Most people don’t take the time to consider their life’s path until they are faced with a big event, like a career transition or some trauma. This could be the perfect time to seriously consider your options.
You have a choice…conform to this current age (the world) or transform by renewing your mind.
But renew your mind how, and to what?
The 5 Steps of Transformation
Step 1 – Confidence and Trust
The challenge is that the urge to conform to the world (or this age and its way of doing things) is so strong that we need a force even stronger to help us overcome this urge. That force is confidence. With enough confidence you will be willing to ignore what it seems everybody else is doing, and to try something else.
But from where does this type of confidence come? Is it self-confidence, meaning you can create it yourself by willpower? Some would like you to think so. Self-help gurus even have costly programs designed to boost your “self-confidence.” They will try to show you that proper motivation is the key, and they are the ones with the answers to keep you motivated. Eventually, you will figure out that motivation never lasts and neither does self-confidence.
The first step in the process of Transformation is to realize where your confidence comes from. It doesn’t come from yourself, nor does it come from somebody else pumping you up. Confidence comes from the revelation that God loves you…no matter what. The love He has for you is not based on your effort or performance, it is based on the fact that you are His child, a child He chose to create. When He chose you He provided you with all the gifts you need to be successful, happy, and fulfilled in this life. You can choose to follow His ways and use His gifts, or you can choose to develop skills that the world says are necessary to survive.
When you realize how much your Father loves you, it will give you the confidence to try His way instead of conforming to what everybody else says. Confidence in His love will allow you to trust Him. If you don’t trust your Father you won’t be able to trust anyone else.
The biggest block that the world puts in the way of discovering how much the Father loves you is what I call a Father Fracture. A Father Fracture occurs when your father does not provide you with an example of the unconditional love, security, provision, confidence, and trust he is supposed to give you. If your biological father violates your trust by failing in any of these areas, then trusting your heavenly Father becomes extremely difficult. The admonition in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in the Lord with all your heart becomes impossible. So, then who do you trust? Probably no one. That means you probably have no confidence in anyone either, which means you can go nowhere for help.
Your Father wants you to place your confidence and trust in Him. Not yourself, and not the world. Then He will make your path straight.
Step 2 – Identity
The second step in the transformation process builds on the confidence I just described. The second step is to discover your real identity.
Most of us do not know who we really are. That is because we have been trying so hard to conform to the image that others have for us. Rather than accepting who we really are, we try to become something we are not, often by imitating someone else we admire. We compare all of our weaknesses to all of their apparent strengths without realizing the other person has weaknesses as well.
You were born with an identity that is perfect for you. But, as you grow older your perfect identity becomes more and more influenced by the world around you. This why the apostle Paul tells us we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Renew means to take it back to its original condition.
There are many aspects of a person’s identity. They include your personality, your gender, your disposition to money, your generation, and the way you give and receive love. All of these, and a host of other factors, combine to make you the entirely unique person you were created to be. Transformation involves learning how to Use Your Authenticity Advantage, because pretending is exhausting.
When you understand your completely unique identity, you will be ready to proceed to the next step of Transformation.
Step 3 – GIFT
Paul said that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, but to what? Part of the answer lies in not conforming our identity, as I just discussed. But the real key to transformation has to do with your GIFT. Discovering your GIFT is the third step in the transformation process. Everybody has one, but nobody else has yours. Your GIFT is entirely unique, so if you don’t use your GIFT we all miss out.
Your GIFT is the ONE talent you possess that can be developed to greatness as manifested in the unique way you think. I always capitalize GIFT to distinguish it from the other gifts you have. Your GIFT is not your personality, it is not some physical attribute or ability, and it does not refer to a spiritual gift.
Your GIFT refers to a part of the soul part of your being, meaning your mind, will, and emotional part of you. Your GIFT is God’s Intention For Thinking. He created you to think in a way entirely unique from any person that lives, has lived, or will live. No one thinks as you do.
Step 4 – Purpose
Most of us assume that others think like us, but that is a huge mistake. No one thinks like you. This is the most unique aspect of who you are, and it is the key that opens many doors. Employing your unique way of thinking is your key to success, joy, happiness, love, relationships, and so much more.
Employing your GIFT is your purpose. Knowing your GIFT is great, but it won’t help you if you don’t use it. The exciting thing about discovering your GIFT is that the desire to use it comes with the discovery. The reason so many people don’t know what they really want (desire) is because they don’t know their GIFT.
To quote James Allen, “the will to do comes from the knowledge that we can do.”
Knowing your GIFT fills you with the knowledge that you are uniquely suited to do something. Having confidence, being sure of your identity, and knowing your unique GIFT fills you with the desire to employ that GIFT.
I could go on for hours on this subject; in fact, I did in my book Employ Your GIFT, How to Stop Struggling and Live Your Purpose.The desire of your heart, the one that the Father delights to give you, is based on your GIFT. And the passion to fulfill your purpose always comes with your GIFT as well.
Let’s face it, all your choices are the result of your thinking. If you don’t recognize your GIFT, how good have your choices been? Your decision-making becomes easier and better when you know your purpose.
Step 5 – Vision
Applying your GIFT to a vision is the fifth step in the process of Transformation. This is how you were born to make a difference.
Everyone has a purpose, but visionaries are rare. A vision is a clear understanding of the direction and mission for a multitude of people. Visions require the GIFTs of many people in order to be fulfilled, and they require a GIFTed leader to execute the vision.
Since most people are not visionaries, they will need to apply their GIFTs to someone else’s vision. When you find a vision that inspires you, you will look for ways to use your GIFT as part of that vision. This is why visions require leadership. A real leader not only knows their own identity and GIFT but also the identity and GIFTs of those under their charge. A leader also knows where there are gaps to be filled and is on the lookout for the people with GIFTs required to fulfill the vision. Then the leader inspires those people to move the vision forward.
When your GIFT is applied to the right vision, either your own or someone else’s, that’s when Transformation is manifested.
Your choice
The world wants you to conform to its ways to prevent transformation, but now you know better. Transformation is not for some privileged few, it is for everyone…including you.
It all starts with a choice.