Do you have your BHAGS?

Good Morning!

I promised you strategy today so let’s get after it!

What is strategy? Strategy is a plan, method or series of maneuvers for obtaining a specific goal.

I found several definitions, but here’s the one I like best:

“A specific way of organizing your resources in order to consistently get a desired result.”

Do you notice that every time we hear about success, victory or change, we also hear about consistency? It’s impossible to get the results we want in any area of life without it. The bible calls it patience. Often people think patience is sitting backing waiting on God, but if you study it out, you will discover patience is a powerful force. It paints the picture of being consistently the same, moving in a certain direction even in the face of great opposition and opportunities to quit. That is not a passive position! It’s a position of power! Consistently enables us to stay the course to get to the end result and then continue to do what’s necessary to stay there once we’ve arrived.

In order for our strategies to work, they have to be something we can implement consistently. For example you can develop a strategy for weight loss that involves working out 90 minutes a day because it will help you accomplish your goal faster. However, if you only have 30 minutes a day to commit to exercise, you can’t consistently work the plan/strategy you’ve established so MAKE SURE YOUR STRATEGY WORKS FOR YOU!

Road Map

A successful strategy should serve as a roadmap or GPS. If I follow the directions, I’ll end up at the location. Have you ever entered an address in the GPS, followed it but ended up at the wrong place? I have and it can be frustrating. Once when we were in Oklahoma City looking for a gym and the GPS mapped it out, but it didn’t know about the construction that was taking place. No matter how many times we followed those instructions, we were never going to get to gym. That’s what it’s like to have a wrong strategy.

We each have strategies for our lives even if they are there by default…meaning it’s a routine we fell into because we failed to develop a strategy. Unfortunately, those strategies get us results, but not the ones we want. If I come home every day, eat dinner and sit in front of the television until bed time, snacking, then my strategy guarantees weight gain even though that’s not what I want. So I have to be mindful of the strategy I’m establishing with my actions.

Ok now that we’ve covered that, let’s look at the Seven Components of an Effective Strategy. As always there could be more and if you think of more add them to the comments so everyone can take advantage of them.

1. Don’t just think it – INK IT! Put it in writing! In the Old Testament, God told one his prophets (Habakkuk) to “write the vision and make it plain so when those who read it could run with it.” Think of it this way…it must be important for you to write your strategy in a manner that’s easy to follow because God said do it! Is it possible that God knows something we don’t? Absolutely! One thing He knows is that writing a vision helps you stay committed and remember why you need to make certain choices.

“Reduce your plan to writing…The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” Napoleon Hill

2. Dream again – What did you want to be a child? I’m sure you had many plans. You might want to be an artist on Monday, a surgeon on Tuesday and a teacher on Wednesday. Until some (not so helpful) adult told that you couldn’t be all of that. Here’s my question? Who says? Is there something in the Bible that says you have to do the same thing all of your life? Of course not. So it’s ok to have big dreams of doing lots of great things. If you don’t finish them all here, maybe you’ll pick it up in heaven! So dream Big…

3. What’s your BHAG – It stands for “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” Have you heard of it? It’s a term coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book, “Built to Last.” They found that the one factor that was common among successful efforts that was missing from unsuccessful efforts was “the use of ambitious, even outrageous goals to motivate people and focus them toward concrete accomplishments.” Bill Gates has been quoted as saying, “if an idea at his company isn’t laughed at least three times then it’s too small.” But I think the most important reason to think BIG is that if you can accomplish it in your strength, then it didn’t come from God. I believe God gives us big dreams so that we can accomplish them together. He gives us a dream and then helps us make it come to pass. We handle the natural (with His wisdom) and He handles the supernatural. It’s those big dreams that change the world or at least your world.

4. Expect to Succeed – Decide what you want to accomplish and focus on that. Don’t spend all of your time focusing on the problems you could encounter. A good strategy will help you navigate the setbacks, but don’t let the fear of failure or the unknown stop you from starting. Trust that God doesn’t give you desires to set you up to fail. He wants you to accomplish them, but you need to believe in what He has placed in you. You must have confidence in what you can accomplish even if no one else does.

5. Bring your dreams into the present – Often the reason our faith doesn’t work is because we keep it in the future. We don’t see it as a present reality. What separates people who finish college from those who don’t? It’s not intelligence…it’s how they see themselves. The moment I started college I saw that degree as mine! It’s how I keep going to school even when there many opportunities to stop. Begin to see yourself at your ideal weight or debt free or whatever you’re dreaming about and watch your life line up.

