The Make It Happen Moment ® Living Inside Out

December 31, 2010

Gary J. Borgstede The Make It Happen Moment ® Leave a comment

Spring Fever

Quote: “Better undone than half-hearted.  That’s because just doing something good isn’t good enough!”  – Paul J. Batura

Recently my youngest son decided to enter an art contest at his school.  His ambition to create a masterpiece set him on a journey with his brother’s digital camera to take the best picture he could find.  He took pictures of our dog, our neighbor’s dog, and the flowers in our garden.  And then he began to zero in on the flowers.  Focusing the camera lens intently on a specific purple petunia, he zoomed in to the center of the flower, fully capturing the abundant array of lavender shades that majestically displayed a colorful intricate petal design from the inside out.  Once developed and framed, the result of his wholehearted creative effort was a photographic work of art that he titled, Spring Fever! 

While Seth didn’t receive an award for this spectacular picture, his dedicated effort gave him something worth much more.  It actually rewarded him with the personal fulfillment of discovering an intrinsic gift from God that he was able to use to capture a glimpse of God’s creative glory and share it with others.  And yes…we can do the same thing if we choose to seek God’s creative glory in us and then share it with others through God-inspired service enthusiasm.  However, as the Lord’s camera lens zooms into the center of our being, our core attitudes can illuminate one of two opposite life pictures: 1) an ugly self-inspired life expression of our gifts and talents that serves no one but ourselves or 2) a royal God-inspired life expression that unselfishly serves others with a spirit of wisdom and excellence as unto the Lord Himself.

Joyce Meyer, well-known published author and speaker, says that “our attitude is our thought life turned inside out.”  This means that whatever we think on the inside comes out in the form of our attitude towards life and people.  So if we sincerely want to change who we are on the inside and make a real difference in life, we must ask the Lord to renew us through repentance and the power of His Word.  The Apostle Paul in Romans 12:2 exhorts us as follows: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  With a spirit of faith and humility, abandon yourself wholeheartedly to the Lord – the good, the bad, the ugly – and you will find Him ready and able to change you from the inside out into a masterpiece of His unfailing love and grace to do His will!

The Make It Happen Service Enthusiasm Value: “Make It Happen” People Are Service Enthusiasts!

Have a blessed “Make It Happen” day!

Edited by The Make It Happen Moment ® Editorial Team

The Make It Happen Moment ® Living Inside Out Copyright 2008, The Make It Happen Learning Institute.  You have permission to reprint The Make It Happen Moment ® Living Inside Out, in its entirety only, and forward to your colleagues and friends, provided the copyright notice remains part of the reprint and transmission.  All other rights reserved.

Life Planning Principles

December 23, 2010

Gary J. Borgstede Coaching Corner 1 Comment

A stack of manila paper.

Image via Wikipedia

Life Planning Principle #1: Learn How To Number A Day

As this year closes to an end, let me challenge you with a few thoughts about your life.  If the average person lives to be 84 years old, for the sake of argument, you could subtract your current age from 84 and that would be how many years you could reasonably assume that you might have left to live.  So in my case, at age 44, I can reasonably assume that I might have approximately 40 years left to live, although I do realize that only the Lord really knows how many days I have left to live because Psalm 139:16, states, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”  However, for the sake of challenging your thoughts about living each day of your life to your fullest God-given potential, if you were 44 years old like me, and I gave you 40 sheets of paper potentially representing each year of life that you may have left to live on earth, assuming you would live to age 84, what would you write on each page as your personal life goals and objectives? What if you were 64 and only had 20 sheets of paper? With only 40, 20, or even 10 sheets of paper to plan how you would like to live your life to its fullest God-given potential, it becomes a sobering reality of how little time we actually may have to fully live our lives and fulfill our God-ordained purposes on earth from this day forward.  With that said, I think it is wise to learn how to number the days that God has given us by taking the time to make a life plan of personal goals and objectives for each year of our lives.  In fact, Psalm 90:12 states, “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Life Planning Principle #2: Learn How To Value A Day

I once read a story about a man who retired at a certain age and to help him value his retirement days, he estimated how many weeks he would have left to live if he lived to the average age.  So let’s say he was 64 at the age of retirement and he figured that he would live to an average age of 84; therefore, doing the math, he estimated that he would have approximately 1,040 weeks left to live [20 yrs X 52 weeks]. He then went to a local hobby store, purchased 1,040 marbles, placed them in a jar, and began removing one marble at a time as each passing Saturday came and went to help remind him how valuable and precious each week was to him.  As a result, he learned how to value his days and fully enjoy each passing week to its fullest.  In Psalms 39:4 David says, “Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.” With a proper perspective regarding the frailty of life, we can learn how to appreciate each day that the Lord has given us and enjoy life to the full like the psalmist in Psalm 118:24 singing, “This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Life Planning Principle #3: Learn How To Plan A Day

