Maximising your Potential : Relationships (3/3)

There are two habits we must cultivate if we want to build relationships that stand the test of time and are sustained through challenge and change.

1. Forgiveness: we all know that the people that love us the most are the people that have the potential to hurt us the most and that vice versa the people that we love the most are the ones we tend to hurt the most despite our best intentions. It follow then that we need to cultivate a culture of forgiveness to enable intimacy and trust to grow stronger in spite of the vulnerability that is part and parcel of such relationships

2. Mercy: mercy simply means that we don't get the judgement we deserve and it often translates into powerful acts of kindness and generosity which enhance and liberate the lives and futures of those to whom mercy has been shown. We all need mercy at sometime or other and if we are going to maximise our relationships we also need to have an attitude of mercy to those who inhabit our world.

People will make mistakes, they will mess up, we all do and when we do mercy rather than judgement paves the way for reconciliation and unity.

Love covers a multitude of sins.

These habits are easy to talk about and agree on but the practice of them can be challenging and sometimes painful but like the marathon runner we must push on through the pain barrier in order to achieve the goal and win the prize.

So you can add value, improve and enhance your relationships today by being a forgiver and an agent of mercy and remember in the words of the one who once  made a way for us all to know mercy and forgiveness.......

Treat others in the same way that you would like to be treated 

Maximising Your Reality (2/3)

We sow a thought and reap an act;

We sow an act and reap a habit;

We sow a habit and reap a character;

We sow a character and reap a destiny.

In the final analysis our destiny is largely determined by the choices we make in our day to day life or in other words how we choose to act in any and every given situation has an outcome or a consequence that has the potential to be far reaching.

We have been given the ability to respond or in other words 

to take responsibility for our lives and choices. 

The key to maximising our potential on a daily basis does not then depend on our circumstances (our reality) but on how we respond to that reality at the time regardless of whether it is are good or bad.

Our ability to respond, should we actually take it , means that we no longer allow circumstances to control our lives and destiny but rather we contribute, enhance, improve and add value to our lives and the lives of those around us by using the resources that we have in our hands to:

• finding the solution that overcomes the problem, 
• administering the healing that overcomes the hurt, 
• working for reconciliation that brings peace, 
• speaking the truth in love that exposes a lie,
• standing up for the justice that rights a wrong.

The bible story of Joseph recounted in Genesis is a great example of this attitude at work. Joseph knew he had a God given destiny to fulfil and yet as he tries to follow that dream he experiences betrayal, slavery, false accusation, being forgotten by those whom he had helped and yet he still manages to arrive at his destiny. 

This was because of two factors: firstly and most importantly God was with him and secondly he did not compromise his dream by allowing the negatives to dictate his response, instead he continued to be faithful and to find favour in the eyes of God.........that did not happend by accident!.

Joseph went from a Pit to a Prison before he reached the Palace

How will you maximise your current reality....you choose!

Maximising Your Resources (part 1/3)

Your Talents... 

What do you possess that you can use to the max? 

Whatever gifts, skills and qualities you possess are yours to use in a unique and creative way. 

To you they may seem mundane and fairly ordinary but its amazing what happens when we invite Jesus into the equation..... all of a sudden the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary, water gets turned into wine and a ready meal for one becomes a feast for 5000.

So what do you have in your hand?

What are you going to do with it?

How can you add value with it?
How can you contribute with it?
How can you improve your and others lives with it?


Your Time....

Are you spending or investing your time?

We have all heard of time management and work life balance and all of that information and the various tools and techniques are helpful and often essential BUT they only have impact when we actually take the time use them. Time is a precious resource that needs to be managed and budgeted just like any other precious commodity and we all have an equal amount of it so there is no excuse to be time poor. However if you really want to maximise your life you need to make time to plan and prepare in order to make the most of who you are and what you have.

"A significant life takes planning and preparation"

So are you living life to the MAX?

Jesus said that he came that we could live life in all its fullness...to the max! However many of us even as as followers of Jesus are wondering where this abundant life has got to. The problem is that we are waiting for some kind of HOLY ZAP! to get us moving, while God on the other hand is waiting for us to simply get on with the possible so that he can do the impossible. 

We do the possible and God does the impossible.

What is stopping you maximising your potential?

Potential minus interference = performance!

Ask yourself these three questions.

1.   What do I have going for me right now?

2.   What is interfering with my ability to use these resources?

2.   How can I make the best use of these resources in any and every situation despite the interference?

My definition for MAXIMIZE is to INCREASE or make as GREAT AS POSSIBLE!

We all know that life is not going to be a bed of roses and we also know that bad things happen to good people so it’s no use trying to pretend that to be successful life has to always be sweet. That’s not reality.

But like I and others have said before, it’s not what happens to you that make the difference it’s how you respond to what happens to you. We always have a choice about how we deal with the circumstances we find ourselves in whether they are good bad or indifferent.

“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade”.

So the key to maximising your potential is not looking for that perfect moment but rather looking at each and every situation and asking ….

How can I improve this situation using the gifts and talents that I have in my hand right now?

Here are FIVE keys to help you maximize your potential.

1.    Knowing and believing that everything and anything can get better or be   increased is the first step to MAXIMIZING anything.

2.    Take what you have and work with it intentionally to improve your situation or your job your relationships or your life.

3.    To maximize some things some things may have to be minimized.

4.    Focus on maximizing others and you will maximize yourself.

5.    Keep looking at Jesus who was and is the great maximizer who does abundantly more that all we ask or think according to the power of God that works within us!

Remember what you focus on is what you get!