For those who think that the Scriptures are antiquated, out of touch, and too hard to understand, how about this one: “If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.” How much more practical can you get than that?
Today at The Gathering we talked about how to see and seize opportunities, understanding that all possibilities come cloaked as problems worth solving. We talked about the ways in which you find opportunities using the story of David out of the Old Testament. It’s amazing how these historical references and stories so accurately describe life in the real world.
For example, for there to be an opportunity there has to be crisis; a huge crisis. David had his Goliath. You might say there would’ve been no David without Goliath. You could even say that Goliath was the best thing that ever happened to David. I’ve heard successful people whose names you would know say, “That bankruptcy was the best thing that ever happened to me.” “That firing was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Why? Because in the midst of a crisis is an opportunity to re-enter life at a different place.
The second part of opportunity is understanding your unique serving proposition. In other words, how are you able to bring something different and unique to the table in the form of a solution? We also talked about the importance of the third step. And that is, being prepared. When I was a kid, I was a Cub Scout. Their motto is, “Be prepared.”
And that really brought me to the main point of our talk today and that is, trying is woefully overrated, and training is woefully under used. Trying is one thing, but training is altogether another thing.
Trying to be happily married is one thing. Knowing how to be happily married is totally another. That’s the motivation behind our live event coming up April 30th called “Making Marriage Fun Again.” It’s to provide concentrated, practical, real-world training to good people who are trying to grow amazing marriages
Without training things become hard and difficult. Good people fail, not because they’re not motivated;they just simply don’t know how. If you don’t know how to be married, all the good intentions in the world won’t make you happily married.
Much like anything else in our culture, we focus so much more on the hunt and the acquisition rather than the possession of a thing. This is true in marriage. The average marriage in America costs between $30,000 and $45,000. I see it over and over again: renting tuxes, limo’s, cakes, flowers, receptions; all this focus and all this money on getting married and no money, focus, or training on how to be married. And don’t forget. You’ll be married a whole lot longer than it takes to get married, believe it or not.
Here is the point I tried to drive home today: the will to win at anything – marriage, life, relationships, or a career – must be preceded by the will to prepare to win. So how are you training and preparing yourself for the challenges in your life? Maybe your marriage is close to ending. Maybe you’ve even thought about divorce. How about trying some training before you give up on the most important relationship in your life? Maybe you’re ready to quit your job and walk away because the fruit just hasn’t been there. You’ve been trying really hard, but how about training? Are you getting smarter? Are you looking at life any differently? Are you engaging new technologies?
This could be your day of breakthrough. But you’re going to have to stop trying, and start training.