Take a look at a story before we get into the heart of our article.

John sat on his front porch steps considering his life and where it was headed. He dropped the soda can on the ground and stepped on it to crush the can.

“Where am I going, or better yet, what am I doing?” he asked himself, getting up from the steps he was sitting on. John was bewildered and felt way over his head. He went out into the yard. As they passed, John pulled up in his old 1981 Pontiac Sunfire. He had let the car go to waste by not taking care of it and letting whatever happened happen.

“Look at you,” he said, looking at the car. “And to believe I’m taking you to that thrift store paint shop I’m supposed to be running and operating.”

John put most of his savings into buying a storefront building and turning it into a paint shop. He was dawdling in business and was now about to close up shop. John’s hope for a better new business was slowly fading. He needed a miracle, and no matter how it came, he would do her all the good in the world.

He opened the dusty door of the Pontiac and sat inside. Closing the door she leaned back on the seat.

“Look at me,” he said sadly, “wasting my life and for what…nothing.”

As I sat there, the Pontiac began to shake as if the car was idling on its own. “What the hell is going on?” The car lurched frivolously as John squirmed in his seat, not knowing whether to jump or stay seated. Suddenly, the car began to spin automatically, creating a sort of cloud of dust inside.

John panicked frantically not knowing what to do. “Help, someone… help meeeee!” In the next breath, the cloud of dust hit John, engulfing him in its puff of smoke. He started to feel dizzy from all the eddies and twists and before he knew it he stopped.

When John finally felt that everything had calmed down, he opened his eyes.

“What happened?” John looked at his clothes and noticed that he was wearing a $1,000 suit. Every fabric of his clothing was one hundred percent imported tailored for some of the finest delicates. John noticed that he was sitting on a sidewalk bench in front of a building with twenty-seven stores. When he stood up, people rushed past him.

“Hi John, here are your paint shop reports,” a woman in a tailored business suit said, handing him a folder of papers. She kept walking down the sidewalk.

“John, good job on the million dollar deal you closed yesterday,” said a man in a navy blue suit, walking past John.

What was going on, or better yet, who were these people? John looked up and noticed a photo of him with an inscription to the left of it. He said: JOHN’S GRAPHICS – $1,000,000 PLUS ENTITY

“What?” Little did John know, but his painting business was now a worldwide franchise and John was receiving recognition for his well-deserved achievements. John paused and smiled, considering the millionaire vibe he was feeling.

“Wow,” he said to himself as he walked over to a bench and took a seat. He leaned back in shock, enjoying his newfound success without knowing it. John had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was, he was the center of attention. He closed his eyes, resting his hands behind his head to absorb the moment, and suddenly…

John opened his eyes to find himself still sitting on his old clunker. “What happened?” he asked himself, looking around him. When he got out of the car, he noticed there was a note on the floor. He picked it up to read it:

This car of yours is like your business from now on in its current state. You have the ability to create unlimited destiny for yourself. If you don’t take care of it, it will end up looking like this car, dry to the core.

John folded the note, considering his words. He turned and went to take a seat on his porch steps. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his notepad and pen.

“Alright, step one…”

This story may be fictional in its telling, but there are some underlying principles that are true. Destiny, we all have one attributed to us. What is destiny?

destiny – something to which a person or thing is destined, or directed for a specific purpose

Your life, and not only your life, but everything you propose must have a certain destiny. Take John from our story and how he put money into buying a paint shop building, but he was letting it go to waste. I’m pretty sure he was destined for the store to be successful, but because he wasn’t making the effort of determination, he was slowly going down the drain. This applies to you too.

Unless you put the muscle, strategy, planning, determination, and courage into your vehicle of destiny in your life, business, career, education, goals, or whatever destiny is part of, it will go down the drain, and as a vehicle, you can sit back and go to ruin. The choice is yours.