Seize Today

How Asking the Right Questions Will Change Your Life

John Mason

• Publisher: Revell
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780800727178
• eBook ISBN: 9781493413843
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Sometimes, life isn't going the way we want it to because we're simply not asking the right questions. Our focus is on our circumstances or our problems. We're asking why me? when we should be asking what next?

With his signature infectious positive energy, John Mason offers readers looking for direction this simple yet powerful message of encouragement and hope--you can seize today and uncover a brighter tomorrow. For anyone who feels stuck, who yearns for a change but isn't sure just how to pursue it, Mason shows that the most powerful tool we have is asking ourselves the right questions to get the right answers. These bite-sized readings are perfect for busy professionals, overworked moms, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking for an uplifting boost.

Question 1
When was the last time you astonished yourself?

I obtained an amazing job a few years after graduating from college. It all began when I received a phone call out of the blue. I was enrolled full-time in an MBA program, but this was too good to pass up.

The job opportunity was beyond my wildest imagination: assistant to the chairman of the board of the largest bank in Oklahoma. I’ll never forget going through seven interviews, starting in human resources all the way through the chairman and president, and finally receiving a job offer at only twenty-four years of age. And I was about to get an invaluable perspective from the top down.

As I worked directly for the chairman of the board, my responsibilities included serving on many boards for the bank, giving speeches for the president and chairman, teaching other top executives how to communicate to an audience, sitting in on board meetings, overseeing the executive dining room floor, and running the bank’s tennis tournament (which included Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith, Roscoe Tanner, and many other of the world’s top players). I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but my view of business and leadership would never be the same.

I thought I was thinking “big” before this job, but there was a much bigger world out there. That’s true for you too.

Life is too short to think small. Rather, do as Joel Budd encourages us to: “March off the map.” Most people could do more than they think they can, but they usually do less than they think they can. You never know what you cannot do until you try.

I agree in principle with Oscar Wilde when he said, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” Charles Schwab said, “When a man has put a limit on what he will do, he has put a limit on what he can do.”

The answer to your future lies outside the confines of where you are today. I like to say that if you want to see if you can really swim, don’t frustrate yourself with shallow water. Launch out into the deep. Get out of the shallow end of the pool of life.

Any person who selects a goal in life that can be fully achieved without God’s help has defined their own limitations. Rather, be as Art Sepulveda says: “Be a history maker and a world shaker.”

Go where you have never gone before. Determine to see and do amazing things you’ve never imagined. You will find that great leaders are rarely “realistic” by other people’s standards.

Dr. J. A. Holmes said, “Never tell a young person that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting for centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to do that thing.” If you devalue your dreams, rest assured no one else will raise the price.

Ronald McNair said, “You only become a winner if you are willing to walk over the edge.” The Bible tells us, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

When you climb the tallest tree, you can see farther than you imagined when on the ground. Gloria Swanson said, “Never say never. Never is a long, undependable thing, and life is too full of rich possibilities to have restrictions placed upon it.”

To believe an idea impossible is to make it so. Consider how many fantastic projects have died because of small thinking or have been strangled in their birth by a cowardly imagination. I like what Comte de Mirabeau said. When he heard the word impossible, he responded, “Never let me hear that foolish word again.”

Somebody is always doing what somebody else said couldn’t be done. Dare to think unthinkable thoughts. Pearl Buck said, “All things are possible until they are proved impossible—and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.” John Ruskin said, “Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil.”

Develop an infinite capacity to ignore what others think can’t be done. Don’t just grow where you are planted. Bloom where you are planted and bear fruit. Daniel Webster said, “There is always room at the top.” No one can predict to what heights you can soar. Even you will not know until you spread your wings.

Know your limits, then ignore them!

Question 2
Who are the five people you spend the most time with? Are they increasing you or holding you back?

I received a phone call from a good friend and board member of my ministry, Tim Redmond. Tim wanted to meet with me and pick my brain. “I insist on paying for lunch, and I insist on paying you something for your time. What you know will really help me,” he said. I must admit, I was a little uncomfortable charging anything because he is such a good friend.

We had our meeting and he asked some excellent questions. Tim is one of the brightest men I know, but what he was about to say to me would greatly impact me. I’ll never forget his words: “Nobody has your experience. You’ve been the head of three publishing companies. You sold nearly two million books as an author. Think about how many people would like to talk to you about the book that’s a dream in their heart. You would bring a perspective that no one else in Christian publishing could bring.”

