7 Steps To Change Your Life: Bringing All Together, A Plan In Motion
Congratulations! You have made it to the final step! Let's take a look at a quick recap of what we have talked about so far. Evaluate Your Life-we talked about taking a look at your whole life and taking responsibility for your past and future decisions. What We Think About, We Bring About-we learned the power of our minds and how what we think about affects every area of our lives. A Decided Heart-We learned how to get our hearts in the right place and ready to move forward with our dream. You Know Your Most Important Dream, Now What?, Painting The Big Picture-in this step we discussed at length what it looks like to actually put your plan on paper and create a vision for what you want your life to look like. One Foot Forward-here we talked about taking those first steps towards our dream, even if they are just baby steps. In this last step we are going to talk about putting everything you have learned so far into motion.
A dream without a plan is just a wish and your dreams will never be your reality with just hopes and wishes. You need to take ACTION. It’s hard, it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable. So many times I tried to leave my situation and I would do all the things until I got to the action part. Sometimes I would start taking action, but because I didn't have a decided heart, enough discipline or focus, my fears and hesitations overwhelmed my mind and my body and I would run back to what I thought was the safety of my comfort zone. But guess what? Your comfort zone is where your hopes and dreams go to die. So don't be fooled into thinking your comfort zone is a safe place for your hopes and dreams. You will never have the life you want from the safety of your comfort zone.
Getting Uncomfortably Comfortable
At this point in your journey, it’s really time to up the ante and step out of your comfort zone and actually take the plan you have created and do the do, put it in motion. It's time to get uncomfortable. It's time to take a deep breath and walk out into the unknown. It's time to believe in yourself. It's time to know that you can do hard things. It's time to believe that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength (Philippians 4:13). It's time to look past fears and hesitations and see the life God has waiting for you on the other side of fear! It's ok if you don't know all the answers right now. It's ok if you can't see the forest through the trees. Its ok if you're scared, really scared! It's all normal and ok to have all of these feelings right now and more! What's NOT ok is to just stay where you are and be comfortable living a life you hate or that you just wish was different.
If you don't learn anything else from this series, I want you to learn this, your comfort zone is where you're fears and hesitations go to die. You're comfort zone is where nothing good ever happens. So many times I tried to leave my situation back in Arkansas. So many times I would start making a plan and even a few times I would take a few baby steps. But I never completed my mission. Why? Because I was too afraid of being uncomfortable and doing things that scared me. So I would run back to the safety net of my comfort zone. And you know what happened? I stayed miserable and unhappy with my life for a long time because I wasn't willing to get uncomfortable.
Out Of The Fish Tank And Into The Ocean
Last but not least, just do it, just take the leap of faith and step out into the unknown. You have to jump out of the tiny fish tank you are living in and start swimming in the big ocean. Faith is the belief in things unseen. It is like stepping out on nothing and landing on something. You can't see it and no one else can give it to you. You just have to trust that God is there and won't let you fall. Often times we fall because of our lack of faith and then blame God when our plans fail, when the truth is we simply didn't have enough faith and we were trying to step out into all the wrong places where God wasn't there. But it's that faith that we need to have a good supply of if we want to see our dreams come true, because all alone our journey there are going to be many up and downs. Many times when we want to quit. And many times where we just don't know if what we are doing and working towards is worth it. Faith will keep you grounded. It will help you put your blinders on and stay the course.
One of my accountability partners in the beginning told me when I was scared and questioning my decisions, she said, "Denise, sometimes we have to just take that big ole' leap of faith out into the unknown and trust that God will light our path and show us the way to our destination." And you know what? SHE WAS EXACTLY RIGHT! When I finally did it, when I finally got serious about making this dream a reality that God had put in my heart, when I finally got over myself and got a decided heart, that's when God showed up in ways I could never imagined that he would! That made my belief in me and Him SOAR! I learned that I could do hard things in faith and he showed me all that was possible. Learn to see the evidence of things unseen (faith) from God in your life. God doesn't want us to be afraid, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7. He just wants us to trust in him, "My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in me." Jeremiah 17:7
When I finally got into my car and drove off into the wild blue yonder and made the 1,500 mile trek across the country, that's when I realized just how much God loves me because he had already opened so many doors leading up to making that dream a reality. He gave me the courage to walk through each door as I went through all of these steps. And when the time was right, to actually be able to get in my car and drive away from a life I hated. Isaiah 60:22 says, "The smallest one will become a family of a thousand. And the least one will become a powerful nation. I, the Lord, will make it happen in its time.” You don’t have to wait until you have a perfect plan, the perfect timing, the perfect anything to take action. There will never be a perfect time and if you wait on that you will miss the boat! And yes, like I said earlier in lesson two, God has a way of taking all the right times and opportunities we missed and making them the right time once again, but aren't you tired of having to take leaps on second third, fourth and 100th chances because, you didn't learn the lessons he was trying to teach you in the first place? Wouldn't you rather just do the do and take the leap on all the first chances he is giving you instead of Him having to keep teaching you the same lessons over and over again?
When I decided to take the leap and pack my car and drive across the country to live in Las Vegas I was scared, unsure, didn’t really know exactly how my plan was going to work or what my life was going to look like at first. But I DID IT ANYWAY and you know what? It was the best decision I ever made. All the things that I was afraid of not working either no longer mattered or I just figured it out. If you are on the fence about your life, can’t get past your fears and hesitations then let me tell you this.....THE LIFE YOU WANT IS WAITING FOR YOU ON THE WAY THE SIDE OF THOSE FEARS AND HESITATIONS!!! When I finally jumped out of the fish tank and into the ocean I found the life I wanted waiting for me there to start creating it AND living it. Now that I have accomplished one of my biggest dreams, that has given me so much more confidence, knowledge and ability to chase after the other dreams on my list! The more you step out and get comfortably uncomfortable and do the things that scare you most, the easier it will be to navigate your way through making your dreams come true! Two years later, I have a whole new list of dreams I want to accomplish in my life and because I went through this whole process that we have talked about in this series once before, I know what I need to do and I know that I can do it again. I know I can do hard things. I know that God will give me strength to do all the things I can't do.
James Allen says, “The world steps aside for the one who knows where they are going.” What are you waiting for sis? Evaluate your life, get a decided heart, make a plan, take action and chase hard after your dreams, ALL OF THEM. So until next sis, go and live your best life!
PIN IT ON PINTEREST
1. Take out the list you made in the last lesson of all the things that have stopped you from achieving your dreams in the past and that are stopping you now. Take another good long look at that list. Really dig deep this time and determine why those fears are stopping you and what you are going to do about them. Pray and ask God to help you.
2. Prepare yourself to get uncomfortable. Step out into the unknown and start doing the do. Take the big leap with some of those fears and conquer them. Take away the option to quit. Stay the course.
4. Pray and ask God to give you courage to face your fears, the ability to move forward and do the thing or things he is calling you to do and the wisdom to know you are going in the right direction.
WANT TO SEE MORE POST LIKE THIS? READ THE POST SERIES:
What We Think About, We Bring About
Labels: Bible Studies, Blog, Change Your Life, Podcast, Women
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