For the last several months we have been bombarded with the bad news of the economy.  We have been shackled by the weight of our own expectations and the wait and see approach to our world.  I have also been in this funk.

A wise man once told me that if I was going to achieve something that was previously unachievable that I had to have and create some extraordinarily unreasonable expectations of myself to take action on this accomplishment.  When you come to expect the unreasonable and act on your belief then you begin to see the achievements of something new.  These self beliefs or confidence defy logic, conventional wisdom, or even self depricating facts.

I challenge you, as I have been challenged to become unreasonable of yourself and to create the extraordinary tasks that will lead you to the previously unachievable with great confidence.  Think big.  Do more.  Leave the excuses in the past.  If not you, then who else is going to excel on your behalf.  You are absolutely the best you that has ever been created, warts and all!  

Now let’s get unreasonable and go play ball!!

In the spirit of learning, I have learned that letting go of my need to control my life and those around me is a very humbling process.  I have learned that the older I get the more questions I have, not necessarily answers.

I have also learned that once I have determined that the control is not important, nor my responsibility, then I must have full faith that God is in control and his timing is perfect.  This has been a very hard practice for me to accept and implement.  I believe God is in control, but why don’t I just get out of His way and let Him do His job? 

Today, I think we should all consider the possibility of not limiting God’s power through our own mind and understanding, but prayerfully consider letting go of our worries, our baggage, our own feeble attempts at doing God’s job.  I think…no, I believe with all my heart that if we fully surrender our will to God with just the faith of a mustard seed that God will do his job for us all.  May His will be done, and may we know his will.

Have a great day!

Today I am writing about a subject that I have failed at miserably in the last thirty years of my life.  Why do I want to write about this?  I don’t want to, but God has been working on me from many directions the last few weeks, and finally I have had the ears to hear.  Many of my recent conversations have developed a need for others to hear this message not for mysake, but to learn that God will meet you where you are, and if we get out of the way, he will open the necessary doors to meet his will.  I have no idea of I will ever write another post, so this one says a lot.

I was confronted recently with a thirty year history of the sins of my youth, adulthood, and questioning my Christianity.  I can tell you the list was long.  Some of these were right on the spot in describing my actions and a few had some gross misunderstanding or misrepresentation, but nevertheless were representing the thoughts and feelings that this person has had about me for sometime.  It was ironic that I was in this type of position more than once in the last few weeks, after I started this blog.  I won’t name the person, but it is someone who I used to be extremely close to, someone that I enjoyed much of my life with when I was growing up.  Someone I miss a great deal today, all to my own fault.  I obviously hurt him and several others by taking a path a way from them.   I have not really been accountable to any one as it relates to my life.  I tried to control everything.

When I look back at these events in my life, I realize that I have blamed everyone and everything else but me for the results that I have been living and even forced on others who had no choice.  I lived as though I was the victim of the circumstances and actions of others.  This creates painful scenarios for those you love, and those you should love.  It also creates some very stressful, embarrassing, humiliating perceptions.  All of this usually is a result of sin of arrogance, of greed, and of selfishness.  It also distorts your own reality, your own truth, and your perceptions of life today and the actions you take tomorrow.  It is not possible to live in a world of reality when you do not take accountability and responsibility for your own actions, or inactions.  It is not a real life without humility, or the ability of feeling true emotions.  I blocked them all for years, until now.  Transparency is not something that I have aspired to in the past, and I find it difficult but necessary now.

For some readers of this blog, and there are only a few that I am aware of, they have commented on my religiousness and a perception was created that I have had it all together in life.  I can fully confess that until a few days ago, I did not have any understanding of the power of God, and the true meaning of repentance.  I spent most of my life going to church, reading my Bible sporadically, attending a Christian college, and being a “good” person.  But when I looked at my life from different eyes, I realized that I broke most of the Ten Commandments in my short life to this point.   I have come to be accountable that I hurt friends, distant family members, and my own immediate family including my wife, my three sons, and nearly everyone that I have been close to by not being the Godly father, husband and friend that I was called to be.

I have done almost every bad thing that we put others down for, but want to hold ourselves above.  That is a hypocracy that I have lived.  Although I may not have been called out for my sins at the time, I will be if I do not set the record straight with God and those who I sinned against, or with at the time.

