Tag: change (Page 2 of 4)

Mindset

May 17, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There has been a lot of ink spilled in books and articles on the idea of changing your mindset. Some call it self help. Others call it mind over matter. Some think it’s the best advice ever while others think it’s all a bunch of hocus pocus superstition. But if you really take time to think about it, what you think about and how you think about it affects how you approach something.

There’s a quote attributed to Henry Ford that says whether you believe you can or you can’t, either way you’re right.

The idea here is that of a self promoting or defeating mindset. Yeah I know, sounds kind of wizardish at first. It sounds like saying if we think about something one way then it’s sure to happen that way? Kind of but not really.

Think about the last time you didn’t feel well. There are two ways to react when you’re not feeling 100%. No I’m not talking about death bed feeling bad. I’m referring to the crummy, I have a cold and don’t want to do anything kind of feeling. If you’ve ever had one of those feverish, tired, achy kind of moments, did you realize that the more you just laid around and thought about feeling crummy the worse you actually felt? Then when you had something to distract you and take your mind off of the crummy feeling, you almost felt normal for a moment? Yep that’s what Ford was getting at I think.

There is a really powerful thing that happens in our brain. When we don’t think we can do something and when that’s the focus of our attention, then we pretty much set ourselves up for failure.

I love to workout. I like to throw heavy weight around. So I’m not a big dude by any stretch and I’m not a powerlifter or anything like that. But once upon a time I maxed out my benchpress at 350lbs. And I remember the first time I tried it. I got all settled and grabbed the barbell then told myself there is no way you’re going to lift this. It is way too heavy. You weigh less than half this amount.

Guess what…I didn’t lift it. It was too heavy. The moral here is that we can convince ourselves that something is impossible or too much or too hard or whatever the case may be.

So what’s holding you back? What are you wanting to do that you just can’t accomplish? What is it that you have been dreading? If we follow the mindset shift analogy, then we can approach things a bit differently and actually make a real effort to get the job done. Be honest with yourself but don’t sell yourself short. Change your mindset and watch as the possibilities open up!

Change The World

November 2, 2022 / / 0 Comments

That sounds like a huge task doesn’t it? I mean there’s no way we can possibly change the world. And if you’re thinking this way then you’re pretty much right. There’s no way that one person can change the entire course of life for everyone in their lifetime. I know that I can’t do it that’s for sure! But what if we tried this from a different angle?

I remember going with my mom to get her hair done when I was growing up. We had a friend who ran her own shop and mom would take me whenever she went. I would generally sit around and read the joke book she had. And yes she only had one. And yes I read the same jokes over and over every time I was there.

One of these jokes kind of speaks to this matter. It’s the old how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I know it’s lame. I get it! But think about it. If you try to eat an elephant, you’ll be so overwhelmed that you’ll quickly realize this is not possible to do. But if you take your time and over a long period of time slowly tackle the big project then it is possible. Small disclaimer – no elephants were harmed in the making of this blog post. So you animal rights activists out there it was just an illustration. Now back to our regularly scheduled post.

Take that imagery of slowly tackling a project over a long period of time and apply that to changing the world. It’s actually not as impossible as one might think. I know the world is far bigger than an elephant. And I know impacting every human on the planet still is an impossible task for a single person, but we’re still looking too big. Try this idea on for size.

A long time ago I heard someone say do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. I can’t remember where I was when I heard it but I know it’s not my phrase. The concept is pretty cool. I mean think about it. If I want to make the world a better place for all of humanity, that’s an impossible task. But I can make a difference impacting one person’s life for the better!

If we would just change our focus from the whole world to the ones in front of us daily, we might realize that by changing the world for one person we might actually be making a much larger difference. If you can positively impact one person’s life, and that person is changed by the difference you made to the point that they change someone else’s life then you’ve created a small wave. Then if you and the other person do the same for yet another, this small wave can turn into a tidal wave that can have implications that could drastically change the entire world.

