If it had been a snake….

I can’t tell you how many times my Mom would call my name just as I got in my most comfortable position and ask me to get up, go look on her desk or in her bathroom to bring something to her. It never failed, my butt would be in all the right grooves of the mattress or my favorite chair, and I’d hear, “Bennie go look on my desk and bring me that red folder.” or, “Bennie, go bring me that sewing kit in the top drawer of my vanity.” Having to get up from my comfort already put me in the wrong frame of mind. My mattress or my chair cushion were going to be unforgiving and we were going to have to start our relationship all over again. So, probably much like you did, I angrily pulled myself up and sauntered to the location, quickly scanned the area with my eyes half closed, and yelled, “Mom, it’s not here!.” She would respond, “It’s right in front of you boy, just where I told you to look!” Same reply, “I’m looking Mom, it’s not here!” In frustration, she yells, “Bennie, it’s right in front of you. If I have to get up and show you, you’re going to get it.”  

Mom would approach the location hurriedly, take one look, open one drawer, and there it was, as if to appear like a rabbit out of a hat. She would say, “If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you. You didn’t look for it.” She’d walk away.

In high school, I was a good basketball player, better football player and even better track athlete. But I focused most on basketball. I had the good fortune of meeting some Detroit Pistons basketball stars, like Ben Wallace, Chauncy Billups, and Joe Dumars, while I was in high school, and I wanted that life, that world, that dream. But I was blessed with blazing speed. I clocked a 4.39 40 in a football camp at Michigan State and then again at a camp at Indiana University, twice. I was looking at the lives of others and not focusing on what was right in front of me: My Purpose; My Talent, My Strength. 

I got lucky, someone told me, don’t waste the best of that speed by slowing down on a basketball court. Rise up to your path.

Are you looking left, right, sideways, trying to find your purpose? Are you too busy desiring what someone else can do and shelving your strengths? Are you spending time on something that someone else has already accomplished? If so, stop. Turn your mind towards you. Take a look at yourself. Identify what you do well and do it better. Set one goal a week to improve upon your best stuff. Push through the temptation to look away at your best stuff because you think someone else’s best stuff is better than yours. You will quickly find that your purpose cannot be matched by anyone because only you can succeed at your purpose.  

So, stop approaching yourself begrudgingly. What you’re looking for is right there in front of you, inside of you. If It were a snake, it might bite you.

Join me as I take you through the GPS method – Goal Setting + Perseverance = Success. You will learn to look at you and what’s in front of you. You will learn the process of coaching yourself up to achieve your goals and purpose, big and small. You will learn to make you, and you alone, strictly liable for each and every day. And you will enjoy the fruits of your labor.