What’s Holding You Back?

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- February 29, 2024 at 10:46 am #29006
  
  JOHN MUCKERMAN
  Participant
  
  A few days ago, I shared some thoughts on significance verses success. It may have just been one of the many messages you were bombarded with during a fast paced day. Then again, for some of you it may have gotten you thinking about how you are investing your life. There is a brevity to life –and as we get older, the days seem to go by even more rapidly.
  
  Maybe this desire for significance and to invest in things that really matter has taken root in your heart, but the fear of failing and the busyness of life is choking it out. We are each masters at looking the other way, procrastinating, talking ourselves out challenges. Some of us just settle for less, some of us fear the unknown. But fear is a liar!
  
  Here are quotes from two famous and inspirational men. Perhaps they will talk to you–maybe even motivate you to move forward out of your comfort zone and to take action:
  
  Mark Twain said: “Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
  
  Teddy Roosevelt said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and tears; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.”
  
  Your thoughts?
- March 3, 2024 at 8:44 am #29016
  
  alharp
  Participant
  
  I was enjoying a few minutes of quiet time this Sunday morning before going to church and really enjoyed your thoughts and comments. The quotations are particularly inspiring because sometimes it can be hard to maintain enthusiasm and get motivated to do things that end up being very satisfying. I hope your comments helps some of us “start our engines” and inspires us to go out and grab life’s experiences as long as we can.
  Thanks, and God bless ya.
  Al Harper
- March 20, 2024 at 10:34 am #29203
  
  Jim Craig
  Keymaster
  
  I love those words of inspiration. They are so true and leave little room for not stepping up to do whatever we know would move us towards significance. I often think of those words above when I hear that still small voice say, “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. ‘” — Jeremiah 29:11.
  
  Knowing I am the child of the King, what have I to fear from a challenge? How can I not step up, and move forward with the challenge that is on my heart, especially when I know who put it there.
  
  As Dr. Heartsill Wilson wrote:
  This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good.
  What I do today is very important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving something in its place I have traded for it. I want it to be a gain, not a loss – good not evil. Success, not failure, in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.
  
  Now is not the time to think about moving towards significance, now is precisely the time to do so. Like any journey, it starts with the first step.
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