1. Demand On Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23 says “keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” It didn’t say keep your money or your pocket with all diligence. It says keep your heart for out of it spring issues and it means the geographical boundary of your life. How far you will go in life is always a matter of the heart. It is a matter of your eternal belief and attitudes. If you have a dream, your heart will be called in pursuit to fulfil your dream. High achievers are people with a deep emotion well inside of them. They are not only able to motivate other people, they also able to motivate themselves. When they are disappointed, they are able to pick themselves up. They have this great reservoir of emotional capacity within them to keep on going even if the road is tough. When they meet with problems, accusations, and criticisms from people, they have this ability to draw within their hearts to keep going again and again. In life, everything we do, there will always be disappointments. But how do we become successful, and be a high achiever? The bible uses the word “overcomer”. We are to be an overcomer. Something comes at us, we overcome it. Overcomers are people with excellent thinking. It is their attitudes in life that distinguish them from other people.

There was once this farmer who has a very old donkey. For some reason, this donkey fell into a very deep well. The donkey was screaming, crying and shouting for help. It was dark and it was cold. The farmer saw that the well was very deep. There was no way he could drop a rope and bring the donkey up. The farmer felt so sorry for this old donkey. He thought this donkey was very old anyway and the well needed to be filled up as there was no more water. So, he thought the unthinkable thing. He thought of burying the old donkey and filled up the well at the same time. So, the farmer got all his neighbours out with their shovels to the well. They began to dig into the ground and shovelled the sands into the well.

As the sand began to hit onto the donkey, the donkey began to realise what the farmer was doing. He cried all the more to the farmer telling him he could not do this to him as he has been faithful all these years to the farmer. But after awhile, it seems like the donkey became quiet. The farmer and the neighbours continued to drop sands into the well. They thought the donkey was buried alive. But when they had a look, they realised that the donkey was doing something they never thought the donkey would do. For every shovel of sand landed on the donkey, it would shake it off its back onto the ground and it would step onto the sand piled on the ground. As the farmer and the neighbours continued to shove sands, the donkey continued to shake it off onto the ground, stepped on the fallen sands, and soon, the well was filled up. The donkey began to rise up in the filled well. When it reached the top, it began to trotter off.

Moral of the story is this… life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The key to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Every trouble to you can become a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest and darkest well by not stopping and giving up. So every time when someone is throwing dirt at you, calling you names, accusing you, telling you that you can’t do it, threatening you, causing you to have fear, putting pressure on you…be like the donkey. Shake off the dust and dirt, and step on it. Learn from the experience. There is always something good that will come out of the situation because that is the kind of God we serve. All things work together for good to those who love God and called according to His purpose.

So the first price we have to pay for success is our heart. Don’t allow your heart to run dry emotion. Never give up. Don’t be burned out and fatigue or frustrated. Don’t become weak or powerless. Keep picking yourself up again.