It is easy to get caught up in the day to day to do list. You have your routine that you don’t even have to think about it. You could be sleep walking and no one would know the difference…. Ouch….did that hurt a little bit?
We wake up, do our morning routine, we do our jobs and have surface level conversations, maybe run your kids around in the evening, and then back to bed. You felt busy the entire day, but you can’t remember the conversations you had, the things you experienced, and the beauty you saw? If this sounds like your life today, this message is for you. You are sleepwalking through your life.
Did you Know?
According to Bob, “there are thirty-seven recorded miracles in the New Testament.
Instead of looking at just the miracles, but what was happening around the miracles. At the wedding, Mary leaned over to the host after he spoke to Jesus and whispered, “Do whatever he tells you.” This is my hope for you as you pursue your ambitions. Whether faith is important to you or not, whether you talk to Jesus all the time or almost never, I hope you will take the ideas in these pages about pursuing your ambitions and then do whatever God tells you to do with them.”
Your Challenge
Here is your challenge – “enter each day assuming there’s a thirty-eighth miracle waiting for you if you fully engage life and the people around you with love, honesty, and an unreasonable, almost annoying heap of expectation. What would happen in your life if you started doing the same?”
Dream Big & Progress Those Dreams
This next section is excerpts from the book:
If you want to make progress toward your ambitions, live in constant anticipation of what might happen next. Look constantly for opportunities to give your ambitions some lift, and when an opening comes along, be ready to do something about it. People who actively anticipate opportunities don’t just sit on the edge of the chair hoping. They stack books on the chair and stand on top of them looking for an opportunity. Try it. The view will be great.
If you want to press through the resistance you’re facing, you need to identify your own “tells” like a good poker player. To do this, you’ll need to do a little excavation and take some action to figure out what is keeping you stuck. You may have to break with some routines, identify some of the stress in your life, and get the tools you need to clarify your ambitions. I’m not suggesting you blow up your whole life. But doing something startling to shake yourself awake should definitely be on the table.
One lesson I’ve learned, though, is that sometimes the best way to make progress is by sitting still. It feels counterintuitive, but it’s true.
Any person I’ve ever known who’s chased and accomplished an ambition knew that some days were about gathering strength instead of exerting it. Make no mistake—it’s easy to confuse a lot of activity with a bunch of progress. Rest is wise; preparation is wisdom. Don’t think that taking care of yourself—lying down for the nap, lounging in the hammock, or sitting on the park bench—means you’re slacking. Stop reading the junk mail telling you this. You’re not a startup and you don’t sleep under your desk. You’re on a mission, but you’re not lazy when you rest. You’re plotting your next moves and giving yourself the strength and perspective needed to finish the course. The path to your ambitions is not one long race; it’s a series of wind sprints that eventually covers the distance of a marathon. There’s a reason sprinters don’t break world records in five-thousand-meter races. They stay focused and run their short race then rest before their next one.