“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar
Our dreams and ambitions hinge on motivation. These stories inspire that motivation to help boost your goals.
In the rush of things spinning in your mind, my hope is that you have a chance to ‘live’ today. To be inspired to stop and look around with fresh eyes. To break out of the routine. To reconnect with all the things that are truly important to you. And to savor the joy and beauty around you.
My prayer is that you have an opportunity to reawaken your dreams, and rediscover your passion. God has exciting things for you in the future; don’t miss out on the wonderful gifts He has for you today.
What I’m learning is how to live for longer stretches in the sweet seasons. Some hard choices have cleared a path for this space, like the bittersweet disconnect with a temptation to get twisted up in the minute by minute updates.
It’s easy for me to get busy with my desires, someone else’s needs and the rest of the world’s suggestions. The fallout of that is a stressed out mind and a painfully stretched heart. My relationships work better when there’s carved out space to listen and laugh unbridled for hours.
We can save everyone some time by slowing down. When we live out of this sanctuary in our soul, we are more careful with conversations. We pause in places that a hurried life rushes past. We yield when there are question marks.
Mostly though, it’s the inner dialogue that consumes me the most. The endless chatter of my own thoughts. Which is why I must pump the brakes from time to time.
You can’t lead the world around you if you can’t harness your own soul. The core of your life incorporates your mind, your capacity to think, your emotions, your capacity to feel and even your capacity to choose. This is what makes our life so unique. The soul is the distinctness God gave us.
We work hard to take care of the framework on our house; the parts people can see. What are we doing for the gears that keep the lights on?
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16:26)
Often we equate slowing down as missing out. But truthfully, when we merge into a slower lane, there is margin to savor the simple moments, like the sun throwing back the clouds at dawn and the crackle of a good campfire. This is grace. Grace with ourselves and grace with all those around us.
In the story of those two men heading to Emmaus (Luke 24), Jesus walks up behind them on that dusty road and asks what the two are discussing.
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” one of them says.
“What things?” Jesus asks.
The men didn’t recognize this guest and go on to tell him about Jesus of Nazareth; his teaching and the powerful miracles he performed, the crucifixion three days ago and the wild stories about an empty tomb, though no one has seen Jesus.
Even when you walk away to wherever Emmaus is for you, a nightclub, the bar, another city, or in the middle of ‘nowhere’, Jesus isn’t far from you. He will meet you on that dusty road in the midst of your troubled heart and ask questions to help you sort out what doesn’t make sense.
We might look for Jesus in a moment of tragedy, an existential experience or at the crossroads in life but often don’t recognize His presence in the midst of our struggles. So you take a walk along a dusty road or have dinner with friends. Maybe you go back to work. When Jesus showed up after His resurrection, it was in these very common places for people.
We spend most of our lives escaping. We throw our hands up at our jobs, hurtful friends, and even our families. We run or keep it stuffed inside.
Eventually there will be questions. Jesus will ask you about where this road is leading and whether it’s enough to keep you satisfied.
Consider it all joy when you go through trials of many kinds. (James 1:4)
Disappointment and defeat are the tools God uses to show you the way. Your difficulties are designed to produce perseverance and build up your faith.
Often we let the trials tear us down, though God means them for our good. Your trials grow you by developing character. We need to have enough courage to live in the struggles.
We’re not going to get to our destination any quicker by worrying, complaining or being frustrated.
When you place your joy in the source of your strength, Jesus, and not in the circumstance. you will survive and even thrive in the struggle. Even in the pain, these conflicts will be counted as your joy for what it is increasing in you, not decreasing.
Don’t let the defeat tear you down. God created you to go from strength to strength in these situations, not a mindset of struggle to struggle.
Lastly, pay attention to your life, to the people, to the things that happen to you. This is how to experience Jesus. Don’t force it by reading into situations too much. Maybe just lean in with your ears when your thoughts want to speak. Or linger a little longer in a place of rest when reminders of the undone pull at your attention.
Here in the hard parts of life, beautiful and terrible things will happen. It’s easier to escape it, but don’t be afraid. Jesus is right there in your midst.
Those who live by the law also live in the land of ‘what if’. It’s time to stop rewinding the reel of your broken dreams.
When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of Almighty God to take the next step.
Just to take a step to the table to receive His Word, you need His grace.
To lean into your family life when the demands are mundane and never seem to end, you’ve got to have His grace.
To press in for more community and the pursuit of friends when everything in you wants to pull back… it is absolutely necessary to have His grace.
