There are 7 learning styles that have been scientifically determined. My learning style Major, is "Intrapersonal." This simply means that I'm private, introspective, independent, and I love to spend time on self-analysis. In other words, I know my mind! My Minor learning style, however, is "Kinesthetic" which basically means I learn things by using my body and sense of touch to learn about the world around me. I'm a hands on kind of person. My major and my minor are split nearly equally which I absolutely love, because putting those two learning styles together means I have to prove what I learn intellectually, with an experience physically! Which brings me to share my latest blog, "Ignoring Sideshow Distractions." So here we go....
I love to read the Bible especially when God gives me an experience to light the truth of what I've read. Proverbs 4:25 [MSG] says...Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions.
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| "Focus on what's ahead?" |
Everyone knows what it means to focus, or look forward, or straight ahead, etc., but how do we really focus when we find ourselves in the midst of life circumstances that are screaming at us? How do we silence those circumstances and stay focused on what's ahead? It's not an easy task, let me tell you! It's more difficult than anyone may lead you to believe. Oh, it sure is easy to tell someone else to "focus on what's ahead," but when you yourself are in the midst of the chaos, its more difficult to overcome your obstacles with that less than authentic answer. Just keepin' it real peeps! At 41 years old, I think I've finally found the answer - at least for me. Somehow I'm led to believe that this is also an answer for many others. Let me share my experience with you that led me to my answer, and possibly yours!
I have wanted to go ziplining for what seems like, forever! Well, that's exactly what my daughter and I did together the day after Thanksgiving this year. Ok, I have to say, I thought this was going to be just climbing up to various platforms to zip down a cable and enjoy a rocket fast experience! Ha! Was I wrong!!! To get to the fun, rocket fast, experience, I had to overcome a plethora of obstacles, at some points fifty feet above the ground, just being tethered to a cable! I mean there were moving planks, hanging posts with little foot pegs that had to be navigated, there was even a place where you walked across the cable and had these little ropes to grab here and there to get you across. You want to talk about physical! HOLY SMOKES BATMAN! I used muscles in my body that I didn't even know existed anymore. LOL! There were times I wanted to quit because it was so taxing on my body. There were moments I was hanging on for dear life and praying to get my "ass across the falls" you could say! There were times I had to literally place my attention so deeply on a "focus" point (mainly my guides eyes as he coached me through a series of obstacles). Yep, I needed a coach at times to get through this course and also a solid decision of refusing to quit and to finish this thing!!!
To get through these obstacles, I came to a point of having to choose. If I was gonna make it, I had to make a choice that I was gonna make it! I had to shut out the background noise of screaming kids that were also completing this adventure. I had to stop looking at how high up I was and how far the ground was below me. There were points in this journey that I had to take a brief rest on some of the platforms built in the trees to regain my focus. In the midst of the obstacle, my passion and purpose to finish, had to be greater than any sideshow distraction! Did you get that? Let me say that again...."in the midst of the obstacle, my passion and purpose to finish, had to be greater than any sideshow distraction!" God showed me this incredible truth through my adventure!
As I reflect upon the book "Love Does" by Bob Goff, which I read prior to my ziplining adventure, I'm drawn to an excerpt: "Jesus doesn't invite us on a business trip. Instead, He says let's go after those things that inspire and challenge you and let's experience them together. You don't need a lot of details or luggage or equipment, just a willingness to go into a storm with a Father who's kicking footholds into the steep sides of our problems while we kick a couple in ourselves too. He guides us into those footholds with His strong hands while we're safely tethered to Him by a bright red rope of grace, which holds us securely. Somehow in all of this, the terrain we navigate doesn't seem as scary either, because when we're on an adventure with God we're too excited to be afraid and too engaged to be thinking of anything else."
There are a lot of sideshow distractions that enter our story called life! The question is, will you allow the distractions to consume you; to ultimately get you off track and off of your mission that God designed for you to accomplish, while your here for this brief time? You must follow what your passionate about and then attach purpose, God's purpose, to your passion! People don't question what they are passionate about! They know these things! The questions come when you attach purpose to what your passionate about! There is great purpose within you! You will find that great purpose when you decide to live full out of the passion that is resonating deep within you. Maybe there are a ton of things you are doing that have nothing to do with your passion! Begin to evaluate those areas and then determine if it is a sideshow distraction! Sideshow distractions will keep you from two things:
A. - They will keep you from being fulfilled!
B. - They will keep you from fulfilling that which you've been designed to accomplish!
We were all created with passion and we were all created with a purpose to accompany that passion. Your purpose is for others. What sideshow distractions do you need to eliminate or eradicate? What voices do you need to shut up and in some cases shut out? It's time! It's your time, if you choose for it to be!
Tethered To Him,
TDahl
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