Chris Summer
December 31, 2000
SERMON: CARPE DIEM! Latin for Seize the Day!
The Roman God Janus is depicted with one face always looking back and the other always looking ahead. Some of you may have noticed my strange attire today. You may have also noticed the other face I was wearing. Life can be understood looking backward, but the catch is that it can only be lived forward. I drew one eye closed and one eye open. Since there is nothing anyone can do to change what has happened or gone before, that eye is closed, things best forgotten. The other eye is wide open. That is so that we may learn from our past and the experiences of others who have gone before so that we need not repeat their mistakes. Also it allows us to view all experiences, ours and others, and learn from them so we may duplicate their successes.
Since there is nothing we can do about changing the past, let’s then focus on the future. As I go through this sermon today feel free to use the white paper to note things that come to mind: hopes, dreams, visions, aspirations, desires and goals, and save them for later. Dare to dream! Establish a vision for your future. Set a goal. A goal is a Dream with a date, but a Dream without a plan to achieve it is a hallucination. If a little girl can set a goal and with her mother’s help, actively change for a pretty dress what could we as adults achieve? Don’t just speak meaningless resolutions and wishes this New Years Eve. Take Action! Replace your wishbone with your backbone and DO IT! I encourage everyone to think, dream and live outside the box. It all begins with a box many of us have forgotten. A box we quietly tucked away and forgot. That is the box where we keep all our hopes and dreams. The “I wish?” “Wouldn’t it be great if,” “Someday,” box. Sometimes it’s sealed by “I should have” or “Let’s be realistic.?
THE DREAM
The reason that box is hidden away and we stop looking at the future is that it is sometimes painful to take it out and open it, mistakenly thinking that the contents must always remain stored away. For a minute though, just imagine the possibilities. There are no limits. What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? Young or old, man or woman, black or white, reach into your dream box and lift out your future. Let yourself explore the wonderfully diverse nature of your personality. Lift the limits you, your family and associations, and society have placed on you and told you to live with. Unshackle your spirit and resolve to LIVE until you die.
You have so much potential locked up within your box or hidden beneath a bush. You are a wonderful creation, a magnificent miracle just waiting to shine. Share your gift with others, explore the boundless possibilities that exist, right now inside your own boxes. Having a Dream box full of exciting possibilities is one thing, making them come true is another. There is an old proverb: Three frogs are sitting on a log. One decides to jump off. How many frogs are left? Three! A decision to jump off is not the act of jumping! First, decide that your dream box will open and become reality then take action to make it so. The second action you must take is to find someone who will help you. This magnificent sanctuary you see here could not have been completed by one person alone. As with this service today, thankfully, many people helped put it together. Your mentor or coach will be someone who can help you open your boxes to reveal the wonderful dreams for the future inside. They are someone who can help guide you along this new path you have opened up. Oftentimes we can see the as yet unrealized potential within someone else before we can see our own. Reach out to someone and help them unseal their own box and let their dreams become reality. You will be amazed at how wonderful it feels watching someone becoming. The candle you nurture into a flame can in turn light a thousand candles. It all starts with you. Open your hearts, take a chance, reach out your hand, share your light and rekindle another’s flame. The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. A million points of light begins with just one candle. Open the box and let it shine.
SET GOALS
We are who we are. The choices we made and the associations we keep help define not only who we are as a person today, but where in Life that person will go. The decisions you make and the associations you choose today will determine where you will be five years from now. Just as the decisions you made then determined where you are today. The beauty of this plan is that if we are unhappy with the decisions we chose in the past, we can decide to close that chapter and set new goals open up a new chapter. And thus, change the future direction of our lives.
Set goals. In this new year and new millennium give birth to your visions for the future and nurture them. Focus on them, make them a priority in your life. Set deadlines for your goals. Nothing happens without a deadline. How many people would pay the IRS if they said, “That’s OK, pay us when you’re ready?” Develop a consuming passion that will not be denied.
