"A forward thinker always foresees the possibility of change because they know great struggle often produces great results." (SC)

There should be no reason why insecurity and doubt would make you second guess yourself, because God has you covered.  Your innovation should never be muffled, distracted, or misplaced.  We teach the young people in our School of Greatness mentorship program, the Four Guiding Topics:

•I know who I am--I am a leader who loves God. I have intelligence and self respect.
•I know the potential I possess--I possess the potential to change the world and my circumstances. 
•I know where I'm going--I'm going to places of prominence, success, and promotion. 
•I know how to get there --through education, inspiration, and dedication.

My friend, the enemy, your devil, is going to try to trip you up, to make you fall into the trap of self-doubt. Doubting the word of God, is actually doubting the gift of God, and doubting who you are. If you stay in self doubt, it can tear you apart. There is something to be said about you when you come into a set position of knowing who you are, where you are going, what God has put in you, and what God has said to you and you become obsessed with it. You just know how to hold on; you just know how to believe God!

Quitting Is Not An Option!

 Conduct cannot lie; manners and habits cannot lie. This is why it is important to grasp the wisdom that process brings. What would be the purpose of you being frustrated every day while you build your business, family, marriage, finances, or church? Hmm…let's calculate; if there are 365 days a year x 5 years it equals 1,835 days of frustration for five years. Let's say you realistically had 1 day out of the week you did not worry or was not frustrated. You had a good attitude about a work day, a day off from work, a day at the movies, or go fishing without having frustration. It would be 260 days out of 1,835 days in a five-year period, which means you were frustrated 86% of the time in a five-year period. How about you and I appreciate our mountain top experiences, but also learn how to appreciate and love the steps to get there. "The steps of a good man is ordered by the Lord." Steps are movements made by lifting the foot and setting it down again in a new position. Sounds familiar? (Innovation = moving in newness and creativity). Therefore, in every step there is attainment. In every step there is confirmation. In every step there is high regard. In every step there is establishment. In every step there is change. Anybody can quit! Quitting is not an option to an innovator. Quitting has become prevalent in this decade. People generally only commit until it gets hard then simply back off. Innovation should drive you, not make you start something, and along the way give it up. If Thomas Edison would have given up on creating the light bulb after failing 9,999 times, he would not be in the history books. He simply did not quit. Giving up is giving in to the stress and tribulation that comes with success. To bring a project into fruition, an innovator must stay focus with the assignment and refuse to let circumstances detain, derail, or distract them from the goal. There will always be other things that will come up that can take priority over what you are committed to finishing. But to be a great innovator, you must stay committed to being a finisher and not just a starter.

There will always be decoys and smoke screens along the way of innovation.

 SC

GREATNESS, Just what is it anyway?

Webster's defines greatness as something that is considered to be remarkable in magnitude, degree, or  is extremely effective. Many times people can misunderstand greatness for arrogance or pride. It is important to remember that greatness is in everyone.  It is up to you as an individual to discover the greatness inside you.  There is nothing wrong with believing in yourself. Martin Luther King Jr puts it this way... "Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service". 
Service is what we do, it is how we live. 

It is not what goes into an individual that defines him, but what comes out of him. Cultivating your thoughts and ideas, plows into the imagination of our minds. To become great it is important to be determined to be so.  Greatness must be cultivated and nurtured. As a man thinks so is he. Believe in you more than anyone else can. Albert Einstein once said that "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds". DO NOT SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRITY!

Dreamer Bigger, Worker Harder, and NEVER BE AFRAID OF GREATNESS!

"Biblical greatness is defined not by what a man has done in his life time, but rather what a man has left that is worthy to be duplicated in the life of his seed."

(SC)

 LET'S BE GREAT!!

THE LAW OF LOVING THE STEPS

Have you ever looked at your life and said, "Hmm…Why are things so hard? Why is it taking so long for change to come? Why is the process of innovation so difficult?" Process can be difficult because it suggests working while developing to a definite end. Process also means steps and stages that are not always appreciated because of the intricate details. Most of us are more committed to a projection of a project, than the process to get there. We love progress, but we struggle with process. Every one of us, including myself, wants to proceed and keep moving after an obstacle. We want to continue to move beyond disappointment and advance by achieving our dreams. However, in order for this to take place, we must learn how to love the steps (Consider David in moving the Ark back after first disappointment he had to go through the process). An innovator who fails to love the steps is not worthy of future advancements that materialize into greatness. I believe that every day is a step toward progress, regardless of the appearance of regression. Everything is perception. If you are working hard, being innovative, being relevant, and being enterprising, then a setback is just a stepping stone to a way up. Your setback is just education and tutorship that gives you the tools needed to thrive when your goals begin to happen.

"A forward thinker always foresees the possibility of change because they know great struggle often produces great results."

