Do you ever feel like you are in the right place at the right time, yet you just don’t feel fulfilled? Has anyone ever told you that you are, “Looking at it all wrong?” Let me humor you with an account of my trip to the Grand Canyon and the lessons I learned on the way.
My 3 month old and I were smushed into a van full of missionaries and after 20 hours of driving we arrived at our destination – The Grand Canyon. Ahh! We arrived just as the rain was stopping. I made it! Now what? If I only sit in the van, I am at the destination. But am I enjoying the full experience of being there? No. Is my purpose of being there simply to check in on Instagram? No. Obviously there has to be more as to why I struggled to get to this destination.
So I got out of the van and stretched in the drizzle soaked parking lot. As I breathed that glorious air, I listened to the birds singing, the leaves rustling in the wind, and people ooo-ing and ahh-ing. Now I have arrived. But is this all there is? All I could see were some trees, a pile of cement blocks that marked off some parking, and overflowing trash cans – some view! Really? This is why people come to the Grand Canyon? I was not impressed and I wanted to get back into that van and head home, unsatisfied and disappointed. Maybe I missed what I was supposed to be doing. There I was, standing in a cement jungle a thousand miles away from my husband holding a fussy baby. UGH! I wanted to go back home. That was me quitting and giving up on the reason I traveled this far.
My friend saw me standing next to the van and said, “Hey, you’re looking at it all wrong. Don’t stand here staring in the parking lot! Turn around and see the beauty of the Grand Canyon! Come on. Look this way!” Well, let me tell you, once I turned away from the parking lot and focused on the Grand Canyon, I saw it – and it WAS beautiful! It was much more than I expected, and it took my breath away. The sun caught the last of the rain clouds and the most magnificent rainbow appeared! It beamed over the Grand Canyon from one ridge filling the entire sky all the way to the other ridge, brightly proclaiming that God keeps His promise! Finally, I was standing at the Right Place, in the Right Moment, and Facing the Right Way.
Looking in the right direction gets your eyes off of your parking lot of problems which can leave you feeling frustrated, irritable, wanting to quit, and going nowhere. Looking in the right direction can bring you to see the vastness of God’s purpose and plan for your life. While standing in that position with my vision refocused, my purpose became crisp and clear. I would have missed the rainbow if I had continued staring at the parking lot. But someone helped me adjust my focus and I didn’t miss it!
What is your Right Place? It is the place where God has led you. It could be a place of employment, a place to eat, a place to serve, and even a place for entertainment. Don’t miss your Right Place by staying home. And don’t be afraid to make adjustments once you are in that place.
What is your Right Moment? In the book of Esther it says, “For such a time as this.” In Ecclesiastes it says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Now is the time. You are in the right season, but are you facing the right way? Do things look blurry, unfocused and uncertain? Don’t be afraid to look around, turn around and see the bigger picture. There is a view that is much better than you can imagine by adjusting your focus.
I was in the right place at the right time facing the right way. You can be there, too.
Answer these questions: Am I in the right place? Is this the right moment? Am I looking at it from the right perspective? Do I need to change my focus?
If any of these answers were “YES,” consider attending The Journey Training to obtain the tools you need to refocus your vision. Like my friend who turned me around and changed my perspective, The Journey Training will come alongside you on your life’s journey to help you turn from a parking lot view to the Grand Canyon view. Come and see how your new vision of life can be beautiful and fulfilling. You just might find that you’ve been there all along…just not facing the right way!
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“The only limits I have are the ones I place on myself.” Danny Cahill wrote those words in his song, “Reach for it”. Those who know me may be thinking, “Alison & limits? Those two words don’t go together.” And they may be right in many ways.
I had a prenatal stroke, which would limit most people. But now I am doing side planks and star pushups, I’m the most mobile non-driver you’ll ever meet, and I can get to other states and back in a day’s time. I do have limits though.
The weight I still need to lose comes from limits. The feeling of “stuck” I have felt at various times in the last two years has been partially out of my control, but not all of it. Some of it has come from me limiting my own choices. Who do you honor by committing?
I have had the opportunity in the last several months to look at my commitments, as well as my attitudes toward them. When it comes to honoring commitments, I historically honor commitments to everyone else, and only then do I MAYBE honor the commitments to myself. I’ll help someone with their personal or professional pursuits, and in the process I leave my own hanging – usually by talking on the phone with them when I had originally committed to exercise.
Competing Commitments
Danny has been working with us in his Simply Lose It coaching group on identifying, and then challenging our competing commitments. When we have something we really want (such as losing weight, getting out of debt, growing spiritually, etc.), but other hidden agendas consistently come against it through actions we are doing or not doing, the trend is a competition to our commitment. What we really want gets trumped by our competing commitment. Here’s an example of what it might look like:
I’m committed to losing x pounds in 6 months.
