The Power That You Might Not Be Using: Purpose Driven Life (PDL) Insights (Part 17)
The Power That You Might Not Be Using: Purpose Driven Life (PDL) Insights (Part 17)
The Purpose Driven Life is something
that takes a lot of resolve and determination. Even though it is something that
works around what is already in us, maximising on our strengths, gifts,
passions and what we love and enjoy doing and the environment we live is
naturally not conducive to nurture uniqueness. The environment is designed to
knock and discourage anyone who wants to stand out in their uniqueness. It
takes a lot of inner strength to walk out from a crowd and live a life that no
one has lived. Even though our PDL paths have so much to learn from others, at
the end of the day they are unique and need us to be driven more from inside
than outside.
This introduces an important aspect
necessary to success in any area of life. It is called Personal Power. There is
so much that we can get from our environment, from learning, training, mentors,
coaches and even God but all this can only be put to effectiveness according to
our personal power. Several times because we are not aware of the power we
carry and the part that it plays in shaping our future we don’t use this power.
John Kehoe in His book, ‘Mind Power’, posits that,
‘Our inner world reacts constantly and
because we spend all our time simply reacting, we never experience our power.
Ironically you begin creating your own reality the minute you cease constantly
to react to the so called reality.’
The Purpose Driven Life (PDL) needs
you to be constantly aware of your personal power and constantly putting it to
use. The issue of personal power encompasses many aspects and cannot be comprehensively
discussed but I will pick some of its aspects that I believe carry a critical
role in the pursuit of purpose and meaning to life. These aspects to be
discussed include, identity, choices, responsibilities, self-awareness and
mental intelligences (instincts included).
Personal Identity
The first aspect of our personal power
to be discussed is one’s personal identity. As said in the last discussion,
‘you cannot outperform your self-concept,’ how we see ourselves is very
crucial. Sometimes your purpose will take you to the humblest of societies or
environments to do what many may look down upon. Without a good self-concept,
you might overlook the purpose thinking that it is despised. Jesus’ purpose
meant he had to serve and demonstrate it with very humble gestures and personal
power in the form of self-concept helped him as demonstrated by the following
words.
Jesus knew that the Father had put him
in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back
to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an
apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the
disciples, drying them with his apron. [John 13:3-5, THE MESSAGE Bible]
Jesus, the king of Kings, God in the
flesh washed the dirty feet of the disciples because he was so secure in His
identity as revealed in the text. Insecurity is one of the major stumbling
blocks to purpose in Africa. The long dark history has resulted in a people
with poor self-concept and so much insecurity. We see insecurity in the
Ministers of Religion or the politicians and the majority of the populace in
the decisions, behaviour and actions. The Kingdom of God has the best ingredients
to develop personal power and help us overcome insecurity because it gives us
an identity in God as the actual sons of God.
The word identifies as having the
righteousness of God which someone has defined as the capacity to stand in the
presence of God without any sense of fear, guilt, inferiority or unworthiness
and also stand in the presence of the devil, evil, challenges with a sense of
superiority and mastery. One who has their identity in God has personal power
to pursue their purposes.
Power to Choose
When you are in a position where you
think you have no choice to make, you still have a choice not to think that
way. – Coach Tarie: The Wisdom Garden (Volume 1)
Personal Power for fruitful and
purposeful lives is also seen in the aspect of volition or the power of choice.
Dr Mike Murdock talks about decisions a lot and the principle is captured in
this phrase he uses, ‘Decisions decide destiny’. If you are to walk the PDL path,
then you are guaranteed that there will be tough decisions to be made.
Decisions to walk away from popular thinking. Decisions to be you when the
system is pulling you to fit in. You
cannot allow your friends, pastor, parents, the economy, financial status,
educational qualifications or any other force to make decisions for you.
