LOVE is Living Our Values Enthusiastically

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“All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.” ~ Pope John Paul VI

How To LIVE the Life You LOVE…

Look at your life as it is right now. The good and the not so good.

Are you truly living the life you love—or is there room for improvement?

By doing the simple exercise in this article, you will either CONFIRM that you are in fact doing what’s RIGHT for you… or it’s time to hit the reset button.

Are you moving in the direction of your dreams or are you running in circles looking for direction? If direction is what you need, you have just found the map to your future!

Discover God’s Plan for Your Life.

By taking a few minutes to think about, and pray your way through the exercise below, you will begin to understand the importance of finding your Natural Mission in life. Many people have told us that this was the first step in helping them better understand and discover God’s Plan for their life.

Our purpose in writing The Believer’s Guide to Achieving Success On Purpose is to change the fabric of the future from the inside out… by helping people become ALL they are meant to be… created to be… expected to be by our Heavenly Father and Creator.

Grow people to achieve their personal best each day and the Christian church grows. Permit people to struggle with a life of failed hopes and dreams, the church will struggle and ultimately lose relevance to future generations.

Our objective is to field 150 million Champions of Spirit-Led Success across the world — in the next 5 years — to help them quickly grow personally and professionally… while effectively renewing the growth path of the church itself.

Train 150 million Champions to win their 5 most important missions in life, we change the destiny of humanity. These Champions will go on to train, disciple, equip and field others — throughout the world — to be the exemplars of the Gospel… not merely preaching or teaching the Gospel… but to LIVE it to the fullest each and every day.

5GoldenMissions_COVER_RD3b_500The cover of the Believer’s Guide says it all. It is simply not enough to win just 1 or 2 of your 5 core missions—you must position yourself to win all 5:

1-Embolden your FAITH…

2-Grow PERSONALLY…

3-Solidify your RELATIONSHIPS…

4-Empower DISCIPLESHIP and…

5-Expand your CAREER/FINANCIAL success.

Which would you leave out and still believe you were living a full life?

Which could you marginalize and still feel that you are living the life you love?

Clearly, to live a passionate, purpose-driven life, you must commit to living — indeed WINNING — all 5 of these core Missions.

We are performance experts who know a great deal about winning and clearly see the sacred bond between exceptional personal performance in the here and now… all the way out to the there and then.

We see that Divine connection between our Purpose in life… and our ability to Perform on Purpose.

The simple truth is, the best way to effectively grow the church at large is to grow each person in it to become all God created them to be… called them to be… wants them to be.

A Spirit-Led, purpose-driven success that has the heightened capacity to love more, serve better and glorify God by using ALL their gifts and talents to become everything He created us to be.

By giving 150 million people the key to actually living their most important values — Christian and personal — we will unleash an awesome force-multiplier of good into the world… people with the power to achieve the results Christ expects from us — to actually BECOME His eyes, heart and hands by performing up to our full potential.

Understand and ACTIVATE the inherent energy contained in your top 5-10-20 values… learn how to LIVE them ENTHUSIASTICALLY each and every day, and you will IMMEDIATELY become more POWERFUL.

You will get more of the right things done each day. You will live in Victory, abundance and find lasting JOY and PEACE in your life.

You will LOVE more… SERVE better… and GLORIFY God by becoming the best YOU possible.

So the question becomes…

Do You Actually LIVE What You Value Most?

Sir James Matthew Barrie, best known for writing the classic tale of Peter Pan, once said, “As soon as you do what you think, and not what some other person has thought for you, you are on your way to doing the remarkable.”

To paraphrase this inspiring bit of wisdom, “As soon as you do what you VALUE, and not what some other person has told you to VALUE, you are on your way to doing the remarkable.”

Think about our acronym for Love: Living Our Values Enthusiastically.

The word Enthusiasm is derived from two ancient Greek words: EN (within) and THEOS (God.) Thus, the meaning of the word is to unleash your God-Power within as you pursue that which is most important—personally… professionally… and spiritually.

What happens when you ENTHUSIASTICALLY LIVE what you value most?

