3 key mindsets for a fruitful 2014

Last year was one that many will be glad to forget! Election years are always tough for business and this one was no exception. Many businesses only began to recover halfway through the year, long after the elections. Inflation and the resultant high costs of living made us quite a pessimistic lot.

 Apart from the soaring cost of living, many underwent personal hardships or tragedies: Loss of a loved one, business failure, the loss of a job, a relationship that soured or an illness that drained you emotionally or financially. It was not an easy year and I suspect there are many who said goodbye to it with great relief!

GOOD NEWS

 The good news for us regardless of our past is that it’s not how well you start but how well you finish that counts! Paul, the prolific author of much of the New Testament shared what I believe is a great formula for success in 2014.

“This one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

WINNING MINDSET 

Here are three important mindsets that will help you have a great year!

 1.    Forget what is behind: You may have had a tough beginning, you may have made some terrible mistakes in your life, you may not have been born in the best family, you may have failed in your exams, or your marriage is in a mess because of mistakes you have made. But God’s word to you is, ‘forget what is behind’.

You are not your mistakes! You are not your failures! There is no mistake so unique that God cannot correct it. There is no past that is so terrible that God cannot uplift it. So stop looking at life through the rear-view mirror!

 2. Strain towards what is ahead: This has to do with developing a forward-looking orientation. It’s not about pretending that the past didn’t happen. It did and nothing can change that. The good news though is that God is in the turnaround business! God is able to take your worst possible situation and make it your greatest strength.

Nothing in your life is wasted when you turn it over to God. So stop living in regret and chose to look ahead with hope. Your best years are yet to come!

 3.     Press on toward the goal: You were created for a purpose and a reason. There is an ultimate goal for your life. As someone once said, the two most important days in a person’s life are the day they are born and the day they discover why.

So don’t live aimlessly! Commit in 2014 to discover and live out your purpose.

 Remember, it’s not how well you start but how well you finish that counts.

Regardless of your past, resolve with God’s help that 2014 will be your best year yet!