For many years, I was under the impression that God helps those who help themselves. I believed that if I wanted something done right, I had to be the one to do it.
Yes, I would pray that God would bless my plans, but I rarely let Him take the reins. If I did, it was only for a moment—whenever I didn’t see things moving forward fast enough, I took them right back. “Any action is better than no action” was my motto. Boy, did I have it backwards!
Then I learned to apply these 4 principles, and they helped me keep moving forward faster and farther than I ever got on my own:
Metabolize the moment. To metabolize the moment means to pause long enough take it all in; to absorb the good, purge the bad and process how life is affecting you. Very few people take the time to metabolize the moment because they are constantly moving on to the next thing.
Mind your own business. Nothing will distract you or make you question the speed of your success more than comparing yourself to others. Like a runner, you want to focus on only your race and stay in your own lane. Putting your attention elsewhere will only slow you down.
Master the art of quiet. I love the quote that says, “When you speak you say what you already know. When you listen you learn.” The same applies to always striving—you can’t hear very well when you are constantly in motion.
Allow God to promote you. There’s a difference between seizing an opportunity that God has placed before you and shameless promotion. “If you don’t brag about yourself, who will?” I used to hear this phrase all the time when I worked with marketing experts, and for years I bought into it. But I learned that if I allowed God to do His work, he could promote me better than anyone. He could open doors that I couldn’t budge with a battering ram.
I would love to say that I was able to apply these principles overnight, but I wasn’t. It took quite some time for me to begin to loosen my grip on every little thing in my life.
Now, I look for ways to slow down and it’s amazing how that simple secret has kept me moving forward.
It took work to learn how to shut up and listen. It took practice to focus on promoting others over myself. But I learned that if I kept my mouth shut and allowed God to promote me, it was so much more effective, and rewarding. (Quite honestly I never really enjoyed the accolades I received when I tooted my own horn.)
