If you have had any time with me you will recognize I talk about the Bible and its lessons a lot and how they apply to life. You don’t have to be a Christian to learn from the Bible and its timeless lessons any more than someone who attends a concert has to love all of the songs.
For me the decision to become a Christian was to first look at it from a human stand point. It wasn’t all of the miracles of Jesus that did it for me or that God sent his son to die for us, it was the disciples. They were cowards, when the government came to arrest Jesus and eventually convict and crucify him they were all in hiding except for Peter who had immense curiosity of what might happen so he hung around as close as possible until he was accused of being a follower of Jesus and then he denied knowing him on 3 different accusations and even started cussing at the people.
Are you serious, all of Christianity was going to depend on these 11 guys?
When I read how these guys were put to death I had to ask myself what changed? What could make them go from cowards to bold teachers who were willing to be stoned to death or crucified upside down. What could cause that type of change? They saw a ghost and it scared the crap out of them and once they realized it was a real ghost and more importantly who the ghost was, it made them change. Jesus came back as He said He would and because of it they changed from cowards to bold teachers. This is what sealed the deal for me. I tend to be a realist and if it wasn’t for these guys, I would have a tough time believing.
But I understand people and I understand the deceitfulness of riches. Where was Peter and John on the day Christ rose from the dead, after the tomb had already been opened? They were in a fishing boat where they were before they met Jesus.
Don’t get me wrong, fishing has nothing to do with the deceitfulness of riches unless it is your profession then it could be. Here’s what I mean. When the going got tough they went back to the thing that enslaved them in the first place, their business. And when Jesus found them at the time they weren’t catching any fish so He tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat. Now if you have done any fishing in your life you know that one side of the boat to the other should not matter but it often does and the fact that a stranger, a non-fisherman was calling from shore to throw the net out on the other side of the boat likely pissed them off. They were likely highly indignant with the proposition. Who are you to tell me how to fish? John recognized it and knew at that moment and exclaimed, its him and Peter jumps in the water and swims to shore because at that very moment he knew.
I often find myself in the same boat, so to speak. When the going gets tough I fall back into my old habits until I recognize these were the habits that stole 15 years of life. These were the habits that stole thousands of dinners with my children, stole countless hours of time with my wife and made me a slave to my business. Like Peter and John you must be able to recognize the enemy and that enemy lives inside your head. The biggest obstacle to your success in life is silencing the critic that lives in your head.
You can’t work your way out of a problem you must think your way out and then build something bigger than yourself. You have to work on the problem not in it. You have to work on your business not in it. If you work in your business 10 years will go by in a blink of an eye and you will be older, less healthy, not happy and tired. For me it caused me to become a full-fledged alcoholic by definition. I would work my ass off all day and then hide from my business at night in a 6 pack of beer, some wine and then a little scotch before I would pass out and do it all over the next day.
The reason I say full-fledged alcoholic “by definition” is because according to the people who make such definitions they say it is impossible to stop for any period of time and you could suffer withdrawal symptoms and numerous amounts of garbage that I found out just wasn’t true.
One New Year’s day about 10 years ago I woke up on my foyer floor. I passed out the night before and hit my head. It was pretty bad, I had blood in my sinuses when I awoke and I couldn’t tell if my head hurt so bad from the scotch I or if I had hit my head. That January day I did something I had not done in 20 years. I took a month off. No drinking for a month. I said to myself enough is enough.
If you do any reading about alcoholism you will see that they say that what I did is not only impossible but can be extremely dangerous and even cause death. I didn’t care, I wanted to silence the critic in my head and he was not going to tell me that I couldn’t stop. I wanted to know that what I was doing was a choice, not an addiction. I had to know and I promised myself if I could not stay sober the entire month of January I would get help. If this was an addiction, I was ready to check myself in to any clinic to get help.
I’d like to say it was hard, it really wasn’t. After 4 days I slept like a baby, all night. I remember after the 5th or 6th day of sobriety how one night I went to bed and woke up to the alarm clock the next morning. It scared the crap out of me. I pulled off the impossible for any business owner, I slept through the night. I made it through the entire month and I can tell you every January since I not only skip drinking but I do a 21 day fast where I don’t have any meat, sugar and pretty much just consume vegetables and fruit. I proved to myself that I do not need to drink and that it is simply a habit and habits can be changed it just takes commitment and the desire to make the change.
If you are ready to make a change in your life or your business decide what that change looks like and then take action. If you need help, get help. I help people every day to build a more prosperous business and personal life. Feel free to reach out to me if you need help.
To your lifelong prosperity,
David Mulvaney