Let’s make a successful grind of life, uh, coffee, which represents life. Or is it the other way around?
It’s been a while since we’ve seen coffee on the shelves of grocery stores with a different grind. Fine. Drip. Normal. All-Purpose. There was even a “Regular Grind.” You chose the grind to fit your coffee-making needs. Percolator, Drip, Cowboy, or maybe something I don’t remember specifically.
All coffee beans are roasted and ground to the end-users needs. I like to think of it as fruit and vegetable, and that means I get my daily recommended needs met with every cup I drink! You bought it preground to suit your needs. I remember a few manual grinders hanging in the kitchen or smoke-house where you would grind the beans yourself. You could even buy un-roasted beans and cook them to your heart’s content.
I’m thinking about learning the art of roasting coffee beans for myself.
Oh. Wait. I digress.
That’s the problem with nostalgia and desire. You quickly get sidetracked down a rabbit trail of other thoughts. It’s hard to keep your hands to the plow (grind) and make a straight row.
That’s What Life Is All About
Knowing the grind you need, doing what needs to be done, and never losing your focus. That’s the Daily Grind. Consistency. Persistency. Aiming for your destination. All with the end goal in mind.
We are differently gifted and blessed, but without focus, our talents are wasted.
I learned this too late in life to feel like I’ve spent my talents wisely from day one.
Around the 6th grade, I felt God was calling me to something. I could not put my finger on it and never talked it through with any spiritual authority. For the most part, I kept this thought to myself. Mom and Dad knew, and perhaps my siblings understood, but I’m not sure anyone else knew.
In the 8th grade, Mr. Doolittle and other teachers pulled me aside to ask what I would do with my life. “I’m going to 9th grade next year, right? I mean, I’m passing, right?” After several meetings, I asked Mr. Doolittle what was going on? “You don’t know?” Nope. I’m clueless. “The Intelligent Quotient test (or whatever it was called) came in, and you have the highest grade of anyone in the entire school district.” Whew! Now I can coast! My grades started nosediving. Only later did I realize my potential was for a different focus than what I used them for.
Just this morning, listening to a morning tidbit of growth input from Darren Hardy, I heard something that makes me realize that you can have all the blessings and giftedness, but it still requires you to grind out your routine to produce the results.
God gives you the dirt, seed, sunshine and rain, but you’ve got to do the work.
~Darren Hardy
Don’t Despair!
There is a make-up test, and you can shine with your focus intact. It’s still up to you. It’s a grind to get through, and I often feel the weight of this grind—even today.
There’s a parable from Jesus about a wise man calling laborers to the harvest. He kept adding laborers throughout the harvest, and eventually, all the work was done. When it came time to pay, all laborers received the same wage – no matter how long they had worked! (Matthew 20:1-16)
The lesson? Doing what you can and answering the call when it comes produces equal rewards in the long run, even if you come late to work.
This may not be true in compounding interest earnings, where you earn more the earlier you put in and reap the rewards at retirement. Wait just ten years to get started, and double your investment, and you will need to work till nearly 100-years old to get the same payback as the one who started earlier.
But in God’s accounting, his focus is that we do, and do all, with what we’ve been given.
It’s not too late! You can pick up your plow and start creating the rows it takes to produce your crop. You have to start. No one else can do it for you.
If it is to be, it’s up to me. (#IIITBIUTM)
“The opportunity of a lifetime is to pick yourself.
Quit waiting to get picked;
quit waiting for someone to give you permission;
quit waiting for someone to say you are officially qualified… and pick yourself.”
~Seth Godin