Being Driven

I recently read in Fast Company magazine about an interview with communication mogul Ted Turner. In the interview Turner mentioned that his IQ was 128 (genius is 140), and that he was in the top 97% academically. The next thing he said caught me by surprise. He said,

"That means 3 percent of people were smarter than me. I knew I was going to have to work hard if I wanted to accomplish something in life. So I read a lot -- classics, warfare, Alexander the Great -- I used my brain all the time. Everything I did was education. Others just shot the breeze, wasted time -- nothing wrong with that, but you can't get to the top doing that."

It's evident that Ted Turner never reached the top of the communications industry by wasting his time or sitting around being idle. The guy was driven to always be growing and learning.

Sometimes within Christian circles being "driven" is seen as a negative. The truth of the matter is that most of us are driven by something. As leaders it's important that we possess a clear sense of godly drive. The Apostle Paul certainly had it as evidenced when he said,

"I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Philippians 3:12-14)

So what about you? Are you driven or are you simply doing your job, coasting in neutral?