Have an abundance mentality as you go through life, not a scarcity mentality. You can believe that there’s enough to go around, which leads you to be a sharing, giving person, or you can fool yourself into thinking there’s not enough to go around, which forces you to grab what’s yours, hold on to it and keep it for yourself.
If you were to sketch your life on paper, using only a solid line to represent your journey, what would it look like?
If you were totally honest with yourself, your line (like mine) would probably include many U-turns—occasions when you started going one way and then had to stop and change directions because your original plan wasn’t working.
Some people might look at these U-turns as frustrating inconveniences that keep them from getting to their destinations on time. To me, however, they represent change—an inevitable and often critical part of achieving success and fulfillment in life. While change for the sake of change just equals whiplash, changing when you need to change (or, better yet, before you need to) equals victory.
In other words, make U-turns when necessary. Change is hard, and most people resist it. But if you put it off too long, you’ll have a difficult time reaching your destination. So rather than griping about U-turns, embrace them as opportunities to get back on the right track.
Here are four more tips that I have found to be extremely helpful on my own journey through life:
- Appreciate the detours. To be honest, this one is really hard for me. But problems are a part of life, and having a positive attitude about them can mean the difference between success and failure.
Here’s what actress Gilda Radner had to say about this: “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned the hard way that some poems don’t rhyme and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
- Take pictures. Don’t be in such a rush through life that you fail to create memories along the way. Make time for fun. And then stop every now and then to remember those fun times.
- Go the extra mile. People who go the extra mile do their job and then some. They do what’s required of them and then some. They do what other people expect of them and then some. It’s all about commitment.
- Stop to smell the roses. In his wonderful essay, “The Station,” Robert J. Hastings talks about how our natural tendency to live for some future event often keeps us from enjoying life in the here and now. “Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all,” he writes “The true joy of life is the trip.”
Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of always waiting for the station. Make it a point to experience each day to the fullest. As Leo Buscaglia so aptly put it, “Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.”
As we close this article, I want to encourage you to have an abundance mentality as you go through life, not a scarcity mentality. You can believe that there’s enough to go around, which leads you to be a sharing, giving person, or you can fool yourself into thinking there’s not enough to go around, which forces you to grab what’s yours, hold on to it and keep it for yourself.
I know you don’t need me to tell you which path leads to a productive, fulfilled life. As you journey through life, take the road less traveled by, and (to paraphrase Robert Frost) you’ll find that it really does make all the difference.
free monthly e-newsletter: Leadership Wired
available at www.INJOY.com.
John Maxwell grew up in the 1950s in the small Midwestern city of Circleville, Ohio. John's earliest childhood memory is of knowing that he would someday be a pastor. He professed faith in Christ at the age of three, and reaffirmed that commitment when he was 13. At age 17, John began preparing for the ministry. He attended Circleville Bible College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969. In June of that same year, he married his sweetheart, Margaret, and moved to tiny Hillham, Indiana, where he began his first pastorate.
While serving in his second church, Maxwell began to study the correlation between leadership effectiveness and ministry effectiveness. On July 4, 1976, while preaching at a service commemorating America's bicentennial, John sensed that God was calling him into a ministry to pastors. Within days after that event, pastors began to contact him, asking for his assistance in nurturing their churches. Over the next four years, on an informal basis, John helped scores of fellow pastors. Then, in 1980, he was asked to become Executive Director of Evangelism for the Wesleyan denomination.
Though his time at Wesleyan headquarters was productive, John soon realized that his deeper desire was to help pastors from numerous denominations. He knew that desire would be unfulfilled if he were to stay at denominational headquarters. As a result, in 1981 John accepted the call to return to the pastorate, this time at Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego, California area. But he did so with the church's blessing to pursue his vision. The Skyline congregation allowed him to continue mentoring and assisting pastors even as he led them to new levels.
In 1985, as he continued to equip and encourage other pastors, John took the next crucial step in leadership development. He founded a new company called INJOY and created the INJOY Life Club, featuring a monthly tape for leaders. The fledging operation, established in the corner of a garage, was soon bursting at the seams. The INJOY Life Club tapes were received with great enthusiasm, and the number of subscriptions quickly increased from hundreds to thousands. Simultaneously, the demand for other resources and seminars exploded. Pastors from coast to coast were responding, and their desire for help was even greater than John had anticipated.
As the years passed, INJOY began demanding more and more of John's time. In 1995, he resigned from his position as senior pastor at Skyline following a very fruitful 14-year tenure. The church had tripled in size and its lay ministry involvement had increased ten-fold. Dr. Maxwell is in great demand today as a speaker. Through his bestselling books, audio and video resources, and major conferences, he communicates directly with more than one million people every year. He is frequently asked to speak for organizations such as Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family, but his greatest joy and desire is to help pastors become better leaders.
Because the need for leadership development knows no borders, John established EQUIP, a non-profit organization which trains leaders in urban communities, academic institutions, and within international organizations. EQUIP is also spearheading a movement which has enlisted more than one million pastoral prayer partners who covenant to pray specifically for those who shepherd God's flock.
John continues to seek new opportunities to help churches and church leaders. He knows that one thing is constant: the only hope for the world is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life abundantly.
