Life: Getting Back to What Matters

As I write to you, I am coming through a hectic season in my life. Now my attention turns to my upcoming birthday and another major milestone in my life. For me, my birthday is less about a big celebration and more about reflection and taking time to ponder all the lessons that I have learned along the way. After all, to become another year older without wisdom is a sign that growth and development are not taking place. With this milestone fastly approaching, I wanted to share some wisdom from you that I have gained from the journey. I hope these insights will challenge you to think differently, provoke change, and compel you to master your life. 

1. Eliminate the noise in your life. Over the last few months, I have encountered my fair share of challenges and opposition. In the middle of all of that, I had to remind myself not to get caught up in the noise. One thing that challenges and contradictions will seek to do is to break your concentration and to turn up the volume on your life. However, you must have the ability to remain cool, calm, and collected. As many of you know, I start every single day of my life with quiet time. With all the demands of life, it can be easy to get distracted. So for decades, I have carved out this time to shut out the world and to hear the whispers of eternity for my life. It has helped me to stay centered amid a chaotic world. Do not allow yourself to become distracted or drunk with drama. Turn down the noise in your life and tune your frequency to eternity where peace, joy, and fulfillment flow. The noisier your life becomes, the more crowded your life becomes. Noise not only impacts your concentration, but it also impacts your clarity. A loud life is often a life that is characterized by chaos and confusion. Turn down everything that threatens your peace, distorts your perception, and seeks to rob you of your power. 

2. Learn the power of focus. As a mentor to many leaders around the world, I am constantly asked about the secret to my success. First of all, I make it clear that making God the priority in my life has caused me to prosper and succeed. In addition, I often name several other factors that have contributed to my success. However, one of the most important factors in my success has been my ability to hone my focus. Even when faced with adversity and uncertainty in my life, I have always had an uncommon ability to focus. I want to make it clear that focus is not living in denial of obstacles and opposition. Instead, I want to say that focus is being unwilling to be shaken or swayed by obstacles and opposition. Focus gives you the ability to navigate obstacles and opposition with courage and confidence. It is the ability to stay locked in on your most important priorities. It is the ability to push through what sidelines others. Focus is the ability to maintain your stride even in the midst of some of life's fiercest storms. Without focus, your life will falter, and you will engineer cycles of frustration and failure. 

3. You cannot create a strong life without anchors. The older I get, the smaller my circle becomes. I do not say that to solicit sympathy or pity. I just understand that not everyone can take this journey with me. In my early years, I wasted a lot of time trying to pull people with me who were content being mediocre and average. I desperately wanted them to go to the next level with me. However, it became apparent that average was more important to them than ascension. As I have gotten older and wiser, I have concluded that you cannot create an indestructible life without clear intentions and strong anchors. Personally, I believe that anchors span multiple categories, including: faith, mindset, self-mastery, health, nutrition, habits, hobbies, rest, etc. If I were to excavate all of my life pillars, this blog would probably turn into a book. The point I am trying to make is that every life needs anchors to function properly. To establish anchors, you must first identify what your most important priorities are. What does it take for you to be at your peak spiritually, psychologically, physically, nutritionally, and relationally? As you identify these anchors, you are empowered to build your life piece by piece. Most of all, these anchors will help guide your decisions and shape the course of your life. 

4. Simplify your life down to what matters. This year, more than any other, I have been challenged to keep first things first. If you are not careful, you can find yourself trying to be everything to everybody. In the process, you lose sight of your goals and move further away from the things that matter to you. I am not saying that I allowed this to happen to me. However, I am saying that I had to get laser-focused on key areas in my life. If you want to awaken to your significance and live the life that you have been born for, then you need to understand the law of simplification. One of the most important truths I ever learned is that it is the complicating of our lives that creates chaos and confusion. In the back of our minds, we think that adding more tasks and responsibilities to our lives will make our lives better. From personal experience, I can tell you that adding more and more tasks and responsibilities to your life creates stress and dissatisfaction. The reality is that less is more. The reason I am doing some of the amazing things I am doing in the world today is because I have learned that fewer distractions lead to more focus.Less busyness leads to more productivity. Most of all, fewer space fillers lead to more meaningful relationships in your life. What if I told you that the key to strengthening your life was subtraction and not addition? Essentially, by eliminating certain things from your life, you bring more enjoyment into your world. You do not need more things to do. You need less of the things that deplete you and more of the things that fill you up and make you feel alive!