Why aren’t you getting things done already?

Why do you keep saying you’re going to do something but you don’t?

Why haven’t you wrote that book yet?

Why haven’t you switched careers yet?

Why do you keep saying you’re going to get in shape but you haven’t?

Why do you keep complaining about your faults but haven’t changed them?

Why do you keep waiting for God to hand you things but you refuse to do your part?

 

I’m going to tell you the three reasons why in a second.

 

Maybe no one has told you like it is.

Maybe people keep telling you what you want to hear.

Maybe people don’t want to hurt your feelings.

Maybe you refuse to listen.

Maybe you know but you don’t want to admit it.

Because if you do, then something has to change.

And change is hard. It’s more comfortable staying like you are.

Your defenses pop up.

Your ego needs protected.

 

But can I have permission to tell you how it is?

Can I have permission to speak the truth in love to you right now?

Can I be the one that stops sugar coating things and keeps it real with you?

Can I tell you to stop playing games and just go already?

 

I love you too much to allow you to keep going like this.

I care about you too much to tell you what you want to hear.

I want too bad for you to chase what’s good for you.

Can you trust me that I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it…

If I didn’t do it…

If I didn’t know you needed it.

 

I’ve come to a point in my life where I’m not really concerned about much more other than this:

How’s your family? Are your relationships strong and prospering?

How’s your faith? Are you living it out?

How’s your health? Are you making it a priority?

How’s your life? Is it where you want it to be?

If you’re not doing things that are positively influencing these areas in the right direction, then you need to stop everything else until you get them right.

Stop making excuses.

Stop wasting time.

Stop waiting.

Stop just dreaming, visualize.

Stop just preaching, practice.

Stop just praying, prepare and perform.

When you want to get things done it takes full focus and concentration on the task at hand. You need to ask yourself:

How bad do you want it?

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get there?

Some things will have to fall temporarily to the wayside. It’s impossible to do everything at once.

Sometimes you need to say the heck with everything else and get after it.

Nothing is getting in the way.

Your family will understand.

Your friends will.

And if they don’t, too bad.

There’s a lot of things it will come down to:

Awareness: do you even realize what’s going on and what needs changed?

Acceptance: do you acknowledge and take responsibility for what you can control?

Awaken: are you ready to arise and take action?

Remember Og Mandino’s four main principles:

Count Your Blessings.

Proclaim Your Rarity.

Go The Extra Mile.

Utilize the Power of Choice.

There’s not many things in life you can control but for those that you can, the power is in your hands. Make the right choices.

You choose to live or exist.

You choose to stand on the sidelines or get in the game.

You choose to make things happen or to watch things happen.

You choose to act or react.

I feel like you should know this by now. Haven’t you heard it before? I know it bears repeating. We all need reminders. Like a gust of wind, motivation can leave just as fast as it comes in. You need to be exposed to it constantly.

You need to read great books.

Write great thoughts.

Watch great acts.

Hang with great people.

And the truth of the matter is, it isn’t going to happen from anyone or anything else. The power doesn’t come from within. It comes from the power of God—from the spirit that dwells inside you.

People keep waiting around for the secret to life. You want to know what the secret to life is—the secret is there is no secret.

The secret is right in front of you but you still keep looking elsewhere to find it.

The secret is to stop making things so complicated.

The secret is to start asking the right questions.

Instead of why hasn’t it happened yet, ask how you can make it happen?

Instead of why haven’t I received more yet, ask how you can give more?

Instead of what can God do for me, ask what you can do for God?

Jesus says ask and you shall receive. “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt 7:7 NLT)

Some of you knock but you just stand there. The door opens and you barely peek your head in. You don’t even enter.

Biblical Truth is the secret and you keep running away from it.

God gave you life.

He put his one and only Son on this earth to die for you so you can get a second chance.

When you believe this, your job is not to only accept Jesus in your heart as your Lord (master) and Savior, but to then follow his standards and live the Way He wants you to.

To love God.

To love His people.

To make disciples of all nations.

Not to judge but to accept.

Not to condemn but to forgive.

Not to be served but to serve.

It doesn’t matter what title you retain, you are a Christ follower first and before all else. No matter what role you play, what setting you play it in, and with whatever characters you’re playing with, you must stick to the script—the Word of God.

