The Compound Effect

Do you want to live your whole life and never reach your full potential? This thought came to my mind yesterday and hurt my feelings. It forced me to evaluate my life and ask myself some really tough questions. 

Do you like where you are right now in your life?

Did you live your life with purpose today?

Did you reflect God or use the gifts that He gave you?

If I’m being honest, I would have to say no to all those questions. While I’ve been doing better lately, still I’ve found myself slipping back into the same routines of comfort. When I pick the easier path, I deny myself the opportunity to grow and to take another step toward discovering my potential in life. 

Most of the time, though I don’t realize what is happening. All it takes is one bad decision to get me off track. Because the one leads to two and then three and I before I realize what is happening to me, I’m completely away from where I want to be. 

I don’t want to barely get by in my life. I don’t always want to choose the path of least resistance. Every day I want to live joyfully—with purpose, love, and passion. In order to do that I have to be consistent with my efforts. That’s the really hard part. Because as soon as we are making progress and moving toward our goals and dreams, the resistance always shows up. The resistance is what usually gets me because it comes with tons of wonderful excuses. When I continue to move forward, despite my circumstances, then I’m able to overcome the resistance. 

Overcoming our challenges is hard. Living a life without passion and purpose is even harder. When we are faced with the choice we have to choose which one feeds our soul. Going with the easier option might make us feel good in the moment, however, it will cause us more heartache in the long run. The good news is that we don’t have to make the choices by ourselves. God knows all about us and our situation. We should seek His guidance in all matters. He knows whether or not we are on the wrong path or if we are just experiencing resistance. 

When we make bad choices we feel:

Fatigued

Melancholy

Unmotivated

When we make better choices, however, we will feel:

Energized

Joyful

Motivated

Creative

God gave us all the power of choice. We get to decide how we want to live our life. What we tell ourselves will either lift us up or tear us down. We are all capable of so much more than we realize. Today let’s ask God for guidance and then do what He tells us to do. It’s often not the big decisions in life that hurt us, it’s the daily choices we make that will either move us closer to goals or further away. The Bible tells us to watch and pray. So often the devil lures us onto the wrong path a little at a time. If he tried to do it all at once, we would recognize him and resist. Usually, the things that will help us the most are so simple that we overlook them. 

Have a wonderful day!

Candida