Page 13 - Demo

13If you these lessons to really mean something to your life, you'll write your own definition of success. Then don't you let anyone or anything move you off center to cause you to buy into their definition of success. Do you know what success is? It is not making lots of money. It is not having a powerful position. It's not having pleasure every minute. SUCCESS IS LIVING OUT YOUR VALUES. That's what it is. It's not a destination; it's the journey you travel as you live out the values that you believe are important. Don't let anyone else determine that for you. Success is living out your values.Now incidentally, teens, singles, young marrieds, middle agers or senior saints, you can be successful at any stage of your life because again, success is not some point down the road based on how you feel, what you have or what you do. Success is living out your values day by day. You can enjoy success right now if you're living out your values. Now obviously if those values are based upon Christ and His Word and His promises, then the success you enjoy is God-given and is eternal.Let me ask you a question: Have you taken the time to analyze what you really value? Better yet, have you written them down so that you can review them ever so often? The foundation to the maximum life is to first assess what's important.I think one of the best ways to know what you value is to answer a couple of simple questions. Imagine that you're 90 years old, some of you may be, but most of you aren't. a) Look back on your life and write down the five things you will have most wanted to do in your life. b) Write down what are the five ways or things that you most want people to remember about you. Those 10 things, the five things you most want to have done and the five things you want people most to remember, are your core values. Why don't you do that?The problem is we rarely take the time to examine our values until we have a crisis. When things are going great and you're having fun, you don't stop and ask if that is what life is really all about? Are you focusing on what's important? No, you just go through life and have fun. But, when your life gets jolted by some crisis i.e., the death of a loved one, a divorce, bankruptcy, lay-off, major illness or the kids mess up, then in your pain, you start asking: What does it really matter? Hear me; don't wait for the valleys to clarify your values. Set them now, and if you do, you will avoid a great deal of pain and you will minimize the rest. Set those anchors deep within the very control room of your ship, assess what's important.b.Bail-Out of what's unimportant.I know. You don't have time to do everything. Frankly, most things in life aren't worth doing even if we did have the time. We should pass on it. The key premise to the maximum life is that life is too important to waste. Don't fill your time with junk. Look at Psalm 119:37, \ my eyes away from worthless things.%u201d When I was just out of college, probably 22 or 23 years old, the video age dawned. I got hooked on video games. Back then, they only had two, for you old-timers who can