What’s it going to take to get you going already?

You can’t just keep dreaming. Dreams will get you a good night’s sleep but eventually you have to wake up and do something.

While you stand back wishing and wanting, the person next to you is going to get up and do it. They don’t have anything you don’t have.

No special opportunities.

No special connections.

No special grit or will power.

Just a dedicated desire to get up and start moving.

Who said you can’t?

Who said you’re inadequate?

Who told you that you don’t have what it takes?

Was it someone else?

Or is it just in your head?

Believe it no more.

There are typically three reasons why you’re not getting the results you want. Either you’re lying, or you’re relying on will power alone, or you’re not using your time wisely.

Reason 1: You’re Lying.

You really are. You know how many times I hear people say, “I’m doing everything that I can.” No, you’re not. If you were then things would be working. You’re not doing everything right. I can say this because I’m guilty too. We all fall victim to this lie.

In all fairness, you may just not know any better. We have a training principle in the fitness world to meet people where they’re at. Not everyone has the same knowledge, perspective, and experiences. One might truly think that eating fast-food five times a week is healthy, compared to cutting back from eating it twice a day.

The point is before you think you’re out of options, recognize that you’re not, and admit that you’re not telling the whole truth.  I always say you can lie to me but you can’t lie to yourself. We are never doing everything right. There’s always another way. To keep the power of responsibility in your hands, until you’re absolutely, positively doing everything right, don’t say that you are.

 

Reason 2: You Keep Relying On Will Power Alone.

Will power is not enough. It’s finite, not infinite. You only have so much of it and it only occurs at certain times. Extremely healthy people don’t have any more discipline or will power than you have. They just know how to channel it. They can’t push food away from the table if it’s sitting in front of their face, they know not to buy it in the first place. They follow an important nutrition principle, that if it’s not in your house then you can’t eat it.

The more you rely on will power the more energy you use. The more energy you use the more you’ll cave into those cravings and temptations in life. Think about what happens when you keep telling yourself…

No.

I can’t.

I gotta be stronger.

That’s extremely exhausting and taxing. Add that to all the other stressors of the day and by night, you’re throwing in the towel and giving up. Bye bye diet. Bye bye project. Bye bye goals. Looks like I’ll just have to start tomorrow.

You have to shape your path.

Filter the noise.

Eliminate distractions.

Reduce your chaos.

Change your environment.

You have to find your energy blocks.

We all have certain times of the day when we have more energy, clarity, and focus. You have to find yours and use them to your advantage. Some of you are morning people, others are better at night.

When you use your energy blocks to apply your focused intensity, you can get more done in two hours then if you fight the fight and try to do things sporadically throughout the day. Life isn’t most productive when you spend a lot of time doing minor things that occupy your time. You’ll find more peace, balance, and success when you spend a little bit of structured time completing those major things that push you forward in life.

Use your energy blocks to:

Prepare for great things.

Practice personal development and growth.

Persevere over obstacles.

And channel your will power to reap more from what you sew so that your habits can start leading to your destiny.

Reason 3: You’re Not Using Your Time Wisely

Let’s go back to telling the truth, admitting your shortcomings, and accepting responsibility.

You do have some extra time. Maybe not a lot, but you do. It’s how you choose to use it. Unless you’re a mother of a newborn or a single working parent, you do have time.

You said you don’t have time to workout yet you watched three hours of your favorite television shows.

You said you don’t have time to read but you have plenty of time to escape into your social media.

It’s better to accept responsibility and be honest and say “I do have time, I choose to devote it to other things right now.” Change doesn’t happen until you acknowledge this.

Time management is about prioritizing what’s most important to you.

If faith is, then why isn’t it on your schedule?

If family is, then why do you get everything else done but let them be an afterthought?

If exercise is, then why do you let other things get in the way?

Don’t take on more than you’re capable of.

Be wary of doing too much.

You’re not going to run your first marathon, start a new lifting program, and totally revamp your nutrition to a strict vegetarian diet all at once. It’s too much at one time. Try it, and in six weeks two out of three attempts, if not all three, will have ended.

Be realistic and practical with yourself.

Will power is not infinite.

Energy is not limitless.

Time is not endless.

Change doesn’t happen overnight.

Focused Intensity over Time, Plus God, equals Unstoppable Momentum (Dave Ramsey).

