As we enter the New Year, it is imperative that we look to the future to refine our character and enhance our lives. There are many who set their New Year’s resolutions—to lose weight, stop smoking, or to find a new job—without a true life plan. Without specific goals and objectives the resolutions will fall by the wayside within the first month. But, it takes more than just a list of goals and objectives; it takes an indomitable spirit dedicated to refining their character to bring about a better life: mind, body, and spirit.
A positive person with specific goals and objectives will have a better life, whether building relationships or building a business. Time-honored coaches told us that we should “be confident.” But where does the manner of assurance really come from? It comes f rom your veiled, subconscious mindset about how life should treat you.
Refine your focus: Clearly define who you are and where you are going.
Refine your purpose: What is your purpose in life and how will you reach your endgame.
Refine your meaning in life: What beyond the basic norms are you here for?
Refine your desire to succeed: What is success to you? Money, power, possessions, family...?
Refine your body, mind and spirit: How can I live a better life and be healthier in all arenas?
Liberate your self-imposed boundaries: Determine what things limit you and how to overcome them.
Revitalize your confidence: Learn how to cope with anything that impairs your ability to enjoy life.
Redesign your career: Create a mental picture that aligns with your life goals.
Discern your dynamic force: Determine how to manage your corporal, psychological, emotional, and spiritual energy in order to refine your life and create success.
The successful, high achievers you most admire have had to master their inner game. You must refine your life in order to reach your aspirations.
“Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.” Roy L. Smith
There are times in life, no matter how well we plan for our success, that life takes a turn for the worse. We think that we are on top of our game and that we deserve a break at all turns, but then it happens. Our lives fall into the abyss—a lost company, a failed relationship, an untimely death of a loved one, or a damaging event that drives us into a chasm that we can’t seem to get out of. We are being refined for a better purpose. The suffering that we are going through, no matter how bad it is and no matter how it seems as if it will never end, is temporary. The only way we can be equipped, is to allow the process of some suffering. God permits us to go through fires of affliction; to take the dross, the defilement, the impurity out of our character—to separate the worthless from the valuable. He is watching every trial that we are going through and He is using these things to prepare you—to refine you like silver.
“Behold, I have ref ined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Isaiah 48:10
When we go through this refining type of experience, it is difficult to understand why it’s happening to us. This has certainly been true for me during my most challenging times. Now years later, I look back and I see things that I went through and realize that there was a divine plan and purpose for my life. When you look back on your life you can see that there was a reason for the adversity; a reason that God had to get your attention and,attimes,humbleyouwithalife-changing experience. We had to go through the fire in order to experience hardship and refine our character and purify our motives. There is a purpose for every challenge—to prepare us for a greater calling in our lives.
“What lies behind us, and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Refine your purpose: What is your purpose in life and how will you reach your endgame.
Refine your meaning in life: What beyond the basic norms are you here for?
Refine your desire to succeed: What is success to you? Money, power, possessions, family...?
Refine your body, mind and spirit: How can I live a better life and be healthier in all arenas?
Liberate your self-imposed boundaries: Determine what things limit you and how to overcome them.
Revitalize your confidence: Learn how to cope with anything that impairs your ability to enjoy life.
Redesign your career: Create a mental picture that aligns with your life goals.
Discern your dynamic force: Determine how to manage your corporal, psychological, emotional, and spiritual energy in order to refine your life and create success.
The successful, high achievers you most admire have had to master their inner game. You must refine your life in order to reach your aspirations.
“Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.” Roy L. Smith
There are times in life, no matter how well we plan for our success, that life takes a turn for the worse. We think that we are on top of our game and that we deserve a break at all turns, but then it happens. Our lives fall into the abyss—a lost company, a failed relationship, an untimely death of a loved one, or a damaging event that drives us into a chasm that we can’t seem to get out of. We are being refined for a better purpose. The suffering that we are going through, no matter how bad it is and no matter how it seems as if it will never end, is temporary. The only way we can be equipped, is to allow the process of some suffering. God permits us to go through fires of affliction; to take the dross, the defilement, the impurity out of our character—to separate the worthless from the valuable. He is watching every trial that we are going through and He is using these things to prepare you—to refine you like silver.
“Behold, I have ref ined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Isaiah 48:10
When we go through this refining type of experience, it is difficult to understand why it’s happening to us. This has certainly been true for me during my most challenging times. Now years later, I look back and I see things that I went through and realize that there was a divine plan and purpose for my life. When you look back on your life you can see that there was a reason for the adversity; a reason that God had to get your attention and,attimes,humbleyouwithalife-changing experience. We had to go through the fire in order to experience hardship and refine our character and purify our motives. There is a purpose for every challenge—to prepare us for a greater calling in our lives.
“What lies behind us, and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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