Become a visionary with your life!   Become someone who can sense things as they could be rather than just as they are.  This is a vital skill in short supply, and when you master it, you can create opportunities for yourself and for others that most people won’t even accept as a possibility.

Consider some part of your life that you’d like to improve.  It could be a personal quality, a habit, an attitude, a financial problem, a challenge with your weight, or any other area of dissatisfaction.

Since this area is below your standards, imagine yourself to be down in a hole, far beneath your potential.  It doesn’t matter so much how you got in the hole–just that you’re aware that you’re in the hole.  To get out, you’re going to have to think up, look up, speak up, and ultimately climb up.

Most people have difficulty climbing out of the hole in their lives simply because they focus more on the hole (which represents their current circumstance) than on where they want to climb (which is the goal or solution).  They are bogged down in the reality of today, and as a result, they’ll keep getting more of what they already have. Remember this as the first rule of holes:  If you’re in one, stop digging!

You  must make the shift from reactive thinking to proactive thinking.  You must stop working for your mind and instead enlist your mind to work for you.

This inner dialog, or self-talk, can and must be effectively harnessed if you are to maximize your full potential.  Harnessing your self-talk doesn’t require magic, just a deliberate effort to align your thought life with God’s best plans for your life.

To fully benefit from self-talk though, you must first understand some mental principles that support it.  These mental laws are timeless and are in effect for everyone, everywhere, twenty-four hours a day.

1.  Cause and effect.  If you want to produce a specific result in your life, you must trace back from that result and identify the cause.  The most important application of this principle is that your thoughts are causes and your circumstances are effects.

2.  Belief.  The principle of belief says that whatever you believe about yourself long enough and deeply enough becomes true for you.  You do not believe what you see so much as you see what you have already decided to believe.  For the most part, your beliefs produce your life experiences, not the other way around.

3.  Subconscious activity.  Any emotionally charged thought or idea that is repeatedly held in your conscious mind is interpreted by your subconscious mind as a command.  Since the subconscious mind cannot distinguish between truth and fantasy, it accepts verbal input without regard to present reality.  It always agrees with and complies with what the conscious mind tells it.  Your job is to convince the subconscious that the condition you desire already exists.  Once you do that, your subconscious then arouses your awareness to the opportunities around you that are consistent with your goals.

4.  Substitution.  The conscious mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative.  This means you are always free to choose a better thought than your current thought.  Be aware that you cannot eliminate a thought directly.  You can do so only by substituting another one for it.

5.  Mental equivalency.  This principle states that before physical creation, there must first be mental creation.  This means that you must develop a vivid mental picture of any goal you hope to achieve in advance of its actual accomplishment.

6.  Concentration.  The principle of concentration states that whatever you focus on grows and expands.  This works for good or for bad, so be careful where you place your mental priorities.

7.  Relaxation.  Trying too hard mentally actually becomes counterproductive.  When you try to force things mentally, your mind freezes up and stops working creatively.  Your subconscious absorbs positive self-talk fastest when you are relaxed and unhurried.

Passion.  Your area of Genius will always be characterized by enthusiasm, intense interest, and pure fun.  This passion will be difficult to turn off, even when you’re away from work.

Rapid and Continuous Learning.  In your area of Genius, new concepts are easily visualized and quickly integrated into your existing knowledge base.  The learning process is fun, and never-ending improvement comes naturally.

Strong Memory.  Facts, figures, dates, names, conversations, and key points related to your Genius activities are effortlessly recalled when needed.

Flow.  When you ‘re operating in your Genius, you’ll tend to get totally immersed in what you’re doing.  Sometimes this is referred to being “in the zone.”

Using Intuition.  In your Genius, you’ll naturally tap into and be inclined to follow your intuitive hunches, and most importantly, you will be right.

Absence of Burnout.  Since you’ll be doing what you do best and most love to do, you will get more done in less time and be happier, healthier, and much more balanced.

Yearning.  When you experience a deep desire that just won’t go away, it’s a strong sign that you may be approaching your Genius.

The “Wing-It” Factor.  Have you ever attempted something, completed it with very little effort or preparation, and then received tremendous feedback and praise?  This means you “winged it” and got away with it.  This can be a great clue to your Genius.  Just don’t stop there.  One of the biggest performance mistakes people make is continuing to wing it because they can, rather than investing the effort and time to develop their Genius to reach even greater levels.

So, how do you find it?  How do you find this unique strength God has specifically designed for you?

Think about what you naturally enjoy.  Ask yourself what you’d do all day long if money were not a factor.  Only when you really love what you do will you have what it takes to generate tremendous results.

