In this post, you will:
Learn how to recognize internal and external resources.
Get practical coaching questions to assist you to cultivates a mindset that recognizes internal and external resources. There was once a city filled with people who had immense talent and skills, and who for the most part were generally healthy. Seemingly an oasis from the outside, the city was built on the shores of a big lake. There was one problem though, the people of the city believed that the water was unsafe to drink. They had to work very hard to dig wells just to stay alive which meant that the city never grew and the people became bitter (no pun intended) towards other cities with drinkable water.
One day a traveler arrived in the city and from thirst and not knowing about the lake drank from the water, everyone waited for him to die but after a few days, nothing happened to him. The people justified what happened by saying that the man was special in some way. The man decided to settle in the town and benefitted from the water of the lake by utilising it to irrigate crops and start other businesses. The people from the city always believed that this man was special and smarter than they were, never accepting that the water was drinkable. This short fable seems ridiculous and absurd, and while the obvious elements of the story might be ridiculous it rings true about a lot of our stories.
All of us have resources available to us to cultivate and utilise to bring about growth, transformation, and fulfillment.
Many of us, however, believe like the people in the fable that the ‘water’ or ‘resources’ are unusable. What makes things worse is that when people are successful in extracting and using the available internal and external resources, we think that they must be special or possess the so-called ‘special gene’. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not making light of hardship and lack of opportunities, to be fair, the seeming lack of opportunities is relative to your context.
The point I am making is that all of us have some internal and external resources that can be used to make progress toward our goals.
In this series, we will explore different aspects of cultivating a mindset, and environment that will help us to make full use of the available internal and external resources we have at our disposal.
Be convinced of your resources.
The most crucial starting point is to be convinced that you do have internal and external resources available to you.
Someone once said that the difference between hope and hopelessness is that those who hope, believe there is some action they can take to help the situation. Those who are hopeless are people who believe there is absolutely nothing they can do. 2 Peter 1:3 says “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” If we take God by His Word, this scripture tells us that we have everything we need to live lives that are full and meaningful. The key here is the subtle change in perspective.
Am I living from a place of lack and want or from a place of discovery and development?
I heard this extraordinary story of a man that was told by teachers and parents that because of his genes, he would never be able to run. As a young man, he thought to himself one day, what if they were wrong, maybe I can run. He did some research on shoes and training programs, and the result was that he could run and even participate in long-distance races. He changed from a place of lack and want to a place of discovery and development.
I remember well that as a teenage boy I wanted to learn to play the guitar, no one in my family plays instruments and I did not have musical ability. By God’s grace instead of musical ability I have perseverance. I went to a second-hand shop and bought a guitar that was broken. With the help of my mom, I enrolled in guitar lessons. After many months of trying, not with my musical skills but with my skill in perseverance, my guitar teacher told me one day “You were the worst student that I ever had, I did not think you would ever be able to play guitar, I was wrong, today you are one of my best students”.
The point is, when we start from a place of discovery and development, internal and external resources open up to us.
Coach U
Challenge yourself this week to change the way you speak about the challenges and goals in your life. Every time you want to say, I don’t have, rather start the sentence by asking, what do I have (skill, relationship, physical resource, etc.) that can assist you to take one step? You will be amazed by what you discover.
*Tip, sometimes we are so stuck in ‘lack’ thinking that we find it very difficult to see resources. Ask a friend or family member that has a mindset of discovery and development to assist you.
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© 2023 Ivan Venter, All Rights Reserved.
Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash
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