In one of our large events in Africa, we were told by the organizers not to expect to start on time. “Here in Africa the opening night is just a test run where we work out our problems.”
Can you imagine? There are 75,000 people preparing to gather. People are already standing on the field hours before the meetings are to begin! Yet, the expectation of a group of adult men was, ‘don’t worry if we don’t start on time, well, we never do…’ So, in other words, failure is acceptable!
Ask yourself a simple question: Where have I set the standard for my life? Is failure my expectation, or is overcoming the impossible where I set my goal in life?
How would you handle a situation like this, if in just a matter of an hour you were to address this crowd and you had no lights and no sound?
Action was required, so we fired the 30 organizers and asked for 40, 14-year-old male volunteers. Why? They had not yet experienced failure! They would climb where no one else would climb, lifting lights and scaling poles! Are you willing to scale insurmountable odds?
If those 40 boys had not stepped to the line, what would have happened that night? Those 75,000 people who came looking for hope, searching for a miracle, and expecting good news would have left disappointed! http://bit.ly/1ITmciq
Knowing the results of apathy, how do you and I overcome it? First we have to understand it. What is apathy?
- They observed but they did not act.
- They knew but they did not care.
- They heard but they did not respond.
- They thought of themselves rather than thinking of others.
Are you a part of the collective they? Helen Keller said, “Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.”
Just as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Helen Keller overcame apathetic concern for their causes, you and I can discover renewed hope, and expectation. Why wait? Let’s do it now!
I encourage you today to go to my website, www.LeslieMcNulty.com. We are here to help you, and have made tools available to you that can change your life!
At about 3:20 a.m. on March 13, 1964, a 28-year-old manager in Queens, New York, returned to her quiet residential neighborhood, parked her car, and began to walk the 30 yards to her door. Noticing a man at the far end of the parking lot, she paused. When he started toward her, she turned the other way and tried to reach a police call box. The man caught and stabbed her. She started screaming that she’d been stabbed, and screaming for help.
Lights went on in the apartment building across the street. Windows opened. One man called out, “Let that girl alone!” The assailant shrugged and walked away. Windows closed and lights went out.
The assailant returned and attacked Genovese again. This time she screamed, “I’m dying! I’m dying!” This time lots more windows opened and lots more lights went on. The assailant walked to his car and drove away, leaving Ms. Genovese to crawl along the street to her apartment building. And somehow, she managed to drag herself inside.
The assailant returned a third time, found Genovese on the floor at the foot of her stairs, and finally succeeded in killing her.
During those three separate attacks over the course of 35 minutes, not one of Kitty Genovese’s neighbors tried to intervene. No burly neighbor dashed outside to save her life. Worse than that, of the more than 30 people who saw at least one of the attacks and heard Genovese’s screams and pleas for help, not one of them even called the police.
After much deliberation, and one phone call to a friend for advice, one man finally urged another neighbor to call authorities, which she did. Police arrived in two minutes, but by then, it was too late.
Interviewed afterward, the residents hesitantly admitted, “I didn’t want to get involved,” or “I didn’t want my husband to get involved.” One said he was too tired to call police and had gone back to bed. Several couldn’t say why they hadn’t helped. Many of them said they’d been afraid to call. They couldn’t say why within the safety of their own homes they had been afraid to call the police—even anonymously.
Albert Einstein said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
I want to ask you a question today. Who can you reach out to in your world and show them that you care? What family member, student, or co-worker needs a kind or helping hand?
It cost one human life to wake up 30 families. How many destinies can be changed when you and I emerge from apathy to action? Consider it. It does not matter your sex, your age, or your culture—wherever you are today, you and I have power to initiate change! http://bit.ly/1TkC6bo
Today we continue with some steps to help you in Putting Your Dream to the Test.
- Regard the experts. John Maxwell, leadership expert and noted author of over 60 books says, “In 40 years I’ve realized that the payments required for reaching a dream never stop. The higher you want to go the more you must give up, and the greater price you pay the greater joy you feel when you finally reach your dream!”
- Keep the Dream alive whatever it takes. Ask these questions: How long before I succeed? What if I fail on my first attempt? Look for incremental progress, because it always takes longer than you expect! Don’t live in the desire for completion, live in the reality of incremental change. As long as you are moving forward you are making progress!
The Cost of your dream? Face the reality that you may need to raise the funds to acquire your dream, you may need a new education, you may need to find legal assistance to initiate your idea!
You might say, “I don’t have enough money to fulfill my vision!” Believe it or not, that’s not a new thought! Most dreams begin with very little. We have always taught young leaders that money follows vision.
Remember, it’s not the money in your pocket that counts, but the value of the idea in your mouth that will open the door to opportunity. It’s not what you have or what you know, but often it’s the Who that you will meet that will make a dream a reality! Ask yourself, “Who do I know?” “Who can I get to know?”
Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets! http://bit.ly/1gmsroFhttps://
Today and tomorrow in my Live Your Dream series I want to talk about Putting Your Dream to the Test. What measurements, standards or costs are associated with your dream?
Anything worth having has a price attached. As an athlete I learned early on: no pain, no gain. What do I mean? To improve our game, skills, and opportunity we had to practice, practice, practice! In the daily pursuit of our dream sometimes we didn’t feel like carrying on, but the sheer will of fortitude, the desire to win, and the constant challenge to press beyond our current capabilities kept us charging forward toward our destination.
