“R” Is For Results

By: D. A. Slinkard

For this article, we are to letter “R” and our word is “Results,” and we must understand that life is all about getting results. As I have written before, we get results every day, and sometimes it is what we want while other times we get what we do not desire. However, we must realize that every day we are either moving closer to who we want to be and what we want to accomplish, or we are moving farther away. What about you? What direction are you heading in with your life? Are you even keeping track?

I have found that too many people are not keeping track of what results they are getting and too many people are drifting in life. The wind will blow them in one direction for a while and then the winds shift, and they become blown in a completely different direction. Where are you headed? Are you just drifting? Far too many people in society are drifting out of control because they sometimes focus too little on obtaining results.

Everyone has what they would deem to be their ideal life, and some people are able to achieve what they want their life to be. Others are not able to, and I believe it is because sometimes life takes work. We have some people in our society who are lazy but who have an idea what they want to be, however, when it comes time to put forth effort, this is where they shy away from the work. Why? They feel overwhelmed. We have an entire generation growing up that when life gets tough, instead of gearing up, they just give up.

Life is not about giving up but getting up. One could look at the life of Abraham Lincoln and prove this concept to be true. Too often we only look at a person’s successes and do not even take the time to think about their failures. Abraham Lincoln was more than just our 16th president of the United States of America. We could learn a lot by the perseverance he showed in his life. In case you are unaware, he was defeated for the state legislature in 1832; failed in business in 1833; had his sweetheart die in 1835; had a nervous breakdown in 1836; was defeated for the House speaker in 1838; was defeated for nomination for Congress in 1843; he lost renomination in 1848; he was defeated for U.S. Senate in 1854; he was defeated for nomination for vice president in 1856; and again defeated for U.S. Senate in 1858.

In case you did not count, these were 10 failures that Abraham Lincoln personally dealt with. He was not getting good results, but instead of giving up, he kept getting up. The Bible says in Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” There is a lot we can learn from God’s word, and this is a great lesson. When you obtain the results you are not looking for, you must keep getting back up.

Persistence beats resistance and we see with Abraham Lincoln that his persistence enabled him to win the presidency in 1860. Lincoln’s life is an example for everyone to see and understand that we are always getting results, sometimes positive and sometimes negative, but it is all about how we respond to these results. Lincoln had every reason imaginable to get mad, to get upset, to want to give up and give in. Did he? No, not at all. He kept on working to get the results he wanted even when others would have given up.

Where are you at in your life? Have you had some failures and some setbacks? Have you started feeling sorry for yourself? If this sounds like you, I want to encourage you to change your way of thinking. If you have not gotten the results, you are looking for, what things do you need to do differently? It is imperative to keep track of the results we are getting on a regular basis to improve who we are as individuals.

This is called growth, and if you are not growing, then you are dying because dead things do not grow. What are the results you want to achieve versus what you are achieving? When we identify where we are versus where we want to be, this is how we are moved to make a difference and get the results to generate success in our life.

By: D. A. Slinkard

D.A. Slinkard would love your feedback. You can contact him at da.slinkard@gmail.com