To Your Success Part 3 - "Inspiration"

Inspirational quote for today is: "Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness". ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr. One thing I had to learn in the beginning of this weight loss journey and that is not allow insecurity to take control of me. Unfortunately, there are some people who have allowed insecurity to control them. As a result, they try to step out on their own without Christ leading, and fell flat on their face. You see in the beginning I had to do one thing that was very important, and that was I had to become more humble. As Peter states “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” ~ Peter1 5:6. (NIV) You see I believe Christ really does things in our lives when he knows we are truly ready to accept our promotion. I encourage you to set high goals, but make sure your focus be on doing the very best you can where you are right now in your life , knowing that if and when Christ wants to promote you , he certainly will be able to do so. I believe this is so true. Albert Einstein says it best: “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” As I mentioned earlier in the book one of the keys to your success is focusing on your maximum potential. You see we all have gifts and talents that are distributed by the Holy Spirit according to the grace that is on each of us to handle them. As it states in the book of Corinthians “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines”. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:11 (NIV) always remember this: “If you’re going to like yourself, if you’re going to be successful at being who you are, you must focus on your potential, and most importantly what Christ created you to be- not on your limitations.” I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. This is the beginning of a journey that never ends. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.

To Your Success Part 2 "Inspiration"

Inspirational quote for today is: "Faith is the confidence that we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation". Hebrews 11:1-2 Throughout, this process the most important thing for me was overcoming insecurity. The reason is because if I allow insecurity to take over my life then I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my potential. You see once I started to understand that my gifts and talents are dispersed from the Holy Spirit it allows to me develop the one gift I do have. In the beginning of my weight loss journey the first thing I had to do was leave it in Christ hands. As it states in the book of Ephesians – “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” ~ Ephesians 6:13. (NIV) In other words, when Christ calls you to do something; do your part and stand firm. Once you have done all you can do, leave whatever the situation is in Christ’s hands and move on. In addition, you must believe in yourself. Most importantly, please make sure that it is Christ will for you and not your own desire. Once I started to implement these things I started to see changes right away. The first thing I noticed was I actually started to like exercising. As a result, I found out that Christ has called me to get my health back. One thing I can tell you and that is when Christ calls you to do something; you will find yourself loving it despite any adversity that comes along. The reason is because when Christ calls you to something, he enables you to make it happen. I have a question for you. Did you know that Christ gives promotions? I didn’t know this myself until I was reading the book of Psalm and across this scripture “No one from east or the west or from the desert can exalt themselves. It is Christ who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.” ~ Psalm 75 6-7. (NIV) There is an old saying: “Christ doesn’t make mistakes. You are where you supposed to be right now”. In other words, it’s okay to believe Christ for a better position or responsibility; however, it is also acceptable to remain where we are if that is where Christ wants us to be for right now. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. This is the beginning of a journey that never ends. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.

To Your Success Part 1 "inspiration"

Inspirational quote for today is: “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” ~ John Wooden My question for you is: What inspires you to keep going when others don"t? In his blog about inspiration I'm going to share with you how I lost over 200lbs, and what inspires me to keep going. I remember it like it was yesterday. In the spring of 2010, I got laid off my first job ever. Not only was I disappointed, I was very discouraged and didn’t know what to do. I knew it would be very hard to find work at the time. So I decided to take some time off to try to clear my head and get myself mentally focused. I applied for plenty of jobs and ended up with nothing. As a result, I decided to go into business for myself. The reason why I was having these difficulties was because I had an obesity problem. You see during this time I was 488lbs. You see it took me some time to figure out that this was the problem. In the beginning, I didn’t start to realize this was the problem until I started to have been treated differently because of I how I use to look. I use to have people tell me all the time that I was ugly, I would never succeed in life, I would never be able to make any money, and etc. All of these things occurred because of how I use to look. I remember I use to go places all the time and the facial expressions people use to give me. I tried to ask so called friends and family for help and didn’t receive anything. The reality is people’s perception is when you have this problem they tend to think you don’t care about yourself, and why should they help. This is absolutely false. So I decided to start my success journey by getting my health back first. I believe this was the most important thing for me to do. As a result, I started my own 3 year weight-loss plan. One of my biggest challenges for me was doing this journey all by myself. You see I did this journey without no support from anyone friends, family, trainers, and etc. However, I had the best support system anyone can have that was Christ. Once I knew that Christ was going to help me get through this I started to believe in myself, and the ability that Christ has placed inside of me. You see I got tired of sitting on the sidelines and watch other people be used by Christ and receive blessings. One thing that inspired me was a quote that President Barack Obama said. It states “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” I believe this is so true when were trying to achieve success or anything we want out of life. Also, I had to learn to stop staring at those giants in my life. In other words, I needed to stare more at Christ just as the spies in Numbers 13 needed to do. “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” ~ Numbers13:31. (NIV) One thing I’ve learned so far and that is our spirits wants us to produce tremendous things in our lives. In addition, if you continue to keep that spirit man down by negative thoughts, attitudes, he will never rise up to bring you into the place Christ has in store for you, into the land he wants you to possess. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. This is the beginning of a journey that never ends. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.