So maybe you can’t bring about world peace or economic stability across the globe or anything like that. But you can bring peace into one person’s life. You might be able to help one person this Christmas be able to celebrate with their family. You might be able to do something for someone that will change the entire trajectory of their life and have the potential to impact more than just that one person.

Go ahead and try it. Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Don’t try to change everything for everyone in the world. But what about changing the world for one person and see where that gets you.

Is it time for a facelift?

August 5, 2022 / / 0 Comments

There are things in our lives that we do over and over without much thought. They become so routine that they end up losing meaning over time. This happens in just about every area of life and every industry. The benefit of larger industries is that they typically will staff people to keep them forward thinking, but not always.

One of my many jobs was in the car sales world. That is an industry that has needed a facelift for along time in how business was done. When I entered the sales floor area, the strategy was sell a car. The approach was by any means necessary – ok within some realm of reason. Through my years in that world, we underwent an intention facelift to how we did what we did. Our what and why did not change, but our how needed to change with the times because we quickly realized the methods no longer were effective nor efficient to accomplish our purpose.

Another area that contains practices that need a bit of a facelift are found in the church. Now I’m not getting into a war on worship or bible version or preaching style but something hopefully a lot less controversial. I’m talking about small groups. I have a love-hate relationship with these little monsters.

Small groups are wonderful additions to the life of a church to be certain! But there is always a danger that they become stagnant, slow the mission, and even cause division.

A typical small group

The most typical way a small group happens in most churches today is that a group of people who believe the same thing gather together to have a bible study. They’ll ask some opening questions about life. But essentially it’s time to dive into the bible. They’ll close with a prayer and head home. Most of the small group is generally lead by one person, who normally is the who plays the role of host. But when the group heads home, there isn’t much left to do until they gather again in a week or potentially two.

An alternative to the normal

I’ve been told that I do things a little different and to me that’s just fine. The how isn’t (nor has it ever been) set in stone to my knowledge. The what and the why are significantly more rigid but the how in my understanding should be more flexible.

I have taken the approach with small groups that they can’t be just a small version of what we do on Sunday morning. I mean one person talks. The group listens. We sing. Pray. Then everyone goes home to consider what this means. Then come back next week. It can’t be a wash, rinse, and repeat scenario!

I believe there’s a new direction small groups need to take in our shifting cultural landscape. The approach is to give these groups a purpose beyond themselves. I challenge small groups to have four key components: Community, Prayer, Biblical Equipping, Mission. Each of these four keys is critical to keep the group from being a Jesus social club. And if you’ve never been in a small group that has these four elements, I’m just going to say you’re missing out.

Community isn’t really all that earth shattering. We were created to be in community. God was first disappointed that Adam was alone so he created a community for him. We are designed to live in community with one another. The way we express community in our small group is to eat a meal together. Each meal is designed to let all participants bring something to share. The point isn’t the food really. It’s the community that is established over the meal. We let our defenses down when we eat together. We ask questions and catch up on life. It’s a wonderful way to love our neighbors as ourselves as well, because as we share life together we learn how we can serve one another.

Prayer isn’t really just the whole before a meal and for the sick people kind of prayer. It’s a shared experience of worship. We share the praying responsibility. Each person adding to the prayer as they see fit. Prayer is a form of worship. This is the focus of this time of prayer to focus our lives around the provision and providence of God.

Biblical Equipping is like Bible study on steroids. It’s not just a quick this is what the Bible says kind of thing. It’s looking at a section of the bible and inviting everyone to be part of the discussion. What did you hear? What stands out at you? Where else have you heard this same things in the Bible? If we applied this what would be different? There are a ton of questions we can ask of any Bible section to let the text equip us for works of service and ministry. Which if you’re keeping score here is the task of the church! There is always an application, rubber meets the road kind of approach in the Biblical equipping portion.

Mission is where we rarely get in our typical small groups, but it is absolutely essential! Serve somewhere together. It’s super easy. We’ve cleaned up a neighborhood, prayer walked, folded bulletins at church, set up for an event, provided food to police and fire, adopted a family at Christmas time. The sky is the limit here. The idea is simple. Do something with the faith you claim to have in your Biblical Equipping portion.

