Excerpt from Unstoppable Success! | Join #TeamUnstoppable

Success is on many people’s minds these days. The meaning of success may vary a little from person to person. But for the most part, we tend to associate the word success with finances or some sort of material gain. Recently, I was sitting at the gate in the Tampa Florida airport, waiting to board a flight to Norfolk. I looked to my right and noticed a book in a lady’s hand. I looked closer to see the name of the book. It was Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success. While I did not ask her why she was reading the book, I am not surprised that anyone would be reading that book to help one to learn more about how to succeed financially. Times are challenging on the financial front. Darren Hardy built a company to more than $50 million by the age of twenty-seven. He definitely has something to say about making money that is probably worth listening to. Yet, while we alert our attention to brilliant entrepreneurs like Hardy, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others, let’s not forget that money is fleeting. Material achievements are complementary to true success when their foundations are enduring. But material gain does not define success. Hope, joy, peace, and love are the essence of true success, resulting from an underpinning of godly standards.

When we build our lives on the Lord, we position ourselves for holistic success. I was deeply touched by a Facebook post that my youngest brother, D. Arcelious Harris, recently posted. He wrote, “I’ve learned to stop chasing my ambitions to become whatever and whomever God has blessed me to see myself as.” Importantly, chasing ambitions without insight into what God has for us leads to an exercise of futility. But there is great fulfillment in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Material success can only then be properly added.(ref. Matthew 6:33)

I am sure that you have deep-rooted passions that give way to your particular ambitions. But, you have felt rejected along the way. Or, maybe you have found success hard to reach because of some learning curve, knowledge deficiency, or character flaw. I have been there. Or, possibly you have struggled due to pain, abuse, traumatic experiences, or addictions. You feel that you have made too many poor choices to become anything worthwhile. Or, you feel that you are too old now. Or, maybe your feel that you are a good age, but your situational, social, or geographical locale makes success impossible for you. You have always dreamt of success, but life has dealt you such a hard blow that the reality of success seems impossible. You have either given up, or you have decided just to settle in the wilderness of mediocrity. If you identify with either of these categories, this book is for you. If you know anyone who may be in either of these situations, this book is for them.

I want to lay a foundation for revitalized dreams of success, encourage you in the journey, and even in some cases catapult you towards a Christ-centered pursuit of goals and objectives. Let me begin by explaining what success is not. Success does not equal stuff. The essence of a diamond can’t be reduced to the “bling” of shiny stuff. It is the quality of the building blocks with which the diamond is constructed. No diamond is successfully a diamond without the pressure that compounds it under the dirt. Relating the diamond to success, the essence of success is the building blocks that create it. In keeping with the journey metaphor, in the pages ahead the steps of the journey are the real meaning of success. Those building blocks, those steps that are so meaningful for success are rooted and grounded in God’s Word. They are constructive principles upon which we can build our lives. They are renewing principles that will turn our lives around, if we are headed in the wrong direction. They serve as a springboard to catapult us toward a success that the world can’t give and the world can’t take away – a God ordained and a God given success.
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Dr. Antipas L. Harris
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