Next year as you sit here you can count your achievements rather than say, “Well, maybe next year.” There may not be a next year! Write down what you want and when you expect to have it. Write down what you are willing to give up as payment to achieve this goal. Write out your plan for accomplishing this goal then put the plan into action. Read this plan everyday aloud until your goal is a reality. Remember, your past has no bearing or relevance to your future unless you let it. Past experiences serve as foundational lessons for future successes. Winston Churchill said, “Success is going from failure to failure with great enthusiasm”. So, instead of looking back, let’s peer ahead with wonder and anticipation of a great and wonderful year to come. The Christian Bible says “What the mind of Man can conceive, and the heart of Man will believe, He will achieve.” Zig Ziglar a very successful man and motivational speaker said, “With good vision, you not only see with your eyes but with your heart.” J.Paul Getty, the wealthiest man of his time said, “If I’ve seen farther than others it’s because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” What all these are saying is that you need a vision of your future. So where are you going and how do you plan to get there? If you are not out pursuing your own Dream you are following someone else’s. Your goal should be high enough that you must stretch and grow in order to attain it. You can accomplish so much more in life if you have a big enough ‘why’. Goals are the major landmarks on your road to success. Achievement of a goal has four stages: wish, want, need, got. What does it take to move a wish for something to a need? A dream or goal big enough that will motivate you into action. Those who accomplish great things are not necessarily smarter than other people; they are not more gifted, have better health, or have more education. They just have a bigger need because they have a bigger dream. You have to move away from what everybody in America does: wishing things were different. Take action! Think hard why you want these things, material or non-material. Think about it often enough and it becomes a strong desire to want it. Your vision of your future becomes your past. Most people use their vision of their past to see their future. Stop driving by your rear view mirror. Stay positive, forget what’s behind you and focus forward. Now visualize what you would do when you have achieved your goal. What does it feel like? Now it becomes a need. This is now something about which you can get passionate. Passion will stir your soul and provide the positive motivation and the energy necessary to get moving, change your circumstance and do something about it. Remember we are talking about your goals and Dreams here. You can only apply negative motivation to yourself. You can never negatively motivate someone else. You can threaten someone with a negative consequence but they will not be truly motivated. You can, however, apply positive motivation to both yourself and anyone else.
Everyone likes to win, if you are trying to help motivate someone else, the carrot you dangle in front of them will help them get moving. Remember though, it must be something they believe in and want greatly. It does no good to offer someone a free set of tires if they do not own a car. Belief in your Dreams triggers in the mind the ways and means of accomplishing it. Belief in your ability to accomplish your goals banishes all fear and doubt. At this point don’t confuse the how to do something with the decision to do it. The decision to be successful comes first. Once the decision is made, then the how-to-do-it vehicle follows. You don’t need to know all the details of how something works to make use of it. First decide to achieve your goals then the means to make it happen will reveal themselves.
COACH
Once your vision is crystallized so that you can touch and taste it, share it with someone who can help you achieve it. A spouse, coach, mentor, God; whomever can support your vision. Don’t share your vision with anyone who might criticize your dream. If they have stake in helping you achieve your Dream they will help guide you so you can take action. Don’t confuse an open mind with one that’s vacant
Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are unquestionably the best athletes in their sports. Both have coaches. Why not the rest of us? Your coach will help you to consistently and persistently pursue you dreams and goals; guiding you around obstacles and keeping you honest to yourself and your dreams. With a mentor’s help it’s no longer necessary to keep your Dream box, or any of your other boxes, hidden away.
Never live your life by the negativity of others. Do what you need to do for yourself and for your family’s future. What do you need with someone else’s opinion anyway? The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, to be nothing, to go nowhere with your life.
You are going to be criticized anyway, so why not be criticized for doing something great. If they are really giving it to you, ask them what they are doing that’s so great. They obviously think they have a better deal, so ask them to share their secret plan for success. Remember to keep moving forward. Happiness is a failure in your rear view mirror.
TAKE ACTION
Every morning in Africa the gazelle wakes up and realizes it must outrun the fastest lion or it will die. Every morning in Africa the lion wakes up and realizes it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve. The moral of this story is that regardless of who you are, you better wake up and start running.