It’s finding those energy blocks, investing relentless and intense focus during those energy blocks, and staying consistent with those relentless and intense energy blocks over time, with God on your side, that produces unstoppable results.

My first book took over three years to complete. There was so much going on with the growth of our new business and our new family that I could only get to it in small waves. Finally it got to the point where I just knew I had to get it done. For thirty days straight I would wake up for our second newborn’s 1am feeding, give her a bottle, then hit the notepad as soon as I laid her back down to sleep. I would stay up and write my last few chapters until 4:30am when it was time to then hit the gym for my first class.

I don’t advocate losing sleep. Sleep is so essential to your vitality and the power of it is super underestimated. But there are phases and intervals in your life where the magnitude of a task is so profound, that you may have to put yourself on temporary overload to tackle the feat and attack with convincing authority to get it done.

At times it may seem like a magnificent obsession.

A burning desire.

A compulsive fixation that doesn’t go away.

That’s when it’s time to hunker down and dive in deep.

Don’t worry. Listen to what Jesus says, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)

The next time you look at your schedule and think you don’t have time, shift your mental language. You do have time. How will you decide to use it?

Align your actions with your goals, your behaviors with your words, and your footsteps with your vision. Then you’ll begin using the hours and minutes God has granted you most effectively.

 

Where do we go from here?

The challenge of being a motivator is you want everybody to have the same passion for change and to experience the same fruit from going out on the limb.

There’s a high rate of burnout and turnover in the motivating professions because amateurs get into the field with intentions of changing the world, only to find out that most of the world doesn’t want to be changed.

Only a select few are on a true quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of fulfillment over happiness, for significance over status, and for meaning over materialism.

All seek the answer to the universal human question, what’s my purpose in life?

But not too many do something about it.

Today has to be different.

You have to be different.

After all, you are one of God’s greatest miracles. He knows every follicle on your head and every square inch of skin that covers the intricate molecular system of your body that he miraculously designed and created.

No one has ever been, is, or will be just like you.

Implanted in you are unique God-given talents, gifts, and abilities to share with the world. Now go share them. To not will be a great disservice to others.

If you truly are grateful for this life then show it. Every day that you don’t is another day you’re taking for granted.

You woke up today.

You are alive.

You are breathing.

This simple fact alone deserves a toast and celebration.

If you don’t get on your feet and start doing something different with your life right now then you can’t feel bad for yourself anymore.

The world isn’t going to either.

If you don’t start doing exactly what God tells you to do, by following the call and mission he’s placed on your heart, then a piece of you slowly begins to die every day.

I don’t know what other reason you need to go already other than this, Because God Said So.

As a parent you expect your children to listen to your instructions and advice simply because you said so.

No questions asked.

No explanations needed.

Now just like you tell them to do, will you do the same and obey your Heavenly Father’s commands?

You’re good at giving advice, will you take it now?

Simply Because. He. Said. So.

Get out your calendars.

Schedule in your priorities.

Write down your goals of the year, month, week, and day.

Create your action plan.

Sign up for something.

Take steps.

Stick to it.

Don’t let anyone or anything interfere.

Put your hands to the plow and never look back. (Luke 9:62)

When you start to fade,

When you start to forget,

When you feel like giving up,

Remember there’s a God up there who loves you no matter what.

There’s no mistake he can’t handle.

There’s no pressure coming from Him.

He loves you just because.

He doesn’t rate you on your performance or love you anymore because of your good works, or love you any less because of your failures.

You’re never too old.

Or too far gone.

And it’s never too late.

God put His one and only son on the cross, to get scourged, tortured, and mocked, for you.

The least you can do is commit the flash of time on earth that we call life, to him.

Because at the end of the day when you walk through the gates of heaven,

And all the pain and suffering and even earthly satisfactions come to an end,

All that matters is that you sit at the right hand of God,

And you witness his arms spread wide open ready to receive you,

And you hear the whisper of His voice proclaim,

“Well done child. Well done. It wasn’t about you. And you lived like that.”

 

Coach Theo’s 2017 Blessing

From this day forth may you head out into the world and:

Workout continually.

Eat cleanly.

Pray fervently.

Serve wholeheartedly.

And repeat this every day for as long as you shall live.

Amen.