By this point, I sincerely hope that I have stirred you to a place of thoughtful contemplation and deliberate action regarding your plans for your life in this next year and each year thereafter.  Proverbs 21:5 states, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty.” Therefore, to help me develop an effective life plan each year that leads to plenty in all aspects of my life, I have learned to focus on 5 major areas of my life [spiritual, social, intellectual, physical, and financial] by establishing personal life goals and objectives in each one of those areas.  To do so, I take time at the end of each year to review my prior year goals and objectives, pray about the upcoming year, and then write my new personal goals and objectives for each major area of my life in my journal. For years, this simple discipline has helped me to live my life on purpose and fully enjoy the journey along the way, regardless of life circumstances that try to knock me off course.  This year will be no different; however, this year I have created a simple to use Annual Life Planning Tool in Excel to help document my personal life goals and objectives for this next year in a digital format.  Should you like to use this simple Annual Life Planning Tool as well, it will be my sincere pleasure to send you the file if you would kindly send me an e-mail request at gborgstede@makeithappenbooks.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you and have a blessed Make It Happen New Year!

Question: What kind of life planning tools do you have to help you live life on purpose?

Life Planning Copyright 2010, The Make It Happen Learning Institute.  You have permission to reprint the leadership article, Life Planning, in its entirety only, and forward to your colleagues and friends, provided the copyright notice remains part of the reprint and transmission.  All other rights reserved.

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The Make It Happen Moment ® Normal Til Known

December 4, 2010

Gary J. Borgstede The Make It Happen Moment ® Leave a comment

Quote: “The ability to assign value is one of the rarest and most precious gifts in the world!” – John Ortberg

One evening I arrived home late from a business trip and once again found a love note from my then nine year old daughter.  It read: “Dad, you really are the greatest dad ever. I love you so much!!!!!!  And I respect you with all my heart!”  She had given me notes like this before, but this time she dropped the ultimate love bomb.  “Some people might think you are sometimes a little off balince, but thats all a part of life.  I mean I’m sometimes off balince and so is everyone else.  You really are the #1 dad!  Love forever.” 

Amazing!  Despite my shortcomings, my daughter still loves me and thinks I am the greatest dad ever.  She inherently knows that all of us have shortcomings, even herself, and with her innocent understanding of life, she surprised me with a rare and precious gift of assigned value that is unfortunately much too uncommon in our everyday “normal” adult world.

Unlike my daughter, we tend to think as adults that we are really “normal” people, while other people outside of our circle, well, maybe they aren’t as “normal”.  Sadly, our egos can whisper to us that we’re somehow a little better than others…but is it really true?  Our pride likes to think YES; but, the Truth politely admonishes us to humbly think again.  Romans 3:23 makes the Truth very clear, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  This means that everyone misses the target of God’s holy performance standard; and unfortunately, there is no loop hole for anyone.  We all know that it only takes a little bit of dirt mixed into a glass of water to make the whole glass of water unclean.  The same is true of our holiness before God when even the tiniest little sin is mixed into our personal lives. 

Therefore, the bad news is that none of us are so “normal” or so “good” or so “with it” that we are exempt from God’s holy performance measurement; however, there is good news!  God, in His infinite Grace and enduring Mercy, loves and accepts each of us just as we are, and has furthermore provided an astounding contingency plan for our inability to live up to His holy, righteous performance standards in our own strength.  Romans 5:8 states, “God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

But…His plan is totally contingent upon our willingness to humble ourselves before Him and receive by faith the free gift of salvation that He personally paid with the blood of His only begotten Son.  John 3:16 affirms this by stating, “For God so loved the world [assigning unthinkable value to you and me] that He gave His only begotten Son [the most rare and precious gift ever], that whoever believes in Him [a contingent choice of faith] should not perish [suffer the eternal consequence of sin] but have everlasting life [eternal fellowship with God].”  With a spirit of faith and humility, celebrate the accomplished work of the Cross by confessing your sin to God and receiving the free gift of His beloved Son, Yeshua HaMashiach – Jesus the Messiah, King of kings, as your Lord and Savior.

The Make It Happen Celebration Value: “Make It Happen” People Celebrate Accomplishments Abundantly!

Have a blessed “Make It Happen” day!

Edited by The Make It Happen Moment ® Editorial Team

The Make It Happen Moment ® Normal Til Known Copyright 2008, The Make It Happen Learning Institute.  You have permission to reprint The Make It Happen Moment ® Normal Til Known, in its entirety only, and forward to your colleagues and friends, provided the copyright notice remains part of the reprint and transmission.  All other rights reserved.