15 Minutes of Fame – Dazzle Your Audience!

What will you do with your 15 minutes of fame? What if you don’t have 15 minutes of fame? You have a lifetime on the stage with a huge audience.

Your life has an audience. You are part of another audience. People watch us and we watch others. Some people inspire us to greatness by their words and deeds. Some people lift us up, some tear us down. Some people are fun, others are discouraging.

What is your life saying? Think about the vast array of people who observe you. What can you do to be a positive influence on their lives? Read on!

Who is in your audience?

People are watching you. Your family probably gets the most intimate look at your life. They see you on your worst days and your best days. What do they see? Your close friends and your more distant friends are observing your life, too.

Classmates and co-workers see you in very specific circumstances. What do they see? Then there are people who watch you at church, club events and even casual contacts. People may only see you for a minute. What impression are you leaving? Is it good?

How would each audience describe you?

One of the most important things is that each audience would describe you the same way. Are you sweet and loving in church but cunning and deceptive at work? Are you compassionate with your friends but ruthless in seeking prominence at your social club?

How do you shape your influence?

No one truly wants to be a bad influence, do they? I’m sure you do not!

Three important elements to influence

Attitude. How is your thought life? Researchers have concluded that 70% of our thoughts are negative. I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion but if it’s true, it’s frightening. Because what we say and do flows from our thoughts, we would not come across very well if that was true of us. I know some people who seem to be negative all the time. You do, too.

Guarding our thought life is so important. We must be aware of what is going into our minds. We have to nurture the habit of slamming the door on negative input to our minds. There are numerous sources of negative input out there. Do whatever you have to do to shut down the negatives. That will probably mean adjusting the role of social media in your life. You don’t have to eliminate it or you would miss some positive input but you may need to limit it or delete those negative voices.

Words. Your words spring from your thought life. You cannot totally eliminate the negative influences of the world or your mind, but you can exercise self-control when it comes to the words you speak. You don’t have to verbally express every thought!   

Actions. People watch you. They often will remember your actions much longer than your words. I have now moved across the country so I will miss my big encourager. I don’t really remember anything he said to me but I remember his smile, the total attention he gave me in his facial expressions and the cards I received from him.

My words and my actions shift as my mood changes. If I have a ‘down day’ I am less likely to be helpful. Those days take an extra effort to make my audience happy!

What Should You Strive For?

Here are four things to strive for in making your audience consider you a good influence.

Love. It is the most important thing! Our supreme aspiration is to love God and love one another. It is this unconditional love that makes the biggest impact in someone’s life. I have witnessed the redemptive power of this love. Of course, we know that God is the source of this love, so we should ask him to help us love.

Integrity. When there is absolute consistency in what you say and do for every audience, every day in every situation, that is integrity. Genuine love spurs genuine integrity. Making the effort to live a life of integrity is important for your own peace of mind as well.

Peace. It seems that our world thrives on conflict. It is an integral part of our entertainment industry. We know that good stories have a certain degree of tension in them but we seem to want more violent content all the time. The basis of that conflict is the idea that we should always get our own way. Reality shows thrive on these values. But conflict feeds discontent, stress and anxiety. Instead, we must become a source of peace in every situation and relationship. We can make a positive difference when we do this. Seek God’s help in becoming a peacemaker!

Encouragement. Two great ways to encourage others is to believe in them and challenge them to do more or better. We should be people that lift others up. How different would your world be if you were the one who was always building people up. I hope you are already doing this but could you do it a little more? I know that I could!

For My Audience

Today, you are my audience. I want to give you four things.

Be strong. You have hidden strength. God will bring his extraordinary strength into your life and make a powerful difference through you, so decide you are strong because you truly are!

Have faith – trust God. We cannot always see how he is working but he is always good and perfect. We can trust his plans and his way. Keep following Jesus with bold confidence and watch things happen.

Be filled with love. We need a love infusion from time to time. Life slowly erodes our store of love. Ask God to refill you with love and make you a conduit for his love. He will do it. So, keep asking and experiencing this love!

Pass it on. Go ahead, pass this on to your audience. You can make a difference to someone today so share this any way you can.