AN ENEMY CALLED AVERAGE BY JOHN MASON
NUGGET #7
GET AHEAD OF YOURSELF
“ Our business in life is not to get a head of others, but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by to day, to do our work with more force than ever before” (Stewart Johnson).
If you would like to know who is responsible for most of your troubles, take a look in the mirror. If you could kick the fellow responsible for most of your problems, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for three weeks. Its time for us to stay out of our own way.
Most of the stumbling blocks people complain about are under their own hats. Louis XIV commented, “ There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.” The Bibles wisdom counsels, “ He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls (Proverbs 25:28) Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you (Frank Tyger).
You many succeed if nobody else believes in you, but you will n ever succeed if you don’t believe in your mind, you mind will go to work to accomplish. When you change your pictures, you automatically change your performance.” Whatever you attach consistently to the words “ I am ,” you will become.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said , “ It is impossible for man to be cheated by anyone but himself.” Gain control of your mind , or it will gain control of you. Your imagination dictates your openness to positive direction. As Norman Vincent Peale remarked , “ Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.
Remind yourself that God is with you and that nothing can defeat Him.” “ Our best friends and our worst enemies are the thoughts we have about ourselves” (Dr. Frank Crane). Stop looking only at where you are, and start looking at what you can be. The Bible declares, “ As (a man) thinketh in his heart (Proverbs 23:7).
Be careful of your thoughts. They may become words at nay moment and actions very soon. Wrong thinking almost leads to misery. No one can defeat you unless you first defeat yourself. Self-image sets the boundaries and limits of each of our individual
accomplishments.
Charles Cotton said , “ We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war. “ If you doubt yourself, listen to Alexander Dumas: “ A person who doubts himself is like a man who enlists in the ranks of his enemy and bears arms against himself.” Tim Redmond observed , “ Don’t commit treason against your own life and purpose.”
Your word first exists with in you . Marianne Craw ford said , “ Every man carries with him the world in which he must live.” Having trouble hearing “ from God? “ When God speaks, your mind will be your biggest enemy” . (Bob Harrison). Facing major obstacles in life? James Allen answered , “ You are the handicap you must face.
You are the one who must choose your place.” Remember you are your own doctor when it comes to curing cold feet, a hot head, and a stuffy attitude.
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NUGGET #8
THE BEST TIME OF DAY IS NOW
Do you put off until tomorrow what you should have done yesterday? When you kill time, you kill those callings God has placed within you. The living Bibles version o f Ecclesiastes 1 1 :4 says, “ If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.”
The first step to overcoming procrastination is to eliminate all the reasons and excuses for not taking immediate action. Everyone is on the move. People are moving forward backward, and sometimes nowhere at all as though they are on a treadmill.
The mistake most people make is thinking that the main goal of life is to stay busy. Such thinking is a trap. What is important is not whether you are busy, but whether you are progressing. The question is once of activity versus accomplishment.
A gentleman named John Henry Fabre conducted an experiment with processionary caterpillars. They are so named because they have a habit of blindly following each other no matter how they are lined upon where they are going. In this experiment, Fabre placed these tiny creatures in a circle. For twenty-four hours, the caterpillars dutifully followed one another around and around and around.
Then Fabre placed the caterpillars around a saucer full of pine needles (their favorite food). For six days the mindless creatures moved around and around the saucer, dying from starvation and exhaustion even though an abundance of choice food was located
less than two inches away.
They confused activity with accomplishment. Christians need to be known as those who accomplish great things for God-not as those who simply talking about. Procrastinators are good at talking , not doing . Mark Twa in said : “ Noise produces nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as though she has laid an asteroid.”
We need to be like the apostles. They were not known for their policies, procedures, theories, or excuses. They were known for their acts. Many people say that they re waiting for God, but in most cases God is waiting for the. Together with the psalmist, we need to say,” Lord , my times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15 NIV).
The cost of growth is always less than the cost of stagnation. As Edmund Burke said , “ The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The longer we take to action Gods direction , the less clear it becomes. Procrastination is a tool of the devil to hold us back and to make us miss Gods timing in our lives. “ The desire of the slothful, killeth him ; for his hands refuse to labour” (Proverbs 21:25).
Occasionally you may see someone who doesn’t do anything yet seems to be successful in life. Don’t be deceived . Remember the old saying , “ Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” Lets make progress-not excuses.
JOHN MASON
AUTHOR