Not just talk about values… or discuss them… or conceptually recognize their existence…

But actually ACTIVATE the value so it shows up every single day in every single thing you do… every choice you make and every action you take.

Think about these foundational Christian values that form the basis of your 5 most important missions in life, and read these statements as positive affirmations:

I will live a Christian life of Faith, Discipleship, Love, Service and Stewardship.

I will live Compassion, Forgiveness, Generosity, Justice and Thankfulness…

I personally promise to live a life of Physical Challenge, Adventure, Risk, Curiosity, Beauty and Freedom.

WOW!

You become an unstoppable force of good.

You become the change you want to see in the world.

You become all that you are meant to be.

How?

You simply ACTIVATED, then released the POTENTIAL ENERGY contained in each of the values you are now LIVING.

A physicist would call that releasing the inherent KINETIC energy found within each value into the world.

A psychologist would call it releasing EMOTIONAL energy from the value to create powerful inner-motivation.

A minister might call it RELEASING THE GOD POWER found inside each value to help you achieve His plan for your life!

The key to living the life you LOVE is releasing the energy found in huge, life-affirming and life-changing values. The good news is that this is a choice well within your capabilities to achieve! In fact, it is easy to do.

A Simple Truth…

Tiny values, lived occasionally does nothing to move you towards the success promised.

Rarely living Compassion, Forgiveness and Service means you rarely show up strong.

Spending your time hating the people who done you in, hating your job, hating the past sucks up precious energy, robbing you of all power over your future.

On the other hand, truly living the value of Forgiveness releases massive positive energy into your life — inherent/kinetic energy that is ALWAYS there — but is just unrealized potential until released.

An atomic bomb contains only 35 pounds of thermonuclear mass — but when the chain reaction starts — energy from everything around it is released into the world… trillions of volts of electrical energy… billions of thermal units of heat… etc.

Small in MASS but an unbelievable, unstoppable force — with the power to change the very landscape of the world.

We all have this INHERENT power. It has been built into us. Put there by God Himself, and He not only wants us to use this energy for doing good… but He EXPECTS us to.

However, some people never find a way to realize their full potential and learn to settle for little… when abundance is promised.

Some people learn how to release their potential energy into the world, but do harm with it, living a lawless, immoral life.

Some people learn how to release and harness this inherent power for the good of all humanity… providing the power to move all God’s people forward.

God’s message as spoken through Jesus is clear: LOVE.

By discovering, then LIVING Our Values Enthusiastically, we GROW as Christians to accomplish the work that needs to be done.

Little power = little work getting done.

Massive power = massive work being accomplished.

Massive power for the good = we change the very fabric of the future.

To Grow Personally, Start With Your Values…

Values are the baseline Starting Point for true Clarity… Conviction… Commitment… and Courage — the baseline for developing the Winner’s Mindset™ — the mindset needed to actually WIN your 5 greatest Missions in life.

If you want to live the life you LOVE a life of happiness, satisfaction and significance, do all the exercises in The Believer’s Guide.

Fill in your core Christian values… adding in your most heart-felt personal values… connect them to visions of Someday Dreams realized…  create and nurture empowering roles to live your values and achieve your visions… and you will find the path to purpose-driven… indeed, performance-driven success.

As you will see from a brief glimpse of our simple triangulation process, it takes all three “variables” to grow YOU…

yourpersonalgrowthcurve

Small values lived infrequently do nothing to grow you as a person. In fact, they hold you back from becoming all you were meant to be.

You, in puny little roles attempting to achieve get-through-the-day tiny little visions, and you get the point — you will be forever locked into a life of want and need.

This is not the life God wants you to live. He wants you fully ALIVE, living and loving life to the maximum of your potential… using ALL the gifts and talents He has already given you so abundantly.

Expand your values by cutting through the blur, conflict and confusion and you will start to expand your vision of what’s possible for your life… and you will start to search out and create ever bigger roles to, again, actually LIVE your bigger values, and achieve your naturally expanding visions.

In a way, this will help you discover and work God’s plan for YOUR life.

