Small thinking

We all have a promised land to take; every person born is called to live in it. The context for this land and some of its landscape may be different from person to person; however there are some things that stay true for all of us. The land that I speak of is a life filled with an abundance of provision, opportunities, freedom, fulfilled dreams, majestic experiences, rich friendships, excitement and purpose, but there is a catch (there always is!)“Giants” live in this land, and they will not voluntarily share it with you!

All giants have names; everyone has giants to fight before they can enter into their land. Here are a few of the names ofsome of the giants that people usually face in their quest to enter into their land;

oPoverty mindsets

o Fear of the unknown

o Unbelief

o Discouragement

o Intimidation

o Hardships

o Past betrayals

There are many more, this is just a sample of some of the most common ones!

We can never hope to challenge and overcome these giants that stand in our way, if we live our lives in the context of small or weak thinking about ourselves, especially with regards to our potential.

I believe that “Small thinking is the manifestation of a lazy or untrained mind”, now that might seem like a harsh thing to say, but it is the truth. It takes effort, discipline, courage and energy to retrain our minds to think in dimensions that are worthy of our truest potential.

The development of a strong mind is an intentional exercise; we must learn to build healthy mindsets around our lives so that we can be released to blossom into becoming all we can be.

Keeping it real

Mindsets are a set of beliefs, which we have allowed to form in our thinking that causes us to behave and perceive ourselves, things and events in a certain way.

The problem with mindsets is that they don’t necessarily needto be based on truth, perceived truth will do. In other words we can believe something is true, while the reality of it may be that we are actually building our case on wrong or insufficient information. So we can end up if we are not careful living out our days with a mindset that is completely false, and allow that mindset to rob us of the fullness of life.

We must learn to train our minds to think in larger more dynamic ways, so that we don’t lock ourselves out of becoming all we potentially could be. We need to come into a way of thinking that is not based on presumptions that have been built on faulty or insufficient information.

Many people today live on false presumptions about themselves with regards to what their ultimate potential is and what the world has to offer them, this causes them to miss opportunities for friendships, business deals, wealth, promotions, freedom, rich experiences, and adventure.

Small or distorted thinking about ourselves will cause us to falter in our quest towards breaking into our new, bigger tomorrow, holding us in slavery to our present limitations. The tragedy about this scenario is that we will remain intimidated by the challenges and taunts that the giants of this life present to us because we will continue to see ourselves as weak and powerless in comparison to the giants that are living in our new land.

What’s included in the ticket

I remember hearing the story of an old married couple who had spent all their lives working hard to provide a living for their children, now at the age of retirement their kids wanted to do something special for them as a way of saying thank you, so they put some of their money together and purchased their elderly parents two cruise tickets on a luxury cruise liner.

The couple packed and were ushered onto the ship and shown to their cabins. During the voyage some of the crew started to become concerned about the elderly couple as no one could remember seeing them since the launch of the cruise, finally the captain of the boat directed one of the stewards to go to the cabin of the elderly couple and check on their state.

The steward anxiously knocked on their door, not sure what to expect; when the elderly lady opened the door, the steward addressed her saying “The captain has asked that I come down and check on you, so as to make sure everything is all right”. The elderly lady replied “Well yes, my husband and I are having a wow of a time in our cabin, we have been looking at the ocean through the porthole in our room, we brought some cards to keep us entertained and I packed some fruit and crackers for when we got hungry throughout the day”. The steward looked confused and said “we were concerned because none of the ships staff can remember seeing you on the deck or in the restaurant or in any of the recreational activities on the boat”. The lady responded by saying “My husband and I are not really all that well off, we are just working class people and it was actually our kids that bought these tickets for us, so we can not afford to do any of those things, but we are happy down here”. The steward was now embarrassed as he started to realize what had happened, he said “I think you might be a little mistaken with regards to what the cruise ticket entitles you to, you see all these activities are included in the price of the ticket”.” Really”, said the elderly lady looking at her husband, do you mean we can enjoy all those things for free? “Yes” said the steward. “Well” Said the lady “we have no time to waste, let’s go and enjoy ourselves”. The steward spoke up and said “I am terribly sorry to have to inform you that we are about to pull into dock”!

This story encapsulates how a false mindset, can rob us of the fullness of what we are entitled to in life. The fact that your heart is beating and there is air in your lungs means you have a ticket on the voyage called life, you can choose to stay in a small room eating crackers and thinking that this is all there is to life, or you can accept the fact that there is more available to you, the only thing is you may have to step out of the comfort and familiarity of your current thnking to enter into it!

So there is no time to waste, lets get cracking!

Yours in ultimate success,

David Balestri

Giant Maker Coach