If You're Comfortable...

I am a huge believer in watching and listening to others for motivation. Anyone close to me knows that I rarely listen to music in my car. On long drives especially, I tend to listen to motivational videos. This morning, I came across this YouTube video interview of Lisa Nichols and it gave me ALL the LIIIIIIIFE! Her story is so inspiring and she definitely put me in a great space. If you don't know who Lisa Nichols is, she is an author, entrepreneur, and media personality, and world-renown motivational speaker. She spends time talking about the sacrifices she made to get where she is now. It really convicted me. I don't know about anyone else, but I get so excited about the things that I want to accomplish that I want to skip the struggle, or as I sometimes call it, "the scruggle." If you have a dream, you have to be willing to sacrifice to get there.

Too many of us want a comfortable ride to the top. That's why we miss out on many wide-open opportunities to get where we want to be. I recall Viola Davis' interview on "Inside the Actor's Studio," saying how she wrote a play in a small, rat-infested closet because that was her quiet place to write. In Lisa Nichol's interview, she told us how she spent three years cutting corners to invest in her dream. She moved her and her son out of a three bedroom house to a single bedroom in a friend's house, she stopped getting her hair and nails done, she traded her newer car for an older one, and she stopped eating out. She instead took all that money each month and wrote a check to her bank with the description "Investing in my Dream." After three years, she went to the bank to check her balance to find that she had saved $60.5K. At the time, she didn't even know exactly what it was that she wanted to do. Some of us know what we want and STILL won't sacrifice time, luxuries, or relationships to get there.

We look at successful people and gauge our success based on theirs. They demonstrate to us the possibilities of how high we can go. We glamorize them for being in that position, having the money, influence, tools, and resources to get things done and live what we view as a comfortable life. However the tool we are using to measure their success may be flawed. Are we measuring how far they are in comparison to us? Or are we looking at their journey to see how far they have come from their rock bottom? My favorite quote by author Brian Tracy is:

"Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else."

If you have big dreams, understand that your obstacles will often feel even bigger! And it's okay; don't let that discourage you. The God we serve is greater than every obstacle in front of you. In church this week, I felt convicted. The pastor spoke about obedience and I'd like to share my thoughts about its importance in reaching any goal. God will bless those of us that are obedient to His word. If we stay the course, the sacrifices that we make will be nothing in comparison to the payoff. Stay encouraged!