Don't let you stop you.
“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”
Thoughts matter. I can tear myself down or build myself up inside my head. Without even paying attention to what I’m doing, I can tell myself that I’m not good enough, that I don’t have what it takes. It’s part of the human condition to protect yourself from pain. Failing is painful, so my unchecked, unmanned mind can buckle me in to wherever I am and tell me to sit still, lest I fail. “Don’t try. You won’t make it. You’re going to be embarrassed.”
“Don’t be afraid—you’re not going to be embarrassed. Don’t hold back—you’re not going to come up short.”
I always thought I’d grow up to be a surfer and a hairdresser. The surfing part never happened, so one day I decided to try it. I saved up money, flew to San Diego, and took an afternoon lesson. This is me surfing for the first time. I got up on my first try. I know it’s not a mountain (or a huge wave), but it’s a hill I always wondered if I could climb. it’s empowering. It makes me wonder, “What’s next?”
But I want to see what I can do. I want to see what I’m made of. If I don’t acknowledge that failure is part of it, I’ll think that I don’t have what it takes and shrink when the pressure gets too great. I’ve stood inside my comfort zone drinking my comfort coffee and driving down my comfort path, by I can always see the hill of possibility in my view. It’s everywhere. I think, “I wonder what I can see from the top of that hill.” The days move by under my feet, but I stay exactly where I am because if I try, I might fail. But everywhere I turn, the hill of possibility calls me to climb it. And so one day I do.
The journey teaches me about myself and opens doors I never saw before. I get comfortable in yesterdays’s hill and I start to notice tomorrow’s mountain. The new “impossible”. The latest version of “Don’t try. You won’t make it.” But I still try it, and I make it. And the cycle continues.
Your thoughts matter. You're tearing yourself down without even thinking about it. The negativity, the human condition, is trying to protect you but it’s not acknowledging God. It’s not acknowledging this force of love that is calling you out of your own comfort zone. You’re a created being. You’re not an accidental consequence of DNA. And your potential is always going to be bigger than the body and the life that you’re in. What you don’t know until you try it, is that the body and the life expands with you as you grow. How will you know your own potential unless you get out of your own way?
Negativity is natural and it’s automatic. Positive people make an effort to be that way. Think about what is true: God is on your side and he has plans for you, but you have to get out of the boat and step onto the water. Think about what is noble: God’s wholeness settles the nerves. Think about the reputable: Finding things to praise him for takes the seats where your worries have been sitting. Think about the gracious, the good, the beautiful. Think about God stepping calling you out into your purpose, into the things that you don’t think you can do. Keep your eyes on him and walk. Learn. What’s impossible isn’t impossible. Nothing is what you think it is.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”