For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:13 

Did you know that according to most estimates there are over 6,800,000,000 people living in the world today?  That is 6.8 billion in case the zeros are overwhelming.  Does that ever make you feel like just another rat in the rat race?  You’re not alone if you do.  But the fascinating thing is that within this massive population including all who have ever lived before us and all who are yet to be born each one of us is unique.  There is no one else in the world identical to you or me.  We are not just rats in the rat race; we are each and everyone different and placed here for a special purpose. 

In my particular profession of executive and professional coaching administering psychological assessments of some sort with our clients is a fairly common practice.  It is not for the purpose of psychological evaluation that we do this, for most of us are not trained psychologists in the first place; rather it is to increase each client’s awareness of his or her own specific and special talents, behaviors, and characteristics - what it is that makes them unique.  Once uniqueness is recognized then applied creatively in a person’s business, profession, and personal life both performance and satisfaction tend to increase dramatically.  It is the coach’s job to help make that happen. 

The first step, though, is to realize that we are not the result of some sort of human mass production.  We are instead uniquely and individually designed by the One who created our inmost being; the One who specifically knit us together in our mother’s womb.  We are not just rats in the rat race; we are each and everyone different and placed here for a special purpose.

 So as you begin your day today remember that there is no one else in the world identical to you.  You are unique, placed here for a special purpose.  Then consider how you might creatively apply that uniqueness to your business, profession, and personal life.  I’m willing to bet your performance will increase as well as your satisfaction.

“Do you know how old I’ll be by the time I learn to play the piano?” bemoaned the frustrated middle-aged novice.  “The same age you will be if you don’t,” her teacher responded. 

Over lunch this past week I had the privilege of listening to an old friend and former colleague describe the success she was achieving in her new sales career.  Want to know her secret?  It all began with her willingness to work on leads no one else would pursue, prospects considered too small to be worthwhile.  What others thought to be a waste of time, you see, my friend saw as opportunity.  Soon she became the top salesperson in her office in terms of opening new accounts, which led to more referrals and bigger accounts until - as my friend explained with a big smile - she landed what she referred to as a “whale”. 

People who get work are the ones who work - whether they are “working” or not.  Or as Julia Cameron puts it in her book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, “What I am saying is that work begets work.  Small actions lead us to the larger movements in our creative lives.” 

My friend got work (translated, business) because she worked - even when she had no work (translated, business).  Work begets work.  Same holds true for the middle-aged piano student who may one day discover that practicing scales and playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, which seemed small and trivial at the time, were the very disciplines that led to her mastery of some of the great works by Chopin, Beethoven, or Mozart. 

Most of the time the next right thing is something small:  Going back to school, starting over as low-man-on-the-totem-pole in a new career, taking piano lessons in mid-life - or working the small leads no one else considers worthwhile like my friend has done. 

So what can you do - right now - what steps can you take in your life that will get you started on the road to that new success or skill?  Never mind that it may seem small, just go do that next right thing, be patient, and see what happens.

At least once a month you will find eleven-year-old Casey Rogers hanging out in the parking lot directly across from a Burger King in downtown Dallas, Texas where he spends his day distributing food and clothing to the homeless and needy.  It all began over three years ago when Casey and his dad were at the same Burger King and a homeless man approached his dad for a handout.  According to a recent article in the Dallas Morning News, “That struck a chord with Casey who was a foster child when he first went to live with Russell and Shelly Rogers a few weeks after he was born.  The couple adopted him when he was one.” 

“I was just like that,” Casey remarked to his parents, referring to the homeless population, “look how great y’all helped me.  Why don’t I help them?”  So, young Casey Rogers did a remarkable thing.  He founded his own charity called “Casey’s Heart” through which he gathers donations and distributes them to the homeless in downtown Dallas. 

Casey seems to have an amazing understanding about what we should do with our good fortunes when they occur, especially at his young age - that blessings are multiplied when we allow them to flow through us.  It’s like water that flows in a river or stream keeping it fresh and pure, providing for other living things along its path to flourish as well, rather than becoming stagnant and eventually evaporating as still water often does. 

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . .” proclaim the familiar words of the Doxology sung so often throughout the world.  Casey, though, expresses it this way, “. . . look how great y’all helped me.  Why don’t I help them?”  

Have you been blessed with good fortune in your life?   If so, take it from eleven-year-old Casey Rogers and allow your good fortunes to flow through you, providing for others along your path so that they might flourish as well.  It may surprise you how much your blessings will multiply.

“Is it a good day or a great day?” a friend was asked by an overly cheerful coworker who came bouncing into her office one morning.  “Need more options,” our friend responded without hesitation.  It was a trick question for our friend who was experiencing a particularly bad day, you see, and she was not about to fall for it.  

According to Jack Canfield, best known for his Chicken Soup for the Soul books, there is a  formula for life that goes like this:  E + R = O, that is Events + Response = Outcome.  Outcomes, in other words, are not determined by the events and circumstances we experience in life, but in the way we respond to them.  “If you want a different outcome,” Canfield explains, “you have to change your response.” 

The cheerful coworker who walked in our friend’s office that morning had probably recognized that she was having a bad day and was trying to coax her into a better mood with her trick question.  “Is it a good day or a great day?” can elicit only two possible answers.  Had our friend taken the bait by answering one or the other it might have changed her Response to the Event she was struggling with, thus producing a more positive Outcome.  That was the intention, at least, of the well-meaning coworker in her clever salutation - and the reason our friend, who realized it later, tells the story on herself.  

When I complained recently to a pastor friend of mine about some frustrations and discouragements in my own life he offered this sage advice.  “We must not allow others to take away our joy,” he counseled.  Bingo!  When I added that R to the E that was causing my discouragement it equaled a different O. 

So, is it a good day or a great day?  Need more options?  “If you want a different outcome,” Jack Canfield reminds us, “you have to change your response.”  So next time you’re having a bad E try plugging a different R into the formula and see what happens to the O.

At the time they were just a couple of old drunks when they first met up in Akron, Ohio back in 1935.  Bob and Bill were their names.  Now I’m not sure what occurred between them, but in my imagination it went something like this.  Perhaps it was in a bar where the conversation took place when one of the men began to bear his soul to the other about the mess he had made of his life prompting the other to confess his own tragic story, for try as they may neither had been able to remain sober, both being hopeless alcoholics.  Maybe, though, just maybe, they suggested to each other, if you help me and I help you we can at least get through one day without a drink.  There in that moment, if not true in detail certainly in context, these two hopeless miserable drunks embarked on a path of sobriety that not only changed their own lives but that of millions who have experienced addiction recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous. 

The great irony of this story is that the success of AA is not derived from strength but from weakness, the exact opposite of the aloof world we live in where winners and achievers are the ones who are honored and admired.  Instead there are no winners and achievers in AA, only desperate drunks with messed up lives helping other desperate drunks with messed up lives stay sober one day at a time - beggars showing other beggars where to find bread. 

Truth is most of us resemble Bob and Bill much more than the winners and achievers we so admire - as do they, by the way, if we could see deep enough into their lives - for though we may not be drunks like Bob and Bill we nonetheless have our own weaknesses and wounds to contend with.  Even the apostle Paul complained about being tormented by “a thorn in my flesh”.  We all have them.  Yet herein lies one of the great secrets to living an abundant life.  Like Paul who found power in his weakness, so can we; for it is not the absence of weaknesses and wounds, you see, but what we do with them.  Bob and Bill used theirs to help each other stay sober one day at a time, thus creating a model that has led millions throughout the world to sobriety.  Now that’s quite an achievement, isn’t it?  And the great irony is that it was not derived from strength, but from weakness.