If it's true it applies to you

I have a 6-year-old grandson who is at the stage where he seems to know everything. If you try to show him something, his first response is, “I know that.” It’s cute in a 6-year-old, but I also have many adults who tell me that. I meet them when I speak or train, and they feel they must let me know that they already knew the information I told them. There is nothing about successful living; they do not already know.

So, do they live the success they feel they know so well? No. Have they put the principles into play in their life? No. I know that I have a great deal to learn in life, but I have grabbed this truth: if you say you believe something and do not live by it, you are only kidding yourself. Success-minded people know that they will never learn all there is to know. Leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, “It’s one thing to believe that you possess remarkable potential. It’s another thing to have enough faith in yourself that you think you can fulfill it.”

“If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.”

Paul Harvey

1918-2009

Broadcaster

I can tell you over and over again that you can succeed in achieving your dream, and you can say you believe it. But if you never do anything to move in that direction, your belief is empty and meaningless. Head knowledge is of little value if there is never any action to follow it up. The whole point of talking about being a success-minded person is so that you will take these principles and live them.

Success-minded people have an awakening at some point. They realize that they have missed something in life, and they begin to build a hunger for it. The something they are missing in action and results. Phillips Brooks, who wrote the Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem, said, “When you discover you’ve been living only half a life, the other half is going to haunt you until you develop it.” Success-minded people know that with the knowledge there must be action.

Take the truth, you know, and apply it to your life. It can be in business, church, your personal or spiritual life; it does not matter. If you believe it to be true, live it. Even if you are just hopeful that the principles are true, live them out and see for yourself. To take the time to learn something new and then never really put it into play in your life is such a sad waste of time. Success-minded people have the power to change their whole life. It only takes some action and a bit of believing.

“Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all.”

1 Timothy 4:15

You can learn more about Personal Development from author and speaker, John Patrick Hickey. To get his books, training material, or book him to speak to your church, business, or group, visit our website at www.johnpatrickhickey.com.   

© 2020 John Patrick Hickey. No part of this may be reprinted or published without the permission of the author.