{Godly Gain} Fixing our eyes on the goal. Wading through a sea of distractions.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Hey there, guys. Welcome to another week of Godly Gain. We are going to actually be talking about fixing our eyes on a goal and waiting through a sea of distractions.

Today we are here in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and welcome again to this edition of Godly Gain.

So yesterday, Shelly and I had the opportunity to join some friends of ours in, in Ohio. Our friends were visiting out here and they wanted to do a fourteener, which is a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado. And so we decided, yeah, we decided to do Mount Albert, which is actually the highest one in all of Colorado. It's not the most difficult, but it still offers some strenuous effort, you know, to get to the top.

Yeah, I was straining for sure because.

I'm out of shape. So every one of these fourteeners that we've done always require a lot of effort. I mean, there's no like easy 14er. They all, you know, give you a run for your money. And between the oxygen deprivation and just the elevation gain, you're going to work to get to the summit. There can be a lot of distractions along the way. You know, we deal with internal distractions, things like just fatigue and mental things that challenge us. And, you know, we're tempted just to stop and turn around. And there's a lot of those distractions. But one of the things I noticed yesterday on the trail was a series of dogs that people brought along. And those dogs just love getting outside and enjoying the fresh air. And they make it look so easy on the trail.

Some of them are putting me to shame.

And I noticed one dog in particular that was constantly running off the trail, running down the mountainside, chasing either a bird or chasing, you know, a chipmunk, or quite possibly hearing the sounds of marmots, which are little animals that live on higher altitude in these mountains. And I just noticed this dog just continually going back and forth and it would come back to the trail and it would just, you know, panting, and you could just tell, I mean, it was getting a workout. And it reminded me of how we sometimes go off the trail. Many times we're. We're given a task or a goal, and hopefully we've been given this goal to pursue by the Lord. And as we do this, sometimes we get bright shiny object syndrome, which can occur with anything. You just kind of look around and you notice this, this bright and shiny object that gets your attention. And then we start navigating toward that and we lose sight of the main thing that we feel was put in our heart to set out and achieve. And so it's so easy to sort of take our eyes off that trail, off that path and begin looking elsewhere. And in the meantime, that main thing that God's given us gets undone. It continues to go undone.

Yeah. And you know, we work primarily with authors, speakers or entrepreneurs, but I just see a lot of authors struggling with this. It's one of the biggest things like Inside Author Audience Academy that I'm talking about constantly with my members and with my one on one clients is staying focused. You know, there are times where, yeah, it's good to adapt, it's good to try something new, but it's really, really important to stay focused. And so that's why we wanted to touch on this tonight.

Yeah. And so I want to read a scripture. There's a couple scriptures I'm going to read, but we'll close with one of them and this will be sort of our focus scripture. The first one I read here, and it comes from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. And it's probably one of my favorite passages specifically, you know, because I'm a runner, I can sort of relate to the word endurance, which is basically the ability to withstand pain. That's what that word means.

I was feeling that yesterday coming down from the mountain.

Yeah. And so in the running world, we get more and more fitness. That means we can withstand more and more pain and strenuous activity and you just sort of adapt and become more fit over time. And Hebrews 12:1 2 says this. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Now, I'll stop right there before I read verse two. And you just even think about the fourteener that we hiked yesterday, Mount Albert. It's important to really choose wisely what you put in your pack. You know, you obviously want hydration, water, sports, drink, whatever that may be. You want to have your snacks. But no one in their right mind, unless they're trying to torture themselves, would stuff their packs with a whole bunch of extra rocks. That would be crazy. You would be adding to your load, your work effort, and so it would really defeat the purpose. You want to try to reach that summit with the least amount of energy you Possibly can. Now, for some of us, that's going to be a lot of energy either way. But.

