There’s no better feeling than knowing you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Mission. Vision. Purpose.
Yet how many of us actually feel that way? As I converse with most of my peers, it’s obvious that we are a dissatisfied generation. We have a job but we hate it. We have a paycheck but it’s not enough.
We’re alive and breathing but we’re longing for something different – somewhere better than where we are.
Something profound happened in my life when I started acting rather than reacting – when I started creating every day rather than waiting around. Rather than allowing my dissatisfaction to paralyze me, I allowed it to push me. Instead of waiting for opportunities to come to me, I seized opportunity.
Are you dissatisfied?
Slow down for a second. Think about where you are in life. Dissatisfaction doesn’t have to lead you down a path of depression and wandering. You don’t have to deny it. All you need to do is harness it.
You see, it’s a waste of time to just be dissatisfied. There’s enough people sitting in the waiting room, sharing their stories of woe, and reliving the “glory days”.
But not you.
It’s time to get up.
How To Harness Dissatisfaction For Your Good
Here’s how to harness dissatisfaction for your good:
1. Pour your passion into today
We all long for brighter days – for the time where we’re doing what God has called us to do. Finally arriving. Sorry to depress you, but that’s not going to happen. All you have is today.
We tend to romanticize the “will of God”. The expectations we place upon it are unrealistic. The will of God is living today for God’s glory. We need recapture the art of being present where we are…right now.
Don’t think about next year or even tomorrow. Live today and pour yourself into wherever you are.
2. Make someone else’s life better
Self-centeredness is the epidemic of our age. We want to advance our careers and succeed at all costs. If you’re dissatisfied with where you are, find someone else to focus on.
Refocus the energy you’re using to worry, and go change someone’s life.
Pour your energies into discipling them – making them a better person.
3. Be remarkably different
Often what happens when we’re dissatisfied is we convince ourselves to just get by. We don’t work as hard because “our time is coming”. We survive rather than thrive. We just try to make it through the day.
Here’s what I want you to do. Take that mindset and punch it in the face. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Feel good? Instead of simply surviving, choose to be remarkable – be excellent at what you do. Make a choice and just do it. Don’t think so much. Stop worrying and start doing it.
4. Learn to submit
It’s easy to think you know it all when you’re young. But one of the best things you can do is to submit and serve someone else’s vision. Learn to submit and serve and make someone else look great.
Not only will this prepare you for the future, it will make your present all the more productive.
5. Live to learn
Whatever season of life you may be in, learn everything you can. Learn everywhere you can. Learn from anyone you can. Approach your day as a day of learning.
You don’t really have to wander and wait. Opportunity is everywhere. God is speaking.
When you’re dissatisfied, seek to learn the lessons behind the fog.
Stop worrying. Stop complaining. Stop over-thinking. Stop blaming God. Get up and do something amazing.
We’re waiting…
Question: Are you dissatisfied? What are you learning? What could you start doing today? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Awesome post today. Kinda something I need to hear. I feel like I am often dissatisfied, but I will try to use it as fuel to move forward. I really like how you said to make someone else’s life better. How many times do you hear of someone who went somewhere to help someone and they come back and say “But it changed me!” Maybe helping others is the best way for God to work in us. It was kind of a big deal to Jesus so…it’s got to be of some significance.
Great insight, Jason. Reminds me of going on a missions trip. You go there to minister to others but probably end up more changed!
I really like the idea of being “remarkably different”. I do my best to do this very thing. We are fearfully and wonderfully made which means that we are all unique. And so should our work. Very good stuff.
You do a great job with this, Michael. The way you write is an inspiration to so many.
I love #2. Many times dissatisfaction is rooted in selfishness. Serving others always blows that out of the water.
I’m as selfish as they come! Lord, help me…
I really appreciate your blog, and this post in particular. I feel like alot of what you’ve been writing about lately is speaking directly to what I’ve been walking through in recent months. Thank you for doing what you are doing. Please keep it up!
Wow, thanks Josh!
I really love number 1! we are always looking to see what’s gonna be happening next weekend!
you see it everywhere..especially on facebook status on Mondays..
“is it friday yet?”!!!! I’m like what about mon. – thu?!!!
These are the days that the LORD has Made, we SHOULD (if we follow our God) be glad in It! (NOT just weekends!)
sorry…blew some steam there…lol…
Great Post David…
I know, man! I’m thinking about writing a post on how to just live in the present, not worrying about the past or the future. I think we need to recapture that.
David, this couldn’t be more on time for me. Thank God for you, brother. I appreciate you sharing the raw truth of what He puts in your heart!
Glad to hear it, JJ! Thanks for reading.
I think #4 is spot on David. Our entitlement generation does very little to submit to others and often God as well.
True, I learned so much by submitting. I suppose the submission never stops. It’s a way of life.
I was just reading some of the other comments and I find it really remarkable how one point will stand out to someone and a different point will be important to someone else. This could apply to any type of writing like this I guess. I don’t know why I find this interesting but I do. Maybe it shows a weakness that we either see around us or are having trouble with ourself and it just stands out above the rest. Just a thought…
I think it can go both ways, Jason. The harder thing to do is to look at yourself and see your own faults. There’s no shortage of those who can point out the faults in others, right?
David thanks again for this honest blog today. The thing that stood out to me was the point on submission. Serve someone elses vision. I am not young compared to some of your other readers, but this still speak to me. It is easy to go off on your own little tangents. Thankfully God draws us back and puts us in the right place to be used by Him. Thanks again for your great writing. Always something to ponder and apply.
Sandi, I don’t think it just applies to the young. We young ones tend to think we’re self-made, but we all need to serve another vision. In reality the vision we have has come from somewhere else. Nothing is original. We are dependent on God and each other.
Great post David!
Thanks Lauren!
This insight is excellent and spot on. I think you speak to the disillusionment most of us experience in our 20’s especially. We wanted to do big things for God, but most of us didn’t end up in a position where we were doing what we would deem ‘big’ things… at least not right out of college. Point 1 was great… ‘that’s not going to happen’ ‘The will of God is living today for God’s glory.’ So so so true. I heard Nate Ruch speak something similar recently. He talked about not being called to a ‘place’ or a ‘ministry’ but to His voice. It was really good. Thanks for your thoughts! Blessings!!
Love Nate! Nate spoke so much into my life during my North Central years. Thanks for sharing, Erica!
Great post David!
Thanks for stopping in, Kate!
Great headline! And awesome advice. Refocusing the energy into serving others has helped me.
There is wisdom in this that goes beyond mere human knowledge. Thanks, David.
Thank you, Jeff.
I agree on some level with what you have written, but ask what if you want to serve the Lord? what if your heart is not where you are and because of being a single parent or what have you with financial obligations how can you find solace in places of death? how can you find enjoyment when not driven by material acquisition? in the greatest of things i long to serve, but feeling trapped in the monotony of the days..doing a job i dislike that i feel kills me every day i sit at my computer, longing to be free from all the responsibility of the mundane..feeling like i am dying every day i awake to come and do something that does not inspire or fulfill me..yet i feel trapped..i pass my passion everyday and it has nothing to do with the corporate world..it has nothing to do with acquiring things..i don’t want them..i am dissatisfied with my life and long for a life of meaning instead of monotony..
This sounds like a self-help article. Back it up with the Word.
Hi Tammy, thanks for the comment! Don’t mistake me, I love the Word. But I also don’t have a problem with self help articles. I need all the help I can get! 🙂 Blessings!