The Next Level: Answering the Call to Change History

As we all know, the last two years have been very interesting. As someone that consults and advises leaders around the world, to say that I have been busy is an understatement. When the global pandemic started, I was getting contacted by leaders from all over the world as they faced great uncertainty about the future. I felt it was important to give them the space to share their concerns and trepidations. However, I also made sure to shift the narrative and remind them that this is still a moment of great possibility and opportunity in the world. I’ve seen into the next twenty years and the world will never truly be the same. I want to share some insights with you for embracing and thriving at the next level. Remarkable leaders never get stuck in the past. Revolutionary leaders engineer the possibilities of tomorrow!

Fear is the greatest enemy of the future. As you just heard me share, many leaders were anxious, fearful, and uncertain about the future. While some people consider me an anomaly, I just believe that I am an optimist. As a respected thought leader and prophetic voice, I do not allow the future or uncertainty to rattle me. While I will admit that the last two years have been anything but normal, I refuse to allow cultural events or social constructs to frame my narrative. In other words, you may not be able to control what is happening in the world. However, you always have the power to control what is happening within you. So I challenge you to silence the fear. Why is this so important? Fear is the greatest enemy of your future. Furthermore, fear is a currency just like faith is a currency. Whatever you are rooted in will determine your reality. Refuse to allow fear to rule you or to write the narrative of what is possible for your life. Fear wants to paralyze you and cripple your potential. 

Faith is a muscle that must be developed. When you mention faith to some people, you start to get cynical looks and blank stares. However, what most people do not understand is that faith is both a currency and a spiritual force. Everything that you attract into your life will be the result of faith or fear. With that said, faith is a magnet just like fear is a magnet. In order for fear to be silenced in your life, you have to starve it. Notice that I did not say that you have to ignore it. What we ignore often imprisons us to cycles of frustration, failure, and defeat. On the other hand, what we confront we are empowered to conquer. Decades ago I made an incredible discovery about faith that changed my life.

Faith is a spiritual principle and a spiritual law. The power of a principle is that it provides a proven path to results and success. In other words, I can apply a principle repeatedly and see results in my life. Then one day I came to the awareness that faith is a muscle. The strength of your faith is determined by the investments you make in feeding it. The reality is that we are all feeding something. We only have two responses to life. We can either respond in faith or respond in fear. Fear will always send your life in reverse and create cycles of regret. 

Faith will always move your life forward and become the catalyst for embracing your prophetic future. If you will develop the muscle of faith, then you can starve doubt in your life and you can seize your destiny. The strength of any muscle is developed by resistance. Challenges are opportunities to build resistance and break into new realms of living.

“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter

You cannot embrace the next realm in your life without crisis. As the global pandemic rocked the world, I reminded leaders of a message that I have been speaking for years. I believe that crisis is a precious treasure. Most people have a negative connotation of crisis. I have discovered that most people see a crisis as a disruption, disturbance, or detriment to their lives. 

Personally, I see a crisis as a developmental tool that ushers you into realms of greatness ad unlimited possibilities. Your perception of crisis will determine the progress and change that you see manifest in your life. I talk to so many people that say that they want to go to the next level. However, the moment that adversity shows up in their lives they start to shrink back to mediocrity. 

In order to embrace the next realm in your life, you are going to have to experience a crisis. A crisis is simply an opportunity to develop and to press into the next dimension. A crisis is never sent into your life to cripple you. A crisis shows up as the catalyst ushering you into growth, transformation, and mastery. Your perception of crisis will ultimately determine your promotion and the unlocking of your true capacity. 

Living at the next level will require vision. As we head into the final days of 2021, we look back on the last two years as a time of great turbulence, uncertainty, and change in the world. In fact, I have been telling my clients globally that we just lived through one of the greatest shifts and pivots in history. Everything about the world has changed. 

When I had this vision of the next twenty years, I saw the total transformation of industries, systems, institutions, and nations. One of the most important skills that we must possess in this new era is vision. While we have understood vision to a certain degree, most people are not living their lives with a real sense of vision. I have discovered that when you live without vision you live a life without boundaries and clearly defined priorities. 

Unfortunately, living without vision will always make you a casualty to someone else’s vision. As we head into 2022 and beyond, I want to challenge you to get a clear vision for your life. Vision brings focus to our lives, clarity to our days, and intention to our moments. Most importantly, vision empowers us to give every day of our lives an assignment. Vision is one of the most powerful forms of currency on the planet. Vision empowers you to see, partner with, and give birth to a tomorrow that is not yet born to time.

 The world is desperately in need of visionary leadership. Visionary leaders inspire hope, awaken dreamers, and activate those that will champion change.