So why would I consider writing this post today?  One reason is that I want to make a peace offering to those that I have hurt that may just read this blog. I will also make attempts to take responsibility for this personally, but either way, I ask for your forgiveness for the pain I have caused.  I certainly want you to know that I have forgiven everyone who I claimed hurt me and that I harbored anger or even hatred towards, whether you needed to be or not.

Another reason is that I have accepted a new life with God that I have not experienced before, and I want to clear the way for me to live as he has called me to do for my family’s sake, and so a new legacy can be lived in my sons and their families of the future.  I want to get my family in a church that we call home.  We have not been in one for some time.  Without a church family, my sons have little chance of staying focused on God’s will for their lives. 

I have many things to address, as may you.  This is the beginning of a new life, but the end of a wrong life.   I have no idea what the future holds for me, or my family, I have no promise of tomorrow,  but I do have the gift of today. 

As you may take a look at your own life, I pray that you find the peace that God offers through his salvation of believing in his death, burial, resurrection and forgiveneess of our sins.  I pray that we all strive to live in his glory and accept his grace and mercy.  I pray that you find the God that I have just found. 

We will all eventually be accountable whether we want to be or not.  I want to change the tables in my family’s favor now.  I hope you do as well. My accountability is now and my actions to create it are today.

May you receive the love you deserve, the coverings of God’s mercy and the protection of his word.

Today and tomorrow promises to be a day of change for our country and our world.  Our incoming elected president, President Elect Barack Obama, has promised much change in attitude, implementation, and action for our country.   For many this change is very welcome, and for some this will be resisted and downright hard to accept.

After having been on this earth for 44 years, I have discovered that change is not something that is implemented as easily as it is spoken.  There have been many times in my life that I have promised to make a difference, to change a behavior, and attitude, a habit, or a belief only to find myself making no change and reliving the days that I so wanted to improve, but failed.  It has been said so many times that I am tired of hearing it, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”  Many of you have shared your same experience with me.

However, for our world, our nation, our community, our home, our life to change for the better we must take a different approach than we did yesterday if we want our tomorrows to be better.  This change must start with me.  How can we improve anything in our life without first improving ourselves, without first taking on the challenges we have created in our lives?  How can we improve our outcomes if we do not improve our behaviors?

Today, I propose that the first change we make is to identify what our desired outcome in life really is.  Today, let us visualize, like Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently and passionately described his dream, our most desired outcomes for ourselves, our marriages, our families, our faith, our community, our nation and our world.  Then let us write down all of the excuses, or reasons, or dangers that could keep us from making these improvements occur on a piece of paper.  Look at it intently, then wad it up and throw it away forever.  Just let it go and don’t look back.

Now that we are free from our bondage, let’s take one step forward on a new path, as a pioneer on a journey of discovery.  Let us surrender to our own will and walk in faith that God will direct our steps.  Let us have the courage to take the next step and to enjoy the outcomes of a changed behavior that gets us closer to our goal.

Today take a step that creates a habit of success, because we are not promised tomorrow.

Trent Fortner

www.twitter.com/trent4tnr

Several friends have asked me why I have started a blog.  I have wrestled with many answers all of which are true:

1) To link people from my other social networking to monetize my efforts and make some cash….I need it. 

2) To test my ability to write and see if anyone wants to read it, comment on it, or ask for more.

3) To bring value to the readers that are looking for inspiration

4) To teach, to learn, to vent, to write what I do not seem to say or get out of my head

5) To build on my material for a book or two.

6) To share my faith and experiences

Today I want to share a few things I have learned in the last few years.

1) Do not over promise and under deliver.

2) Blackberry Curves do not float.

3) Do not expect that a friend who loans you money will always be a friend if you are not on time with repayment, or if you do not communicate in a timely direct manner.

4) True friends stay with you through everything even when they don’t have to, but care enough to let you know when you are not at your best.

5) Never put anyone, or any activity above your family, but God.  Everyone loses when you allow other things to get in the way.

6) Always be grateful for your blessings and let your family know how grateful you are daily.

7) True wealth is in your heart and soul, not in your bank account.  But you can have both with the right focus.  Just read Proverbs to learn this.

God loves you, even when you don’t.

9) Excuses cannot be justified.

10) “I’m sorry” should not be the answer for every time you make the same mistake.  Always be the first person to make an effort to correct the pain you cause others, whether you know you did or not.

11) Take time to enjoy life, smile, laugh, cry, feel the moments, record them with pictures, videos, blogs. 

12) Leave your cell phone in the car when you get home from work, or you are with your family and friends.