Great ideas and a Positive Mental Attitude are a great place to start, but progress also requires action. The guy who achieves and the guy who doesn’t both have the same 24 hours but the former does not hesitate to put a positive mental attitude and ideas into action.
Yes, there are fears and doubt. You would not be human otherwise. Nevertheless, Mr. Success goes through them in pursuit of his vision. You can’t mosey up on success. You have got to kick it into high gear and go after it like the checkered flag at the Indy 500. Do not wait. It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action. Take action now.
Sit down and establish goals for all areas of your life, spiritual, family, career, and recreation. These goals should fall into near term, short term, and long term. Doing something every day builds a daily habit and your weekly goals just naturally happen.
Making your four weekly goals, and then your monthly goal happens all by itself. Put twelve of these months together and your yearly goal is a done deal! And it all starts with doing something today. Once you have decided what your goals are and pictured them in your mind, keep reminders of them clearly visible. Write them down. That is why you have the white paper. Researchers at Yale University did a landmark study beginning in 1953. They interviewed the entire graduating class. They found that only 10% had goals and only 3% had them committed to paper. Twenty years later the graduates were again interviewed. That 3% had accumulated a higher financial net worth than the other 97% combined!
Be specific about what you want and when you expect to have it. Know why you want it and what you are willing to give up, the price to be paid for your goal, in order to achieve it.
First, your goal should be written in the form of an action statement, “I will lose 10 pounds by March 1.” “I will…” Without action there is no beginning, just thought.
Second, the goal is stated clearly, and to the point, “..lose 10 pounds.”
This is something that can be measured. ” I want to be happier.” is a great statement but as a goal statement it is too ambiguous. Happier in relation to what, by when; how do you measure happiness? If loosing weight will make you happy then go for it. But it must be something that generates action.
Finally your goal statement must have a date, “..by March 1.” How would a football game look if there were not any goalposts or a game clock? Guys would be running every which way and would never know what the score was.
By wording your goal statement this way, you are laying out the road map with your destination clearly fixed. All you need to do now is follow the mile markers.
Keep looking forward. You must constantly visualize what you want, not what you don’t want. You want to re-program your brain for success so start feeding it success based images. If you expect the worst, you invite the worst to happen. Why not instead invite joy and happiness and demand they become your travelling companions?
Pictures are nice reminders. If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for in a magazine or brochure draw it yourself. Try putting them on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator, the inside of the front door, or inside your car. Places that your eyes often frequent.
When you don’t really feel like getting out the door, pictures of your goal will help motivate you off the couch. Something that I found very helpful when faced with doing something to progress toward my goal that I didn’t really fell like doing, was thinking of the alternatives. I could go out and put in the effort and get my goal that much sooner, or not do it, and either push back when it will be achieved, or face the possibility that my goal may never be realized.
The fear of not having what you want should be bigger and stronger then the fear of doing what it takes to make it happen. This will require change on your part.
CHANGE
If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. If you want different results you MUST change what you are doing! It is Man’s nature to resist change. Change requires energy and action. That’s why Man created the Lazy Boy and remote control, to avoid spending his precious energy.
Like the trees, if you’re not growing and changing every day, you are dying. You must make growth and change a part of your everyday existence.
You do have the freedom to choose. You can choose to change or you can choose to remain as you are. Do not cop out by abdicating responsibility for your situation to someone else. You are where you are by the choices you made. The system, your boss, your spouse, all had input to where you are, but YOU made the choices. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to the other 10%. If you do not like where you are, you have the power to choose to change. Don’t be mad at the way the ball bounces if you’re the one who dropped the ball.
The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results! Do something different. Change something and get different results. If you want to have more, be more, do more, give more, YOU need to change. To change the world why not start with the easiest thing and the best example of what you want: yourself. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Change by improving your relationships with your spouse and family, friends, and co-workers. Lasting success in anything depends largely upon your success in building strong relationships with people. When people trust and believe in you, they will support you, fight for you and follow you to the ends of the Earth.