The key to all of this is just because it worked 40 years ago doesn’t mean it will work today. Churches talk about reaching new people, well what a better way than through an intentional time of equipping one another for works of service using the Bible!

Just like the car dealership didn’t change its focus when we changed our sale process, so also the church doesn’t change its focus when we shift our how to a new approach. Still selling cars just in a different way. Still growing in Christ together just using a different approach.

Compounding Effort?

August 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

We’ve all at least heard of compounding interest. Maybe you don’t know what it means or how it works, but I’m sure you’ve heard of the concept. I’m not going to get into all the details on how compounding interest affects you, but the idea is that the interest on one day compounds or adds to the interest the next and so on. You financial people give me a little break here. That’s the best one liner description I could come up with!

So what about effort and what does compounding interest have to do with anything other than money?

Great! I’m so glad you asked! If you take the basics of compounding interest and apply that to other areas of life you’ll see that we can do a lot of great things if we just let all of the effort and ability we have work together. Let me explain using a little churchy terminology.

In the church world we have three T’s we talk about from time to time. They are time, talents, and treasures. Normally we will make it a point to talk about our time and how we use it. Then our talents or abilities and how we use those. And finally our treasures and how we spend, invest and give those away. But how often do we look at them on a compounding scale?

Think about it for a second. When we take our time and use it for one purpose. Then our talents for a different purpose. And finally our treasure to fund or support a similar yet different purpose, how much good can we actually do? It’s like helping 3 different groups a little when we could make a bigger impact if we compounded our effort.

Imagine instead seeing a specific ministry of the local church and diving into that ministry fully. I mean using your time, talent and treasures all in the same place. Not only do you give of your dollars to support that ministry, but you also volunteer serving others through that very same ministry. And to add to it, you have a unique (or not so unique but still needed) skill that you use in your volunteering to accomplish something in that very same ministry.

Essentially you just more than tripled your gift to that ministry! It’s like the difference between giving $50 to 3 organizations or giving $150 to one. Your gift makes a much larger impact when you compound it.

So whether you’re a church kind of person or not, consider how you can compound your effect. Think where you’re spending your time, ability and money. Are they all lined up in the same direction? How can you have a bigger impact by realigning your priorities?

In short layering our giving with our volunteering and the use of our skills can have an exponentially larger impact!

It’s Time To Be Bold!

May 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments
ready, set . . . audacious. | essence7 wellness, LLC

There’s a phrase that is quoted in a variety of circles that says go big or go home. I personally like that statement…a lot! It’s a phrase that reminds us that sometimes we need to be willing to take a bold step before we can see any forward progress. There is a time to be passive and lay back a bit, but there’s also a time when we need to take risks and do the unthinkable, bold things in life.

I know what some of you are thinking, but what if I mess up or fail? But my reply would be, what if you don’t!?

So often in life we have the chance to make big, bold, audacious moves but we don’t for fear of what others will think of us or fear that we’ll mess up. But sometimes we have to just step out and do the crazy things in life.

I read a book recently titled Love Does, by author Bob Goff. The premise of the book is simple actually. Basically he says in a much more eloquent way that talk is cheap and we need to back up our caring for one another with actions not just words.

One of the stories he shares about how love often leads us to do big, crazy and off the wall things was about a young man who wanted to ask his girlfriend to marry him. The long story made short is that this young man approached Goff and asked to use his patio, boat, kitchen and backyard all in an effort to wow his soon to be fiancee. That’s bold, big, and audacious!

We don’t have to go out of our way to use someone else’s property to ask someone out on a date but there are ways that we can step out and be a little audacious ourselves.

Living with an audacious love for the people around us means we put their needs before our wants.

Notice what I said there. Their needs before our wants. This doesn’t mean we go without food or water or the necessities in life. It just means if you know someone else is in need, that you can do without the new car if it means you can help someone in need. You can exchange the $5 coffee for a bag of grounds and make your own.

Along these same lines, we could really use to think a little less of ourselves. If you’re going through life hoping to be recognized by everyone, then you could probably use to be knocked down a tad. An audacious and bold life isn’t one that is found on neon signs but in simple acts of service.

