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Category Archive: Church Scattered

Don't Waste A Personal Crisis

Posted by on September 7, 2016

In all of our lives we encounter major events that cause us to stop the routine and reevaluate where we are and more importantly where we want to be. We are all living through one of the most dramatic change points in our lifetime with this election cycle and all the current global unrest.

These sometimes crisis and many times normal episodes in our lives are significant enough to change us. It can be something as positive as getting married or having our first child. It can be something as negative as divorce or losing a job or poor health.

Life is full of change points and many times we do not get to choose the ones we experience but we always get to choose our reaction to them. Many people are left bitter because of their personal tragedy, while others seem to have a different perspective on life.

In times like these it is very important to remember what we have left not what we have lost. Tom Hanks was right the sun will come up and we never know what the tide might bring in. So we receive every day as a gift and live it with heart full of gratitude.

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Finding Real Meaning At Work

Posted by on September 5, 2016

Having the right definition of the word success is critical to living a meaningful life. A significant part of our time is spent at work and if it’s just a paycheck then surely thats not success in anyone’s book. This Forbes post by Paolo Gallo asks some great questions:

“First, let’s start with one over-arching question: What is a successful career? It’s time to move away from the idea of success defined by an organization or your supervisor, to significance defined by us. Relentlessly grasping after the next rung of the ladder doesn’t work, for the following three reasons.

Just Don't Do It

Posted by on August 31, 2016

Just Do It is a phrase that has come to represent the cultural mentality of an entire generation of Americans. The sheer discipline that is represented in those three words has pushed many of us to do things that otherwise we would have walked away from and left undone.

In my life the major point of application is in the area of physical fitness. When it is cold and dark outside most of us do not want to jump out of bed and go for a nice run when the temperature is in the twenties and the wind is blowing. In some small but very effective way, thinking about Just Do It can make the difference between turning over and getting up.

An even bigger problem for most of us is the daily discipline of learning how to say No. Everyday all of us will have more to do than we can possibly get done. It happens at work, at home, with friends and hobbies.

The real secret to success in life is in knowing on a daily basis what to say No to and walk away. The real tragedy of life is when we look back and realize even though we have been incredibly busy we have done so many things that were really not important at all.

I don’t know about you but the Just Do It mentality has pushed me beyond my limits too many times. I do not want to waste my time, energy, passion and relationships on things that do not add value to others.

I encourage you to just pick one thing a day for a week that you can say No to so that you can have the time to find your bigger Yes.

Categories: Margin Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Just Don't Do It

Why Is Rinsing Your Cottage Cheese Important

Posted by on August 26, 2016

There were many profound conclusions reached by Jim Collins research team that were documented in his bestselling book Good to Great. The principle of rinsing your cottage cheese received a small amount of space in the book but may be one of the key principles that separate those organizations who merely survive in this economy and those who thrive.

This analogy comes from a disciplined world-class athlete named Dave Scott, who won the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon six times. Even though he had a training schedule that would burn at least 5,000 calories per day he would still rinse his cottage cheese to get the extra fat off.

From a business planning model this represents the last 10 percent of work that most people are not willing to do or even know exists to make their project or program the best it possibly could be. Most people are willing to settle for 75-90% effort and feel that should really represent the best they can produce.

Sometimes the last 10% represents seemingly little things like a spot on the carpet or windows that have not been cleaned. However, that can be the very thing that a customer will notice and come to the conclusion that if you do not care about those areas what else are you not doing to be your best that they cannot see.

Collins writes, “Everyone would like to be the best, but most organizations lack the discipline to figure out with egoless clarity what they can be the best at and the will to do whatever it takes to turn that potential into reality.” Bottom line they lack the character and the discipline to rinse their cottage cheese.

Categories: Core Values Personal Leadership | Comments Off on Why Is Rinsing Your Cottage Cheese Important

Your Role As The C.E.O. Of I Incorporated

Posted by on August 24, 2016

Many of us have some type of leadership responsibility at work. We are involved in setting goals, identifying priorities, problem solving and even casting vision. Over the years we develop a skill set that enables us to do all of these things and more.

There is a lot of culture shift taking place in the corporate world from the old days of working with one company your entire career to now almost viewing yourself as a free agent always looking for the best situation.

There are many good aspects to this new reality and some that are not. This shift in expectations should never excuse us from coming to work every day and performing with excellence regardless of how long we stay in one place.

The important truth for all of us to realize is that we are The Leader and The C.E.O. of our own life. We have a responsibility to lead ourselves before we can effectively add value to other people.

We need to take this same skill set that has served us well at work and start applying the same disciplines at home.

What are the priorities and goals that you have for your life that are based on your core values?

Are they written down and do you evaluate your progress just like you would on any project at work?

Do you have a vision for where you want your personal life to be in one, two, and even five years down the road?

Someone has well said, you will be the same person five years from now that you are today except for two things, the books you read and the people you know. That is great advice for any new C.E.O. including you.

