Some things are absolutely essential to success. My wife found that out when cooking some homemade biscuits for the family one morning. I noticed something was wrong when I first glanced at them. They were flat looking and I suspiciously picked one up and it felt unusually heavy. I took my table knife and tapped it, “Clunk!” It was as hard as a brick.
My sons learn quickly. They all picked up their biscuits and soon we started clunk, clunk, clunking them in unison like a little percussionist band, reminiscent of the Blue Man Group. We began bobbing our heads to the beat and had quite a rhythm going, throwing in a clunkity clunk now and then for variation.
My wife was not amused, but the three of us all laughed heartily. After we finished eating I happened to notice my little bulldog puppy, “Bully” outside. I grabbed a couple of biscuits and took them out to give to him. He loved table scraps and when he saw me coming with food in hand he came running.
I placed the biscuits on the sidewalk and he rushed over to them, but it was as though an innate sixth sense alerted him that something was not right. He took one sniff of them and looked up at me with an expression on his face that seemed to ask, “Hey boss, do I look stupid? I ain’t eating that!” and then he turned on his heels and stalked away. The entire family was watching from the porch and even my wife had to laugh; old Bully had turned down her homemade biscuits too.
Baking powder puts carbon dioxide into baked goods and enables them to rise and makes them fluffy. My wife had omitted this essential ingredient and thus “Bully’s Biscuits” were as flat as a flitter and hard as concrete.
I’ve noticed that people who do not seem to be capable of succeeding in life have the identical problem of Bully’s Biscuits, they are missing essential ingredients. I counseled an intern yesterday about what I look for when I evaluate an employee, namely attitude, work ethic, and accomplishments. I told her that she needed all three in order to succeed.
I want someone working for me who has a great attitude and passion for what they do. Work should not be work to someone who has passion for their job.
Huh?
If we have a passion for our job, it’s not work; it’s fun. We can work hard and have fun if we are passionate about what we do. Zig Ziglar said that our attitude determines our altitude and he is right. If we have a poor attitude, it is nearly impossible to succeed in serving the Lord, having a successful marriage, raising great kids, having a fantastic career, or accomplishing just about anything.
If we have a great attitude it’s easy to have a strong work ethic. Edison said that genius is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. Most people don’t want to hear anything concerning hard work these days, especially those moocher mentality dregs that our government wants to enable and keep addicted to government checks and entitlement programs that have gone awry. But regardless of what our fearless leaders like Obama try to brainwash anyone into believing regarding government being the answer to this country’s woes, it takes hard work and individual effort to succeed at just about anything!
There are those however who have tremendous attitudes and approach life with a huge smile and are happy and cheerful throughout the day and work very hard from dawn to dusk, but don’t accomplish much of anything. That’s because they don’t work smart.
Take someone from a third world country who carries water back and forth all day to water a garden. They rise early and sing and smile as they labor in the hot sun going back and forth to the river carrying pots of water on their heads to their garden. All their back breaking work gives them (at least in compensation) is a giant headache because after everything is said and done they only made about ten cents an hour for all of their mind numbing effort.
Better to work smart and dig an irrigation ditch or improvise a pump of some sort.
Put the right ingredients together and success is available to anyone in life. Leave out an ingredient and you will produce Bully’s Biscuits. The most important ingredient in life is our walk with God. I got a letter last night from someone who desperately wants to succeed, but she is not succeeding in achieving peace and happiness in her life. She asks why they are eluding her.
The Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. I believe the “I” in that statement requires that we have a great attitude, strong work ethic, and that we work smart and look for better ways to accomplish our goals more efficiently. We must combine that with working on the things God wants us to achieve. That means His purpose for our lives, (the “all things” in that verse). We must then trust Christ to strengthen us whenever we need it and if we put all of those ingredients together, then success is a guarantee because God will bless us! That would be my formula for success advice for her or anyone.
If you are struggling with accomplishing your goals in life today, remember Bully’s Biscuits. You cannot leave out any ingredients in the recipe for success.
Unfortunately many of us lack the most essential ingredient of all – Faith. It only comes from hearing the word of God. Read your Bible, study it, go to a Bible preaching church, and fellowship with other Bible believers; pray that God will strengthen you, and you will have faith. Put that together with a great attitude, strong work ethic, and working smart and you will have something old Bully would devour with no more than two quick bites without even chewing.
1 Cor. 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.