When you lose interest in the things around you and everyday life seems filled with the trivial tasks, it is by the grace of God that you can persevere.
Receiving His grace takes a greater awareness of drawing nearer to Him.
The only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God. Ask Him to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Heavens, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you.
And be cautious of thinking that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do. Remind yourself of the example of Christ.
May your heart unfold and the petals of your spiritual devotion, family life and community of friends blossom in this fresh light today, and may all your dreams take flight.
You said it was the end. Bankruptcy. Foreclosure. Pregnant. An STD. Divorced. Fired. Homeless. Jail. Cancer.
Maybe you’re single and can’t remember the last date. You may be a new small business owner that’s barely scraping by. Or perhaps you quit your job, launched a dream working for yourself and the projects are just not taking off as you imagined they would.
It could be that you moved to a new city with hopes of finding joy and making friends but you come home feeling lonely every night. Or you woke up to 100 pounds overweight and feel overwhelmed by the work it’s going to take to lose it all.
When life doesn’t lay out the way we planned it, it’s easy to surrender to failure with negative thinking. Here are a few folks who walked through failure and have come out with a positive message for you.
“The next day after I got fired, literally the next day, I started a new company. Life is too short to spend your time avoiding failure.” MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.” OPRAH WINFREY
“I would say the advice I would give myself, or any young person, would be, ‘Keep your head up in failure, and your head down in success.'” JERRY SEINFELD (He forgot all his jokes on his first night of stand-up)
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” TRUMAN CAPOTE (writer & actor known for Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” STEVE JOBS
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” BILL GATES
“I have missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the gam winning shot, and I have missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” MICHAEL JORDAN
“You’ve got to get a real job and get a real career, and you’ve got to go to work. And, you’ve got to live. And, you’ve got to succeed and fail, and suffer, a little bit, or see suffering, heartache and heartbreak and all that before you really have anything to write.” JOHN GRISHAM
“You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are.” JOHN LENNON
“The higher up you go, the more mistakes you’re allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it’s considered your style.” FRED ASTAIRE
“It’s the way of all ancient stories. The young man must go ‘down’ in order to find the right path for going ‘up.’” SIDNEY POITIER
“One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress.” HENRY FORD
“Most of us are acquainted with losing. Very few of us ever win.” CHARLES SCHULTZ
“I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.” JACK LONDON
“I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.” TOM LANDRY
“To bear up under loss — to fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief — to be victor over anger — to smile when tears are close — to resist evil men and base instincts — to hate hate and to love love — to go on when it would seem good to die — to seek ever after the glory and the dream — to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore about to be — that is what any man can do, and so be great.” ZANE GREY (author best known for making the ‘Western’ genre popular)
One lasting thought…
“At some point, you are bound to stumble. If you’re constantly pushing yourself higher and higher, the law of averages predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to remember this: There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. Now, when you’re down there in the hole, it looks like failure. When that moment comes, it’s okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost. But then, here’s the key: Learn from every mistake, because every experience, particularly your mistakes, are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.” Oprah Winfrey
You thought it was the end, but it’s only the beginning.
Save this post so that the next time negative thinking comes knocking at the door of your failure, you can declare all the great successes that are about to come from this ‘defeat’.
I am blessed, beautiful, confident, secure, forgiven, redeemed, talented, qualified, prosperous, disciplined, focused, creative, prepared, equipped, empowered, anointed, accepted, healed, and approved.
With layers of humility, I accept the abundance of love, joy, and peace that spills from heaven into the depths of my soul.
I am motivated to be more than average or mediocre; I am a child of the Most High God.
Victory follows me all the days of my life.
I dare you to declare this over your life every day of 2016. With bold authority in Jesus’ name, I can tell you that your year won’t be crowned in just goodness, but also in supernatural healing, unmerited favor and bountiful breakthroughs. Amen.
Starting isn’t easy.
Yesterday just wasn’t mine to move forward. I didn’t work out. Didn’t work on my dreams. Didn’t work on much of anything.
On the first day of the year, I was still in the starting blocks as the calendar took off.
Last night, I laid in bed talking my goals off the ledge of failure because here’s what I know about the race we’re in:
You don’t have to be at the front of the pack to finish.
Today is another chance. On your mark. Get set… Go!
Whether you did things right in 2015, stumbled through it or couldn’t seem to get a solid footing on being brave, December 31st is the moment we all toss out the past. Calendars are on their last day. Most pocket planners peak at this moment. Many goals are measured with an end-of-the-year deadline. No matter if you achieved your goal(s) or abandoned them, we all flip open to the first page tomorrow and begin again.
