This success principle was a foreign concept to me before I got started in my leadership journey in LIFE/Team. What exactly does that mean? Define what it is you want, learn from someone who has that, then do what they recommend. Sounds easy doesn’t it? So why do so many people find themselves unhappy with the results they have in life? Perhaps their pride and ego stop them from learning or maybe their lack of faith keeps them from believing.
I used to get to the end of each day and think, what did I get done today? What was different today than the day before? Is this what hard work gets a person in life? I wasn’t living my life intentionally. I didn’t take the time to look at getting better everyday. What did I want my financial picture to look like? I wanted to be debt free, give to charities, and not get into fights with my spouse about late payments on bills. I needed to stop taking financial advice from people in my life with credit card debt and furniture payments. I found myself listening to audio recordings like, “- LLR 396 – The Ten Laws of Financial Management by Orrin Woodward” and “- LIFE 17 – Money as a Slave by Chris and Terri Brady”
I remember my husband posting on our bedroom ceiling how much money he wanted to have in the bank and how much he wanted us to make in a year. I have to be honest, at first I thought, “yeah right.” Then over time, from listening to our mentors, Orrin and Laurie Woodward, those numbers on our ceiling became a reality! Why listen to Orrin and Laurie on financial advice? Because they have what I wanted. A debt free lifestyle, they pay cash for cars, and they are able to give freely to charities.
Does the “define, learn, do” principle work in other areas of life? What about family? Absolutely! I defined my life as a stay at home mom, being able to instill my values and raise well mannered, respectful children. I wanted to better understand my husband so that each discussion we had didn’t end in tears or yelling. How was I to find that when I was surrounded by people who resolved conflict the same way I did?
When I clearly knew what I wanted my family life to look like, I learned from books like, The Five Love Language and The DNA of Relationships. I was convicted by the book, The Power of a Woman’s Words and was inspired by The Proper Care and Feeding of Your Marriage. Once I had that information, next came the hard part, time to apply what I learned. I found that many times after learning new information, if I wasn’t ready to apply that new found information, I would often ask myself “why?” Why did I lack the courage to be honest with my current results? Most of the time it was because I didn’t clearly define what I wanted and I lacked belief that it was possible to get that.
Sometimes for me I have a clear picture of what I want, I have abundant information at my fingertips, then it is up to me, not my spouse or others to make the necessary changes to live life on purpose. I encourage you to do the same. Clearly you are proving to be an eager student looking for information to improve upon areas of your life or you wouldn’t be reading this blog. Now it’s up to you, you have a decision to make Have you clearly defined what it is you want your life to look like? Then I encourage you to start on your lifelong journey to learn in all areas of your life and then do what it takes to live an excellent and intentional life for others to also learn from.
God bless,
Lisa Hawkins
