TEDxFlint
My TED Talk: Nurturing the Village
30 Tuesday Nov 2010
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Monthly Archives: November 2010
Get Out of Jail
22 Monday Nov 2010
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Don’t think you’re in jail? Think again! In some capacity we all are. The funny thing is…we build these jails ourselves. In our jail there is a loss of liberty, independence, and even choice. When we lose these things in our lives, however, we very rarely look at what we may have done to impose these circumstances on ourselves. Why? Because it is natural to look at all of the external things that prevent us from becoming the person we want to be or doing the things we want to do.
Get Out of Jail free card
Yes, there are things that happen beyond our control but that is exactly what they are – beyond our control. But we build a jail for ourselves when we make the mistake of doing the same things today that we did yesterday. Our actions define who we are, not our words and more importantly not the words of others. Our success, joy, happiness, nor peace of mind should depend on the actions or words of anyone else. This jail we build for ourselves is built with bricks of fear, being scared to dream, and the thought that the world won’t accept us for simply being ourselves.
God created us all with spiritual gifts that are so special. He has also impregnated us with a sense of purpose that only we can give birth to. To bring these things into fruition, for the betterment of ourselves and others, we must first get out of jail!
With God, nothing is impossible…
© David McGhee
Being Successful Isn’t All That
14 Sunday Nov 2010
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Whether you believe this or not, it is said that you will influence at least 10,000 people during your lifetime. 10,000 people! So my question to you is this – How will you use your influence? How will this world be a better place because you showed up?
In some area of our lives, we have all experience a level of success. If you are reading this post that means you’re alive and that, in and of itself, is a blessing and can be looked at as a success. Our lives, however, should be more about becoming successful – significance is what we should strive for. Success is too small a word to fulfill what God has placed in each and every one of us.
I look at it like this: Successful people change themselves. Significant people, on the other hand, change the world.
We are living today, during a point and time in our nation’s history, where the financial state and the economic security of our people stand in peril. People are hurting today like never before.
Yet, many of us continue to equate success with money, fancy clothes, big titles, nice cars, and being famous or popular. Today success is portrayed as strictly material. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against having nice things – but nice things should never have you.
To that end, I would like to offer the same words our 44th President, Barack Obama offered to a group of students as he addressed them on their day of graduation. “Your appearance should never outweigh your substance, and your celebrity should never outweigh your character.”
In an earlier post, Mentoring 101: Success Must Be Studied, I talked about the importance of studying successful people in order to become successful. This post serves as a follow-up, simply because success isn’t the end of the road. After you become successful, significant is the next step to take.
With God, nothing is impossible…
© David McGhee
