Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
It is hard to believe, but I turn 60 tomorrow. Life goes by pretty fast. I have learned a few things in my 60 years, mostly the hard way. Here are a few I wish I had learned when I was 20 years old.
1. Have a plan, but hold it with open hands and be prepared to change it regularly.
Having a plan is good for providing structure and focus, but life never really follows a plan. There are always unexpected twists and turns in our paths and no plan ever accounts for how you grow and change as you move through life. So, have a plan, but only use it as a rough road guide for your life. Don’t serve your plan let it serve you.
2. Be who you really are all the time.
Never look at another person and desire to be him or her. There is just one of them and there is just one you. It is true you will bring different aspects of yourself to your work, school, and church versus at home or with friends, but be your real self all the time. Don’t adopt personas. Find out what is truly important to you and live that as honestly as you can. Make your most important life choices based on who you really are. Don’t put yourself in a position where you have to be an actor. You will fail.
3. Be teachable.
Life is a classroom and is continually offering us opportunity to learn, unlearn and relearn. Being teachable means you’re willing to change your beliefs, views, opinions and practices, even if it means admitting you are wrong. It means you’re prepared to move out of your comfort zone, try something different, make mistakes, look foolish, answer wrongly, and so forth. Being teachable is being humble.
4. Be careful about the so-called work-life balance.
Work–life balance is a concept including proper prioritizing between “work” (career and ambition) and “lifestyle” (health, pleasure, recreation, family and spirituality). I think we can put a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves to achieve such a balance. Just ask any mother with small children. Sure we should do our best to put the first things first, but at the end of the day if you try to live in balance, you will only set yourself up for failure and disappoint yourself and those around you. Eventually something will break in your life.
5. Be mentored.
There is nothing much more impactful on your work, ministry and personal development than having mentors. The thing that a mentor can do is give different perspective on your thinking, dreams and direction in life based on their experience. They can ask you the tough questions, challenge your beliefs and introduce you to others who can bring influence and resources into your life.
6. Be the person everyone wants on the team.
When I graduated from college and entered the engineering world my boss sat me down and gave me some great counsel. He told me if I wanted to be on his team and be successful I had to bring solutions not problems. He told me to never approach a problem or answer a request with what I couldn’t do, but with what I could do. I believe Jesus did that.
7. Follow your heart and let your head serve you.
To be truly engaged with what you are doing or hope to do and, ultimately be successful, however you may define success you must use both your head and your heart. If you just approach your life only with reason and logic it is not going to be good in the end.
8. Be gracious.
The way we carry ourselves in life is important to God. There is an old saying that goes something like this, “Be careful who you step on, on your way up the ladder because you may need their help on your fall down.” As you make your way through life, be as gracious as you can be to everyone you come across. The world we live in can be such a harsh place at times. No one deserves to be dismissed, overlooked, mistreated or used.
God has blessed me with a good life.
Many Blessings, BW