Contact Joe Today:
732-504-7475
Email Joe Right Now:
revjoecala@aol.com

Chapter One  Fight for Your Life!

To be nobody but yourself in a world thats doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.

- e. e. cummings

As you go through this life you will fight many battles, circumstances, people, feelings, emotions, physical barriers, pain, fear and exhaustion just to become you. Just to be heard. Just to do what interests you. Just to reach your dreams. Just to accomplish your God-given purpose. If you ever want to succeed at anything in life, you will have to fight to succeed. If you want to be a failure, do nothing. Always do what is easy and what does not challenge you at all. If you do that, you will be a successful failure. Never stand up for what is right. Never go against the crowd. Blend in to fit in and be accepted, but do not say what you really think. Only say what people want to hear and what they want you to say. Do this and you will, without fail, be a successful failure!

When you want something bad enough, you will fight for it. When you love someone enough, you will fight to protect him or her. When you know it is the right thing to do, you will fight for that cause. We are all fighters. A fighter is a person with the will, courage, determination, ability or disposition to fight, struggle and resist something for a specific cause (www.dictionary.reference.com). Every day, we fight for others to hear us, accept us, love us and notice us. We fight for our ideas. We fight for our beliefs. We fight for our families and we fight for our friends. In the midst of life and all that is happening outside of us, there is an unending war a continuing battle that is taking place from within. This is a fight that only you can fight. You will have outside influence from people and circumstances, but the decisions you choose and the choices you make will be the result of this fight. This is the fight for your will!

What is your will? It is the driving force of what you ultimately think, say and do. It is the combined makeup of your values, (what you like and do not like), your thoughts, opinions, belief system, desires and pleasures. It is the mental faculty by which you deliberately choose a course of action. It is the power to arrive at ones own choice and decision, and to then act upon it independently in spite of anything that opposes you. It is the thing that causes you to lean towards that which creates joy in your life. Your will is that magnetic force that pulls you towards doing that which you like and want to do. Your will is also used to do what you do not want to do. Your will is the final vote that allows the course of action to either take place or not.

Your will has power. It is known as will power. Your will power is the strength and energy that is used to carry through your choices in life. Your will power is the ability to carry out your decisions, wishes and plans. Your will power is also known as discipline and self-control. When people break habits, they try to do it with will power. When people try to accomplish success in any area, they do it through the exercising of will power. As you exercise your will power, you are strengthening the ability of your will to make a choice. This will power is what you use to ultimately become you. Everything you are today is the result of your exercised will power.

One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve.

- George Allen

Nothing worth having in life is ever gained easily. If we want to achieve anything in this life, we have to proactively fight for it. Too many people have fallen into the reactive fight stance in life. We have allowed ourselves to wait for something to come against us and then we fight back to make sure we do not lose and get defeated. Now, do not misunderstand me; we will have to still do that at times. However, we should also put together attack plans to proactively go after our dreams, purposes and goals. We should fight on purpose, not just on defense.

But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it is better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you are fighting for.

- Paulo Coelho

Each one of us has been designed to live our life in this world for a specific purpose. There is no such thing as a worthless person. There is no such thing as a meaningless life. God handcrafted and fashioned each and every one of us. We are all unique and special for this world and His plan. No one else has the same fingerprint!

No one else has the same DNA. Out of all the billions of people who have lived, are living and ever will live, you are One of a Kind! There is no one who is exactly like you. Even identical twins are not identical. You are One of a Kind! Do not lose you!

One of a Kind things are more valuable than copies. If everyone has it, then the rarity and short supply holds no value. For example: The Treskilling Yellow stamp from Sweden is the only one of its kind. It has a current value of more than $2 million (or $87 billion per kilogram, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treskilling_Yellow).

The rarity and only one of its kind demands an extremely high value. The same is true with the Gutenberg Bible. Around the world there is an enormous amount of vintage books, but perhaps the most rare is the famous Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1456. There are several hundred copies of the Bible itself, but the very first copy of the two-volume print will cost a collector of antique books around $20 to 25 million. Incredible!

This truth is not only consistent with these two items, but also with you! Everybody is born an original One of a Kind, but sadly, many end up dying a copy. Why is this? Because too many people have allowed others to shape, create, mold and fashion them into what they want them to be. Instead, we need to fight to be who we really are. It is a fight to be you, but its a fight that is worth fighting. Fight to be you! Fight to reach your purpose! Do not settle to live someone elses plans, purposes and life instead of your own! You are an original. Be you to the best of your ability. Be who God created you to be.

For we are Gods [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

- Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified Bible)

You have a reason for which you were born. He put you here to aim for a target in life. He created you for a specific purpose. There is a meaning and definition to your life. A purpose is the reason why something exists! A purpose is something towards which you strive for (www.dictionary.reference.com). A purpose gives direction. A purpose gives reason to do. A purpose gives meaning to why. A purpose is your goal and target you are aiming to hit. God has given you a purpose in this life. Once you have discovered this purpose, fight for that purpose. Fight to keep that purpose alive. Fight to protect that purpose so it can come to pass in this lifetime.

Once you have your eyes set on living your life on purpose, be assured that you will have plenty of opportunities to guard and protect that decision in your life. There will be people, circumstances, battles, distractions, fear, feelings and problems that are going to try and keep you from accomplishing that purpose. You see, even though you may have licked some of these enemies in the past does not mean they will not try to stick their ugly little heads back up in your life. It may be addictions, anger, relationships, thoughts, emotional instabilities or even laziness. Whatever it is, if it shows up again, you will have to stand your ground and fight it out of your life.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

- Margaret Thatcher

Just because you may have victory over that battle, problem, roadblock, circumstance and feeling does not mean it is not going to try to stop you again. There will always be something or someone trying to convince you to be average, below average and satisfied with settling for second best. But do not settle for second best! Fight for Gods purpose in your life. Fight to be the best you can be! When you fight to be your best, the rewards are lifelong and worth it.

There are no pleasures in a fight, but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.

- Muhammad Ali