The 3 Enemies of Becoming Your Best Self

 

What do distractions, discouragement, and entitlement have in common? They are all enemies of becoming your best self. They will do all that they can to keep you from reaching your goals and reaching your fullest potential. They want you to fall. They want you to be miserable. Do not fall victim to their traps and snares.

DISTRACTIONS

Becoming your best self requires work. It requires sacrifice, goal setting, and prioritizing. Distractions come in all shapes and sizes at any and all times. It can come in the form of a great series on Netflix, or procrastination disguised as a cheat day or a break. It can come in the form of holidays, birthdays, "family emergencies", and pretty much any other excuse we can imagine up for ourselves.

There will never come a time that everything is so perfectly in order that there is nothing there to distract us.[Tweet this]

Balance is important when working towards anything, but don't allow your need for balance to outweigh your need to work, stay focused, make decisions, and set priorities. Be diligent in the small and simple things, that if done daily will naturally get you where you want to go. As Joseph Fielding Smith taught, "Habits are easily formed. It is just as easy to form good habits as it is to form evil ones."

DISCOURAGEMENT

Discouragement says things like "You're not good enough" or "You can't do that." However, feelings of discouragement do not mean or make you incapable or unqualified. It causes us to second guess ourselves and start worrying about problems and situations we will most likely never face. If feelings of discouragement start to sneak up on you have the courage to keep moving forward just one step and one day at a time. As you take a step forward in faith, you'll find your footing on new hope. That hope can be enough motivation to once again take another step forward in faith until the very things that once discouraged you become the very things that motivate you instead.

ENTITLEMENT

Feelings of entitlement cause us to think we can get something without working for it. It inflates our egos and justifies our laziness. We should never feel entitled to anything we haven't sweat and struggled for. We cannot reap before we sow. Any farmer who adopted that belief would starve once winter came along. Maynard Webb said, "With sports, there's no entitlement on the field. It's about numbers. It's about results. It's about outcomes."

Everything worth having and worth keeping requires work and effort. [Tweet this]

When we allow ourselves to feel entitled, we don't only miss out on the end result, we also miss out on the person and experiences that will grow us along the way. A willingness to work and a grateful heart is necessary to combat the enemy of entitlement.

Be armed to combat distractions, discouragement, and entitlement by developing good habits, having the courage to move forward one step at a time, and maintaining an attitude of gratitude as you put forth the effort to become your best self. What is your line of defense against these enemies?

 

The Faith to be Still

As we know "faith without works is dead" (James 2:4). Expecting to get what we want without doing our part causes us to claim that we have great faith and a positive mental attitude, when in actuality all we have exercised is wishful thinking. However, there comes a time, after all that we can do when we must have the faith to be still and know that everything will fall into place and work out for the best. When we desire long term and far reaching benefits we must sometimes place enough of our faith to be still in those we lead, those we choose to follow, and in the Lord.

FAITH IN THOSE WE LEAD

Effective leaders and parents understand the power of training their replacements. They model, teach, and observe as they turn over the stewardship and step away. Instead of believing that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself, decide to believe that if you want something done right you must effectively train a proper replacement.

 Effective leaders and parents understand the power of training their replacements. [Tweet this]

My mom did this with my brothers and sisters when it came to household chores. My dad did this effectively by teaching me where he goes to find answers to his questions rather than just giving me the answers himself. During the training period we weren't always perfect or as proficient as they were. They encouraged us and showed, however, that they had faith in us by not taking over or completing the jobs for us. Over time we became wise stewards and just as proficient, and in some cases even more skilled than they were. Through their faith in us our confidence and abilities increase and they now had one less responsibility to take care of themselves.

FAITH IN THOSE WE CHOOSE TO FOLLOW

The first step in having faith in those who lead us is identifying if they are even worth following. Good leaders have the best interest of all they lead in mind. They know where they are going, have a vision of the end result and big picture and share that with you. They see how each individual moving part works together. More importantly they know where to turn if they do need help as well. To me being able to identify whether a leader is worth following would be to see what kind of faith they require from us to be led. Do they require blind or true faith.

Good leaders have the best interest of all they lead in mind. [Tweet this]

Blind faith says things like "don't ask why" or "just do as you're told" and "don't worry about the details." It discourages questions while stifling growth and understanding. On the other hand, true faith encourages questions while increasing vision, knowledge, and purpose.

Once we know who to follow, we need to trust that they will take us where we want to go. When we have faith in those who lead us, we stop trying to tell them how to do their job and we stop trying to do it for them. As a result we are better able to fulfill our own responsibilities and work together to get where we're going.

FAITH IN THE LORD'S WAYS & TIMING

Most of our righteous desires involve the cooperation of others. We can only control ourselves. When we want something badly enough we tend to do everything that we can to convince everyone involved to help us attain it. In doing so, we sometimes end up pushing them away. However, the Lord knows all things and He knows us each individually. He not only wants the best from us, He also wants the best for us. In order for this to happen He sometimes requires that we be still and have faith in His ways and timing.

He knows, far better than we do, how to prepare the minds and hearts of those involved in what we are praying and working for. When the Lord asks us to have faith enough to be still, it is our job to stop trying to play God in our attempts to control everything. We are to instead continue to pray to God and be prepared to act once given further instructions.

Being still requires patience, do not confuse it with procrastination. [Tweet this]

When we have enough faith in the Lord to be still, we prevent ourselves from creating unnecessary obstacles that delay our receiving the very things we've been praying for in the best way possible. The patience is more than worth it!

Is it worth it for you to have the faith to be still or would you rather take on the extra stress and responsibilities to be in control? Where does one cross the line from being patient to just procrastinating?