To get anywhere, you have to know where you are going. You may not know the exact route to take, but you at least have a goal in mind. If you are driving from St. Louis to New Orleans, you have a goal and lots of ways to achieve it, from GPS systems to reading maps to stopping and asking directions. On the other hand, if you simply get in your car in St. Louis and drive with no idea where you are going, you will likely end up getting lost and perhaps far away from your desired destination.
Before any of us can achieve victory in any area of our lives, we have to transition from “wishing” to taking action. In your effort to enjoy the good and healthy life you deserve, you’ll need to have a vision of your goal. To develop that vision, you can start by asking yourself questions such as these: “What will my life be like when I am eating well, and I feel fit, comfortable, and happy?” “What will I look like?” And, “What kinds of activities will fill my days?” Only when you have a vision of the new you can you start making the necessary plans to achieve it. Ask yourself if your current actions will help you reach your desired destination, and be honest in your evaluation.
God wants you to start progressing toward your goals, but before you can do that you must get a clear image of the good future He has in store for you and of the goals that will help you get there. If you focus on your past disappointments and let them influence you in negative ways, you will have a very hard time escaping them. I want to encourage you to talk about your future, not your past. Talk about the new you that you are becoming.
Every successful person starts by envisioning his or her success. We all need a dream to reach for. If you can develop the right vision for your life, you can achieve it. Now that you have learned in this book the tools you need to become a success inside and out, to look like one and feel like one and to have good health and a good life, it’s time to develop the vision you need for your life and determine where you are headed from this moment on. Here are five ideas to help you.
1. Think (and Speak) Your Reality into Existence
“Manifesting your reality” sounds like something from a contemporary self-help course, but the concept actually comes straight from the Bible, in Proverbs 23:7: “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” I like to say it this way: “Where the mind goes, the man follows.” Positive thoughts are precursors to a positive life.
What you think is up to you. You can choose your own thoughts and should do so carefully because they have creative power. Thoughts become words and actions. If we do not reject bad thoughts, we will ultimately turn those thoughts into bad words and actions that are not pleasing to God. The same principle applies to good thoughts. If we embrace them, they will lead to positive words and actions.
We have more to do with the way our lives turn out than we like to admit. Learning how to think right is mandatory for good health. Thoughts affect emotions, and thoughts and emotions both affect the body. When we begin to think and speak in healthy, right ways, we help ourselves move toward the vision God has given us for our lives.
I encourage you to make a decision right now to have a healthy mind that thinks right thoughts. Renewing your mind will take some time and effort. You will have to learn new, positive ways to think, but those new ways will be the keys to a great future. One of the best ways I know to think right thoughts is to read and meditate on God’s Word. If you allow His Word to shape your thoughts, it will also shape your life.
Another excellent practice is to create a vision of the ideal you. Carry this vision around in your head and assume the role of the ideal you as though you were acting in a play. Say and do the things the “ideal you” would do, instead of what the “now you” does. Soon you will become this ideal person and will not be acting anymore. If you have never been a disciplined person but you would like to be, then stop saying, “I’m just not disciplined,” and begin saying, “I am a disciplined person.” Where your physical well-being is concerned, say, “I look great, I feel great, and I eat right. I love to exercise and I have an abundance of energy.”
Start by doing a word sketch. Describe your ideal self’s activities, physical appearance, values, and so on. Make it concrete, so it feels as real as possible. Writing down your goals helps bring them into the real world and make them solid. Keep your vision and a list of your goals handy so you can consult it periodically to see how you are doing.
Your list of goals can serve as stepping-stones on your way to becoming your ideal self. Set goals that focus on healthy living and on your well-being. For example, “I will lose 20 pounds” is not a healthy goal because it puts the emphasis on the scale instead of your lifestyle. “I will control my portions and get daily exercise” is a great goal, and losing five pounds this month as a result is a fine short-term goal. Make sure your goals are part of a healthy vision and you will be well on your way to a healthy life.
2. Manage Your Feelings
We all have emotions and must learn to manage them. Emotions can be positive or negative. They can make us feel wonderful or awful. They can make us excited and enthusiastic or sad and depressed. They are a central part of being human, and that is fine. Unfortunately, most people live according to how they feel. And that is not fine, because feelings are not wisdom.
