Are You Brave Enough to Ask Yourself the Tough Questions?
One of the toughest questions for me has often been, “What do you want?” Early in life, I recall having options and struggling with simple decisions. For instance, as a senior in high school, I only had morning classes and worked in the afternoon, but still had to take one elective. There were several choices and I had no particular interests, so what would it be? I chose photography and have no idea why. It was OK, but my love of pictures has never developed (so to speak) enough to even consider photography as a hobby.
How did you decide whether or not to attend college and if so, what major? A close friend is my CPA and I learned that he enjoyed math in high school, which helped him decide to major in accounting in college. I don’t know if he would say, “All I ever wanted to be was a CPA,” but he’s been with the same accounting firm his entire career and has enjoyed his work of helping others.
Some people figure out early on exactly what they want to do. I am not among them.
Nearing the end of high school, I followed a friend to college, which was the same one our fathers both attended. He majored in Ag-Eco, which sounded good to me, mostly because I had no idea what I wanted to do. In fact, I don’t ever recall considering other options. I often took the path of least resistance, which was what a friend was doing, what my father suggested or simply following the crowd.
Over the years I have found firm opinions, in fact some would say I’m quite opinionated. But I continue to struggle with the question, “What do I want?” and more specifically, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Since I cannot decide, I’m trying as many careers as possible and with no regrets whatsoever. These types of life challenges led me to write my first book, “What’s Next? Finding the Road to Your Success.”
Assuming you are brave enough to ask yourself the tough questions, exactly what are they? In the book, I suggest they include the following:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What do I want?
What is my purpose?
What does God expect of me?
There may be tougher questions, but for me, and likely for you, these are fundamental in our identity and they also serve as a framework on which we can grow.
There are 2 recent songs with the same title as the first question – Who Am I? Casting Crowns has a great song, but lyrics from NeedToBreathe are:
White lights and desperation
Hard times and conversations
No one should ever love me like You do
Sometimes my bad decisions
Define my false suspicions
No one should ever love me like You do
Oh, while I'm on this road, You take my hand
Somehow You really love who I really am
I push You away, still You won't let go
You grow Your roses on my barren soul
Who am I to be loved by You?
Whether we are great decision-makers or continue to struggle, there is one choice that should be a no-brainer – you can accept or reject that God loves you. I hope you have accepted that fact and live your life in response to being loved and accepted, no matter what!
Now, let’s get busy living to honor God and making good decisions,and one of those is reading. May I make a suggestion?
"What’s Next? Finding the Road to Your Success. 10 Questions to Ask to Avoid a Lifetime of Regret."
The Kindle version is now available on Amazon and the print version will be available this week.