“In the grand scheme of things, success is stewardship, and stewardship is success. Simply put, success is doing the best you can with what you have where you are. Potential is God’s gift to us, and what we do with it is our gift to God. That’s the bottom line.”- Mark Batterson (emphasis author’s)
As Mark Batterson moves on in Chapter 7 of Win the Day, he observes that many people busy themselves climbing the ladder of success. However, they fail to realize that ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. And, while everyone wants to be successful, few people know when they’ve achieved success. Because unless you define success, you’ll never know whether you’ve hit the target.
As a result, most people default to a cultural definition of success — aka keeping up with the Kardashians. Hence, Dave Ramsey quips:
“We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have in order to impress people we don’t like.”
Therefore, Mark advises, when it comes to defining success, it helps to detail your ideal day. And, the author adds, that doesn’t mean your ideal vacation. For example, how does your ideal day start? What other things do you include as the day progresses? Because, in reality, most of us fail to attain what we want for one reason. We don’t really know what we want. However, once you define your ideal day, you can identify lead measures to produce the results you desire.
Finally, Pastor Batterson observes, God created a masterpiece each day of creation. Furthermore, Albert Einstein once stated:
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”
Thus, to win the day and make it into a masterpiece, you need to start by recognizing the day for what it is. For every day is nothing short of a miracle!
Today’s question: How do you define success? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The creation story – a microcosm”