God has given us wisdom, and we should walk in that, not in our emotions. Wisdom includes common sense; it involves making choices now, based on the knowledge we currently have, that we will be satisfied with later. Wisdom includes discernment, prudence, discretion, and many other great qualities.
The healthier we are, the more we can walk in wisdom because the more stable our emotions will be. Healthy people can handle disappointment easier than those who are unhealthy. They can remain stable through the storms of life. But when people’s bodies are already drained, their emotions cave in at the first sign that anything is going wrong. When I was eating poorly, not sleeping, and living under constant stress, I was dominated by my emotions. I have learned firsthand that when emotions have been under a lot of strain, they need time to heal just as a broken bone or other injury would.
It seems to me sometimes that many people in the world are angry and many more are sad. Things are pretty bad when people have to go to classes for “road rage.” I have come to believe part of this emotional epidemic may be dietary. Most people simply do not realize that their emotional well-being is connected to what they eat. Thank God we no longer have to be like “most people.” Through proper education and a desire for a lifetime of health, we can be released from bondage into healthy, happy, peaceful lives.
To manage our emotions and our lives, we need to call on Heaven’s wisdom; but to have the clarity of mind to receive Heaven’s wisdom, it helps to have a healthy body based on good nutrition.
3. Assume the Best
We can quickly ruin a day with wrong thinking. Friendships are destroyed because of wrong thinking. Business deals go wrong. Marriages fail. It’s so easy to concentrate on everything that is wrong instead of what is right about a person or a situation. When we do that, we soon find ourselves wanting to get away from those people or circumstances when what we really need is to escape our own negative minds.
We need to replace suspicion and fear with trust. Trust breeds more trust. Trusting others, and especially trusting God, helps keep us healthy in every aspect of our being. When we trust, we are relaxed and at rest.
This is good old common sense. Consider the following example. You are walking down an unfamiliar street and an angry man comes out of his house with a pit bull growling on a leash and mutters, “What are you doing in my yard?” You think, Who is this angry person? and you act angry and suspicious right back, telling him to mind his own business. His unfriendliness boomerangs back to him and probably makes him even less friendly. Your behaving the same way he did does not help anyone. On the other hand, if you can somehow look beyond his suspicions (maybe he was recently robbed or has encountered a great tragedy in his life) and act friendly and relaxed toward him, more often than not he will relax too, and you will have a pleasant interaction that improves his day and yours.
4. Get the Little Things Right
Have you ever gone out to breakfast with someone whose meal cost eight dollars and watched him torture himself over the tip? He has two one-dollar bills in change, but he thinks leaving just a dollar would be chintzy. Yet does he leave two dollars? No. He decides that would be too much. Instead, he wastes 10 minutes of his life getting change for that second dollar so he can leave $1.50 tip and save 50 cents, rather than leave an “exceptionally generous” tip of two dollars.
What would happen if he left the full two dollars? He would free up some valuable time—time undoubtedly worth more than 50 cents. And he would make the server’s day. Not that the actual 50 cents means much to the server either, but the message that goes along with that 50 cents means the world! It says thanks, and it communicates that the waitperson’s work has value. Maybe this message gets lost—the wait staff may just sweep up the tip without counting it—but the generous person will always be blessed. He will know instinctively that he has done the better thing. What an opportunity! We can increase the happiness of others and ourselves for mere pocket change!
This is just one tiny example of the many ways little things have surprisingly powerful repercussions. Small things set the tone for our days. Going the extra mile for people—whether with a slightly larger tip, an unexpected compliment or gift, or even holding a door open—costs us very little and gets us a lot.
There are many other ways to get the little things right. Do all the small things that a person of sincerity, faith, self-respect, and excellence would do. Do the thing that Jesus would do!
5. Be a Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself
You will have much more success in all your endeavors if you make them about something other than you. Nothing can make your vision more “right” than knowing you are living for God’s glory and in the power of His Spirit. Whether it is working with those less fortunate than you, helping children become strong and happy adults, or spreading the Good News far and wide, nothing is more fulfilling or makes doing the right thing easier than knowing that you are part of the grandest vision of all.
Which of the five actions in this key will you take so you can develop the right vision and goals for your life? Write them down, commit to them, and start today.