Today’s question is:
Are you REALLY taking full advantage of the opportunity that life is offering you today?

Do you realize that life IS an opportunity?

Well those are two questions right? But they are very valid ones, and your answers will lead you to a life changing experience.

If you read What Does Each Day Mean To You? you will have already begun to consider the importance of taking advantage of the opportunities that each day brings.

How can you really live life to the full?
Isn’t it true that so often it is not until you are in danger of losing something in life that you actually fully recognize it’s real value?

Have you ever wondered why so often it is not until we face a near death experience or a similar severe challenge in life that recognize what a precious gift life really is?

So often we do not really recognize that life is an opportunity because:

1. We get busy with the daily routines and forget to look at the big picture.

Solution: Schedule at least 15 minutes EVERY day to spend time alone reflecting on all of the things you enjoy in life. Give thanks for each one.

It is so easy to take the good things that you enjoy in life for granted. And when that happens you don’t even realize just how many things you DO enjoy every day.

2. We are overcome with fear and doubt.

Solution: Recognize that fear will destroy your life and cloud your perspective of everything you do. It will stop you from REALLY enjoying anything in life.

Once you recognize the presence of fear, start to DISPLACE it with faith. You cannot get rid of a negative emotion or attitude in your life by focusing on it. You need to start intentially and deliberately focusing on the very opposite attitude.

Read: Fear Is A Developed Habit

Yes, fear is a developed habit and so to reverse this habit it will take daily focused action. What kind of action? Deliberately focus on positive solutions in every area of your life.

3. Our life dreams are frustrated.

I have left the best for the last

Solution:
Did you know that you were born with the seed of your destiny in your heart? This destiny includes your dreams, your passions and aspirations in life. It also includes a deep desire for a relationship with the Living God.

There are two major areas of life that are deeply connected with your dreams and your COMPLETE sense of purpose in life:

a. Relationship with God.
Yes I believe the Bible and the simple Gospel of abundant life in Christ. Without this relationship with God through Christ, no matter what level of success you rise to in life, there will always be a deep nagging emptiness in your heart. It won’t go away no matter what you try to fill it UNLESS you decide to follow Jesus. (Read John 1:12 and John 3:1-23 in the Bible).

b. Fulfillment of your destiny (or WHY = life’s dreams and purpose).
You will never be fully satisfied in life either until you are working towards your dream and then living it. We will be discussing this more in future articles on this blog. Meanwhile, I highly recommend you get this CD Find Your Why Now. See below under the resources section for more information.

Life is an opportunity – are you fully benefiting from it?

Resources:
Fear Is Wrongly Focused Faith,
Worry is wrong meditation
Find Your Why Now (Don’t miss this tremendous opportunity to get hold of a great CD plus several mp3s that will really change your life).

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For many years I have thought and taught that the emotion that drives people to want to control others is insecurity. However much of my recent studies and research has led me to an interesting discovery.

Let’s consider the following question:
How is an insecure person most likely to react when they are faced with a situation that challenges their security? The reflex action is often to try and change the situation right?

If you are faced with a situation that you find yourself instantly trying to change, what emotion do you think is is driving that reaction?

Insecurity? Or could it be a little panic (fear)? I think the latter, what do you think?

An insecure person does not like change in their lives right?

So what is it they will fear the most? Change!

The driving motivation for all of your negative actions and reactions:
The more I study, observe and learn about the driving motivation for our actions and reactions, the more I understand that fear is the main root to ALL of your and my negative actions and reactions.

For example: an insecure person wants to control others (and situations) so that they can feel secure. Why do they have such a need to feel secure? Because they fear change.

How can they feel secure? By avoiding change (or trying to). They achieve that by controlling situations and people.

Another apparent reason for controlling others is lost identity. Many folk seek to find their identity in those around them.

This situation is very often found in families where the parents try to find their identity in their children. They insist on their child being a doctor, lawyer or salesperson because this is what THEY wanted to do and they never “had the opportunity” to fulfill it.

These folk fear they have lost their opportunity to fulfill their identity and now they want to make sure the same does not happen to their children. In their zeal, they overlook the fact that their child may not be called to be a doctor, lawyer or salesperson. So a great pressure of control is applied to the child’s life.

Can you see that the more you explore the roots of your reactions, actions and attitudes, the more you will discover that the negative ones are all rooted in fear, just as the positive reactions, actions and attitudes are rooted in faith?

We can certainly conclude by affirming that your life is build on ONE of two main foundations.

When you live in FAITH, then you will have the courage to discover and fulfill your OWN identity. And, by the way, it is NEVER too late to do that!

If you build your life on fear then you will be plagued with insecurity, anger and a host of other negative emotions. You may even find yourself trying to control others around you in an attempt to discover your own identity and security.

But real security and true identity is found in finding and fulfilling YOUR own destiny.

Which foundation do you choose to build your life on? (See the article Daily Decisions Build Faith Or Fear) If you have not read this article, please go and read it now.

Which foundation are you building in your life today? (Remember, it is decision plus ACTION that leads to results).

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A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given a chance.

This quote came inside of the proverbial fortune cookie, but what was written was NOT a fortune prediction, but a statement of wisdom.

Now notice I used the word “seed”. Yes you have always had your dreams in your heart, but it is very possible that you did not recognize them until later in life. Why? Because they were only little seeds.

What do you do with a seed? Plant it – right? Then you nurture it with water and sunshine until it fully matures. Once it is a mature plant it can be harvested and enjoyed.

• What would happen if the seed was never planted?
• What would happen if the seed never received any water or there was no goodness in the ground?

Remember the parable of the sower and the seed? There were four kinds of ground where the seed fell as the sower sowed.

• The hard ground - where everyone tramples through the field and made a hard path.
• The stony ground which was not too good either for the seeds to be able to grow. They can’t take root because of the stones.
• The thorny ground. That one was a disaster. Both the good seed and the weeds grew but the weeds grew more and choked the good plants.
• The good ground where the seed could grow into a health plant.

We could write a book on this!

The hard ground that is full of negative words, thoughts and negative attitudes such as resentment, anger, fear and even violence?

The stony ground which has a good measure of the same kind of atmosphere as the hard ground. The difference is there are at least some positive words and attitudes, but not enough for a health plant to grow.

The thorny ground. Oh my, this one is a mess! Both the good seed and the seeds of the weed grow together. But the weeds end up choking the good plants. Not a pretty sight.

This ground illustrates a person who tries to straddle both the negative and positive sides of life. They just don’t mix!

The good ground of course illustrates a person who is dedicated to making sure that their life is like the good ground.

So the moral of this story is:

This means that you empower your dream and allow it to be fulfilled or you hinder it and allow it to die.

Are you giving your dream a chance to triumph?