Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

There are practical steps to take in transforming our purposes into lifetime visions. The pursuit of our God-given assignment is not a project but a journey. We need to have a set target and the accompanying directions to reach it. We must start, proceed, follow through and then complete. First, as I mentioned earlier, we need to be gentlemen with a sound relationship with God. Then we need to decide to start. We start our engines by stepping out. We need to ask ourselves what we want to have achieved by the ends of our lives and get at it with vigor and determination. The only person you can lead without the possibility of dissent is yourself – we need to inspire ourselves first. “Redeeming [buying up, ransoming] the time….” (Ephesians 5:16, KJV) In two days’ time, tomorrow will be yesterday! Commit to your goal – mentally, physically and spiritually. Do everything today, as the boundaries of everything will increase tomorrow. Hesitation, procrastination and frustration usually lead to stagnation. Do not let a lack of clarity stifle your motion. I have found that the surest way to gradually turn faith into sight is to travel further in the direction of vision. Our goals are like light sources, the nearer we are to them, the clearer we see. Action-based faith is the solution to hesitation – take the plunge. Procrastination is the theft of time and time is our most expensive resource. With time, we cannot even afford to break-even, let alone come short. We must gain time. Take baby steps today. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have, the way you know how. One way of overcoming procrastination is by breaking up your target to the least building block. When I think of losing 30 pounds, it may overwhelm me and I may subconsciously give up even before I start. But, if I decide to lose 1 pound in 3 days, the challenge becomes less daunting. When we take care of the immediate, the ultimate will gradually and ultimately take care of itself. Break your vision into chunks – into bite sizes. Procrastination is subconsciously quitting before we attempt; frustration is quitting consciously after attempting. Try again. Implement the lessons learned the last time. More importantly, find inspiration. Look out for people who are doing or have done what you are trying to do and study them. There is a particular website I visit because the owner is doing something similar to my long term vision. I just log on everyday and peruse; not necessarily to learn something new but just to gain inspiration. I cannot put in words how inspired and re-assured I get. Look friend, it’s been done before; you can do it too. Jesus started his engine when he went to John to be baptized. From then on, it was work and focus. He attained his goals within three and a half years. Here was his strategy: “My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34) He started his engine and kept it running till he was done. How about Paul, he was a late starter. After his experience at Damascus, he took some time to receive and understand God’s purpose for him. That took him three years (Galatians 1:17-18). He immediately started his engine afterward and gassed it to full speed until he was done (See Philippians 3:12-14, II Timothy 4:7). A starter-leader is someone who is at the stage of beginning projects in several aspects of their lives. He is at the age where he is starting a marriage and a family, maybe a new career also, a business, or a ministry. You are now beginning a life of your own. It’s a critical stage. You are laying so many foundations. You are learning how to give your best to different things at the same time. It’s a period that’s fraught with stress; you are under pressure because of the urge to perform. All eyes are on you. Will you be a good husband and dad? Will you be a star at your workplace? Will you make the cut in the game of life? What’s the response going to be when you preach the first sermon at your church? How the heck are you going to raise enough capital for the new business when you just bought a house and your first “real” car? That, my friend, is what it means to be starting your engine! It takes all the guts you’ve got. You don’t wanna start on the wrong footing. You need to start well. There are two major attributes you need at this stage. One is wisdom and the other is power: the wisdom to make the right decisions and the power to execute them. We must have the ingenuity to locate the resources we need and the inner drive to go get them. Starter leadership is the acquisition and deployment of relevant wisdom and power. You need the wisdom to discern between attractions and distractions and the power to pursue the former and resist the latter. By and large, the world is not a friendly place. There is an inherent gravity that acts against success and pulls you downward. When you desire and strive to succeed, you will find yourself swimming against the tide. Therefore, making wisdom and power your first priority is the best mindset to possess as a starter-leader.