Potheads

My wife and I were talking about moving in our new home over the weekend and how happy we were to have reached this milestone. Then she mentioned how pleasant it was for me to have finally finished writing, publishing, and now promoting and distributing my book, Miracle on Luckie Street. Then we talked about what all we had accomplished on the plantation and in building the resort and spa, and websites that have been built, and on and on.

Some friends came over this weekend and took a tour of my new home and the plantation etc. and one of them remarked to me that he couldn’t get over how much we had accomplished in such a short time.

Many people think that I get so much accomplished because I am an insomniac and don’t sleep much. Although it does allow me some quiet time to get up at two or three in the mornings and many of my spiritual goals for the day are accomplished at that time, I don’t think that is the secret to getting a lot of things accomplished.

I attribute success to three things: Attitude, Work Ethic, and Working Smart. As for attitude I realize that this life is no dress rehearsal and there will not be a mulligan afforded to me by God. Thus I’m determined to get it while I can. As for work ethic, my strong work ethic is driven by my attitude and burning desire to get stuff done before my vapor dissipates.

But I cannot ignore the working smart aspect. Believe it or not, people can have a tremendous attitude and an incredibly strong work ethic and still not accomplish much of anything. Take one of the undeveloped third world countries as an example. Many people work hard all day long, virtually from sunup until sundown. They smile and sing as the women go down to the river where they dip water into pots and then carry them on their heads to their villages in order to water their gardens, wash clothes etc. They have a great attitude and strong work ethic, but is it smart to carry a pot of water on your head day in and day out instead of perhaps digging an irrigation ditch or saving up for a pump?

The average income is $400 a year in some of those countries. Most would say, “Get real, they don’t even have electricity and they are so poor that could never happen”. I would say that all of the developed countries in the world didn’t start at the top and no one bailed them out when they began their journey. Begin with digging the irrigation ditch, (by hand if necessary). Get a bunch of tribes together and pool your resources together and before you know it electricity, pumps, and other things will come. I would set goals to find better ways and then work like the devil to accomplish them. It cannot and will not be done if everyone has a defeatist attitude and just sits around saying, “Woe is me”, and enumerates all of the obstacles.

The real key to getting a lot of stuff done fast begins with setting goals. I hope by now that most of you are well into having defined your goals and put them down in writing for next year. Anyone who is familiar with me knows that each year I begin working on my goals for the upcoming year beginning in November and I wrap it up no later than January 15th and then I work all year long on accomplishing them in order to make my dreams come true. I set spiritual, personal and career goals, and then put them into writing.

Zig Ziglar once demonstrated the importance of setting goals by telling a story about a world famous competitive archer. This guy was so accurate he could repeatedly split arrows in the center of the bullseye while standing a sizable distance away from it. They blindfolded him and spun him around four or five times until he had no idea where the target was and he was helpless in even hitting the target much less the center of it.

The point is if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there. Define your target by setting goals and start with your spiritual goals. One of my big projects for next year is to bring the Honey Lake Christian Youth Center into reality. I can see it now, a bunch of kids riding horses, hiking around Honey Lake, having good clean fun kayaking, fishing, swimming, going to the sport shooting complex and shooting trap, skeet, and archery and best of all in the evenings we’ll cook some marshmallows around a campfire play a little guitar, sing some hymns, and talk about Jesus Christ.

Sounds like a plan Now let’s get to work and we ain’t taking any prisoners and will not rest until we are sitting atop that mountain. Okay now define YOUR mountain and get going starting TODAY! Set some LARGE goals and remember:

Phil. 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me