Categories: Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Your Role As The C.E.O. Of I Incorporated

7 Benefits Of Spending Intentional Time Alone

Posted by on August 22, 2016

The big important idea of today is that connecting with other people is vital in every area of our lives. We connect through social media with our friends in an almost never ending 24 hour cycle. Then we connect at work through highly collaborative teams that prioritize relationships. What is lost in all of this is the value of solitude. Travis Bradberry writes for Forbes:

We live in a world of constant contact—a place that’s losing sight of the importance of being alone. Offices are abandoning cubicles in favor of shared desks and wide-open common spaces, and rather than sitting at their desks working independently, school children are placed in groups. It seems that a never-ending “ping” has become our culture’s omnipresent background noise, instantly informing us of every text, tweet, and notification.

How To Maintain The Right Perspective

Posted by on August 19, 2016

Ultimately everything we do outwardly is driven by all of our inner attitudes about what is important and what is not. If our actions are not what they should be we must first change what we believe to be true before we can see bad habits broken and new good ones take their place.

I think the most important attitude you must draw from everyday is gratitude. The media is almost totally focused on all that we are losing in this election cycle. The pain is real and there are significant problems that must be solved. However, almost all of us still have plenty to eat, a nice place to sleep and friends and family that care about us. Think about what is really important today and be grateful.

The second important thing to me is hope. As we deal with the reality of lost jobs and endless bad news we must have a picture of a better day ahead. Hope fuels a positive attitude about life when the majority of people are negative. We may not be able to change the global economy or Wall Street but we can change ourselves.

Finally, we must be people who are committed. Your passion about life is what will move you beyond the pain of the present. The promises we make and keep to ourselves and the people we care about the most is the sum total of who you really are as a person. If what you say you believe is not moving you to act everyday, then you really did not believe it after all.

Remember the old saying, what you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.

Categories: Leadership Development Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How To Maintain The Right Perspective

The Power Of A Personal Vision For Your Life

Posted by on August 17, 2016

My home town for all practical purposes is Tuscumbia, Alabama. Our number one and only claim to fame is we are the birthplace of Helen Keller. On CNN web site there was a story about researchers who had uncovered this rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod.

Helen was born blind and had to overcome many difficult obstacles in her life. In spite of all the hardship she lived a very meaningful and rewarding life that impacted a lot of other people in a very positive way.

Helen was once asked, can you think of anything worse than being born blind? Her immediate answer was, to have sight and yet lack vision for your life. The overwhelming majority of people you know have physical sight but do they clearly see all the things that are really important in life.

What vision do you have for your life? Please tell me it is more than going to work, coming home and watching T.V. and then going to bed. There are so many important things to be done and hurting people that need to be touched.

Can you see them?

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Moving Beyond Paycheck

Posted by on August 12, 2016

As Christians we are to do everything as unto the Lord and not unto men. That means we have far more than a job we have a calling.

We tend to live segmented lives with separate time and devotion given to work, family, faith, friends and entertainment. What comes with this mentality is the faith part of our lives tends to be limited to what we do on Sunday and it has very little practical impact on how we live the other six days of the week.

For some of us it goes way beyond that. Our careers become the major source of emotional fulfillment in our lives and we become seduced by all the power, position and possessions that come with worldly success.

In my opinion every Christian should see themselves living in full time ministry on mission for God. Their career then becomes their platform for impacting other people and not merely project deadlines and performance reviews.

When your whole life is integrated around your faith everything you do and every relationship you have takes on eternal significance. The person you are now working for is not your boss but the One who died for you so that you might live for Him.

Changing the world one person at a time is a career worthy of God’s grace in our lives and it is way beyond any paycheck that any company can give.

How do you keep your work from just being a job?

Categories: Church Scattered Missional Living Personal Leadership Servant Leader Spiritual Growth Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Moving Beyond Paycheck

Work Life Integration Not Balance

Posted by on August 10, 2016

All of us feel like we have too many things to do and not enough time to do them. We have priorities in many different areas: our career, family, relationships, entertainment, faith and own personal life. We also fulfill many roles as employees, fathers, husbands, wives, mothers, and friends just to name a few.

Somehow we have developed this concept that true happiness and success comes when all of these areas and roles are in perfect balance. It is as if they all are to have equal percentages of our time, energy and passion.

Realistically we all know that is an impossible goal to accomplish. Our career alone demands a ever growing disproportionate amount of our time and if you have a newborn child in your house all bets are off including time to sleep.

To me an integrated life means that all of these areas as well as our different roles will constantly be changing in the amount of resources they demand. The critical factor is not to let anything that is important in your life be totally neglected to the point that you are now failing in that area because all of the other things have drained you to the point you have nothing left to give.

When you reach that point and we all do from time to time we must reprioritize our lives so that everything important gets its slot on our calendars. This will mean that something else will have to get less or be eliminated all together.

Believe it or not sometimes we need to not go to the new latest and greatest parenting conference and just stay at home and play with our children. Life can be crazy and its demands will change with each new day.

When you have the character and courage to assume the responsibility of leading your total life you will make sure that nothing major falls through the cracks. Enjoy your day!!

Categories: Church Scattered Marriage Parenting Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Work Life Integration Not Balance