Suck it up!

I’m in the middle of my 100 Day Challenge that started off 2013. Starting at about day 25 and going through day 65-70, is the time that I find the hardest when it comes to these 100 Day Challenges. It’s hard because the fun of starting is way in the rear-view mirror, and the joy of the finish line isn’t on the horizon yet.

You ever feel that when it comes to your goals, dreams or passions? It can be hard to keep going when you can’t see the end. Today’s video was perfect, hitting on the issue of perseverance. Check out my notes:

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What one character trait is more important than talent when it comes to achieving your goals? What trait is more powerful than intelligence? Which quality is more resilient than strategy or planning or vision or goal setting? Perseverance!

Before any goal or dream of value can be achieved, you will experience setbacks. Your character will be tested and tried and you will have ample opportunity to give up in the face of obstacles. Perseverance is the quality by which we persist through all of the obstacles and setbacks. Perseverance isn’t about avoiding obstacles and set backs, it’s about NEVER stopping, about RISING up each time we fall and about FINISHING the goal with whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

Perseverance can be our most powerful ally for two key reasons. First, anyone can demonstrate perseverance. It’s not a skill or talent that some have and some don’t. Perseverance is a mind-set, it’s a choice to persist regardless of the size, severity or quantity of the challenges being faced. Choosing to persevere is choosing to keep God’s goals for your life at the heart of what you do.

The second reason that perseverance is a powerful ally is that it doesn’t require a particular pace. As Gary Ryan Blair stated in today’s 100-day Challenge video, perseverance isn’t a speed issue; perseverance is an issue about finishing the task or goal or dream at whatever cost for whatever length of time it takes.

While perseverance doesn’t involve pace, it most certainly involves consistency, details, commitment, adaptability, character and heart. The man or woman who makes the choice to persevere, can overcome shortages in talent, money and IQ. Perseverance is a goal-setters trump card!

This is a tough topic for me. Generally I think I finish what I start, but I can also look back over my life and see those unfinished projects that lie in ruins. Whether it’s a house project that needs my attention, a ministry project that never got finished, or a relationship that needs repair -- I have some areas of my life where I have chosen to quit rather than to finish. I also have a few goals that, for whatever reason, I chose to give up on. Some, I know, God put on my heart to finish but I fell short because the obstacles seemed to big or the support too small.

Today I’m choosing to persevere in each and every task I lay out. I’m choosing to fire up some of my goals for this 100-day Challenge and to bring them back to my attention. I’m choosing to take on a mindset like Paul: I will run the race God has given me and I will finish in such a way as to make my God pleased! Are you running to finish?

So go ahead and take the plunge -- and stick with it! -- because life is always better on the water!