Finally, doing something to make someone else’s life easier even if it makes yours a little harder is living this big, bold, audacious kind of way.

In all these things you need to know your boundaries and limits. Don’t over extend yourself. Don’t let yourself be used. But genuinely put someone else’s needs before your wants and do it with joy. You won’t regret it!

A Fork In The Road

March 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I’m not sure where the imagery actually came from. I don’t know who thought of likening a point in life where you have two compelling roads a fork in a road. It just gives me the image of a literal fork in a literal road. I feel like a kid watching the road runner cartoons when I think of this. The road is always colorful and windy and the fork is a huge metal fork that has plunged deep into the road obstructing the traffic flow.

How do you handle hard decisions?

In life we all have decisions. Actually we make decisions on the daily. What clothes do I wear? Which way do I go to get to work today? Freeway or back roads? I’m a backroads all the way kind of guy! Poptart or oatmeal for breakfast? Shower at night or in the morning? Hair up or hair down for those of you with enough hard to have to decide that one. The list goes on forever! Those are seemingly no brainer decisions. We make those decisions often without much thought at all.

But what about big choices? Life altering choices?

Take for instance, you have a job you enjoy. You love the work you do and the people with whom you work. You feel like this is a good fit. You’ve learned the ins and the outs of the position and things are getting done! Higher than average profit margins are being experienced. The business is growing in ways you couldn’t even imagine. But then out of nowhere you get word that another company is seeking your skills, talents and abilities. What do you do?

This is a pretty common thing these days. As a matter of fact, a friend just went through this same situation no too long ago. Both positions are good options. Both are in your wheelhouse. Both are places where you can make an impact. Both are jobs you can do well. Both are things you can see yourself doing. So…what do you do?

I’ll be honest, I am probably one the last people to give any advice on discernment. I typically have two approaches to big decisions, and they don’t go together at all. Sometimes when I have a decision to make I just jump right in. I make a move that feels most right and don’t often look back. I move into something with the confidence that either I made the right decision or that God will fix what I messed up. The other method is to second guess every step in the process. I play the “what if” game and wonder if God is in the current place or if God is in the new place.

So how do you decide? How do you know which way to go? How do you decide if you’re supposed to stay or if you’re supposed to go?

First of all pray. I know that sounds a tad cliche and we all say we’re going to pray but I mean really pray. You don’t have to get down on your hands and knees and close your eyes to pray either. You can pray while you’re at the coffee shop. You can pray at Home Depot while you’re walking around shopping. You can pray while you’re driving to or from work. You can pray while you’re pumping gas, and not just because prices are so high either! The point is to pray that God would guide your path and how you which way to go.

Second talk to people who you respect. Ask people their opinion. Ask them to share their honest feedback with you. But if you ask, you can’t disagree with them. You don’t have to take their advice but you can’t openly disagree with them. Ask them what they see in the situation. Ask them what they think you should do. Ask them to pray for you as well.

Included in this is talking to your family. Talk to your spouse, children, parents, siblings whoever is in your close inner circle – you need to talk to those people. God put them there for a reason, so use that relationship to help guide you.

And to make this simple, we’ll end with step three. Finally, just move. Realize that you can’t mess up God’s plan. You’re just not that good. You’re not strong enough, smart enough, powerful enough to be able to mess up what God has planned for you. Make your move with confidence and watch how God makes provision for you as you move. This move doesn’t have to be the day you get the job offer. It won’t happen right away, but eventually you have to move. Sooner rather than later you’ll have to move for your own sanity and others! And the benefits of the move won’t present themselves right away. Sometimes those blessings are months, even years in the future. But God will be in the change because you didn’t blindside him with your decision.

So there’s a fork in your road, what are you going to do with it?

A Tarnished Record

October 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Imagine for a second a beautiful bride slowly progressing down the aisle to meet her groom. Her hair is perfectly done up with curls that swirl down her head like waves rolling on the ocean coast. Her makeup is done to perfection. The bouquet is gently held in her hands. But the dress, it’s something to behold. It’s a crisp and clean white. Long to the ground. It’s cut straight to fit her well but modestly designed at the same time. The train of the dress glides across the floor as she makes her way to her groom.