If you want to fan a fire that sets your future ablaze, breathe the air of a ferocious prayer at the base of the future’s flame. January 1st is as close to the bottom, the beginning, as we can get.
The intensity of flavors in a fiery prayer can keep us at the table lingering in our petition with the Lord. I can’t think of a better place to be when there’s a plate piled high taking up residency in my mind that I need to release.
Carve out some time to stir in seasoned supplications you asked for last year and have yet to see. Stay longer and let the taste of these bold requests mix with the sweet intimacy of Jesus. This kind of meal will drown out the blandness of living with anything less than a constant craving for more time at the table.
There are a few personal pieces you may want to add to this prayer starter here, so I encourage you to use a sharp pair of scissors to trim off the excess and tailor the threads of thanksgiving and surrender to custom fit your life.
In Jesus Name, we come before you with boldness. We thank you, Jesus, that we are your sons and daughters and we can approach your throne at any time because of what you did on the cross.
Lord, I thank you for the work that you did on the cross. You did the work so that we can rest. We shake off the worry and anxiety that has us pinned beneath your best.
We pray for a baptism soaking in grace that brings new levels of restoration to these desires You have planted in our soul. We pray for a refreshment of hope in 2016.
Lord, for those who have been working and striving to achieve that love from you, I pray for your power to strengthen their spiritual muscles so that they can shake off this work mentality right now and receive rest and grace and the peace that is only found in you. Lord, You did the work so that we could rest and receive all that is in store for us, in Jesus Name.
In Jesus Name, we receive the wisdom that only you could give us, Father; wisdom to make the right decisions in our careers, with relationships, over our finances and the future. Lord, we thank You now that the Holy Spirit counsels us, comforts us and is the director of our story.
Father, Your word says that we can plan our way, so we bring you our plans for the new year and we lay them at the altar of your will. We acknowledge there are things You see in our future that need adjustment to our plans today, so we lift up to You these goals and ask You to establish our way.
We trust You to lead us into the right appointments this year. We believe that you are setting us up even at this moment with divine meetings in 2016. You are opening every right door and closing every wrong door, and we thank You that You guide us and lead us with peace. And that You are making a way even when there seems to be no way.
With each choice we make, Your Word says that your peace will be the presiding sign that points to the direction we must go. So still the contents of our heart to remain calm in the storms so that we may see this sign.
Lord Jesus, our desire is to act with more courage these days. Strengthen our resilience to say ‘no’ in the name of love and rest and grace, and creating more memories with the people we care for. You are the God who loves us and will bring new life to our worn-out hearts. Fill us also, Lord with the audacity to say ‘yes’ to the talents you have entrusted to us.
Creator of heaven and earth, we acknowledge you have planted a dream in our hearts and interwoven uniqueness that’s exclusive to the story we’ve been living. We’ve been wrestling with doubts because our eyes are still fixed on our weakness. Empower us with the courage to lift our mind above the colossal concern that we’re not worthy enough. Restore the joy in this gifting and help us to refocus the fears to the mere satisfaction that we receive when we’re working out of this skill.
We ask that the noise would recede and the most important things are made clear and lovely. Detach our doing from our being in our minds and open our hearts to the transforming power of being still. Our prayer is that we’ll find ourselves drawn closer to the heart of Your story.
In Jesus’ name, I thank you that You are providing us with everything we need according to Your riches in glory, Lord. We are not limited to our bank account. We are connected to the right hand of the Father who has unlimited resources to dispense to His children.
Lord, I thank you for financial miracles happening right now; debts are being canceled and running over blessings are being poured out.
Lord, I thank you for your healing, in Jesus’ name. That every cell, bone, ligament, tissue, and organ is being brought back to the way they are supposed to be operating, in Jesus’ name.
Lord, I thank you that addictions are being conquered, that strongholds are being released and that chains are being broken even at this moment that we speak it into the atmosphere.
Lord, we declare and we believe that whom the Son has set free is free indeed. Thank you, Father for changing the palette of our desires, the contents of our heart and the thoughts consuming our mind.
We know that You cause all things to work for good to those who are in Christ Jesus, so we acknowledge our inheritance as victors of this world and not victims. Lord, because of You, we will prosper. Because of You, Jesus, we are moving from strength to strength and glory to glory!
Heavenly Father, our prayer is that we will live on fire with hope, fully engaged with intention, alive in our passions, and offering generous amounts of grace as we embrace every opportunity to love in 2016.
May we live fully, deeply, and more courageously with greater impact in our present places. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