6. Be sure your goals are YOUR goals – As I’ve told you before a large number of people hate their jobs. Could it be that many of these people selected jobs based on what others (parents, teachers, spouses and friends) expected from them? Maybe they chose what they “should” do instead of what their heart desired. If your goals aren’t really your goals even if you manage to be successful, you will never be fulfilled.

7. Make sure your goals agree with your values – If you are a Christian, those values need to be in line with what God values. But even if you aren’t a Christian, you can’t be successful violating your core values. If you violate the basic values of integrity, treating others right and hard work, it will affect you mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Goals must fit your values, standards and desires. If they don’t I becomes very difficult to remain committed to see it to the end.

Take some time to look at these steps. Ask yourself the tough questions and answer honestly. Write your vision and strategy down, and then follow it. Lastly be committed to your goal, but flexible in your approach. You may have to make modifications along the way, but that’s ok, just keep moving forward asking God to lead you!

Let's get off to a good start!

Hey everybody!


I hope you had a fantastic weekend! I hope you took some time to relax and enjoy your loved ones, but I also hope you made an investment in yourself by spending time identifying the goals that you plan to accomplish in the next year. If you didn’t…it’s not too late! Maybe you could spend your lunch hour or do it before you go to bed tonight. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m not going to stop talking to you about setting goals and planning because I believe that God has given you the potential to do amazing things and I want to see you do them! Often we can become so focused on what we have to do today that we forget the importance of planning for the future, but if we fail to plan and act we usually end up with a future that looks very different from what we dream about. So stick with the goal planning and make sure you’re taking action steps!

I know I usually only post twice a week, but I just couldn’t wait to blog again because I love hearing how these convesations are challenging you to be all God created you to be! Having dreams is important, but dreams don’t just become reality. Why? Because nothing just happens! We have to turn our dreams into visions. How do you know when a dream has become a vision? In order for dreams to become visions, it must be accompanied by a “strategy” and a “compelling why”.

Let’s look at the “compelling why” first. It's reason that means so much to you that it empowers you to make the right choices.Have you ever wanted to lose weight, needed to lose weight, but failed to take the necessary actions? The primary reason we fail to act when we know we should is that we don’t have a compelling why. Even if we have research and examples to tell us the danger of carry excess weight, until we develop a reason that is bigger than the food we have to give up, we continue down the same path. No one else can give us that, it must come from within, but once we have it, then the how becomes much easier.

Let me give you an example… Every since my last baby (Canaan) who is 3 now, I’ve said I needed to lose weight, but when it came time to make the choices that would cause me to lose weight, I failed to choose correctly. One day I realized that the choices I was making weren’t positioning me to be healthy and active for my grandchildren. That’s the day I got my compelling why. I don’t want to the grandmother who has to take my grandkids to Disney riding a motorized scooter! I want to be able to play and run with them. Once I got the why, the how because easy. Eat less and move more! That happened in April and since then I’ve lost 30lbs. I’ve still got a ways to go, but because I have a reason that is very important to me, eating right and exercising is not nearly as hard as in the past.

What about you?

Do you have a compelling reason for…

Growing spiritually?

Building healthy relationships?

Losing weight?

Getting in shape?

Becoming debt free?

Establishing a new career?

If not, spend some time thinking about the last question I asked in “What are you planning?” The question is “What do you lose if you don’t change?”

After a compelling why, you need a strategy. A strategy is simply, “specific ways of organizing your resources in order to consistently get a desired result.” Your resources include your time, your talent, God’s Word, your money, your relationship, etc. You strategy is your roadmap. It’s how you will get to your destination.

Strategy is what we will talk about on Wednesday. Until then invest in your future by doing the work to turn your dreams into visions. Some of you may just need to revisit your plans to remind yourself why you need to make certain choices. Others you actually need to get started but where ever you are today, you can move a little further with some action!

Finally, I love your comments, but PLEASE post them on the blog so others can learn from your wisdom and insight! We’re a community helping each other reach our goals and living our best life.

Until Wednesday, do something AMAZING!

What are you planning?

Hey guys,

I hope you are enjoying the blog. I also hope you are using it as a resource to help you live an amazing life because that’s what you were created to do.

There’s an old saying, “If you plan to fail, you fail to plan.” I must admit it took me a little time to accept this as a truth for my life. By nature, I’m kind of a fly by the seat of my pants girl…if you know what I mean! So the thought of actually writing down a plan seemed a little restrictive to me. But after being self reflective, I noticed I wasn’t making any substantial progress in certain areas of my life. The more I read about planning and goal setting, the more clearly I could see that my failure to plan was the reason I was stagnant in those areas.