What is God whispering in your ear?  Exercise the courage to honestly identify where you have been uniquely blessed–where you have special talents and abilities.  If you don’t know, pray about it.  Ask your friends and family.  You have the ability to become outstanding in at least one thing if you are selective and if you throw your whole heart into becoming the best.

Also, whether you are a star athlete, a pastor, or a business leader, you have a marketplace–a group of people you are charged with serving.  Your Genius is a set of related activities that collectively produce superior rewards in the marketplace.  When you operate in your Genius, excellence is inevitable and you will produce outstanding results.

You have been custom-made by God to serve an exclusive function in this world.  It is in your charge to discover what that purpose is for you specifically.  Believe in the idea that God sends you and plants in your heart–and then take action!

Consider your mind healthy if it works for you instead of against you.  A healthy mind serves up thoughts that release your full potential.  It looks ahead and harbors a clear vision for the future.  It agrees with God’s promises.  It craves direction, growth, and challenge.

So what can we do to achieve a healthy mind?  Think about it like this:  If your goal is to lose weight, then you know what you have to do.  You must change your diet.  You have to decide in advance what kind of food and drink is consistent with your weight-loss goals and what kind is not.  And for this change in diet to be effective in the long run, you’ll need to remove the junk food and unhealthy snacks from your environment and replace them with healthy, energy-producing choices.  In other words, you have to align your refrigerator and cupboards with your health goals.  Otherwise, trying to lose weight will remain “trying” indefinitely.

Likewise, if your goal is to have a healthy mind, you have to change your mental diet!  You must develop mental goals and a plan to fulfill those goals.  You must toss the junk thoughts that oppose God’s promises, and stock your surroundings with joy-producing inputs that encourage right thinking.  These surroundings include our relationships and exposures.  Are we spending time with the right people?  Are we daily feeding our mind with God’s word?

This discipline is an ongoing process.  It will require some throwing out and some bringing in.  Fortunately, this is not an all-or-nothing proposition.  You know the answer to how “mentally lean” you want to be.  Each day opens up opportunities to fulfill your goals, no matter how big or small, and become the person Christ wants you to become.

1)  Assume that they are struggling or are in pain.  This interpretation may not always be true, but what harm does it cause?  When people respond negatively, attribute it to something they are dealing with that you don’t know about.  They are likely just having a tough day.  Maybe they are dealing with a heavy burden.  Maybe they got only two hours of sleep last night.  It is helpful to remember that when someone treats you harshly, it says much more about him or her than about you.

2)  Get curious.  If I snapped at you right now, you might choose to think something like this:  I wonder what Tommy’s story is?  He doesn’t seem exactly like himself today.  I wonder what’s going on there?  You become curious, almost like you are a researcher on a mission.  The simple attempt at becoming interested in other people causes you to detach from negativity.

3)  Remember that most negative outbursts are conditioned responses and not really so menacing.  Use this understanding not to make excuses for yourself, but to show compassion to others.  Remind yourself that other people are living out scripts that were placed in their heads long before you ever met them.  You may have acted as the trigger for their response, but you are not the source.  Challenge yourself not to be rattled by the reactions of others.

4)  Realize that most stress and tension is just growth trying to take place.  No one would ever expect to build stronger leg muscles without the resistance provided by weights and by running.  To continue growing emotionally, we must experience resistance from time to time.  When we experience a difficult circumstance, consider it as an opportunity for growth.  Our response to it will determine whether we will grow closer to our full potential or further from it.

All lasting progress starts with a challenge to raise the bar, push the envelope, or otherwise cut a new, better path.  When putting Philippians 4:8 into practice and living with joy, we focus on the potential in others rather than their flaws.  This will equip us to treat others, especially those who challenge us the most, with more patience and kindness.

How can we minimize the damage from these unavoidable negative exposures?  What do we do if we have to be around negative people on a regular basis, such as certain family members or coworkers?  There are a couple of steps we can take to minimize the damage from these encounters.

First, we must become alert to who is lifting us up and who is pulling us down.  This simple recognition will raise our guard and reduce the spread of negative attitudes.

Divide all your relationships into three categories.  Label the first “Red Relationships,” and list the most negative people in your life here.  Whenever feasible, avoid these red relationships.  Label the second “Yellow Relationships,” which includes people you should hang out with in moderation.  And the third category label “Green Relationships,” which are the most positive, joyful people in your life right now plus the people you hope will become a bigger part of your life.  Focus on deliberately increasing the quantity of time you invest with these individuals.