People, when led properly and justly, become an unbeatable resource. An army of sheep led by a lion will defeat an army of lions led by a sheep every time. A man with belief, conviction and no skill will always defeat a man with skill and no belief. Eliminate the barriers you have erected that are keeping you from moving forward. Change your associations to a more positive, uplifting and supportive crowd. Begin diluting all the negative junk your old filter allowed into your brain by reading more positive books and watching less tv.
A great way to overcome your weak areas is to shine a spotlight on them and force them out into the open. If a schoolboy has difficulty in math, how does he become top of the class? Certainly by not hiding in a closet and never doing math again! He gets to be top of the class by doing MORE of what is difficult. Through practice and repetition, focusing on weak areas, they become your strengths. You, and no one but you, have the power within you to change who you are.
CHALLENGES
Use every moment you have to be productive, learn and grow. Don’t just kill time. Invest it. Read, talk with experienced people, listen and associate with successful people, and add to your knowledge and experience. Visualize your future. Do something of value.
Henry Ford said, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” he also said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Think of a very successful person and ask yourself how they would handle the present situation. If that person is a good role model for you, take that action. If they are a negative role model, do the opposite. This process will also help put you in the mindset of those successful people you are trying to duplicate.
As you begin to see your first goal realized, check with your long-term goal and see what’s next to tackle. Dream bigger. Always set new and higher goals. This will keep you continually growing, moving forward and pursuing excellence.
The next step is to identify any potential roadblocks or challenges. Facing challenges gives you an opportunity to think creatively. Once these have been identified, develop them into an action plan and devise a way to overcome the challenges. Overcoming the roadblocks will become milestones for measuring progress toward your goal. There is often more than one way to skin a cat. Be creative when it comes to potential obstacles. They often produce a result of equal or greater benefit.
Focus on the solutions to those challenges and the answers will come to you. Look at it this way, if you focused your vision on a bug on the windshield instead of where your car is going, you would eventually drive into a ditch. See through the challenges and focus on the goal. In overcoming, you have learned something that you can teach others and can also apply to other situations later. This may be the silver lining you are looking for. The point is that you solved the problem. Now move on down the road to your next milestone.
PROGRESS
It is important to measure your progress over meaningful periods of time. For example, if you were driving from Chicago to Los Angeles, you wouldn’t stop after an hour and ask, “Am I there yet?”
Meaningful change and growth takes time. Years in come cases. The point is that you will notice progress in the way you think and act and how you respond to other people, but it might not be overnight. At least four times a year evaluate your situation and see how far you have or have not come. Doing this on a regular basis will keep you on track and avoid any lengthy detours. As long as you are progressing toward your goal, you win, regardless of how long it takes you to get there. If you do not make it this time, there is always another day to try again. You only lose by quitting.
This is why milestones are so important; they give you tiny victories and empower you to go on. You can measure progress and feel that sense of accomplishment. Reward yourself for achieving tiny victories, small things that you have denied yourself as the price to be paid in order to win. And I do not mean having a double cheeseburger and fries with a Diet Coke as a reward for losing 5 pounds! It should be something that is meaningful to you and helps you move forward towards your goal.
Don’t confuse activity for accomplishment. Earl Nightingale, an early master of success teaching said, “Successful people are Dreamers who have found a Dream too exciting and too important to remain in the realm of fantasy; and who day by day, hour by hour, toil in the service of their Dream until they can touch it with their hands and see it with their eyes.”
SUMMARY
Look back. Acknowledge your triumphs and defeats. Learn from the mistakes and missteps. Drop any baggage that may be holding you back. Turn around, seize THIS day!
Face forward and set a new course. Set your goals, write them down, enlist a mentor to help you achieve them, allow yourself to change, stay focused, take action daily and this will be the best year of your life.
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Adapted from his forthcoming book “The Road to Success is Always Under Construction”, Chris Summers President/CEO CRS Enterprises, travels nationally delivering his popular lectures on personal freedom and financial independence.