Then out of no where in a sudden movement, a 4 year old boy darts from his chair to give the bride a hug. He reaches out and grabs her dress before anyone can catch him. This would be a cute and loving moment if he hadn’t been eating a cheese coated snack that left his hands more orange than a pumpkin. Those hands grabbed the front of the bride’s dress transforming the perfectly fitted, white wedding gown into a canvas for this little guys finger painting.

Could you imagine! Now that scenario never happened, at least not that I’m aware. But imagine the horror on the bride’s face or the embarrassment the child’s mother would feel. Consider how terrifyingly awful that moment would be for all involved.

And as awful as that moment is, we live in a very similar situation nearly every day. As Christians, we are called to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. We’re called to a high standard. We are commanded to be perfect, just like Jesus was perfect. Just like that pretty white dress was perfect. But just like that imaginary story, we’ve trashed the perfection God gave us. He doesn’t lower the bar or excuse our behavior. He doesn’t say everything is ok. He doesn’t say Well, they’re just sinners so I shouldn’t expect anything more than this. No, God demands perfect.

This week we look at the bible word – sin. It’s a word that describes anything that misses the benchmark of perfect. It’s the word that shows what happens when we put our dirty, grimy, selfish finger prints all over the perfect image in which God created us.

Look, I get it, no one likes to be shown they are wrong. No one likes to admit they are wrong, to themselves much less to other people. As we consider the stains we’ve made on life, it’s important to admit our fallenness. It’s critical to lay our cards out on the table of life and be honest when our actions don’t match our confession.

And when we do, be ready for a truly amazing change to occur. Be ready for your life to completely change trajectory, because when we admit our sins we gain admission to God’s freedom. We’ll look more at the action of admitting or confessing our flaws next week but for now revel in the glory of forgiveness gained by Jesus on your behalf.

Change

October 5, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Change ahead sign

So we all like to have options. We like to be able to chart our own course and pave our own way as the saying goes. We love to be able to look to the life we’ve mounted for ourselves and decide what we want to do with the life we have to live.

We live in a time in which we like to create options when options aren’t necessary. I mean seriously, do you really need to recreate the wheel when the wheel is working just fine? I was talking to someone the other day about a change he was trying to make in his routine. I was struck by the fact that this individual didn’t even know why he was making the change. Change for change sake is not really a good idea.

The problem with changing things up when you don’t really have a good reason to change them is that change causes turmoil, brokenness and conflict. By nature we don’t like change, so bringing change to a situation that is charged with uncertainty will only make the uncertainty greater. It’s the old adage if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. How true is that statement?

Think about it, you don’t change the tire in your car just because you feel like it. You wait until the tread is worn thing or it goes flat. Change for change sake just makes life harder than it has to be.

But there is a time when change is needed. When the system isn’t working. When harm is being inflicted. When someone, including yourself, is in danger. When a better, more productive method is present. These are some of the times when change is not only warranted but even encouraged.

When it comes time to bring change into your life, make sure to go slowly. All too often when it comes to change, we either refuse to change and stay in a harmful situation, throw the baby out with the bathwater so to speak, or change something that isn’t the real problem.

Before you make decisions on what needs to change and what doesn’t remember the car analogy. You have to evaluate the real problem, assess the size of the problem, then fix the problem (keep in mind you may need to seek help to fix some problems).

Evaluate the problem.

If your car has one of those cool indicator lights on the dashboard, it might tell you that you need an oil change. When that little dummy light turns on, it’s saying hey dummy change oil. Sometimes we rush into our troubles and address the wrong problem. We feel like something isn’t right or see something that is just a little off so we run away from everything we know to be true. That’s like seeing a light turn on in the dashboard and thinking our car is going to blow so you trade it in for a new one when all it needed was an oil change. Don’t overreact to the dummy lights in your life. If you slow down you’ll see more clearly the problem they are indicating.

