DISCOVER – The Explorer

• Describe your most memorable vacation. What made it so memorable?

• Have you forsaken your dream for a life you can manage?

• What are some practical steps you can take to explore; to continue learning?

• As a group, identify something that is wrong with the world. How could you go beyond identifying the problem to creating the solution?

“Real genius, real invention is not about identifying a problem but about solving it.”

• What is your life contributing to the world?

“God seems to free the oppressed, end injustice, feed the hungry, bring victory, and do every good work through men and women who refuse to surrender to the problem.”

• Do you have a career or a calling? Are you where you are by accident or intention?

I just finished reading Mark Sanborn’s book, The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do. What an engaging read! I recommend this book for anyone in any area of leadership. I particularly like his points on what characterizes on encore performance:

• Commitment – the price you are willing to pay to get remarkable results
• Professionalism – worrying more about the impact of your performance than those you perform for
• Skills – making the difficult look easy through hard work…finding solutions
• Values – beliefs that a person holds most dear…this is your brand
• Character = Integrity: the distance between your lips and your life

As I travel through life, I’m realizing more and more how important it is to be focused. Without vision and discipline, life is a frustrated conglomeration of events. You begin to settle for the lesser things in life. You live below what you are capable of. You may become too dependent on leisure if there is not a focus that is governing your everyday life.

As a focused person, you begin to key in on what is most important to you, aiming your life towards a goal. This type of living makes your life more productive and fulfilling. Especially as a Christian, you shouldn’t get quite as discouraged by momentary setbacks because you know God is fighting for you and trials are what they are – momentary. I think we all need to ask these questions:

• What am I most passionate about?
• What are the gifts God has given me?
• Who do I want to reach?

Allow yourself to dream big dreams. Live a life that is focused for the glory of God.

DREAM – The Artist

•    What were your childhood dreams or fantasies? What would the world look like if they became a reality?

•    Dreams must be aligned with talent. What are your unique talents?

“God is not going to invest himself in a dream fueled by greed, arrogance, self-indulgence, and self-centeredness. Your passions fuel your dreams. God doesn’t say ‘yes’ to everything we ask because our dreams need to be fueled by the right things.”

•    Where are your dreams coming from? Who or what is informing your dreams? Erwin says God gives God-sized dreams to people with God-shaped hearts (21).

•    Have you ever courageously pursued a dream?

•    Have you ever been discouraged on the path of pursuing your dream because of opposition, trials, and
difficulty? Tell us about your experience. Have you viewed these difficulties as God’s process for you?

•    Are there lies you’ve believed that you need to face head-on in order to pursue your dream? Have you been so discouraged along the journey that you’ve given up?