self-worth | Heartstone Journey

Are You Ready To Pick Yourself?

Wanted to share this powerful video with author Seth Godin as he talks about picking yourself.

We all want to get picked for something, it’s in our DNA to be accepted. Right?

I am waiting for this to come or this to happen…and we wait and we wait and we don’t do anything at all. What if the “gate keepers” have all of a sudden lost their power to pick and choose? What if we could as Seth Godin suggests, “pick yourself?”

You want to write a book, pick yourself! You want to make a record, do it on iTunes! You want to [fill in the blank], do it!

Seth shares that it’s available because communication now is so easy. What is stopping you? For me and you (most likely), its the fear of the fear of failure! We want to play it safe.

If you’re frustrated that you’re not getting picked, one plan is to up your game, to hustle harder, to figure out how to hone a pitch and push, push, push. But in the era of picking yourself, it seems to me that you’re better off finding a path that doesn’t require you get picked in order to succeed.

-Seth Godin

What is it that you have to do, to pick yourself?

Warning: Dad’s Failing To Pass The Mantle

Recently watched Wrath Of The Titans with my son and the ending scene really stuck a chord with me. In this scene Perseus passes the mantle to his son Helius by speaking words of life and symbolically by handing over his sword.

Yeah, this is a fictional movie but this scene gets at the core of what’s missing today.

Consider this glimpse in the story of Jesus. Before His ministry begins, before He has His wilderness experience Jesus hears these words from God, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) Ever pause and think about the significance of this?

This is huge!

Finding Life!

What is wrong with us? For some reason we choose to journey through life on our own, without the Lord, and bounce from one sin or train wreck to another looking for that escape from the turbulence of life. Maybe this turbulence involves a relationship, a divorce, an affair, loss of a child, pride, lust, nonforgiveness or even religion; maybe its alcoholism, a drug addiction, depression, an eating disorder, or a chronic illness where a cure seems hopeless. Whatever is at the center of your turbulence, be assured you are not alone. We must come to an understanding that no matter how desperate our circumstances are we can find our answers and our hope in Jesus. Jesus healed the paralytic despite his obvious doubt and despite the fact that he didn’t even know who Jesus was. I don’t know what you are going through or why. I don’t know the plans God has for you, but reach out to Him.

Approved

I was consumed in justifying myself apart from God, and it left me worn out, tired, and empty. Every day, I would run as hard as I could trying to find value and worth in everything else but where it was all the time—in God. I looked for it in the approval of my father, my mother, in others, in two marriages, in money, in achievement, in position and in power…I’m sure there are more places.

I spent so much time pursuing acceptance in these places that I lost everything that mattered. I became the sum total of all the expectations that I placed on my life giving up my identity, my true self just to belong. I discovered that many of the places I looked for love and acceptance never truly accepted or loved me back. What I did discover in the journey out of the midnight of my soul was that loving God is what my heart desired and what’s really awesome—He accepts me for who I am and…loves me back.

Immeasurable!

Looking for my value, my self-worth, and my identity with position and success, I would always choose a safe retreat into my hiding place of counterfeit affirmation — selling my soul to my work. Receiving the glory of man through the recognition of another successful project; earning more money; advancing to that next, higher title on the corporate ladder, I continued to retreat from the pain and insecurities of my fractured life, protecting my empire as I chased my American dream with a blind devotion. The dream of this empire was something I wanted so badly that I failed to listen to that little voice inside trying to warn me that I was walking down a bad path. I would continue to perform on the world stage desperately trying to gain my identity. Ignoring the inner sadness slowly tightening around me, I didn’t realize that underneath this drive was a deep desire to just be accepted. I became a slave to my own empire, running without a purpose, and I didn’t even know it.

Are You Ready To Pick Yourself?

Warning: Dad’s Failing To Pass The Mantle

Finding Life!

Approved

Immeasurable!

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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