The Most Important Season Of Your Life: Understanding And Maximizing The Seasons Of Life

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Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. Merely continuing in life in frustration is foolish, because you may look back at the end of your years and realize you wasted your whole life working in the wrong vocation. Another telltale sign you are suffering from mission drift is that you have to work hard at accomplishing things with very little fruit to show for it. Jesus has called us to enter His rest Matt. When in mission drift we are not walking in obedience to the Lord. Hence, we are not being sustained by His grace and are working merely with fleshly strength.

This can soon lead to emotional or spiritual burnout if we don't readjust. When you are hitting your sweet-spot regarding your calling, you are doing things that few can match. Every person is unique and has a calling unlike any other. When you are hitting the mark in your purpose you will bear a lot of fruit just the way Jesus called us to John When you are in mission drift you do not maximize your effectiveness which results in a lack of fruit.

When in mission drift you have strayed away from the original calling God has given to you. Every once in a while I review my prophetic journal to make sure I am still pursuing the original calling God gave me when I first started serving Him more than 30 years ago. The methods may change as I mature, but the mission remains the same since He chose us before the foundation of the world and gave us a purpose before we were even born 2 Tim.

Activity does not necessarily result in productivity. Many people are very busy running around focusing on minor things and neglecting the primary things God has called them to. I am not saying we should neglect the mundane and ordinary routines of life, but that we make sure within those routines we prioritize and manage our time in such a way that the most important things are taken care of first. When we don't prioritize our time, our activities will not match our purpose. The kingdom of God is built upon relationships, not ministry or work. Everyone is called to invest in key relationships whether it be our immediate family, spiritual children, mentors, or key people we are called to "do life" with.

The enemy would love for all of us to put programs before people, because at the end of the day the only thing we will take with us into eternity are people not programs, real estate, money or the material things in life. When you have no quality time for those key relationships, then most likely you are suffering from mission drift.

We need to proactively pursue those people who are the most important to us in life. The enemy of best is usually something good. The enemy does not come in a red suit with a pitchfork; he comes as an angel of light. Hence, one of his greatest strategies is to get you so focused on doing something good for God or your family that it blinds you to what is best.

To avoid mission drift we always have to keep first things first and keep the main thing the main thing.

The Four Stages of Life

Preparing the Church to Transform Cities. Visit the Charisma Store to view all our specials. Help Charisma stay strong for years to come as we report on life in the Spirit. Click here to keep us strong! Please consider the following statements pertaining to comments posted by you and other visitors to our website:. That their life is that of non-stop growth and ascendance in the world, while everyone else can clearly see that they are merely running in place.

Out go the friends who are draining you and holding you back. Out go the activities and hobbies that are a mindless waste of time. Out go the old dreams that are clearly not coming true anytime soon. You double down on the most important relationships in your life. Whatever it is, Stage Three is when you get it done. Stage Three is all about maximizing your own potential in this life. What will people remember you by? Stage Three ends when a combination of two things happen: This inability to let go of the power and influence they crave counteracts the natural calming effects of time and they will often remain driven and hungry well into their 70s and 80s.

People arrive into Stage Four having spent somewhere around half a century investing themselves in what they believed was meaningful and important. This could be something as simple as supporting and advising their now grown children and living vicariously through them. It could also mean becoming more politically active to maintain their values in a society that they no longer recognize. As humans, we have a deep need to feel as though our lives mean something. This meaning we constantly search for is literally our only psychological defense against the incomprehensibility of this life and the inevitability of our own death.

Developing through each subsequent stage of life grants us greater control over our happiness and well-being. This is a horrible strategy because other people are unpredictable and unreliable. These are more controllable than other people, but they are still mostly unpredictable in the long-run. Stage Three relies on a handful of relationships and endeavors that proved themselves resilient and worthwhile through Stage Two.

These are more reliable. At each subsequent stage, happiness becomes based more on internal, controllable values and less on the externalities of the ever-changing outside world. Stage Two people still care about social approval. They just care about something more than social approval. Stage 3 people still care about testing their limits. If you were Stage Two and all of your friends were Stage Two, and suddenly you settle down, commit and get to work on Stage Three, yet your friends are still Stage Two, there will be a fundamental disconnect between your values and theirs that will be difficult to overcome.

Generally speaking, people project their own stage onto everyone else around them. People at Stage One will judge others by their ability to achieve social approval. People at Stage Two will judge others by their ability to push their own boundaries and try new things. Self-development is often portrayed as a rosy, flowery progression from dumbass to enlightenment that involves a lot of joy, prancing in fields of daisies, and high-fiving two thousand people at a seminar you paid way too much to be at.

A failed friendship or a death of a loved one. Trauma causes us to step back and re-evaluate our deepest motivations and decisions. It allows us to reflect on whether our strategies to pursue happiness are actually working well or not. People get stuck at Stage One because they always feel as though they are somehow flawed and different from others, so they put all of their effort into conforming into what those around them would like to see.

No matter how much they do, they feel as though it is never enough.

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Stage Two people get stuck because they feel as though they should always be doing more, doing something better, doing something new and exciting , improving at something. But no matter how much they do, they feel as though it is never enough. Stage Three people get stuck because they feel as though they have not generated enough meaningful influence in the world, that they make a greater impact in the specific areas that they have committed themselves to.

One could even argue that Stage Four people feel stuck because they feel insecure that their legacy will not last or make any significant impact on the future generations. They cling to it and hold onto it and promote it with every last gasping breath. But they never feel as though it is enough. The solution at each stage is then backwards. To move beyond Stage One, you must accept that you will never be enough for everybody all the time, and therefore you must make decisions for yourself.

To move beyond Stage Two, you must accept that you will never be capable of accomplishing everything you can dream and desire, and therefore you must zero in on what matters most and commit to it. To move beyond Stage Three, you must realize that time and energy are limited, and therefore you must refocus your attention to helping others take over the meaningful projects you began. To move beyond Stage Four, you must realize that change is inevitable, and that the influence of one person, no matter how great, no matter how powerful, no matter how meaningful, will eventually dissipate too.

We all think we know ourselves well, but psychological studies show otherwise. In fact, most of us are somewhat deluded about ourselves. I put together a page ebook explaining how we can come to know ourselves better, just fill out your email in the form.

Stage One: Mimicry

You can opt out at any time. See my privacy policy. The Four Stages of Life.

Mimicry We are born helpless.

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