3 Things that Change Things

I was working the front desk of the OR area one morning. The desk person is the traffic cop for surgeries coming and going, staff moving through, and surgeons getting to the right spot. The hallway had cleared and our head anesthetist turned the corner. He looked at me.

“Something bad is going to happen,” he said as he kept walking.

About two hours later, the patient in his room coded, mid procedure. This creates traffic. Code teams scramble. Extra staff appears. You stand at the desk and watch the monitors in the room, looking for a pulse line to appear.

After a tense few minutes, it did.

That afternoon, he was out at the desk again. I was told by nurses in the room that he’d taken over and smoothly navigated the person back to breathing. I congratulated him on it and asked how it went.

“The human body is fighting to die,” he said, “it’s our job to keep it alive.”

This year, your fight is the same.

Photo by Attentie Attentie on Unsplash

You may be looking up at a new opportunity and the mountain looks way too high. You may be on attempt 5 or attempt 500 or you may be back at the start. You may be walking around feeling like something bad is going to happen.

No matter your position, here’s three things to help change things.

1/ Shift your mindset.

Identify your patterns of thinking. You may be cynical. You may be stuck in a scarcity mindset, seeing lack no matter what is in front of you. You were burned by one too many people. Shift your mindset. Let those against you be against you.

You can’t reach your destination with everyone. Some will fall away, new people will join, and those who are true will love and appreciate you at the lows and highs. Shift your mindset means you hand it over to God. I’d given this cliché lip service for years until I understood the point:

If your mind doesn’t change, you didn’t hand it over.

2/ Live your calling.

You have a calling, a purpose, a reason to be here. You have something that was easy from the moment you were a kid and discovered it. You have a talent, a way of standing out and serving. You have a gift God has put inside of you. I listened to a podcast today where Pastor Eric Thomas said, we pray about new jobs when we should pray about creating new businesses.

The thought of following our calling can be scary. Fear should be our barometer, our GPS system. Take your base thought and think bigger. God told us to challenge him in this. Pray, ask, seek. Dream. Dream big. Dream impossible big so, when it happens, you can tell everyone God did it.

Be the story that no one understands or believes until they see it for themselves.

3/ Give.

Give when you have much. Give when you have less. Give in lack and provision. Tip well. Donate to causes. Volunteer your time. You’d be surprised how many blessings can open from the gift of your time.

See and need and meet it. Be the change you want in the environment.

Don’t like your work? Don’t like your school? Don’t complain about the change, be it. Be the first one in line, the first one to stand up, the first one to reach out.

Every movement starts in a moment.

If this post has you thinking of someone, share it and send it out. This year is going to be big for so many. Let’s live a different 2024. Let’s chase unthinkable goals and dreams.

One brick can break a window or lay a foundation. Look forward this year and pray to be a change agent. Change your universe. Find new gravity and elevate those you love and care for.

Change is calling. Will you answer?