You'D be crazy to add extra weight to your pack. And so here it says, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And I even think of sin when it comes to a distraction. You ever had a pebble caught in your shoe? At first you're like, oh, it's no big deal. You know, I just kind of deal with it. But then over time, that pebble seems like a boulder inside your shoe, and you just have to pull off to the side of the trail and you need to take off your shoe and get that pebble out of there, because it just. It could even create a blister that really hinders your progress later on in the hike. And so a sin can sort of start small. It can become a distraction and then become this bigger thing. And unless it's dealt with early. And then verse 2. Here, check this out. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith because of the joy awaiting him. He endured the cross disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. And so keeping our focus. You know, our goal yesterday was to hit that summit no matter what. And I was hiking with one of our friends named John. And John didn't come into this hike with a lot of fitness. You know, I'm just going to be honest there. There were times we had to stop and John just had to sit down for a while. But you know what? John made it to the top. He did what he needed to. It wasn't easy. There was some doubt along the way. There were those mental challenges. There were points where he said, cj, you just go on ahead. Let the others know I'll be along eventually. And I knew that that probably wasn't the best idea because sometimes we need a companion, someone that pushes us along the way. And so that's why I wanted to stay with John. And he made it. He made it to the top, and.

We were cheering him on, and we. When he got to the top.

Yeah, but that focus of the summit, that was our goal. We weren't going to go off trail and do some gallivanting down in the valley below and then eventually come back to the trail. No, we had to stay focused on that goal of reaching the summit and doing it in the. In the quickest route possible, which is staying on the. The heavily trafficked trail. And so that's just one illustration of how so often we can get distracted in the goals and the tasks that God has put on our hearts. That book you have that just, you know, doesn't seem to be getting done because you're veering off the trail so often. That business idea that God has given you that could possibly bless a whole lot of people around the world with the funds that it generates, but you just haven't gotten over the hump of staying focused and continuing forward to make that happen, whatever it may be, that ministry that God's put on your heart. And you say, well, eventually I'll get to it, but this over here seems a lot more fun, you know, at the moment. And again, it's just easy to find excuses or find reasons to put that thing off instead of really keeping that thing the main focus.

Yeah. So I want to ask you today, I want you to think about this for a minute. What is distracting you in finishing that book, in finishing that product or whatever it is that is your main focus? What is your distraction? What right now? Yesterday, when we were hiking on that 14er, my husband's very athletic, and he's really, you know, he had no problems. My legs were shaking so bad when I was getting down to the bottom, coming down, because it's like you're, you know, having breaks all the time. I literally fell, I slipped, and my quads were so tired, I tripped and I fell and I didn't get hurt, thank goodness. And. But I literally wanted to give up. I was in pain. I was so tired. And there may be moments when you're writing your book, when you're going through the publishing process, when you're marketing, when you're building your platform, when you're setting up landing pages, when you're doing all the things that I teach you inside Author Audience Academy, you may just think, ah, this is too hard. It's too painful. I'm not. I just can't do it. You know, what is something. What is that obstacle right now in front of you? And I want you to, you know, think of what CJ said in Hebrews 12:1 and 2, I just want you to fix your eyes back on Jesus tonight.

Yeah.

And not on the pain, not on the obstacles, not on the distractions, but fix your eyes back on him and ask him for help.

Yeah. I think something else that helps me as well is sometimes I'll just. I'll just envision, you know, envision that goal completed already, you know, and I see that summit, or perhaps you Know, in your case, it's a book. And you're seeing that finished, you're seeing it completed, and you're actually seeing people reading your book. And they're growing, they're being impacted, they're being encouraged. It could be something else that God has put on your heart. And you're seeing the fruit already in that vision. And, you know, just like we're seeing, you know, sometimes in a race, you know, if I'm training hard for a race, you know, I'm envisioning that result. If I've set a goal for myself of, say, top 10, I'm envisioning myself crossing that line in the top 10, doing what I need to do to reach that goal. I'm training for it. And it really helps to envision, put skin, you know, to that goal that you have. And so I want to encourage you to really do that, just to be able to have those moments where you do see it come to fruition, even if it's not finished yet. You're seeing it in your mind. You're seeing that potential carried out as the Lord would have it.

