Ready Ready Ready Aim Aim Aim

 

Do you ever wonder how some people have all the “luck”?

An idea you had but never acted on suddenly becomes the next IPhone App or million dollar idea?

The lady you wanted to ask out but never did for a year suddenly is dating and engaged to be married?

The building or property you wanted to buy suddenly is worth 3 x's as much overnight due to new way of looking at it.

Your plans to travel the world, to live, to fulfill your bucket list are now in danger of not being fulfilled because you are in your 50’s or 60’s or later and you don’t have the health to do it.

I could go on but as I go through life talking to people about what they want to do in retirement or their second half, they say that they have been studying it, getting ready to get ready, and getting ready to action. But, it’s not the right time, the money is not there, they don’t know how, what if I fail are just some of the things that can get in the way of you having all you want! Of doing all you can or want.

God has blessed us. He only wants the best most abundant life for us. But we refuse to be all we can be (thought USA army had it right with that slogan vs. one they replaced it with “Army of One”. Thank goodness after millions spent they realized it wrong and went with “Army Strong”. But I diverge).

God wants us to make a difference, to be all we can be, to help others. But we don’t have to give up our career to do this. We can have parallel paths; we can still have our career and still be working on the giving back part of our lives. The worst thing though that we can do is to do nothing. When you have an idea you need to act. Will you fail? Will you succeed? Don’t know until you take that first step. John Maxwell wrote a great book about this, Failing Forward. I remember a discussion with him when he shared that he gave the first draft to his wife and asked for her thoughts. She read it and then asked, where was second half of the book!! He has a great quote: "If you always do what you've always done, then you will always get what you've always gotten."  So if you do nothing then you will always get nothing. How do you want your retirement to look? How do you want the story of your life to be? What did you do to make a difference?

I love what Peter Drucker said:

"One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures.  Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind."

"The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try.  I would never promote to a top-level job a man who was not making mistakes... otherwise he is sure to be mediocre."  -Peter Drucker

 

You see Drucker said that you need to go out and try. Not plan, not think but go and do.

So what do you want at work? What do you want at home? What do you want in your relationship with God? What do you want to do in the second half of your life? Nothing will happen if you are firmly stuck. I see many people who are standing still and want to run, want to do so much. They have dreams and they plan but they fail to do the most important thing. Take action. Put one foot in front of the other. Move! We are designed to be moving forward. God has so much that he wants for all of us. But we have to want it. We have to act.

So what action will you take? Will you stop getting ready ready ready and aiming aiming aiming and just fire! Move. What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the best can happen? Who knows but I know this, without taking any action then you will still be where you are today. The question is, do you want more? If so then what? Pickup one of those great books you bought and start to read it (try my friend Lloyd Reeb's Book, Success to Significance as it rocks).  Go attend that class you signed up for. Go for a bike ride on the bike you bought 6 months ago. Ask that person you have been thinking of asking on a date. Meet a banker to discuss your million dollar idea.

It does not matter what you do but do something. It’s time to move from the getting ready, the aiming, and the planning and take action. Think of all that could happen. Think of the difference you could make either in 1 person’s life, your community, your nation or globally. Anything is possible for you, the question is are you going to take that first step. I don’t know how it will turn out but if you do something then something will happen. If you want different you have to be different and take action.