Unfettered determination can help you enjoy everything along the way...

     Are you content in life? Complacent? Comfortable?

     Well are you?

     Or are you working to improve yourself?

     You may be in the best place of your life. Great friends, great job, debt free, 100% healthy, etc. But is that where you want to stay? I would hope not. There is never any reason to stop growing in life. When I was younger, I used to always quote a saying.

"Birth is the beginning if the dying process."

     There is so much wrong with that statement.  Whereas one could argue the "truth" in that statement I would have to wholeheartedly disagree. While we are on this earth we have so much to live for and when you are living your life to the fullest and the best of your ability then you can truly have an incredibly positive impact on those individuals placed in your path.

     Have a I perfected this thing called life? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Fat chance! But you know what? I am still GROWING!

     For example, several years ago I completed the StrengthsFinder 2.0 and mine are as follows:

1. Relator
2. Learner
3. Achiever
4. Woo
5. Individualization

     In other personality analysis studies I am typically shown also as a leader which is embodied in much of my top five Strengths as well. So one should think I am pretty good at being a leader correct? Am I though? Well yes and no. You have to be careful with your strengths just read this powerful quote from the great Kris Vallotton

"Your greatest weakness is your strength overemphasized." - Kris Vallotton

     So what does that mean? Well to different individuals it may have different meanings. To the same individual in a different season in life it could mean something different as well. But to me, in this season, it means exactly what it says. 

     As a leader you want to help guide and direct whomever you are leading to wherever it is you are going; whether it be an emotional place, a physical place, a Spiritual place, etc. So me as a leader and having Achiever in my top strengths can be an issue when that strength becomes overemphasized. (FYI this is one of many areas I need to be and grow more aware of.) But in this case, as an Achiever I would like to "lead" to the "destination" as quickly as possible. The problem with that is there is so much to see along the way. In an effort to "streamline" the process do you mistakenly miss out on some of the most intricate details that are important to the process? If you know anything about Lean Six Sigma you know that in a perfect world you would eliminate all of the non-value added functions in any process. However, there is a specific way to go about it that must be followed to define, measure, analyze, improve, and then control the process improvements. Even in the end it is impossible to remove all "non-value added" functions because they add a value somewhere or could be required for reasons outside of your control. I will not go into the examples from my project so as not to bore you to death...if you are even still reading! My point being that in my haste and by the overemphasis of the achiever I feel this could potentially be my greatest weakness in this season. 

     The great news is that I am now aware! To help me grow in this and all other areas of my life I have a great great God! I have an incredibly amazing son whom I love and adore so much. I have truly found a Proverbs 31 woman in my girlfriend. And over the last year I have also had amazing people placed in my life with which I have been building good, healthy relationships. 

     So with that I choose to work with unfettered determination to create different results in my future. The outcome of my future actions will be the products of consistent, focused effort in all areas of life for constant improvement. I choose to live out of my Spirit and stop living out of my soul. The mind and emotions can take you down a slippery slope.