Post 27: Vision Board Personal Statement, Part 8

Good Sunday Afta-noon...

I suppose that I should continue on with the personal vision statement, since the next sentence, highlighted in green below, is very much related to the subject matter of the last post.

"I am 100% healthy in my body, soul, and spirit. I acknowledge God in all my ways, and I seek Him before I make any decisions, big or small. I am a blessing to my family and to those that God sends across my path. I am an incredible asset to my friends. I am a good listener. I am an excellent employee, and I not only work hard, but I work smart. I take time to periodically evaluate myself, and I make changes accordingly. I stick and hold fast to the path God has charted out for my life. I accept and openly welcome constructive criticism, as I know it will help me become "a better me". I am a good steward, a fine manager over the finances He has blessed me with, to the point that God knows He can trust me."

This is a sticky, sticky point for me. Last post, I wrote about it from a workplace context. This post, I'm thinking about my own life in totality. But I am constantly thinking about it.

In the last post, I wrote about something I heard in a sermon some years ago.

Take a little time to evaluate yourself each evening, during your quiet time. If you messed up that day, take time to admit to yourself and to God that you did. Same thing if you were lazy, or mean, or if you had a good day. Take time to think about it and be honest with yourself and God, think about how and what you can do to do things differently, if you can expand and build on what went right, etc.

That was interesting. I remember it, and know when I put it into action, I feel better. There's a huge amount of mental freedom resulting from it. It's sort of like sraping the gunk off the walls of my mind, so it doesn't have time to take root in me.

I found a most interesting verse of scripture, highly related and confirmational of that written above. Last week I was flipping through the pages of my journal entries for 2009, and saw it highlighted.

Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere heresay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.

Now, that verse talks moreso about your faith and your beliefs. I looked up other versions of that scripture, and it mentions closely examine yourself, try yourself, prove yourself, look closely at yourself...

The reason being so that you know for yourself that you aren't a counterfeit, to make sure you're yielding the proper fruit (results), and to make sure you're not reprobate.

Sounds a bit strong to me. And applicable to any and every area of life. Every.

And I think if I can examine my faith, and make the necessary and changes accordingly... well, that will influence and permeate all other areas of my life.

So it looks like everything is related in someway.

Now, this is wholly seperate from other folks evaluating me. That comes later in the vision statement. That's a whole nother animal right there.

I'm talking about sitting down, taking time to evaluate myself.

Just where am I with that portion of the vision statement?

Quick to evaluate myself, slow to make the necesssary changes.

Slow. Slow as syrup pouring from a bottle.

And I must admit, it takes a little pain for me to get busy about making changes.

Pain is the birthplace of change for me. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is what it is.

And you know why I'm so slow? It's because I have a tendency to get caught up in looking at the massiveness of the end result I want to achieve, rather than being tenacious about working hard on the little steps involved in reaching the final goal.

The thought of eating an elephant is daunting, but I can eat it, if I eat it one bite at a time.

I ain't all slow about stuff if I think of it from that perspective.

I'm particulary caught up with the more global part of 2 Corinthians 13:5"

Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups... test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.

That's A LOT if I'm not only thinking about my faith and beliefs, but also every single part of my life. A lot.

But it is a great piece of advice. One must be highly involved in self-evaluation, even moreso than depending on others' evaluation.

One thing I know about other people's evaluation: I have to throw it through a fine filter. And there better be a lot of trust there. Because peeps can care for me and want what's best for me, or they may just want me to conform to their own self-serving motives.

I find the latter to be true, more often than not.

And I gotta treat what they say like the acorns that fall from the tree in my front yard: look at it, kick it to the side, and smash it with my shoe.

But self-evaluation? It is what it is. I can only lie to myself for so long. If I can't be honest with myself, well... change, peace, growth, and progress will be nowhere to be found.

And that results in one thing: Stagnation.

And I can't have that, Can I?

I hate stagnation.

And what's worse than stagnation? The amount of drift involved with not paying attention, not taking time to periodically evaluate myself, and implementing the necessary changes.

I mentioned something about drift a few months ago in one of my posts. Something about at times, feeling like I was in a boat, and I can see the land and everything is all good. Then I fall asleep and wake up and find that I can no longer see land, the water is rough, and lo and behold, frickin' sharks are circling my boat.

A most unfortunate situation to be in indeed. I can sit in the boat and complain and cry about the dire circumstances all day long, but nothing will happen. Things will happen when I check around for my resources. Change will come when I get out my compass, get out my oars, fight off the sharks, and start paddling in the right direction.

With me, it's a matter of doing all of that faithfully, sincerely and expediently.

For I'm understanding, stagnation and drift have had me looking real crazy far too many times than I care to go into here.

And the older I get, the more I understand that that is beneath me and unexceptable.

"I take time to periodically evaluate myself, and make changes accordingly."

A most formidable and appropriate piece of the vision statement, there to keep everything in proper order and perspective.

No, I'm not there yet, but it feels good to be mindful of its importance in my life.