There are three thieves who will rob you of every minute of your life that they can. They will pickpocket you every opportunity they have. What is neat about this is that you don’t have to be robbed! You get to choose whether or not you will let these thieves take from you and lower your quality of life.
For many years I attended a conference each October in Atlanta called Catalyst. Over two days we would hear from about a dozen speakers. One of the speakers, pastor and author Andy Stanley, spoke on the three imposters who seek to steal your passion, kill your vision, and destroy what you are all about in this world. He shared that these three enemies always take from you.
They are the imposters of certainty, insecurity, and envy.
The imposter of certainty stops us in our tracks and keeps us from making decisions that need to be made. It is an attitude that you will never make a decision until you have all the information. It is living in a world of indecisiveness. It can be draining.
We feel that we should be right in every decision we make and with this mentality we fear taking action because it might lead to us being wrong. We would rather not act than risk being wrong. Bottom line, it is alright to be wrong, this is a part of living life. It is not alright to fail to take action because we lack certainty.
We live in a world of uncertainty. We do need a level of knowledge to make correct decisions, but there will always be additional information we don’t know.
Dr. Stanley said more importantly than being right or wrong is taking every action in love. It is alright to be wrong, but never to not have love. Love transcends knowledge and should trump what you know in all instances.
The second imposter is insecurity. You will never be fully alive if you are driven by insecurity. Insecurities will suck your very life from you.
Each one of us has insecurity within us. It is a disease that affects all of mankind. We live our lives worried about what others may think or what tomorrow may bring. We are insecure because of what we cannot control.
This imposter causes us to lie to ourselves. If we lie to ourselves enough we eventually become dishonest. We need to challenge ourselves to get up every morning and say “I will not lie to myself even if the truth makes me feel bad about myself.” Lying to yourself puts insecurity in the driver’s seat of your life.
If you don’t bridle your insecurities, they will drive you. Ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? Really?” If you get the big picture right as to your calling in life, it will frame and give direction to all you do. Following the big picture will keep you on your path and from being distracted by insecurities that will try to enter your life from both sides.
Our insecurities should remind us, not define us.
The third imposter is envy. Often envy does not recognize itself in the mirror. With envy you will always be trying to catch up with others and you will always arrive late. Envy is fueled by comparison. Social media makes envy today a bigger problem. If you log onto social media, avoiding comparison is impossible.
There is always something that you don’t have. You always can have more. And there is no win in comparison. By comparing yourself you will end up feeling arrogant or inferior towards others. It could lead to depression.
Your job is to do what you are equipped to do. Period! Stay in your lane. Run your race. Don’t chase other people’s dreams. In the race of life there is always someone ahead of you and always someone behind you. If you focus on a person ahead of you, you may get frustrated because he or she is better off than you. If you focus on a person behind you, looking backwards will slow you down from moving forward in your mission.
In a nutshell, to avoid envy measure yourself against yourself. You have different gift sets and different resources than the others on the course. Don’t expect anyone else to be you and don’t expect to be someone else. Based on what you have been blessed with, are you being the best version of you?
If we can recognize these three imposters and corral them, we have a better chance at accomplishing what we need to be accomplishing and we will enjoy a better quality of life in the process.
My challenge to you today is to be aware of these three thieves. Awareness is the first step to conquering or controlling these imposters.
Recognize it is alright to be wrong. If you are never wrong, then you are failing to make decisions out of fear of failure. You can’t accomplish what you need to be accomplishing without regular action that involves a lack of certainty and, despite your best efforts, wrong decisions.
Recognize that it is alright to be happy with who you are. You have many blessings. Others may have more or less, but don’t focus on them, focus on what you are able to do with what you have. Whether you are happy with what you have or unhappy with what you don’t have, you have the same things.
Finally, recognize your job is to run your race, not others. Look inward not outward. Are you focused on being the best you you can be or are you worrying about someone else? Only you can control you and you control what you focus on.
Don’t allow these three thieves to steal your passion, kill your vision, or to rob you of something as precious as your life.
Just a thought...