To Your Success Part 6 - "Worry"

Inspirational quote for today is: “Worry is a complete cycle of inefficient thought revolving about a pivot of fear.” ~Author Unknown In other words, when you put your fears to bed, worry gets evicted. That's what this conclusion about worry is all about. Conclusion- As you can see, there are many ideas in this series for dealing with worry and pursue calmness, however, for any of them to be effective you need to apply them. I would like for you to try one of these steps for the next 90 days. Furthermore, worrying is something we all do, but as we grow in Christ, we worry less because we learn that we can depend on him to handle all of our troubles. You see some people tend worry more than others because of genetic and/or environmental factors. For me personally the benefit has come through the memorization of Scriptures, which I recommend to you highly. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. I will be starting the next series about inspiration very shortly. Stay tuned! Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.

To Your Succes Part 5 - "Worry"

Inspirational quote for today is: "That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.” ~Chinese Proverb. In other words, if you give worry a comfortable seat he is not likely to get up and leave any time soon. In fact, he will probably invite his friends, doubt and despair, over for a feast. This is what steps 8& 9 talk about. 8. Do Not Worry- You see there are choices involved when it comes to worrying. I would recommend not worrying, for ourselves and for the cause of Christ, because worry will interfere with our effectiveness as witnesses to Christ’s faithfulness. “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that will not grow weary and lose heart”. ~ Hebrews12:1-3. 9. Consider getting some Counseling- I talk with my counselor twice a day. I’m referring to best counselor money can buy and he is the Lord Jesus Christ. He taught me proverbs teach us that there is safety in counseling. Here are a few examples: “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisors”. ~ Proverbs11:14, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” ~ Proverbs15:22, “Plans are established by seeking advice; so if you wage war, obtain guidance”. ~ Proverbs20:18, and “Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers”. ~ Proverbs24:6. His counseling can also offer you encouragement, insight, behavioral tools, education, support, and a chance to share a heavy burden. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. I will share the conclusion with you at a later time. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.

To Your Success Part 4 - "Worry"

Inspirational quote for today is: “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” ~Swedish Proverb In other words, it's better to spend your energy creating resolutions than to spend it nursing your worries. In steps 6&7 it explains this very thing. 6. Realize that God is still running the Show- I remember when I use to laugh at myself. I use to also hear myself say, well, there is nothing else for me to do; so I guess I have to pray. Then I think about the person whom I pray. I pray to God of the universe, the one who can do anything, who is the alpha omega, who is the hosanna, and who is the king of all kings. I pray to someone who is so powerful that he can erase a problem in one thousandth of a second. Why didn’t I make this my first thought to pray? “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”. ~ John16:24. It helped me remind myself that God is still in control. He can take care of any of my problems. 7. Improve on your Possibilities- I use to worry about being overweight; then I decided that being overweight, for me, was a reality and that worrying over being this way would not change it. I knew what I could do was take action to prevent possible medical side effects of the disease. I decided to turn from worry to action, and that action worked for me. I’m now 200lbs lighter than I was over 2yrs ago, and I’m free of diabetes, no high blood pressure, cholesterol level is normal, and without side effects. I will tell you more about my story in full in the next chapter called “Inspiration”. In fact God used my obesity to help me develop discipline, which allowed me to help other with their weight loss struggles. Furthermore, quite often future events are not inevitable but just good possibilities. In some cases it may help not only to prepare to accept to what is possible but try to improve on it as well. You see good can come from the apparent bad. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have called according to his purpose”. ~ Romans8:28. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. I will present steps 8&9 at a later time. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.

To Your Success Part 3- "Worry"

Inspirational quote for today is: “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them". ~ George Bernard Shaw In other words, constant worry is one of those unproductive habits that should be replaced with positive action. You see steps 4&5 will help you call for postive action. 4. A Plan of Action – One thing that helped me when I want to worry and that is formulate a plan of action to attack the problems that confront me. First, I write down the problems and many options to solve them. Second, I pick a few good options and start to implement these plans. By doing so, it allows me to get my mind off worrying and begins the process to something that may make a difference. I believe this one healthy approach to problem solving and overcoming worry. 5. Share with a close Friend- Throughout my personal experiences in dealing with worry I found out that sharing with others is one the most powerful techniques for dealing with worry. I would recommend building a few good friendships and, on a regular basis, sharing with those friends your worries. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity”. ~ Proverbs17: 17. I believe the best friend you can ever have is Christ. The reason is because he loves for us to come to share our worries with him. “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” ~ Proverbs18:24. You see he wants us to become less worry oriented and become more heaven oriented. By doing so, these days of worry will no longer exist. I trust you enjoy reading this blog, and I pray that it helps you as you begin to change your life and achieve great success. I will present steps 6&7 at later time. Talk to you soon, Gary R. Johnson.