I decided to take about a month examining every area of my life, creating a vision and developing action steps. These are some of the questions I asked:

1. What do I want my life to look like in 1 year, including health, wealth, relationship and spiritual walk?

 

2. Where am I now in these areas?

3. What will it take for me to get from where I am currently to where I want to be?

 

4. What will I gain if I accomplish these goals?

 

5. What will I lose if I don’t accomplish these goals?

These questions helped me develop a vision and a strategic plan to accomplish my goals. I then condensed my goals down into something small enough I could revisit daily.

It’s not enough to want change; we need strategic steps to get there because nothing just happens! Change doesn’t have to take forever, but it must be purposeful. It must be a conscious decision to consistently make quality choices that agree with our goals. Developing a written plan that I revisit often helps me remember why I’m not eating chocolate cake or why I’m not going to the mall with my girlfriends because without a compelling why, we will never follow through on the best laid out plans.

If there are some areas in your life where you’re ready for change, I encourage you to spend some time developing a vision. Don’t just think about it…INK it! Put it in writing!

In my blog, I going to talk about the keys to developing winning strategies, but in the meantime…

Let’s do something amazing!

Oh yea, don’t forget to share this blog with your friends AND leave your comments…I love hearing from you.

Have a great day!

How to eradicate the "Hump" day blues

Today is Wednesday and many people call it “hump” day because it’s the middle of the work week. Typically it’s viewed as the day we must climb over before we can begin to anticipate the weekend. If you view your week from this perspective, I encourage you to consider changing your thinking. Since the weekend is only two days, it’s insane to live for the weekend! I believe the reason so many people can’t wait for the weekend is because they are in jobs that they don’t like. In fact, a recent study revealed that 80% of people hate their jobs! Think about how much time you spend working or preparing to work. If you hate that job, then that obviously has to affect your attitude about life itself because the job consumes so much of your life.


The reality is that most people work for money and that’s ok. But unless I’m mistaken, there’s not a rule book that says, “If you work for money, you must hate what you do.” So if you’re a part of the 80% that hate the work they do….it’s time for a change. Unfortunately change is hard and even when we know we need to change, we still fight it. I guess that’s just a part of human nature, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t change. We just need effective strategies to help us change.

Did you know that …

Most people don’t change until the pain we associate with staying the same becomes greater than the pain we associate with changing.

As a result there are many people who dislike their job, weight or financial situation, but because the situation is manageable, they never take the necessary steps to have what they really desire. Are you one of those people? You know you should get another job, but with the economy the way it is, you’ve decided to just stick it out. Or maybe you thought hating your job was normal because everyone you know feels the same way. Whatever the case, you can change and it starts with a choice.

Take a little time to be reflective about your job. Ask yourself the following questions…

Why don’t I like my job? Does the work leave me unfulfilled? Is it an issue with co-workers or my boss? Am I simply in the wrong line of work?

What would it take to make this job better for me? (If there is nothing that would make the job better, it’s time to move on)

Am I in a field I love, but I’ve allowed my passion to be diminished? For example, do you love teaching, but you’ve allowed all the problems of education to affect your passion for helping others learn?

If I could create my ideal job, what would it look like? What skills do I need to do my ideal job? Do I have them already? If not, how can I acquire them?

Do I love my job but hate my pay? What can I do about that? Does another company pay more?

Is my job affecting my health, my mental state or my relationships?

Am I living for the weekend?

What am I willing to do to change?

All of the questions, along with the others you will think of as you do this exercise, allow you to locate yourself. During this process, you can determine whether you really need a new job or you just need an attitude adjustment.

So how exactly do you adjust your attitude?

1. Recognize the need for an attitude adjustment


2. Make a quality decision to change


3. Develop an attitude of gratitude – Be thankful to have a job. List the things you love about your job and put the list on your work space.


4. Evaluate your relationships- Your environment is always working on you and is always stronger than you. So if you take breaks and lunch with people who hate their job, it will rub off on you.


5. Become accountable to someone – Give someone permission to tell you that you are complaining…again

What if you really do need a new job? Here are some steps for you…

1. Recognize the need for an attitude adjustment – if you have developed an attitude of complaining you will carry it into the perfect job so STOP COMPLAINING and DO SOMETHING!


2. Make a quality decision to do what it takes to find a job you enjoy… even if that means going back to school or applying 1,000 times


3. Develop an attitude of gratitude – Be thankful that you currently have a job even if not ideal at a time when so many are unemployed


4. Decide what you like – Make a list of the skills you have and enjoy using as well as the skills you are willing to develop. You may need to seek the aid of a career counselor to help you pair your skills with the right job.


5. Be consistent – Don’t give up if it doesn’t happen overnight. Commit to changing and stick with it.


6. Remember that even the perfect job will have challenges.


This Wednesday doesn’t have to be just another “Hump” day. It can be the day that you choose to make the necessary adjustments to enjoy your life…even at work. After all if you have to work, you might as well enjoy it, RIGHT!