As I left our meeting and drove back to my office, Tim’s words were still ringing in my heart and in my mind. I must say I’d never seriously considered how helpful and valuable my insights and experiences could be. I can tell you exactly where I was driving when I decided to make myself available to authors. To help them create their books. To help them publish their books. From that day forward, I have been constantly busy helping authors by simply making myself available to them. I don’t think I ever would have had this idea without the words Tim said to me that day.

Isn’t it incredibly important who we associate with? And who we let speak into our lives? God connects us with people because he loves people. Listen closely to those God has sent your way.

Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are. The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those you closely associate with—for the good and the bad.

The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl. But if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights. Almost all our sorrows spring out of relationships with the wrong people. E. K. Piper said, “Keep out of the suction caused by those who drift backwards.”

Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. We should pray, “Lord, deliver me from people who talk of nothing but despair and failure. Rather, grant me the companionship of those who think success and will work for it.” A true Bulgarian proverb confirms, “If you find yourself taking two steps forward and one step backwards, invariably it’s because you have mixed associations in your life.” If a loafer isn’t a nuisance to you, it’s a sign that you are somewhat of a loafer yourself. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative-acting people.

A true friend is one who is there to care. It’s been said a good friend is like one mind in two bodies. Robert Louis Stevenson said, “A friend is a gift you give yourself.” You’ll find a true friend remains a friend even when you don’t deserve to have a friend. This person will see you through when others think that you’re through.

The wisdom of Proverbs asserts, “Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away” (27:10 NASB). Choose your associates carefully. This old saying is true: “He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.”

A true friend sees what you can be. Consider what Francesco Guicciardini said: “Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.”

Never become friends with someone because you both agree on negatives. Rather, find friends who agree with you on positives. “My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake,” Aristotle said. The Bible declares, “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Prov. 27:17). Thomas Carlyle observed, “Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are, for it shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of man you long to be.”

If you were to list your greatest benefits, resources, or strengths, you would find that money is one of the least important ones, while some of your greatest resources are the people you know. My friend Mike Murdock said, “Someone is always observing you who is capable of greatly blessing you.” I believe that God blesses people through people. He has the right associations for you in your life.

A true friend is the best possession.

Question 3
If you’re not you, then who are you going to be?

No matter where you go, one thing is certain—people are very different. I like to people watch, especially at airports. Every kind of shape, size, nationality, and culture is there. I can’t help but be fascinated, wondering what people do or where they are headed and why. God made every one of us in a very particular way.

I’ve come to accept the fact that God knows a whole lot more than we do about why He put us together the way He did.

I sure would’ve liked to have been six feet four instead of five feet eight and have a full head of hair instead of a few remaining hairs. I was “blessed” to have five baby teeth that didn’t have any permanent ones under them. I still have one holding on today. God even gave me a nice gap in the front of my teeth (think David Letterman). One of the funniest things I’ve experienced in my life is a poster I saw of myself in Monterrey, Mexico. The poster was promoting an event I was speaking at. It had a nice picture of me, the one we provided. But there was something different about this picture. They had Photoshopped my gap! There I was, smiling, with a beautiful set of teeth with no front gap.

Why? I don’t know. But I do know this: “If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise” (Goethe). Dare to be what you are. Resolve to be yourself. A Congolese proverb asserts, “Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile.” The Bible asks, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?” (Jer. 13:23 ESV). “Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are,” Julius Hare advised.

“My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll become a general. If you become a monk, you’ll end up as the pope.’ Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso,” the great painter said. No one ever became great by imitation. Don’t be a copy of something. Make your own impression.

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change,” Carl Rogers said. Worn-out paths are for worn-out men. Friedrich Klopstock remarked, “He who has no opinion of his own, but depends on the opinion and taste of others, is a slave. To only dream of the person you are supposed to be is to waste the person you are.” Nobody is so disappointed and so unhappy as the person who longs all of life to be somebody other than who they really are.

Those who trim themselves to suit everybody will soon whittle themselves away. If you don’t have a plan for your own life, you’ll only become a part of someone else’s. You can’t carry two faces under one hat. Never wish to be anything but what you are. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not,” André Gide said.