Next, we can give what I penned the “Oreo Cookie Technique” a try.  If you know you are going to be around a “Red Relationship” person, inoculate yourself before the contact with ultra-positive exposures.  The purpose of this first “cookie” is to strengthen your immunity.  Then you will head into the stressful situation–the cream filling–with a full tank of joy.  Following the encounter, cleanse yourself with some extraordinarily positive inputs.  This is the second cookie.  You can counteract any destructive  exposure with an immediate injection of positive mental nutrition.

Life is far too short to be held captive by the negativity of others.  Dealing with negative, sour people is not pleasant work, but it is work that must be done.  Neglecting to protect your heart produces consequences that are far more unpleasant in the long run.

It is our personal responsibility to stay on top of the latest research concerning the foods we eat and their connection to our energy, immunity, and longevity.  Upgrading our nutritional daily habits will cause us to experience a quantum leap in our hour-to-hour energy levels.  This will quickly translate into more quality time with those we love and for the projects and goals that we find most meaningful.

Here are some steps to high-energy nutrition:

1)  Take the time to plan your meals.  Doing this puts you back in control of your nutrition.  What you eat should be based upon nutritional content, not on convenience.  Learn to read and understand food labels to avoid purchasing foods with low, to no nutritional value.

2)  Focus on balanced nutrition.  The primary factor in achieving optimal health is stable blood sugar.  And balanced nutrition is the key to stabilizing your blood sugar.  Simply put, this means you must incorporate a balance of lean complete proteins, essential fats, and low-glycemic carbohydrates into each meal or snack.  For example, a balanced dinner could include salmon or chicken as the lean protein, a spinach salad mixed with a variety of fresh vegetables as the carbohydrate, with an olive-oil-based dressing as the essential fat.

3)  Eat frequent small meals and drink plenty of water.  Large meals overburden your digestive system and interfere with absorption of nutrients.  Big meals, especially those high in saturated fat, trans fat, or refined foods, lead to post-meal lethargy and low performance.

4)  Work in at least seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Start incorporating them into every meal and snack you make.  Having them pre-washed for the day and ready to eat encourages healthy snacking.

5)  Drastically reduce or eliminate sugar, table salt, and refined white flour.  These are the three white poisons!  They offer little if any nutritional value and are known to contribute to a host of health problems.

6)  Supplement your diet with an all-natural, high-quality, multiple vitamin and mineral formula.  I encourage you to learn all you can about vitamins and supplements, and begin working them into your overall high-energy fitness strategy.

Take a moment and develop a draft of your personal definition of success.  To get started, finish this statement, I experience success in my life when I (or, if I). . .  Now, allow some time to internalize your definition and really believe in it.  You have to buy into it to get it working for you.

Is your definition challenging, attainable, and anchored in biblical truth?  Be aware that a common tendency is to set an almost unreachable standard for success while simultaneously creating a standard for failure that is easy to meet.  As a result, you may routinely feel a lot less successful than is necessary.

When you create a definition of success that allows you to experience the emotion consistently, you will develop an awareness of success.  And this heightened consciousness tends to promote even more and greater success in the future.

I believe you should consider yourself a success the instant you take measurable action toward a prayerfully chosen goal that you have placed in writing.  Remember, success is the ongoing, proactive process of making God’s desires your desires, becoming today a little more like the person he engineered you to become.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today.  It causes emotional anguish, devastates personal relationships, wrecks any attempt at effectiveness, and promotes physical and mental exhaustion.  Procrastination is all about making excuses.

So how can we defeat it?  Most often the hardest part of getting started is getting started.  Once you’re involved, you’ve overcome the highest hurdle.  And you don’t always have to start at the beginning.  If the first step of a project seems hard or too large, start with another part of the project.  Or set a minigoal, such as working at it for fifteen minutes.  Often after fifteen minutes you’ll want to continue.  You may even complete the entire task.

We can also develop a sense of urgency, a “do it now” attitude.  And use a fast tempo.  The faster you are, the more productive you’ll be.  Believe it or not, you’ll get less fatigued walking fast, doing things fast, and getting out and moving than you will if you’re trudging around.

Finally, learn to make decisions quickly.  Good decision making involves anticipating what the options are and assessing the pluses and minuses of each one.  And remember, it’s better to make a bad decision than to make no decision at all.  Making no decision produces stagnation and triggers feelings of failure, confusion, and worry.  It’s been said that even the best plans fall flat if you’re consumed by indecision and make no move to put a plan into action.