The Pain of Having Nothing

 

Recently I watched a documentary about a college football player named Maurice. He was a naturally gifted player that everyone expected to go on to have a successful career in the NFL. Through a series of events--some of his own and some just unfortunate circumstances--he lost his college eligibility to play football. He wanted to join the NFL draft, but the rules at that time stated that he had to be three years removed from high school to enter the draft and he was only one year out. He had to wait two years for his chance. During those two years, he turned to alcohol and other bad behaviors. When he did get his chance to play professional football, he was not in well enough shape to make a very big impact.

 

The documentary described his motivation for desiring to succeed in football in college and then the pros. He said, "The pain of having nothing drove me." It has been a week since watching the documentary, but those words have stuck in my mind. There is a powerful lesson in those words.

 

First, there is an actual pain that accompanies 'having nothing'. I have been fortunate in life, but I have had periods in my life where I literally went to the store with $35 to by groceries for the next week. I have had to borrow money for gas so that I could get to work. Living in lack is painful especially when surrounded by people with plenty. There are hundreds of people around us each day that are experiencing the pain of having nothing.

 

Second, 'having nothing' gives people a sense of powerlessness. When people feel powerless, they can become resentful and angry, thy can feel depressed and suicidal, and these feelings can effect their behavior. I theorize that many mass and spree killings are in part due to feelings of powerlessness. My motivation in life is to see people gain more power in their lives so that they can live fulfilled and successful lives. Since 2009, I have been studying power and powerlessness. In 2014, I started a nonprofit organization (Dunamis Empowerment Foundation). The purpose of Dunamis is to promote the empowerment of others.

 

Third, having nothing either motivates or debilitates. I would love to say that feelings of powerlessness motivates a person to do better and pursue excellence, but from my perspective it often makes a person give up or turn to unlawful or immoral behaviors.

 

This is a social problem. When large segments of a society feels powerless, they turn to illegal acts to "get more stuff" and to "take power" the only way they know how. Some might say that economic redistribution is the answer. However, taking from those that have and giving it to those who do not have never works. It "angers" the haves and makes the "have nots" feel entitled to their resources.

 

The solution for the pain of having nothing is empowerment. We must empower others so that they can have the power they need to be successful.

 

This is the message that I want the world to hear. We must all empower others. Society depends upon empowering others and I believe that it is God's design that we empower others.

 

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Empowerment and Motivation

How you are motivated can determine how you are empowered.

 

Three Ways to Simplify Your Life



People often get overwhelmed in life. Have you tried to cut back to make life manageable? We get more and more things, then we need more money to maintain everything in our lives. We have become dependent upon electronics and smart phones.  We are in constant communication with everyone and life seems to get more complicated and confusing.

 

Isn't it time that we simplify our lives?

 

I think so...you can empower yourself by reexamining your life, strengthening the essentials, and eliminating the waste in your lives.

 

I am in a season of life where there are simply too many things that I would like to do, but don't have the time. So I have been thinking a lot lately about how I could simplify my life and be happier and feel better about my life.

 

There are three things that will make a person's life simpler and more fulfilling. Actually, I came up with a lot more than three, but realized that I could easily make things more complicated in an effort to simplify life. (Life is full of ironies like that.) I examined all of the things that I had listed and took the three things that I feel will make our lives more fulfilling and they all begin with a realistic examination of our lives.

 

We must honestly evaluate everything that we do and be willing to make the adjustments necessary to make our lives better. I recently saw a definition of discipline and have used this definition many times.

 

DISCIPLINE 

is

choosing between

what I want most

 &

what I want now.

 

I love this definition because it sums up our lives well. We may want washboard abs, but are we willing to diet and exercise to get them. I believe that we all have ability to be healthy and fit if we are willing to do what is necessary.

 

Three things that will help us to simplify our lives and become more satisfied:

 

1. Determine what thing or two is most essential for personal growth and do them every day.

 

If you are not developing personally or professionally, you are declining. Ask yourself what are the most important things that I should do everyday that will help me become the person that I want to be? Things like exercise, Bible reading, praying, mediation, listening to sermons or development experts, or blogging. Make these things a priority and do them daily.

 

"If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority."

 

2. List all of your daily activities, then label them as:

1. Essential
2. Useful
3. Enjoyable
4. Wasteful

Then focus on the essential and eliminate the wasteful.

 

Obviously, the things that essential and useful should be prioritized and strengthened. We should examine those things that are enjoyable--like watching TV for two hours every evening--and determine if we should exchange that activity for a more useful one.

 

But the thing here is to identify and eliminate those things that are wasteful in our lives.

 

3. Eliminate dead weight (i.e. things that hinder us).

 

We have all seen the movies where items were thrown out of a plane or over the side of a ship to lighten the load to prevent a horrible tragedy. Americans want to live outside of our means. I saw a movie years ago where a couple crash landed on a island. They had to walk to the other side of the island so that they could be saved. When the couple started out, the woman insisted that they carry her bags. By the time they reached the other side of the island, they had discarded all unnecessary weight. Her priorities had changed. Things that seemed important actually were hindrances.

 

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