You stay out late one night with a friend.

The next morning you sleep through your alarm causing your schedule to be fifteen minutes behind.

As you are getting ready you notice the hot water heater has gone out the night before causing you to push back your morning routine by another twenty minutes.

As you are tying your shoe you break a shoe lace, but you go on anyway, you are already running far behind. 

As you go out the door your attempts to lock the door fail.  For some reason the key won’t turn. After two minutes you finally get the lock to click.

You rush out the door and as you get to the curb you notice the paper.  You can’t leave it outside, so you go back to the door, unlock it and put the paper inside on the door side table. You re-lock the door a second time. This time it clicks immediately. 

You rush out to the curb again and notice a quarter on the ground.  You stay on the curb and bend over to pick it up as a car doesn’t see you almost stepping off the curb as it rushes by. This saves you from being hit by a car.  You think nothing of it and continue to the office.

Once there, you go through your normal routine.  You check your mailbox, you get a cup of coffee and you arrive at your desk, late, but you are there.  Little did you realize that earlier that morning there was a fight just outside your office and one of the people involved in the fight pulled a gun and shot a man.  A man who was standing in front of the door that you would have been going through at that exact moment of the shots being fired had all these other little acts not happened.  Your life has once again been spared by time. 

Time is never wasted, my friends.  It is spent how it is spent.  Take no advantage of time because you never know how the seemingly insignificant acts of your life are working together to bring you to exactly the place you are meant to be at exactly the moment you are meant to be there.

We live in a world where everyone wants everything now. Fast food, fast cars, fast people, fast careers, fast money.  Everything needs to go faster so we can get it now.  We fail to realize what we are losing by waiting.  We are losing patience.  We are losing precious moments that could be spent learning a craft.  Becoming a master. 

Jesus Christ spent three years in an earthly ministry before that Good Friday where He chose to go to the cross and endure a long, painful journey to His Father’s Arms.  He spent THREE DAYS in HELL– For US! Talk about not getting instant gratification!!

Earlier today I posted on my facebook page that I need more views at this blog.  Why? So I can begin to make a career out of my writing.  I have only been doing this blog for almost two months!! I too suffer from Instant Gratification Syndrome! I want to quit my every day job and become a well-paid, first class, multi-selling author, but I don’t want to put in the leg work to get there. Then, a friend put it to me like this.  “If God needs for it to be your career, then it will happen. Just keep faithfully writing about your passions and sharing what God inspires you to share, and it will be what it needs to be.”  I forget that I need to spend time not only perfecting my craft, but also going to The One who already has it perfected in His Sight! The Maker Of All Things knows what He wants out of this blog. He was before the beginning and He will be after the end.  He IS The Alpha And The Omega! Our human brains cannot even COMPREHEND anything outside of the realm of time.  Yet, He IS. If this blog is meant to earn me money so I can provide an awesome life for my bride, then it will be.  I just need to take one step at a time and keep on writing and let The Master take it in His Time.

We all need to do that.  We all want instant gratification.  But, what are we missing when we GET instant gratification?  We are missing key moments in the in between.  What if our birth date and our death date were mere moments apart?  We’d miss an awful lot of good and bad times that were in that dash in the middle, wouldn’t we?  Maybe instead of trying to dash to the end… We need to just meander. Mosey.  Take a stroll through the garden of life and spend time with The Master so we can become LIKE The Master in our own way. Instant Gratification?  No, a lifetime of Mastery.  THAT is what it is about, my friends.

I don’t know what it is, but lately, okay, for a while now, I have had a strong desire to watch reality television shows that include outdoor trekking.  I just completed a whole season of a show about a group of nine people chosen to trek 50 miles across Alaska’s Telkeetna Wilderness.  Amazing stuff! Amazing Race? I am all over it!

I get so drawn into the characters of these shows.  Yes, they are real people with real thoughts and desires and sometimes real danger.  with my short work schedule I can sometimes end up watching an entire season within a week!! (Thank you, Netflix!)

The sad part about this is that I get drawn into the lives of these people that I’ve never met and yet, I feel disconnected from people in my own life.  I should be taking the time to make a difference in the lives of people in my small little town in West Central Minnesota.  Instead, I stay at home and read or watch reality television and documentaries on Netflix.  I guess somewhere I am seeking excitement that I just can’t find here.  I am seeking something, but what? I love the freedom of time that I have, but why do I spend it so frivolously? I could be spending time with friends in the Twin Cities Metro area, but I don’t.  I could be spending time just brightening somebody’s day around here, but I don’t.  The reality of reality television is these people have taken a chance to break out of their normal lives and they draw in people like me to get to care about them and their goals and endeavors in life.  Am I the only one who feels this way?

Instinct is defined as

• An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli.

  the spawning instinct in salmon; altruistic instincts in social animals.

• A powerful motivation or impulse.

• An innate capability or aptitude.

• Impelled from within.

It is that last definition that really captures my spirit tonight.  What is it that drives you from within? Are you being driven by the correct things?  If you are being driven by something that is not bigger than what you are currently, how can it drive you? Basic instinct tells us to survive, to fight the odds. To go against that which is to take us down! to FIGHT!

What are you doing today that is deep within you? What are you compelled to accomplish today? There will come times when road blocks or detours happen, but will you let it keep you from your ultimate goal?  I have an instinct to be a writer.  However, over the course of the past two years while trying to writ my book I have let things get in the way, I have let detours arise and take my focus off of the goal.  That is another part of instinct– Focus! You must always keep your eye on the end goal in order to arrive at it, or you will get lost along the way.  What are your instincts telling you now?  Are your instincts being lead by something greater than what they are? If they are not, do not follow them!! If you rearrange the letters from FOLLOW you can make Fool and Low! Do not become a fool who travels low! Seek the high road! Seek the instinct to rise above whatever it is today that is seeking to keep you down! The basic instinct of humanity is to keep going no matter the odds.  If something doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger! Use that instinct to stay the course no matter what today! Live a life of I.M.P.A.C.T.!!

Coca Cola, Pepsi, Reebok, Dell, Samsung, Philips, Internet Explorer, Firefox.  As I look around my room, these are the brands I see.  What do they mean? They are all successful at what they market and to whom they market, but how do they do it?  What if YOU were a market? Guess what, you are. YOU have a message to share with the world.  What is it? How can you get it out there so the world will listen?

Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Babe Ruth, Ghandi, Eli Whitney, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, The Rat Pack, Every Famous Person You Can Think Of In History.  What do they all have in common? They have all experienced failure! They have all had to perfect their craft.  They all had to create their brand! What makes you, you? Is it a particular brand of clothes? Is it a specific activity? What if what makes you you is your thoughts and actions you share with the world? What then? Will you share them? Will you create your message and live a life of I.M.P.A.C.T. today? The world is waiting for your brand, your message.  Share your market!