The Joy Is in the Journey

“I have come that they may have life…to the full.”              Jn 10:10 NIV

Sometimes when we achieve the things we strive for, we find they’re not very fulfilling. As we look back we realize that our greatest joy was not in the goal we reached, but in the growth we experienced on the way to it. Scientist Koichi Tanaka describes this phenomenon and how it can come about during the enjoyable pursuit of a dream. As he worked on trying to create an ion with lasers, he says: “I failed for weeks and months before I succeeded in making an ion. Why did I continue the experiment? Because I enjoyed it. It was fun for me to come to know something that I had never known before, and that fun enabled me to persist.” That persistence helped him to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry. You have the potential to make many wonderful discoveries in life, and none greater than what you discover about God, and yourself.

One leadership expert writes: “The pursuit of my dream has taken me out of my comfort zone, elevated my thinking, given me confidence, and confirmed my sense of purpose. My pursuit of the dream and my personal growth have become so intertwined that I now ask myself, ‘Did I make the dream, or did the dream make me?’ When your mind accepts a new idea or learns a new truth, it’s forever changed. And once stretched, it takes on a new shape and never goes back to its original form. When that happens, you experience true fulfillment. No wonder children’s book author Elizabeth Coatsworth said, ‘When I dream, I am ageless.’”

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/the-joy-is-in-the-journey/

Sharing Your Dream (3)

“Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”                                 2Ki 6:17 NIV

Fourth, you must share your dream visually. Only when people “see it,” will they buy into it. People are in search of significance; they want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. Author Studs Terkel observed: “Most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us…have jobs that are too small for our spirit.” When a dream is truly great, it benefits everyone. Your job is to help people see what those benefits are. You need to help them connect with the opportunities for achieving personal growth, finding fulfillment, and increasing their self-esteem. You need to provide them with every reason you have for joining. If you can’t offer them plenty of legitimate reasons for doing so, then you have no business trying to recruit them in the first place. Will this be easy? No, it never is. Even people who say they desire a dream often don’t want it. What they want is the result of the dream, not the price required to achieve it. Look at all the TV commercials for diets. People see before and after pictures, and they want the “after.” But if you live your dream, practice integrity, and achieve a degree of success, people will see what the dream has done for you and that will make them want it too. How will you know when you have successfully shared your dream with someone else? Because they will take ownership of it, add to it, and want to make it even bigger and better. When that happens, your dream becomes bigger than you or your team.

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/1216/