Burn It up

You're tuned into Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Justin Lester is an average guy who refuses to let Mondays control him. Justin is a husband, dad, pastor, student, and Jesus follower. He's done a lot, he's learned a lot, and he wants to see you at your best. Let's win Mondays. Hey, Justin. What's up today?

Hey, everyone. Pastor Justin here. We're back again with Made for Mondays. I pray these are encouraging you and pushing you to be all that God's called you to be. Today. I want to talk about a creative process. I want to talk about creative processes. I want to continue to challenge our minds and our thinking processes to be stretched because I want us not to be know it alls, but learn it all so we can do it all right? And so I want to talk about creative processes today. There's an old adage that talks about finding a needle in a haystack and being. Being creative to find a needle in a haystack. And this old adage in the story went that someone challenged someone to find the needle in a haystack. And so they got a match and they lit the whole haystack on fire. Because if I burn up the haystack, I'll burn it up and find the needle. And so I want to challenge you to do. To increase your creativity is to think about what are the haystacks in your life, what are the needles you're trying to find, and to burn up the entire situation. And you can find that needle in a haystack. So let's increase our creativity. I want to give you some things to increase it. But first of all, let's start with the creative process. I'm going to give you five steps in a creative process that you can think about in your life and to engage with being the person that God's called you to be. Number one. To discover. To discover. I want you to look at the places around you, the things you're engaging in, the things you're dreaming about, and what are the needs and opportunities in the areas you're in. Maybe it's with your family, your loved ones, the church you attend, the place you work at, whatever it is. What are the needs and opportunities? Discover needs and discover opportunities. That means asking questions. That means engaging with people. That means listening more than you're talking. Discover. Once you discover those things, write those things down and then be based upon what you discover. Number two, dream. Dreaming, I think, has become a lost art, because dreaming has become something that's become monetized, becomes all that you need to read a certain book. You need to know certain people. I want to challenge you to dream. Dream beyond your walls. Dream beyond your budget. Dream the biggest thing you possibly can dream about. Because it's not until we get into the depths of our dreams, we can really begin to discern the steps we can take. So I want you to dream. Dream and keep dreaming. And get beyond that and write it. And dream and write it down. And dream and write it down. As you keep dreaming, as you keep expanding your mind, as you keep seeing those things that are possible with your skill set or not even with your skill set, with the people around you, their skill set, as you keep on dreaming, eventually, hopefully, you get to one idea. You get to one thing. And in that one idea, when you get to that one thing, here's what you can do. Then you can begin to design what you do. You can design what you do. You discover it, you dream it, and then you design it. You want to find one idea or one movement or one goal, and then design a framework that can be conducive to success because of that one dream that you have or that one goal that you have. So design it out, sketch it out. What does it look like in a year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years? Sketch it out. Who needs to be around you? Who needs to be with you? What do you need to read, what you need to grab a hold of as you design a framework for what you're being creative about? And then the fourth step. Do it. Get up. Make it happen. Fail. Find success. Keep trying and keep going, Keep shooting. It's amazing to me when I think about baseball players. One of the things that you see hall of Fame baseball players at bat, 300. Now, what does that mean? That means they hit approximately three balls out of every ten that were thrown their way. And that's just in the games. Not practice, not anything like that. But hall of fame players hit three out of 10, meaning they missed seven out of 10 over the course of their careers. But they had to do it, and they became hall of Famers. You've got to get up, you got to go, you got to do, you got to become, you got to run, you got to drive there, you got to sit down, you got to listen, you got to talk to them to do it. And then once you grab a hold of success, if you've discovered the needs, if you dreamt about it, if you designed it, if you've done it, then fifthly, and finally document it the best ways that we can, then make what you've done sustainable and make what you've done sustainable financially for you is to document what you've done. If you're not documenting success, you're not really grabbing a hold of the success you have. If you're not documenting failure, you're not grabbing a hold of the failure you had. That documentation gives you a chance to learn from what you've done, learn from who you are and learn from what you engaged in. So discover dream design, do document. So here's last couple things I'll give you on further a furthering increasing your creativity. I'll give you this. Desire is the starting point for all achievement. Desire is the starting point for all achievement. If you are not desiring to be successful, I guarantee you won't grab a hold of. If you're not desiring to achieve a thing, you're not going to grab a hold of a thing. Desire, that inner passion, that fire is what's going to push you to be creative. So desire to achieve it. Number two. Set a directive for your mind as you go to sleep. We don't spend enough time grabbing a hold of the eight hours when we're not doing something in the world that we feel like we constantly have to work. When actually when your mind is working for you, set a directive. So what are you reading before you go to bed? Honestly, what are you watching? What are you reading? How long after you turn your phone off or how many times are you turning your phone off so that your mind can simply rest and think? What are the books and the words and the scriptures and the songs, the lights, the area, the noises that are coming into your mind as you go to bed? Consider the last week of your dreams. How many nightmares did you have? How many dreams did you dream? How many new things came to your mind while you were sleeping? Set a directive for your mind so your mind can work for you while you're sleeping. And you can tap into things that your subconscious is trying to tell you. Because now you're engaging with your mind on purpose. And one of the practices I have is I always read a book before I go to bed. I read a chapter, I read scriptures. I read something that will make my mind work for me while I'm sleeping. Those eight hours become a chance where I'm waking up with aha moments. I'm waking up with possibility. I'm waking up with freedom. I'm waking up with movement. Set a directive for your mind as you sleep. Number three. Learn and intentionally work in counterintuitive environments. Find Spaces that you normally aren't comfortable in and find ways to work in them. So if you work with headphones, take your headphones out. If you have to check your email a certain amount of time, turn your email off and check it at other times. I want you to learn and work in environments that you're not used to so you can learn and work in environments of all environments. Number four, focus on the process, not the results of those who are succeeding. Had a young pastor talk to me once and they said, justin, I see what God is doing in your life, all these different things and how did you get there? And I told them, I said, don't look at my end goal, look at my process. Don't look at the end result, look at my process. Because if you look at my process, you can then see how you can be successful in your own ways. We live in this world that's so consumed with best practices and best things of other people that we miss out on their processes. Don't get so consumed with the end result. Focus on the process. Because here's the thing I want to tell you. Success leaves clues. Success leaves clues. Last thing I'll give you today, do fewer things well. I pride myself personally on not knowing a lot about a little. Sorry. I pride myself personally knowing a lot about a little instead of a little about a lot. I can't stand individuals who are constantly know. They just know everything. They know too much about too much or too little about too much. And I want to challenge you, be an expert in two or three things. Be an expert in one or two lanes. Do fewer things well so you can do more things well. I want to challenge you to know everything about your profession, everything about your field. If you're in education, know everything about the pedagogy. Know everything about those students. Know everything about that area. Know everything about your co workers. Do fewer things well so you can do fewer things well. Listen, I really hope that these are helping you. These, these couple of weeks of talking about creativity and process and engaging with yourself to holistically grab a hold of the work that you know that you're possible to do and the work that is possibility that's inside of you. I pray you grab a hold of the possibility, the creativity in you that you can go and imagine and reimagine and imagine and reimagine the spaces you're in, the people you're around, the things you're called to do. There's greatness inside of all of you. Now go tap into the world discover dream design. Do document dream as you're sleeping. Let your mind work for you. Set directives. Grab a hold of your desire and burn up that haystack and find that needle. Have a great day.

This has been made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Be sure to follow Justin online at MrJlester and online at www.jlester. do see you next week. Go win. You were made for this.