“All the discontented people I know are trying sedulously to be something they are not, to do something they cannot do,” David Grayson commented. When you will not dare to be yourself, you will lack confidence.

“Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all,” André Gide reflected. “All good things which exist are the fruits of originality,” John Mills said. There is only one life for each of us—our own. The person who walks in another’s tracks never leaves their own footprints. Doris Mortman observed, “Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have.” Most of our challenges in life come from not knowing ourselves and ignoring our best, real virtues.

Most people live their entire lives as complete strangers to themselves. Don’t let that happen to you. Leo Buscaglia counseled, “The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.” The opposite of courage is not fear. It is conformity. The most exhausting and frustrating thing in life is to live it trying to be someone else.

Imitation is limitation.

Question 4
Does today feel different than yesterday?

Today should feel different than yesterday, if only in a very small way. Otherwise you’re sitting still.

Change. I hope this word doesn’t scare you but rather inspires you. Herbert Spencer said, “A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.” Change is an evidence of life. It is impossible to grow without change. Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. The truth is, life is always at some turning point.

I found myself at a turning point in 1992. I had accepted an invitation from several churches in Florida to speak in their services over a two-week period. In addition to those opportunities, I was also invited to speak at a monthly devotional held by a prominent publishing company. It was December, a great time to be in Florida.

At the publishing company, I had a great time and went to lunch right afterward with the leadership team and the owner’s wife. I had no idea my life was about to change.

Within one day, I received a very pleasant phone call from the owner. They were looking for somebody to head their book publishing company. He wanted a change. The company had not been doing very well and was in desperate need of fresh leadership.

He wanted to meet me and have dinner as soon as possible. I had a good dinner and conversation with both him and his wife. It didn’t take very long for him to begin to talk to me about coming to run his company. I had absolutely no desire to do that. In fact, I remember thinking, This is a great way to interview for a job. We ended our dinner that evening with him offering me a position. And me not being interested at all.

My wife, Linda, was flying out to Florida to join me the second week of my two-week tou...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Question 1: When was the last time you astonished yourself?
• Question 2: Who are the five people you spend the most time with? Are they increasing you or holding you back?
• Question 3: If you’re not you, then who are you going to be?
• Question 4: Does today feel different than yesterday?
• Question 5: Would the child you were be proud of the man or woman you are?
• Question 6: Do you give space in your mind to those who don’t want you to succeed?
• Question 7: Why? Why not? Why not you? Why not now?
• Question 8: If you could, what would you work on right now?
• Question 9: What’s your favorite excuse? Why are you still using it?
• Question 10: What is something you can do for someone who has no opportunity to repay you?
• Question 11: What progress are you standing in the way of?
• Question 12: What lies are you believing today?
• Question 13: Is this your very best?
• Question 14: Which is worse—failing or never trying?
• Question 15: What are you really aiming at?
• Question 16: Do you take the advice of your fears?
• Question 17: Whom do you need to forgive today?
• Question 18: How can you change someone’s life for the better today?
• Question 19: Are you having fun yet?
• Question 20: Are you choosing your story or someone else’s?
• Question 21: What gives you goose bumps?
• Question 22: Have you survived the worst thing that’s happened to you?
• Question 23: Is it true?
• Question 24: What one thing do you need to do next?
• Question 25: What have you started that you need to finish?
• Question 26: Do you scare yourself?
• Question 27: What are you putting off today that you put off yesterday?
• Question 28: Is the juice worth the squeeze?
• Question 29: What would you do today if there were no tomorrow?
• Question 30: Whom did you love today?
• Question 31: What’s the first small step you can take now to get moving in the right direction?
• Question 32: What’s already in your hand?
• Question 33: What’s one regret you don’t want to have?
• Question 34: What would your life look like if you were the most grateful, thankful person you know?
• Question 35: Are your eyes looking forward?
• Question 36: Do you like the sound of your own voice? How does it sound when you’re complaining?
• Question 37: What have you stopped doing that you need to start doing again?
• Question 38: When someone asks, “What’s new?” what’s your answer?
• Question 39: When was the last time you said, “Wow, I can’t believe I did that”?
• Question 40: What are you amazingly good at?
• A Final Word
• Author Contact
• Author Products
• About the Author
• Back Ads
• Back Cover