Things I’m doing that keep me from losing the weight:
I justify cheating based on social needs or how well I’m doing, I eat out too much, I drink sweet tea, and I allow one cheat to turn into 2 or 3
Things I’m not doing that keep me from losing the weight:
I am not getting workouts in, I am not eating the meal plan, and I am not staying consistent
Why do I or don’t I take the above actions? Time management, excuses, losing my resolve, impatience
My competing commitments are:
I am more committed to excuses and stress management than losing weight.
I am more committed to eating out and cheating than eating the meal plan and losing weight
I am more committed to drinking sweet tea than losing weight
I am more committed to sporadically dodging workouts for various reasons than working out to lose weight
What are you most committed to achieving? What other commitments are competing with that commitment? To achieve what you most want, you have to move it above all of those other commitments, and act on it accordingly. Saying you are MOST COMMITED TO something doesn’t make it happen. If your results are that your competing commitment are winning, then you are truly most committed to your competing commitments. So how do we challenge these competing commitments?
Challenge It!
With all of these Do’s, I can write an “I don’t”, such as I do cheat too much –I don’t stay consistent enough to meet my goal.
After identifying my competing commitments, I need to take action to challenge them. I am shortening my commitment into smaller commitment times, making it easier to chalk up a win.
Struggling with too many cheats in a week, I am shortening my goal time to 3 and a half days from a week. Since I want to challenge credit card debt, I’m committing to not using credit cards for at least a month. Finding something you CAN DO to resist the competition arms yourself for the battle!
Competing with God
As I’ve marinated on this idea of competing commitments, I’ve also seen how it translates in my life spiritually. In the Bible, Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy – I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” Satan has been competing with God from the beginning. Think about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. I read a meme this week that said, “Satan tries to limit your praying because he knows your praying will limit him.” The Name of Jesus will always challenge Satan. Nothing formed against us shall stand. Competing commitments have come, are coming, and will come. So let’s challenge them accordingly to overcome them and, in turn, get what we truly want!
Danny’s song “Reach for it” also says, “Just when I think my limit is found, I will go searching for more fertile ground.” Where will you search for the fertile ground? The Journey Training offered me fertile ground in my class, and a continual fertile ground each month! Participants have the opportunity to evaluate their commitments and break through their limits. Are you ready to find your fertile ground? The first thing you can do to challenge your competing commitments is to sign up for the very next Threshold class today! It has helped me, and I promise it can help you!
For a free copy of Danny’s song “Reach for it”, email him and ask for it at Danny@TheDannyCahill.com and he’ll send you an MP3!
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I hear it all the time: don’t sweat the small stuff. This can be true at times, such as someone leaving the cap off the toothpaste or other irritations such as not getting your way. However, if you live by this saying in other areas of your life, it can lead to disaster!
Small stuff becomes big stuff
I was mowing the lawn the other day, and when I was weed-eating the back corner of our yard, I saw it – my greatest enemy – POISON IVY! I am extremely allergic to poison ivy; so much so that I have been covered from head to toe, had in in my eyes and ears, and even in places I will not identify in this blog! Being a land surveyor since the age of 9, I’ve had the pleasure (actually the annoyance) of meeting this terrorizing plant on more occasions than the average Joe! Just take a hike with me at Turkey Mountain – you’ll hear me mention this plant at least 50 times during the hike – warning everyone that it is looming just beyond the boundary of the trail!
Poison Ivy has been in that area of my backyard for years, but I learned that if you remove it while it is small, it’s easy. Just a pair of gloves and pulling a few small plants and almost no chance of getting the rash if you’re careful. Obviously, that area of the yard hadn’t been tended in quite a long time, so that small stuff became big stuff and now it’s going to take much more effort to handle. The same can be said for other things in our lives, too.
Little Foxes seem small – but in the end they add up
Those peanut M&M’s in the breakroom… Oh how they call my name! Just one won’t hurt, right? Well, I can tell you that I didn’t make it onto the cast of The Biggest Loser by eating just one M&M.
I made it on by eating just one M&M over and over again! Yes, I see it all the time, and have even experienced it again myself this year! Those little snacks and treats add up to enough calories that all the weeks of working hard in the gym makes absolutely no difference! Those small things canceled out my work, and in turn became a big thing again.
Yes, there have been people in my boot camp that haven’t lost very much weight. They feel better and are more physically fit, but the pant size just isn’t getting smaller. It is usually a lazy diet that causes this. For the most part, they may be making good choices when choosing what to eat. And then there are those small things – the few chips as they walk by the table, the couple of drinks they had on Saturday night, or yes – the M&M as you walk by the break room – that add up over the week to be as big as that 3500 calories you burned. And that 3500 calories you burned would have been a pound you lost! But the scale doesn’t move. This is just one example, but it can be applied to many areas of your life – in your business, your family, your faith and in you.
