I recently had an interesting and revealing conversation with a young man at Mars Hill Church. The bottom line was that he lacked any serious motivation and direction in his life and didn’t have a clue as to what he wanted to see happen in/through his life.  I was reminded of the line from Tombstone spoken by Wyatt Earp: “I spent my whole life not knowing what I wanted out of life.” Those words have always haunted me and led me to pray that Jesus would continue to give me clarity regarding what my life is all about. As this young man and I continued to talk about how he should go about getting some gas in his tank and fire in his belly, I shared three things with him:

3 Things to Do If You Lack Direction

1. Determine exactly what it is you want to achieve.
2. Ask yourself what it will take to achieve it.
3. Pay the price and do what it takes, regardless of the cost or inconvenience to you.

The gospel needs to be the foundation from which these three steps flow. It is imperative that I begin with who I am in Jesus and who he is in me. It is important to get in touch with my God-given passion, gifts, and calling, which will aid me in determining my unique contribution.

Life Planning Retreats

I often suggest to those young men I coach that they start this process by getting away on a “life planning retreat” for most of a day to think, pray, and seek his will.  This time will often jumpstart a process which may take months or even years. We are talking about a combination of both dreaming big and, at the same time, focusing on a few things to give my time and attention to—maybe only one thing over time. I was captivated by a statement I recently heard: “I want to be 100% good at a few things rather than so-so at a lot of things."

Dream big and then focus your energy and time like a laser. You might not achieve all you dream of, but you most certainly will not achieve anything you don’t dream of.

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