13) Our children are great teachers of what our real needs in life are all about.

14) Prayer works.  Pray often then get out of God’s way.

15) Abundance is already in you.  Don’t let someone else take it away.

16) You can have everything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want.

17) Coaching children and adults is a lot of fun.  Coaching your own children is more important.

18) A good husband always has an awesome wife!  I do!

19) You will usually get out of life exactly what you put into it.  The law of vibration is real.  You will reap what you sow.  You want to be around for the harvest.

20) Take counsel from a wise man.  Be coachable. 

21) “Never underestimate the power of the darkside”, Darth Vader.

22) Disney World does not have to be the only happiest place on earth.

23) We all will go through, chaos, a learning curve, growth, and then chaos again to the next phase.  If we are learning from the past our learning curve will be much steeper the next cycle, but we get to the growth phase much quicker.

This certainly is not an all inclusive list, just what is on my plate today.  I will be adding to this if you find it valuable for you.  I would love to hear what you have learned as well.  We all have learning curves if we are open and honest to what is real.  I also learned that being honest with yourself is sometimes the first step to take.

May your learning curve be upright.

Trent

Now that this new year of 2009 is in full swing, I have learned from 2008 that the biggest lesson I had to not reaching the life I wanted was due to the distractions that I allowed in my life.  There was more information available, read, saved and not read, texted, emailed, started and not started than I can ever remember.  There was more stress imposed on me, or I allowed to be imposed on me than ever in my life. 

The truth is, this stress and all of its different components was really created, even invited into my life by me.  My Blackberry that allows me to be in constant contact has created an enormous obligation in my mind to respond immediately, or feel bad about ignoring messages.  The news that is constantly being updated is giving nothing but gloom and doom.  The goals that I started with were distorted by the many different items that “I had to react to”.  If the new year is going to be better than the last year, then I have to be responsible for it…only me.

So for this year to be much more productive with the enormous opportunities being brought to me, the only way for me (you) to intentionally have the life that we want this year is to commit to our focus and be proactive about the steps we take.  Are we going to move closer to our objectives, or consistently off track by reacting to what the next hour brings?  So here are my steps for complete laser focus on 2009.

1) Name my top three priorities for 2009. Write them down on index cards, desktop, wherever to see everyday.  What are the three most important areas of my life to improve?  Commit to “why ” these are my most important objectives for this year.  Commit it to prayer daily.  Determine the value created for the achievement of these objectives.  Visualize the success of this accomplishment and how life improves because of this.  Bring it to this very moment in your mind now.

2) What is the one item I can do today to accomplish number one on my list?  Do it and nothing else until an action is taken on number one that moves me closer to my objective. Don’t move to number two until one is complete.

3) Anything not moving me towards number one objective is a distraction and avoid it at all costs.  Be proactive.  Take action now.

4) Repeat number one again.

Sounds simple?  It may be if you take responsibility for this action.  If your like most people in this world you will find a lot of excuses for not making it happen and then somehow justify it with logic.

Your yesterdays to do not equal your today or your tomorrow.  “Past performance does not guarantee future results.”

How can I help you achieve your objectives with laser like focus in this new year? 

To your success,

Trent Fortner

Sometimes it seems difficult to pursuit dreams when the shadows of the past darken your vision.  Sometimes the vision of success is interrupted by the immediate blur from the smoke of the fires we attempt to put out hourly.  Sometimes our vision, our energy, our enthusiasm becomes dark by the many adjustments you make to again remain on your path to successful endeavors.

The past can only affect your vision of the future if you are continuing to look behind you.  The smoke clears as we gain clarity on our commitment to our successful objectives by focusing on the most important activity to accomplish at the moment for the ultimate accomplishment of our vision.  Our vision, our energy, our enthusiasm increases like the strength of a marathon runner who is constantly adjusting to the conditions of his path, when we continue to find the opportunity in the challenge, the celebration of the next step, and the fuel to be excited about our new level of achievement. 

Our challenge is to consistently fuel the hope, the commitment, and the next step with the clarity of our purpose.  As God blesses us with the next step, let’s be grateful for the stress that we are challenged with for we will grow stronger in faith, in patience, and in abundance. 

Failure would only be in having no enthusiasm to take the next step.

Crawl with no fear.  Walk upright with confidence and clarity.  Run with all the enthusiasm that God has bestowed in you with full expectation of winning your race.

Author —-         Trent Fortner