Finally, you grow to excellence by living HUGE personal and professional values… expanding your visions from good… to great… to INCREDIBLE… and by finding new ways to grow, expand and create truly POWERFUL roles. Big roles that you take on ENTHUSIASTICALLY!

Look at the 3 pictures above. Which do you believe will permit you to live the life you LOVE? Which will allow you to actually WIN each of your 5 core missions?

The truly great news is that regardless of where you are right now, all the way to the left, or somewhere in the middle, you can immediately grow to greatness… to become the success God created you to be.

The Simplicity of This Process is Obvious on the surface…

vvrcomparison

As you do the exercises in The Believer’s Guide, you will see that you can quickly go from discouraged, dissatisfied and disillusioned — to empowering, optimistic, proactive and passionate.

How? Simply change the size of the triangle you are now living in!

Unleash the energy in the values you want to activate and you will instantly — yes INSTANTLY — create the emotional connections between what is important to you — what gives you meaning — and your visions and roles. Again, ENTHUSIASTICALLY!

This is the path that leads to personal, professional and spiritual growth.

Take 60 seconds to pray for direction — right now. Ask Jesus to shine His guiding light on your life, and inspire you to do this simple exercise.

1. Write down your Top 10 Personal VALUES. A great start is to affirm the 5 universal Christian Values: Faith, Discipleship, Love, Service and Stewardship. Add 5 more purely personal to the base of this triangle. Maybe Adventure, Curiosity, Education… whatever turns you on! Read them out loud to yourself and say the words with absolute conviction.

2. Then, write down a really big VISION that would incorporate all 10 of your core values. What are these words telling you? Calling out to you? Inspiring and motivating you to do?

3. Finally, determine what ROLE you must play to activate the inherent energy within each VALUE and achieve this awesome VISION.

missiontriangle

Remember, a value contains massive amounts of kinetic/inherent ENERGY that only remains potential until actually released into the world. Big values, effectively put in action, contain enough energy to propel you through a life of wonder, joy and service to all of humanity.

BUT, values are nothing more than wishful concepts until ACTIVATED by putting them into highly energetic action.

Activate your values and you release tremendous energy into your life… generating the POWER to get things done… to change the very fabric of the future.

If you want real power in your life, you have to activate and release the energy in ALL your values — to LIVE them ENTHUSIASTICALLY — and you will live the life you love.

To show you how simple this process is, think about what happens when you just commit to living 2 values.

Values = Compassion / Faith

Vision = People growing in their faith after experiencing the positive power of prayer.

Role = Prayer leader between Sunday services.

Or this combination…

Values =Compassion/Family

Vision = 17 year-old grandson is happily self-sufficient

Role = Loving drill sergeant

Or this combination…

Values = Compassion/Health

Vision = Community Organic Gardens

Role = Promoter of city wide initiative to establish community gardens

Or this combination… 

Values = Compassion/Adventure

Vision = All cripple children in Kenya have wheel chairs

Role =  A runner/spokesperson who collects donations for every mile run from LA to NY to help fund the shipping of donated wheel chairs to Kenya.

Or this combination…

Values = Compassion / Security

Vision = Battered women have a safe home to go when needed.

Role = A street performer who juggles and donates the money collected to a building fund.

Or this combination…

Values = Compassion/ Music

Vision = Hospitals are filled with beautiful, healing music.

Role = Curator of music that is scientifically proven to help the body heal

As you do the work in The Believer’s Guide, you will instantly see how hundreds of values, visions and roles can be instantly energized to make you a Champion of Spirit-Led Success… a person who actually GROWS to WIN not just 1 or 2 of their core missions, but all 5!

Get Started Right Now…

You can see how this brilliant system works, so let’s get you started moving in the right direction, right now. Let’s start by just looking at what most people would list as the Five Categories of Christian Values in their natural hierarchical order.

