in your life. Don’t worry about having the perfect plan. A plan is a like a marker on the horizon. Things may change but it’s a focal point to get you moving forward. This initial maker is the vision that’s meant to be a mooring to set your mind on.
After you define your vision it’s important to write it down. After writing it down, begin to break that plan into smaller items that you can act on. Having smaller actionable items are the stepping stones for you to achieve your bigger vision.
The Tools For Plans
From simple to-do lists to more robust project
I do website marketing and consulting for a living and have spent countless hours trying different methods and apps to help my productivity and many of those apps I used for a while then stopped.
In all my searching I’ve arrived at a conclusion that there is something special about writing with pen and paper. Maybe it’s how my brain works but then again maybe there is something about this ancient practice called handwriting.
Please don’t take that the wrong way. I do use many great apps such as Evernote, Google Calendars, my iPhone to-do list and many other. Those are all useful but I’ve decided the core of my planning is on paper and pen.
In my house, I have stacks of journals that have been filled over the years. My ideas flow in my journal and it’s where I recently
To get started I recommend grabbing a notebook of your choice and a nice pen you’ll enjoy writing with.
In a future post, I’ll explain more in detail my journaling and task management efforts. Many of these efforts have been a work in progress which I’ve developed recently.
Start today by writing down a plan and I recommend writing it in a journal or notebook.
Now It’s Time To Take Action
“Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.”
Proverbs 16:3
Now that you’ve written down a plan it’s time to take action.
I’m fascinated by acorns. The acorn is a fruit that contains a seed that contains all the plans to become a huge oak tree. If you keep that acorn on the counter it becomes nothing but if you take the time to plant it you’ll start to see the fruits of that action. This is true for you as well.
Seeing the fruit takes time but the sooner you start the sooner that will happen. We live in a time where we like things to happen now. This can make us discouraged and keep us from investing in the future. Lets not put that off another day.
God has given you gifts, talents