Small steps over time add up to big results
Results can always happen in a positive or negative aspect! Just as the above example I gave you in my own life, small choices can add up to sabotaging what you really want for what you want in the moment. Those small decisions add up to bigger results. Brian Klemmer once told me, “Results – often harsh, but always fair.” The good news is that it works both ways! Lately, I’ve been walking into that break room to get coffee or water and I look straight at those M&M’s and say out loud, “Nope! Not today folks!” And the results I am getting are amazing. I have lost 15 pounds in the past 3 weeks! A combination of that decision with a few others have made my results move in a different direction. And this direction is the one I desire!
I want to ask you a question: are you getting the results you desire? If not, could it be a product of those small choices you are making? Taking an inventory of your life in the areas you want to change is a must to actually see that change come to pass. When you see those small things that are growing into big things, it’s easier to handle it now than after weeks, months, or perhaps years of “putting up with it” and seeing it grow into something huge!
My friend Arthur Greeno was talking to me about small stuff a few months back. He saw that his Chick-Fil-A store wasn’t getting the numbers at the drive-through they had been in the past. He investigated and found out that the automatic change machine wasn’t working. He told me that counting up the change not only added to mistakes that can be made, but added an average of 6-seconds per transaction.
Not really that much, right? Well, that small amount can add up and cause their service to suffer…and also the profits to dwindle! In fact, if 1,200 cars normally go through the drive-through on a good day, that 6-seconds per car adds up to 2-hours of transactions lost in a day! Yes, small stuff can really add up to a big result!
Sweat the small stuff before it’s too late!
I’ve seen marriages end because of a few small things that were never addressed. I’ve seen businesses fail because of small things that were never caught or changed. I’ve seen diets fail because of small bites and nibbles that went unnoticed. Maybe it’s time for you to sweat the small stuff! Maybe your dreams and goals have been sabotaged by the small stuff you are not tending to. Yes, some things may only be a distraction, but the only way to know is to take an inventory.
In The Journey Training, people become aware of some of that small stuff that they didn’t even know was there! Many choose to change some of those things, and we’ve seen BIG results from those small changes, including reconciled marriages, weight-loss, and even increased income! What small stuff are you not aware of that might be holding you back? Why not give The Journey Training a chance to help you begin to sweat the small stuff and keep you from having to sweat the big stuff?!
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After the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy, I started reflecting on things he has done that have influenced me as well as my own personal experience meeting him a few years ago in true Arthur Greeno fashion.
The first thing that comes to mind is the Vulcan hand salute that we all are familiar with that usually is accompanied by, “Live long and prosper. “But do you know where that hand gesture came from? Here’s a short video of Mr. Nimoy telling the story.
Now on to my personal experience with the man best known as simply, “Mr. Spock”.
I was never a huge fan of the original Star Trek series and I connected with it long after all of the original movies had aired. Later I started watching the reruns and fell in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation and since then I’ve seen all of the Star Trek movies and nearly every episode of the various TV series from the Star Trek universe.
On April 20th 2009 Leonard Nimoy was scheduled to be one of the stars featured at the 20th annual Star Trek Expo here in Tulsa. I thought it would be cool to meet him, so I reached out to a connection I had who in turn introduced me to the owner of the event. Nearly everyone loves Chick-fil-A, so I offered to provide food for all of the actors and that opened a door for me to potentially meet Spock as well as many others.
Throughout the day of the event, I made many deliveries to the convention center, running back and forth from my store bringing fresh food for the special guests. On one of those trips, I was rolling two large delivery boxes on a dolly toward my vehicle and saw Leonard Nimoy coming in the door in front of me flanked by two large men who could only have been bodyguards. I guess that I was momentarily star struck because I didn’t see the pillar sticking out from the wall in front of me and promptly ran into it, boxes and all. “Are you all right?”, he asked. Embarrassed that I had been that clumsy – and in front of Mr. Spock, no less! – I sheepishly replied, “Yes. Thank you” and continued to my car.
Moments later as my face returned to it’s normal color I realized that I totally forgot the questions I wanted to ask him. I had been so intimidated by his star status (and my subsequent encounter with the pillar) that my mind went blank. Later I realized that if he was indeed the untouchable mega star that I had pictured him being, he likely wouldn’t have even asked if I was OK.
Looking back on that situation, there are a few key takeaways I want to share with you that I wish I had been preparing in my own life at the time:
1. My path toward my dreams won’t look like other people’s path. That’s not only OK, but it’s the way things are supposed to be.
2. The fears that we encounter are often not based in reality. We tell ourselves stories that are not true and then react to them in fear rather than in confidence because we fear what others might think or what may happen.
3. The more we practice, the better we will be when the opportunity arrives. This can be with smaller experiences or simply rehearsing mentally, but if we’ve already “been there”, we’ll be far more comfortable when the big moments arrive.
Oh, and one more thing: I heard from some of the servers in the green room at the event, Leonard Nimoy AKA Mr. Spock, chose aChick-fil-Asandwich for lunch that day.
#LLAP
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