Imagine trolling along through the crystal clear waters of the Florida keys. The sun is shining out of a powder blue sky, the warm breezes are ruffling your hair, you check the thermometer and see 82. The weather couldn’t be better. But now imagine that your salvage license has gotten revoked, your son died a few years back, your most loyal employee is now your competition, your houseboat sank, and you just found out you have cancer.

Talk about trouble in paradise.

This isn’t the beginning of a new novel, its the 100% true story of Mel Fisher and the year was 1985. Mel and his family spent over 17 years searching for the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. A spanish treasure galleon that sank in 1622. Traveling thousands of miles criss-crossing the ocean. Pouring over hundreds of dusty charts. Rummaging through old records trying to find documentation of the Atocha. 

Then, finally, on July 20, 1985, Mel received a radio message.

Put the charts away. We’ve found the motherlode.

Yet the real lesson from Mel isn’t about the eventual massive payoff. Although impressive, (silver bars stacked nearly five feet high, 20 by 75 feet long, as well as about 160,000 silver coins. The estimated value: more than $400 million. A year later, divers found hundreds of emeralds that had been smuggled on the Atocha. They are still salvaging treasure from that ship, as well as La Santa Margarita, which also sank in the storm.) what we can learn is that Mel said something every day to his family and his employees.

Today’s the Day.

He searched for more than Seventeen Years!! His house sank! He went through a vicious legal battle when the state of Florida took his license! There were other treasure hunters that were cutting into his areas, threatening his men.

Imagine the doubt that he had to endure.

But, every day:

Today’s the Day.

You may not be pulling up $400 million worth of treasure from the ocean floor. But you can be in pursuit of that one thing that is your personal treasure. And when things are getting tough, because they will if it is a worthwhile goal, remember Galatians 6:9

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

It may not be “Today’s the Day” but you should have something that you tell yourself consistently to interrupt the doubt that creeps in. New York Times Best-selling Author Chris Brady says “Doesn’t Matter” when he comes across something that seems to be an obstacle. In that case, he immediately can think about the next step and many times- your obstacle doesn’t matter! It only seems like it matters!

So what’s your treasure? Are you willing to aim for a worthy objective and run past the obstacles? What are you going to tell yourself when the going gets tough?

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