Most people have the right to choose
but have surrendered the power to others. The power to choose is a product
firstly of your self-concept then the kind of knowledge you have. Some people
because of low self-esteem or oppressive environments have handed the power to
choose to their friends, spouses, parents, relatives, environment and also
leaders. The media, entertainment, advertising and marketing world to a greater
extent have taken our power to choose. Do you choose a spouse you want or its
society that does it for you? Did you go for the spectacular and significant
job that is esteemed by society or you followed your passions? Are you choosing
status over conviction? It is when you receive perfect unconditional love that
your self-concept becomes healthy and it is this that restores your personal
power.
Brian Tracy in his Audio Book the
Psychology of success talks of the two keys to success the first of which being
making a decision to be successful. Have you at any time got to a moment that
you consciously made a decision that you wanted to be successful and committed
to do all that is required to succeed. The Purpose Driven Life comes with a
price to be paid and the price cannot be paid by those who are not ready to
make important decisions. One once said, if you are taking time to make a
decision you have made a decision to live with the status quo. Indecision is a
decision.
Who and where we are is just the
summation of the decisions we have made and the quality of our lives is directly
proportional to the quality of our choices.
If you do not have the guts to make your decisions, then others or the system
of this world will do it for you, if they have not already done so. YOU ARE A DECISION AWAY FROM WHERE YOU CAN
BE- Coach Tarie: The Wisdom Garden (Volume 1)
Responsibility
The world is full of people who deny
responsibility for the status quo and put it on others, but those who take it
have the grip to change the world – Coach Tarie: The Widom Garden (Volume 1)
Personal power is also realised in the
acceptance of responsibility. Who is responsible for where you are at the
moment? Most people do not realise the impact of failing to accept
responsibility over their lives. Research has shown that most of the negative
emotions that we have that hinder us from realising our dreams are a result of
failure to accept responsibility for our lives and the outcomes that we get.
Denial of responsibility manifests itself in the blame game. We often blame
others, surroundings or past experiences for our failures and this makes us
fearful, worrisome, sceptical, judgemental, angry, insecure and bitter. These
feelings become evident because we have enough justifications and explanations
to why we are entitled to have them.
The opposite is true when we accept
responsibility for our lives and outcomes.
The more responsibility that you take on, the more in control you are
likely to feel and the more in control you feel, the healthier the internal
conversations that you have and the more resourceful the state of mind you will
have. When you feel completely free you make better decisions and you are
better positioned to do more of the things that you would want to do.
Blame gives us justifications for our
failures and this cripples us to taking the necessary actions to be taken. It
also kills our creativity by putting the inner genius that is in every one of
us to rest. Think of it this way, have you ever accepted a responsibility to do
something that is bigger than your comfort zone like giving a speech in public?
Consider how your mind begins to function and the ideas that begin to come as
you think of producing the best in the presentation or activity. A lot of
potential that you had not thought of is put to action and in the end we are
usually surprised of what we could do that we were not aware of. This is the
case with all the challenges and tasks that we tackle after accepting
responsibility for them.
Success is for those who take
different responsibilities and success in fulfilling your purpose is not an
exception. Who is responsible for your success in school? If you think it’s the
teacher, you will justify your failure according to whether the teacher was
there or not and whether they were good or not. Someone however succeeds in the
same environment because they choose not to surrender responsibility to anyone. Many people create opportunities for
elevation in life by taking responsibilities that others are not willing to
take. Look at those who are elevated in the home, in church in the workplace,
it is those who are ready to take responsibility or have taken it.
Your influence is as big as the
responsibility that you assume to be yours. Jesus of Nazareth, the saviour of
the world took responsibility for the destiny of all humanity and to bear their
sins on the cross. God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above
every name, [Philippians 2:9 NIV]. The world changers of today have
chosen to take responsibilities that are beyond their own small private lives.
Some assume responsibility over their own families and you know nothing of them
but those who have gone beyond their families are the ones who need no
introduction. How big is the responsibility that you are willing to take that will
bring happiness on others? Use your gifts, skills, talents, abilities,
education, time, money and all other resources that you have to take
responsibility. Begin to take responsibility today.