Today, let’s begin refining our dream by discovering the facts. How do we do this? We begin by first researching what it takes. We ask questions such as, “what price is too high to pay?” You can count the cost of your dream by asking some more specific questions:
- What will my dream cost me personally—financially and emotionally?
- What will my dream cost my family, my marriage?
- What will my dream require from my current free time? Are you willing to give up your free time to learn a new skill, take a class, build a prototype, set a goal? Consider the price before you embark!
Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets! http://bit.ly/1gmsroFhttps://
As a young woman Mother Theresa, who was suffering from tuberculosis, heard the “call within the call”. She knew she was to leave the convent in Calcutta and work with the poor living among them. With only 5 Rupees in her hand, she started a school in the slums to teach the children of the poor.
Mother Theresa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and India’s highest Civilian Award, set up nearly 570 homes for the poor in 125 countries.
With only 5 Rupees and battling sickness in her own body, Mother Theresa rose above poverty and made a better life for millions of people. One idea, one thought from God can bring significant change, not only to your life, but to the lives of those you know in your community and in your nation! http://bit.ly/1E6nKV7
Today we continue our discussion on Friendship, and friendship with God.
One night a man by the name of Victoricus appeared to his friend Patrick in a dream. Patrick had known Victoricus in Ireland when they were slaves. In Patrick’s dream, Victoricus held a letter with the heading “The Voice of the Irish,” and as Patrick read it, he heard the voice of a multitude of people crying and begging him to come back and walk among them once more.
You know, the ordinary person might be surprised and happy to have an old friend, or even a multitude, appear to them in a dream. But Patrick’s life was different. The Irish in the early 5th century were a barbaric collection of Celtic tribes, and they were regularly sending out raiding parties to capture slaves and riches. One day a great fleet of boats swept up the west coast of Britain and seized “many thousands” of young prisoners. Among these prisoners was a young man by the name of Patrick, who was taken to the slave markets in Ireland. Although he was educated and spoiled as a youth, he now found himself bound to slavery in the cold highlands of Ireland. Destitute with barely any clothing or food to eat, he would spend months with little to no contact with other humans. Yet in this barren place he developed a friendship with Victoricus, and a deep relationship with God.
Victoricus was a reminder to Patrick of Ireland’s need for help. He was an Irishmen trapped in the same slavery that Patrick had experienced. Perhaps you are like Victoricus and you need help? Or perhaps you’ve had a picture in your heart of someone you would like to help?
The dream appearing to Patrick to come and help the Irish was relentless, and finally he surrendered and trained for the ministry in France. A few years later he emerged from seminary as a young Bishop, eventually arriving on the shores of Ireland as the country’s first known missionary. By the time of Patrick’s death the Irish slave trade had ended, and murder and inter-tribal warfare had decreased significantly.
Today, you can be that friend, that caring voice of encouragement as Victoricus was to Patrick, and as Patrick was to an entire nation. You can help someone else find their destiny. So go ahead, take the risk, you won’t be disappointed!
I encourage you today to go to my website, www.LeslieMcNulty.com. We are here to help you, and have made tools available to you that will change your life!
Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I live my dream? Where do I begin?”
Abraham, a man of God in the bible, desired to have a family. He and his wife were very old, beyond the child bearing age. But God gave Abraham a dream and told him to, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, that’s how many descendants you will have!”
Maybe life’s struggles or hard economic times tell you to downsize your dream but ideas are meant to be SUPERSIZED! Dream big – live large with your ideas!
When capturing your dream, take off the limits. You are like a star in the sky, shining with potential. If each one of us dares to dream the impossible we can change our lives, our families and our communities!
Go to my website and download your free “LIVE YOUR DREAM” worksheets! http://bit.ly/1gmsroF
Scripture: Genesis 15:5
You and I were created to walk and fellowship with the source of dignity – GOD! A famous author said: “Religion in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by grace.” This source of our dignity is greater than a human dignity built solely upon our actions.
A life lived with dignity is a life where we don’t measure ourselves by the standard of others, but we measure ourselves according to the values that we have set for ourselves. Ask yourself this question: “What standard or values have I set for my own life?”
When you stop comparing yourself to others you can rise above average and become truly exceptional! Remember, comparison limits your expression to what you have seen in others. Identifying YOUR uniqueness will allow you to shine with ease.
Right now, consider your own unique qualities. Have you considered how unique you are? I encourage you right now to jot down one of your unique qualities! Your uniqueness can be as simple as the thing you love to do! No one is just like you! And no one is truly an enemy to your future except you!
Quote: “Today, people have the means to live, but nothing to live for.” – Victor E. Frankl
Victor E. Frankl, a Nazi prison camp survivor and a renowned psychotherapist, discovered that in the midst of great human tragedy he could retreat to his true spiritual self and find a picture of life that was not relegated to the external—but empowered him through the eye of his imagination.
Human dignity is an internal characteristic that allows us to draw an image of self not dependent upon what others say or what others do, but dependent upon an inner source of spiritual strength. Have you found this source of inner strength?
Victor Frankl connected with this strength and in his mind found the true meaning of life. Yet, as many would observe, this spiritual strength comes from a living “God” connection with the true spiritual self. This “God” connection as some would say, has little to no meaning if the word “God” is meant to include everything or all things worshipped. But, this “God” source that penetrates throughout eternity has a name and a purpose—to restore humanity to the “true” dignity for which we were created.
Scripture: Psalm 8:4-6, 9