 (SC)

THE LAW OF GRIT

 If you truly do not understand your mission in life, the reason you are here and you don't keep in touch with that reality you can enter into a routine of boredom. For example, some people have jobs not careers. There is a difference between having a job and having a career. A job is a place you work to pay bills. You do not have to like the job, you do not have to love the job, but you just have to do the job. A career, on the other hand, is a mission. A career makes you get up in the morning; you have a greater purpose than just "punching the clock." Meaning, if you are a person who works without any connection to your destiny and purpose of God, soon everything in your life will become discontented.


Innovators must not hide in the SHADOWS! People who live in the shadows never become what they ought to be. They only become a reflection of their true self, simply, a faint image. Shadow seekers love the shade. Yet, shadow seekers ultimately become discontent with themselves and life because of this problem. Having the gift to change the world, yet sitting on the sidelines is not fun.

"Innovation resists the thought to give in to mediocrity or to celebrate second rate results." (SC)

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THE LAW OF ELEVATING YOUR THINKING

Innovation starts with elevating the level of your thinking and beginning to see everything through the lenses of God's sovereignty, power, and innovation. This type of attitude becomes a vehicle of the Holy Spirit to download new, fresh ideas that will change the world. We ought to think in view of God's unlimited resources and intelligence, which we have access to while in pursuit of solving problems for His purpose. We must never level-off in thinking too small. We are all called to be catalysts. Catalysts are agents that provoke significant change. As stated earlier, the world has become poor in leadership and innovation. Poverty of innovation will rob a nation of the mind of God, prosperity, uniqueness, concepts, ideas, ingenuity, creativity, and pre-determined greatness. Poverty of innovation feeds the curse of laziness and builds a foundation of failure. Poverty of innovation hinders creativity and stunts the growth of a free thinker that thinks on how to solve the problems of the world. Samson and the jawbone is an example of one of the most unique uses of and innovative discoveries I have ever read. Judges 15:16 - "with a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men." God will always require innovation to solve the problem. To an innovator, a problem is a dilemma that provokes fresh ideas that change the course of history. Samson and the jawbone is one of the greatest stories - one man against 1,000 with no weapons but a simple jawbone. Now that's what I call INNOVATIVE. I believe that nothing is coincidental but providential. God simply created the circumstances that allowed this miracle to happen. The Lord made sure that Samson did not have any conventional weaponry in his grasp. All because God wanted him to move beyond what is conventional and tap into innovation with a simple jawbone of a donkey. It is amazing to me how often we feel that we are without help or resources when facing crisis. In most cases, our miracles are always within reach. God will require you to think innovatively in order to come out victoriously.

  "The genesis to innovation is having the courage to tackle unsolved problems." (SC)

The Law of Discovery

Discovery means to make known or visible. Discovery implies that it is already there but is not necessarily visible as of yet. Once we discover that we have all been given a responsibility to create, discover, and bring forth new ideas through innovation, self-doubt and uncertainty of future fulfillment will simply die. Now your life is filled with the wonder of taking projects that are meaningful to reality. Therefore, you got it! You have what it takes. Self-importance and self-awareness come into play when you are aware that you would not be here unless there is a mission. Concealment and discovery are necessary for growth. Sometimes concealment means locked out, other times it means searched out. There are keys of purpose tucked away that must be sought out in order for us to grow. There are gaps all over the world that need a bridge that needs a bridge to come out from ; gaps in literature, gaps in political unity, gaps in parents raising children, and disconnects in spiritual insight. We must search out the answers to these problems. No obstacle should rob you of discovering the answer to problems or walking in authority. When a nation has lost its spiritual compass, the results are aimlessness and loss of ideas; our deficiency in revelation and innovation will highlight the lack of progression.

Why do people often quit right at the finish line or get thrown off course in the process?

Every innovator must look at their problems solution-minded, rather than an impossibility. We all know people or institutions that have tried and failed for years, whether it is in education, finances, family, or spiritual. In this decade, billions of dollars have been thrown at these issues. However, we cannot let the failures of others become the measuring stick used to continue to bring change or our failure not to change. We must look through the lens of "innovation," because innovation opens the flood gates of ideas that test and challenges the status of the norm. Innovation provokes creativity that brings into existence a higher level of thinking. It has the capacity of developing a new operational system.


Who will be the next person that understands God's love language? Will it be the person who develops the idea to cure AIDS? Who will have a strategic plan to stop world hunger? If we think on this level, God will begin to give us ideas to change the world. Go forth and conquer! There are fresh ideas that are attainable. Sometimes you must take a moment to look within and rediscover what you formally discovered in order to progress. The disciples, from time to time, faced the battle of external, infectious influences that, tried to derail and damage the assignment. Jesus wanted them to know Him, know the power they possessed, and the assignment they were to do.

A person that pursues greatness doesn't need to mimic or impersonate another because false pretense robs one of personal discovery. (SC)

 

 

Bishop Shaun D. Cooper