Assess the size of the problem

When we realize what the problem is then we can determine who can address the problem. Some problems we can easily manage, others we can’t. When we assess the size of the problem we honestly, truthfully seek to find the best possible outcome for the problem at hand. It is often helpful in this stage to invite someone you trust to come alongside you to ask you some questions to help clarify what you’re seeing. In the car situation above, this is looking at the owner’s manual to see what the little light means, calling a friend who’s a mechanic, or even taking it somewhere to have one of those cool code readers attached to help diagnose the problem. We don’t need to go changing oil in a car that has low tire pressure. Seeing the size of the problem will help you better understand how and who can fix it.

Fix the problem

When you’ve effectively evaluated the situation, determined the problem and its size and know who can fix it. You need to make the appointment or set the time aside in your schedule and just get the job done. I’ve seen many people, read the indicator light correctly, realize who can fix the problem, but then they don’t do anything with the problem. They let it just sit there and fester and grow and get out of hand. The longer the problem sits without being taken care of the bigger it gets and likely the more damage is done. Remember the car scenario…know what happens when you don’t change the oil as you’re supposed to? Maybe nothing today or tomorrow but if you go long enough you can tear apart an engine. The same is true of your problems. If we don’t fix the right problem, we’ll end up with a lot of expense and be no better off. Likewise if we know the problem and do nothing we’ll be living in the carnage of our laziness.

So change sucks sometimes but when we’re honest, methodical, and intentional about the situation we’ll end up with a well oiled machine called life that we can drive. (Yeah I know bad pun but I’m a dad so what can you expect.)

There you have it. Change is hard but the right change at the right time by the right person is essential.

Decision Fatigue

August 24, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I’ve noticed a trend lately in leadership circles in which I run. Leaders have been making so many decisions at such a rapid pace, that decision fatigue is sinking in and many leaders have simply stopped making decisions. They’ve settled for sitting in the I’m thinking about it phase. They’re stuck in the information gathering and mentally processing of data stages. 

While these are important to be sure, because we never want to go off half cracked and make a decision without thoroughly thinking it through; there comes a time when we have to just make a move and trust our instincts. Now if you’re a person of faith, we call that moving forward in faith. But I don’t want to assume everyone who reads this is a person of faith. So think of it as going with your gut. 

My sixth grade teacher always told us when we were taking tests that our first instinct on an test question was 80% of the time going to be the right answer. If this is right, then moving forward with the gut decision is something that will more often than not benefit us and those we lead. 

But why do we not make decisions? Why do we sit in the thinking phase for so long? Below are three key reasons why we fail to make decisions, and some suggestions for how to move through this phase more efficiently. 

Fear Of Making The Wrong Choice

This is probably the most common issue that I see leaders facing. Deciding not to move forward because we’re afraid it’s the wrong decision only cripples all forward movement. When we stop moving forward or pivoting through challenging times, we lose momentum. It’s actually a matter of simple physics. An object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest. Now there are some external circumstances that play into this, but once we let our movement stop it’s far more challenging to get things moving again. 

Think about a car when it stalls. If you’ve ever run out of gas while driving and needed to push your car to the closest parking lot, you know how hard it can be to get the car moving initially. But once you get those wheels turning the force needed to keep it moving is significantly less labor intensive. 

I’ll be totally honest. I hate to fail. I hate making wrong decisions, but I hate even more being in a state of constant inertia. Sitting around not moving causes so much anxiety and it is exhausting. Friends, it is far easier to change directions or make corrections to your course if you’re moving. Even if you make a mistake. Even if the direction you choose turns out not to be what you thought, it’s far easier to make corrective action as long as you never stopped moving. 

If you’re stuck in this mindset, take a moment to consider that one small step you can make. Find someone to hold you accountable to making the move. Check in regularly with your team to ensure the desired shift is actually yielding the change you’re hoping it will make. But most of all, just move. Small steps are better than no steps. 