And I saw some power in that earlier this year where I combined the visualization with prayer. Prayer. So you're combining that, like in your prayer time, you're visualizing, you're praying, and you're asking God for direction, for wisdom, for what are the next steps as you're visualizing that goal. And I did that earlier. I shared in a previous training for the workshop we did at our church, a writing workshop. And I just. I saw the very room I knew we were going to be in filled with people. And they were people who needed what we were sharing, who God had put books on their hearts. And I was visualizing that. And God gave me two very specific things to do to promote that event. Well, that day came, and the room was filled. And when I started walking around before we got started asking people what brought them there, I get chills just thinking about it. Almost everyone said, God's put a book on my heart. And I know I'm supposed to write this book. It was the very thing we prayed for. The very thing when I was visualizing and praying that, that God had given to me to pray for and to visualize. And so it is so powerful when you combine those two things.

So let me. Let me just kind of close this with another verse that comes from Proverbs along the same line of thinking of the passage we read in Hebrews, and it's Proverbs 4. 25 and it says, look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. And you know what that tells me is there is a goal ahead that as we don't look off to the right or the left, sort of as that. That dog I saw yesterday was constantly just captivated by everything they saw, you know, off the trail, making a lot extra work, you know, for himself, keeping focus on that goal, on that summit, that finish, and just visualizing that, you know, and fixing those eyes on that goal. And as you do that every day in the process, you're still staying open to what the Lord wants to do, but you have that constantly in sight. And as you're partnering with the Lord, you're just constantly bringing that before me, saying, lord, I know you put this on my heart. Now I need your help to wade through those distractions. I need your help to really keep my eyes fixed and focused on that so that I can complete the task that you've given me. And then as we do that, we see that he has other summits to conquer, other goals in mind that he wants to use you for. But many times, until we get something finished that he's put on our hearts, he probably won't be giving you a whole lot of other things until you're faithful to carry that task out. I have seen this and learned the hard way many times because I am a person, admittedly so that gets distracted. You know, I don't know if I was ever diagnosed as ADD or anything like that, but I always needed the directions told to me a couple times in class when I was growing up because many times I would get distracted. And it sort of carried through in a lot of other areas in my life where I sort of see something bright and shiny and I'm like, oh, that looks so fun. I want, I want to try that. And the whole time this other thing goes unfulfilled. And so I want to encourage you with that, you know, fixing our eyes ahead and namely on Jesus. And as we do that, he's going to allow us to complete what it is before us.

Yes. And being finishers, that's what I say in Author Audience Academy a lot. I want you to be a finisher, want you to cross that finish line. And if you are an Author Audience Academy member, I have a training called Plan It Day. It helps you set a 90 day breakthrough goal, that big goal, you know, that you can focus on that summit goal. It leads you through times of prayer and seeking God on what that should be. So that's there for you. And then if you haven't yet, we encourage you to join our free Facebook group, Godlygain.com it's for Christian authors, speakers and entrepreneurs who want to keep Christ the center, who want to, you know, not be distracted by all these other things and keep our focus on Christ, just like Hebrews 12:1 and 2 says. So we want to pray over you. We want to pray that God would give you clarity, he would help you stay focused, focused, help you stay on the path that he has for you. And you want to just pray.

Sure. Tonight. Let's pray, you guys. Lord, we just thank you so much for.

What you're doing in each of our lives. Lord, you have put things upon our hearts and our minds that you want us to accomplish. You've even given us the visualization to see those things completed, to see them blessing other people for your glory, seeing people brought closer to Jesus as a result of something that you have put on their heart to do. And Lord, I just want to pray that each person here on this live.

This live segment, as well as those that are going to be tuning in for the recording later, Lord, I just pray that you would spur something on in their hearts to continue pursuing that goal, to reach that summit, whatever that may be. And Lord, I just pray that you would give them vision, give them clarity, give them focus to be able to do what you've called them to do. I pray that they'd be able to wade through all the distractions, even the temptations from the enemy. We know those aren't going to away. Lord, we just pray that you would show us the way of escape for each one of those temptations that as we go through life we would use our time wisely and make the most of it. And we just thank you for those summits ahead that each of us are going to conquer in Jesus name. And we do pray all of this in Jesus wonderful name. Amen.

Amen. Well, thank you so much for joining us and we will see you next time.

God bless you guys.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.