There are many things that many do not think
are their responsibilities because of who they think they are not, many
discovered who they were after taking responsibilities that no one was willing
to take and in most cases they were not willing to take also from the onset –
Coach Tarie: The Wisdom Garden (Volume 1)
Africa is not developing not because
of shortage of skills, but because people are not willing to take
responsibilities that they can take. Some will not use what they have because
they are not being paid for it or no one is recognising them. I was challenged
by this example in one article that I came across, a teacher will live with an
uneducated maid, a medical practitioner will never attempt to help the needy
around because they are not paid for it. Many have taken responsibilities for
things that they were not paid for and made a difference that was later
rewarded because they just chose to take responsibility. The Purpose Driven
Life usually starts that way. Take any responsibility that follows your
passion, expresses your values, uses your gifts and skills and captures your
instincts and you will be surprised by the meaning you get, the influence you
will have and the rewards that you will have in the long run.
Self-Awareness
The fourth aspect of personal power
that is necessary in The Purpose Driven Life is self-awareness. The human being
is the only living creature that lives their life on earth with this special
gift because all other creatures on earth live by instinct only. I describe it as the
ability to get out of ourselves and look at our lives at a distance. We can
look at our lives from a distance and understand where we are and be able to
make decisions whether we would want to stay there or not. We can be aware of
our thoughts, desires, feelings, circumstances, results and separate ourselves
from them and chose what we can do about them. We have this gift in seed form
and we can choose to pick it up and use it for our good in the PDL.
We
can look at our lives from a distance and identify our values, passions,
desires, inclinations, strengths, weaknesses, potential and decide what to do
with that. It is this awareness that will then work with the earlier identified
aspect of personal power of choice. Our self-awareness works in close ties with
the final aspect of personal power that will be discussed in this insight of
thinking.
Thinking.
Our
personal power is captured in the fact that we all have intellect or the power
to think. The system of the world and the unresourceful segment of religion
works so hard to stop people from thinking. Many people will do all that is
possible and occupy themselves with many different think so that they will move
away from thinking.
The
Purpose Driven Life (PDL) requires one to be able to use their creative faculty
of thinking so much. The universe works by a principle of sowing and reaping. A
full purpose driven life is a harvest and to get it there are decisions that
have to be made and worthwhile activities to be done. This requires a whole lot
of thinking. We are supposed to create the outcomes that we see fit for the
responsibilities that we take and we create these solutions by using our
imaginations. Imagining something better than the status quo and thinking
through how to get there are key processes in the PDL.
After
realising the responsibilities that are ours to take to solve our problems and
other people’s problems, we use our imagination to build them. The PDL will
require you to think and this thinking comes in different dimensions that
include, thinking big, thinking creatively, strategically and critically.
Society
has sometimes crippled us to think that someone is responsible for making our
lives better. This is not the case if you are to fulfil your purpose. The
Unresourceful side of religion has not empowered people to use their personal
power as many think God will do everything for them. God is ready to work with
you in fulfilling your purpose but he is limited by how much of your personal
power you are ready to use. This is seen in one of the most commonly quoted
scriptures in the bible.
Now to Him
who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by
Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. [Ephesians 3:20-21] NKJV
God
is able to make our lives so purposeful,
influential and fruitful but he will only do so according to the power working
in us. This power includes the Holy Spirit who is at work in every born again
believer but not only limited to that. The power working in us also include our
personal power as the Holy Spirit lives in us to work with some of the
discussed aspects of this personal power. He works with our self-concept that
has an impact on our decisions. He cannot choose for us but can only influence
our choices. Once the PDL is presented to us we make the decisions, accept or
reject the responsibilities presented to us and choose to actively take the
right actions by engaging our thoughts and imagination. Personal power is a
prerequisite to the Purpose Driven Living and let us see how best we can
activate and harness it.
Humility, temperament, meekness and
self-control are valuable virtues for success because they reflect an ability
to harness ourselves; the only power that we can use is only the power that we
have managed to harness. Coach Tarie: The Wisdom Garden (Volume 1)
Look for more insights on the PDL on www.coachtarie.com or
request to be added on the PURPOSE DRIVEN LIVING (PDL) WhatsApp group. Inbox
any of the following numbers. +263773301267, +263783573784, +263784456314,
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