A Change Isn’t Really Needed

Some would say that I like change, but they really couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t like change at all. It’s uncomfortable and painful to say the very least. But when a change is needed it’s absolutely necessary to move. The challenge however is when we wrestle with a total change when a mere heart shift will work. 

More often than not, we lose steam and think a revamp of a whole system is needed when all we really need to do is turn the dial a little bit. Not all changes entail throwing out whole systems and starting from scratch. As a matter of fact the change we need to make might be simply moving personnel to different roles or changing the layout of our communication structures. Sometimes flipping two steps in a process will yield tremendous results in shorting the gap between the desired outcome and the actual outcome. 

When you’re approaching change and the change looks daunting, carefully evaluate with the team if the whole change is necessary? Ask if there are smaller changes that can be made to incrementally get you to the place you’re hoping to arrive. Be flexible with your change. You never know what’s around the corner until you get there. 

We’re Just Plain Lazy

The hardest one of these to type is that of the lazy leader. Lazy leaders are uncaring. They have the skills to lead an organization into a great direction, but instead of doing the hard thing and making decisions and stepping forward in action…they stall. They don’t move. They clam up. They sit back and wait for the perfect scenario in which they might move forward. 

Lazy leaders aren’t leaders. They’re leeches. They suck the life out of an organization. If you’re a leader and you’re not moving forward, making decisions, leading through the challenges, then perhaps your presence is actually detracting from the life of the organization instead of just passively watching things unfold. 

No action is often far worse than making the wrong action. Leaders it’s time to rise up and lead again. It’s time to research your options and move. Too many good leaders settle for good when great is attainable. Lead. Step forward. Pivot. Keep your eyes open and you just might move into a future you couldn’t even have predicted for yourself. 

Make Your Move Already!

August 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I have a confession to make. I’m not a patient person. I am not one who likes to waffle on actions. I don’t take a super long time to navigate the options. Now I don’t usually go around half cracked making stupid mistakes continuously either! But there is a time when we just need to make our move.

Maybe it’s because of how I was raised? Maybe it’s because I’m a type-A personality. Maybe it’s because I’m just an insensitive jerk? I don’t really know why but I really believe that not doing anything is often far worse than doing something and failing. We are so afraid of making a wrong decision that we waffle for so long. My dad was always a direct kind of guy, and he might not like it when I share this so sorry in advance Dad if you’re reading this. We used to have a saying in our house when it came to making decisions that’s a tad crass so forgive me. Either crap or get off the pot. You just have to make a move. And I think there is really something here.

I mean seriously what good does it do anyone to just sit around on the toilet! None! Absolutely none. The seat isn’t comfortable. The atmosphere isn’t all that great. The only benefit is if you’re a parent of small children, that might be the only place you can go to escape for a few minutes!

Ok seriously though, discernment isn’t easy for many people and I totally understand that. But to be fair the longer you sit around waiting to make a decision, the more you’re negatively impacting everyone in your life! You’re stressed because you have a decision to make. Those around you are tired of you being on edge because you have a decision to make. Your friends are probably catching either the complaints about the situation, the constant drone of fear and anxiety in your conversations. People who care about you and who are willing to step in to lend a hand through the time of challenge are growing weary as they wait for you to essentially get off the pot!

Failing is not fun. Making a mistake is not something anyone wants to do, but in our mistakes we find our greatest learning moments. If you’re not willing to make your move and just do something, then you’ll end up growing so confused and stagnant and isolate yourself from the very people who are there to help you and support you.

If you’re a leader and you’re struggling with making a big move, stop focusing on the big move. Just take one step. Then look for the next place you’re going to put your foot. Then the next and the next. The longer we sit there and wait for the perfect option to be dropped out of the heavens, the greater the problem becomes and the more complicated any solution becomes.

Just move. Do something. Put one foot in front of the other and before long you will be shocked how far you’ve gone. Think about weight loss. You aren’t going to start a diet and lost 40lbs overnight. You’re going to make incremental changes.

So the decision looming in front of you…move! Anywhere! Just do something. Failure is only a problem if it stops you and you don’t learn anything from it. So for crying out loud please just do something. Commit to it and move toward it!

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