Know What You Want

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A few weeks ago I was watching The Voice, a national singing competition. One of the contestants, Kiyomi Vella, said that she loves singing that was why she joined The Voice but was studying engineering as her back-up plan. Joel Madden and Seal, two of the judges, told her similar messages that struck me. I couldn’t remember the exact words but it was something to this effect: If you want to achieve your dream, you have to focus on it. There is no back up, no comfort zone.

I suppose that top athletes, successful entrepreneurs, multi-awarded artists are what they are because they know what they want and they spend all their time, effort and money practicing, perfecting their craft… knowing that there is no other way but to succeed because there is no plan B.

I was just listening to a talk from my favourite preacher, Bo Sanchez. He said that one time he was asked this question: Why is it more powerful when you ask someone else to pray with or for you rather than praying on your own? Is God like a politician, who is moved by the number of voters? (Based on a verse in the Bible that says, “Whenever two or more agree about anything they ask, it will be done for them by the Father” Matthew 18:19).

Is that how God works? Of course not.

I love Bo’s answer. He said, “When you pray you do not change the mind of God. You change your mind. You become clearer with what you want.”

When you’re asking the help of someone, you tell them your story, you explain things to them and you tell them what you want. In that process, things become clearer to you as well. You reinforce your desire when you ask someone to pray for you.

These stories are probably lingering in my mind because sometimes I feel that I am fuzzy about what I want in some areas of my life. I create plan B’s… just in case. I realise that this doesn’t help all the time because I probably won’t give it 100% knowing that I have something to fall back on in case I fail.

I am also struggling for time because I am working on plan A but I have to allocate time to do plan B as well. Take the case of Kiyomi, she can be studying to be an engineer while singing probably on weekends or evenings. But she won’t be a well known, highly paid singer nor will she be one of the best engineering students, if she’s singing and studying at the same time. There is no focus.

Well, writing it down like this has just made it clear to me that I am not clear.

I hope my fuzziness can somehow help someone realise how important it is to know what you want in life.

Now be the best that you can be,

Xiela