Top 5 successful ways to prevent youth from reaching their full potential

I am convinced that everyone on earth wants to be significant. I find my significance by submitting my life to Christ. It's not easy though.

My personal mission in life is to be significant and to serve millions. This life mission began as early as I could remember.

I had a lot of doubters in my life as a youth but fortunately I had a relationship with God and more people that believed in me to trump the doubters.

Here is my top 5 list of successful ways to prevent youth from reaching their full potential.

Yapping

When teachers talk, you should listen. When educators teach, you can learn. You can achieve amazing goals with information gained by learning while listening keeps you ignorant. When you are ignorant, you can't do much. Teaching requires development rather than equipment. Youth want to be developed.  They crave it. Development requires commitment to the whole person.

Who is the biggest yapper that you know?

Hurting people hurt people. -Dr. Craig L. Oliver, Elizabeth Baptist Church

You have to be aware that you are hurting to prevent yourself from hurting others. We are all battling with some type of emotional baggage from the past. I get my emotional fix by filling my spiritual, physical and relational buckets.

Who or what do you turn to when you are hurting?

Wake Up!

Ever had an amazing sleep with an amazing dream only to be awaken in the middle of it? There are millions of adults that are living a life that they don't want to live because they didn't reach their full potential for one reason or another. Youth take their dreams to adults all the time for encouragement only to be discouraged with words like "you need a backup plan" or "that's too hard".

What is your long term goal (5-10 years)? State one goal please.

What can prevent you from achieving your goal?

Simplistic statements aren't simple

Simplistic statements like "hard work pays off" and "believe in yourself" are temporarily encouraging at best. When you make these statements complex by questioning them you realize that they are only half true. There are millions of hard working people in this country that are struggling everyday. In order to help youth, you have to make things simple so that they can actually do something with the statement. For example, if you attend school everyday with good behavior, be engaged while in class and spend 2-3 hours per night on homework, you will be able to attend a top rated college and most likely for free. It's that simple and youth can do it.

What's a simplistic statement that you use often?

What are 3 simple ways that you can convert your personal potential to productivity?

Expect nothing. Give compassion. Deny consequences.

I have found that youth work hard when there are high expectations and consequences for not meeting the expectations. They become boxed in between the two realizing that excellence is the fulfillment of expectations. If they trust you, they will allow you to coach them to victory. Adults often forget to establish expectations though and are deathly afraid to discuss consequences until something has been done wrong. That reminds me of another trite simplistic statement "we will cross that bridge when we get there". I believe that criminal activity is birthed when there is a whole lot of compassion without consequences.

What high expectation do you have for yourself? State one please.

If you fail to fulfill that expectation, is there a self inflicted consequence?

L.E.A.D. Ambassadors with Major General Ronald Johnson, Taz Anderson and I at the 2013 SCOGA