It's All In Your Mind

Sometimes in all my writing and encouraging others I forget to encourage myself. I focus on being of help to others while silently allowing doubt and fear to keep me from stretching out and reaching for those things that I aspire to. After reading the fourth chapter of Job I realized that in spite of how great a man he was revered as, he had the same issue. His friend Eliphaz had to remind him to, " Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence..." (Job 4:3-6 NIV). This passage helped me to remember that these feelings come about because I am human. It even happened to Job! But, staying in these feelings and allowing them to suppress my drive and ambition is unacceptable. I find myself at times thinking of every excuse for why something won't work, that I forget to focus on the benefits that will be gained when it does work, causing me to settle for less than the best. I began searching within myself to figure out when did I start placing limitations on my potential and abilities. This is not who I am. Apparently I'd let the adverse results of previous ventures deter me from embarking on new ones. I saw getting a result other than my desired one as bad, rather than different, causing me too look at less-than-perfect circumstances the same way. I began looking at things through the eyes of the 10 spies rather than living up to my to middle name, Joshua. While the spies saw the giants in the land of Canaan, Joshua and Caleb saw a land of milk and honey! "Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it" (Numbers 13:30 NIV). Joshua and Caleb only focused on the reward and were eventually the only 2 of their generation to enter into the land. Only a few will have the vision to see greatness in the midst of adversity, and even fewer will have the courage to attain it. Don't let anyone or anything cause you to falter on your journey to success, not even your own mind.