  1. Faith – love and belief in God. Faith  includes: hope, trust, grace, belief, acceptance, joy. Faith is the first value of a Christian. Love God first. Know God first. It is the most distinguishing value of a Christian, his her faith. It is the why of your life.
  2. Discipleship – Being all that God created you to be, following his advice, doing what is right instead of wrong. This includes all the positive human characteristics found in the Bible commonly known as morals, ethics, character: Honesty, fidelity, humility, courage, devotion, challenge, healthy, disciplined, industrious, dutiful, creative. Discipleship follows after the belief that God is Right. It is a “subcategory” of Faith. If you believe that God is Right, then you will become right with the world when you follow His Discipline and you will then have self-love, confidence, commitment.
  3. Love – love of something outside of yourself. Love of God, love of family, love of neighbor, love of community, love of nature, love of God’s gifts of beauty, music. All the positive emotional values that comes from love: family, friends, compassion, kindness, gentleness, companionship, camaraderie, compassion. Love follows after Faith and Discipleship because It is the first rule to follow if you want to be a good disciple: First, love thy God, then love thy neighbor as thyself. It is the first expression of the God you serve, who you are and what you contribute to the world.
  4. Service – Serve God, serve others. Internally, you are good. You know and love God, you are committed to following him, you not only naturally love other people, but you are also instructed to love other people. Compassion, Caring, Giving, Volunteering, Teaching, Tithing. Service is a “subcategory” of Love. Service is the outward action of love for God and others after you feel and value discipleship and love. It is the action you take because of your love for others.
  5. Stewardship – Stewardship is your duty, responsibility, to take care of people and things. Stewardship includes people, but extends your Service to other things like your personal gifts and talents, God’s gifts of nature and earthly resources, your career, your position within a community, company or organization. Providing for and nourishing your spouse, family friends, Wealth, power, career, management, order. Stewardship is a “subcategory of service” because it is the God given duty to serve to the best of your ability so that God, you, other people, resources are fulfilled to their highest potential. The gifts of God are expressed, extended and magnified for his glory.

Choose 2 words from each category that you promise to actually LIVE and declare…

Each day I am alive, here on Earth and until called home by my heavenly Father, I will live a life of faith, discipleship, love, service, stewardship, grace, compassion, order, teaching, giving and community.

I will be receptive to ever bigger VISIONS that contain that which I VALUE most.

I will be on the hunt for bigger ROLES to play that will permit me the opportunity to LIVE my VALUES and achieve my VISIONS.

The concept is very simple.

The work is fun and easy to do.

We created The Believer’s Guide to lead you through this simple process in the presence of the Holy Spirit to transform your life into a Spirit-Led Success.

The Believer’s Guide is on sale now on a $1 trial basis. Learn more at SpiritLedSuccess.com.

Summary: Idea for Action…

Imagine a world where people are all living up to their full potential.

Imagine a world where people are all growing and so is the church at large.

Imagine a world where people are happily living a life of passion and purpose.

No need to imagine it.

Pledge to become a Champion of Spirit-Led Success and start activating the energy within your values… growing your visions to the point where excitement reigns and hope is unfolding… then create and empower huge roles where you can not only make a small difference in the world — but actually make the world entirely different.

Times are hard and people are struggling.

People need direction and hope.

You can become the hope the world is seeking.

You can become a better Disciple.

You can become a powerful Christian, measured by the values you truly live.

Our goal of 150 million Christians — just 5 years from now — all working together on powerful visions, living their most heart-felt values and growing themselves into truly satisfying roles starts right here, right now with YOU.

Stop the chatter in your head — that old “NO it all” you have been living with for far too long.

Start your juices flowing.

Look at the energy contained in all your dreams and goals.

Unleash it. Teach it.

Living Our Values Enthusiastically is the greatest expression of LOVE you can give.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Now, LOVE more.

God Bless

E. R. Haas, CEO

 

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Written by

E. R. Haas is CEO of the TQ Smart family of web sites including ThinkTQ.com, MyBizIQ.com, MyBelieversGuide.com, MarriageWithPurpose.com and hundreds of others. E. R. is a "serial entrepreneur" and has created over 20 different businesses in software, manufacturing, finance, publishing and many other areas. He is married to Jan Haas who shares his interest in model railroading, gardening, and traveling by train. together, they have 5 grown children, 9 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.