Are you finding it hard to keep faith and maintain your focus?

Are you unsure of what’s next and how to plan your upcoming steps?

I know you can identify with planning ahead. After all, that’s what experts do right?

I was so proud that I had laid out my entire first quarter of 2020 by the last quarter of 2019. But as they say, plans are made to be changed. By the fourth day into the new year, my granddaughter blessed us 7 weeks early. Such a joyful event needed to be met with patience and faith since my granddaughter required extra medical attention.

Not only did this impact my business but it also tested my faith. I had to shift my plans, which included a retreat in Panama. Should I go to Panama or should I forfeit the trip? I had a million questions that filled my heart with fear and doubt. This challenge marked one of my BIGGEST introduction to faith. I decided to fly to Miami to stay with my family and granddaughter and ultimately attended my Panama retreat.

But my lesson in faith didn’t stop there.

While in Panama, during a zip-lining activity, I lived through my second introduction to faith as I got stuck in a tree for almost 4 hours. How could this happen? This was not something I had foreseen coming my way. I was mad and terrified at the same time.

So you may be asking what are some of the lessons that I learned that allowed me to build my faith?

Make a Faith-Filled Choice  

Make a choice that is faith-filled rather fear-filled. You can make the choice to tap into your fear or tap into your faith. You can make a choice to join the panic or stay strong and focused. The key is to be aware of the energy that you are contributing to the situation. Because my heart was filled with fear, I created situations in my mind that fueled me with negative energy. The experience even affected my physical well being as well as my emotional well being. So I learned at that moment that faith and fear cannot exist at the same time. I learned to make the choice that allowed me to play from a faith-filled heart and mind. The way we show up can tell whether we operate in faith or fear.

What You Focus on Expands 

In times of adversity, the key is to learn to lean in more into faith and realize that a faith-filled mindset is everything. Even after my experience, I could not sleep and I could not stop crying. And ultimately, I showed up in such a way that I pushed everyone around me away. Indeed I needed help and support but was not vulnerable enough to ask for it. What I learned from this particular experience was the dynamic of operating in fear versus operating in faith. Fear it’s like a downward spiral filled with anger and stagnation. Once I shifted and began to operate in faith, I began to spiral upward and move with peace, joy, and love. As I focused on the characteristics of faith my faith expanded.

Show Your Vulnerability 

How many times do we get stuck in a situation and try to figure it out on our own? But we are not vulnerable enough to ask for help or to say I’m scared. Had I shared with my peers, during the zipline activity that I was scared they would have shown up for me? Instead, I pushed everyone away. I would have been in a better place to receive their help if I had just shown my vulnerability.

Maintain a Working Plan and Be Ready to Shift

For many, we experience being challenged as different situations arise. We need to adjust to those situations and identify what opportunities lie ahead of us. Most of us have had to either postpone or cancel or find a new way of doing things altogether. But having a working plan in place makes it much easier to navigate change. You can decide on things you can still do and things you can push to later times. In times like these, you walk in faith, operate in faith, and execute in faith.