Have a great Wednesday!

Please respond.

Several people told me they didn't get their blog today. If you receive this email, please go to the blog and leave a comment. I'm working with the Blogger staff to work out the kinks. Thanks

Do something amazing!
Shun

You were not built to break

As I watched Whitney Houston's interview and performance on Oprah, I was reminded of the tremendous power God has placed within the human spirit. I thought of all the times, the media and the public predicted that it was over for Whitney. The world had given up on her, counted her as another celebrity who self destructs. Listening to her, it's apparent that even at times she too thought that her best days were behind. Whitney was in a destructive relationship which was made worse by her drug use. It's not to find someone attempting to cover the pain with drugs, but unlike many who struggle with those issues, she went through those challenges publically. Not only did she have to deal with opinions of her friends, family and casual acquaintances (most of us), she had the world watching her and critiquing as well. Now if you've ever had something crazy going on in your life (I'm sure you have) you know it can be difficult enough when just those who care about you know about it. Can you imagine having the press and people who don't even know you adding commentary? That might make each of us look for some form of escape even if not drugs. I think food would be my drug.


In the midst of the all craziness, Whitney refused to stop fighting. At first she fought for her marriage, but finally she fought for herself and her daughter. She wanted to leave, but she didn't think she had the strength to walk away. So she cried out to God, asking Him for just enough courage to leave. She found the strength and walked away, but the strength didn't come from outside forces. The virtue Whitney needed to change her life was there all the time, placed in her by a loving Creator who knew that with life comes challenges and she would need the courage and power to overcome. That strength is not reserved for Whitney alone. It's in resides in of us waiting to be activated by our choice to change, our refusal to continue to tolerate where we currently are.

Many of us tend to look outside for helping. We hope for the posse to ride in just before the big shoot out and rescue us. We are often disappointed when no rescue team arrives. We tend to feel abandoned or rejected by God. Like Whitney, we must learn that the emanicpation comes from within. It comes from a realization that we were created for more and that we don't deserve to be stuck in a life that destroys the core of who we are. Whitney's song, "I didn't know my strength" should serve as an anthem and a wakeup call to every one of us who feel to powerless or too weak to change our situation. The lyrics remind us that that we were not built to break and that we have the power to change even when we think we can't. I LOVE THIS SONG!

My favorite line is "I was not built to break, no, no, I got to know my own strength."

Not one of us was built to break under the pressures of life. We engineered to not only survive under pressure, but emerge stronger and more confident in our God and who we are in Him. But often we forget this is the heat of the battle and we allow our circumstances to deceive is into believing that we are victims. The dictionary defines a victim as "a person who is deceived or cheated, as by his or her own emotions or ignorance..."

We only become victims when we allow our own emotions or ignorance to deceive of us of the reality of who we really are. Who are we? "...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Romans 8:37. We are conquerors, victors, champions and overcomers! That's who you were designed to be! A conqueror is a person who gains victory over "something" through personal effort...vigorous action.

So in other words...Nothing just happens. Even though you were create to overcome the challenges of life and that is God's will for your life, unless you believe it and act on it, the reality of it will elude you. Consider Whitney as much as she wanted to be free from that dark place in her life, nothing happened until she begin to move in her own strength by making a choice to change. When Whitney did what she could do for herself, God did what she couldn't do. The same is true for each of us. God will speak to us. He will send others to encourage and remind us who really are, but ultimately we have to choose to believe in the power in us to make a change. Once we begin to act, His supernatural ability will kick in where our natural ability is not enough to cause us to win.

I don't know where you are in your life right now. Maybe like Whitney you need to leave a dysfunctional relationship or break the addiction of drugs. Maybe you need to go back to school, start a business or lose a little weight. Maybe you want to act, model or become the next Oprah. Whatever your dream is...you can do it. It doesn't matter where you are today, how grim the situation seems, I want to encourage you to trust God and have confidence in who you are. You are a woman designed and engineered for victory. Like Whitney, it's time for you to know that you are not built to break!


Let's do something amazing!

Shun


P.S. I've provided a link to Whitney's website. I encourage you to listen to "I don't know my own strength." I'm certain it will encourage you as it did me! http://www.whitneyhouston.com/us/music/i-look-you

Are you a mean Christian?

I spend a lot of time talking to people who haven't given their lives to Christ or people who have walked away from the church. In most of those cases, those people have rejected Christ not because they have an issue with Christ himself, but because they have an issue with those represent him. Do you know why that is? Cause church folks can be so mean!




For example if someone "from the world" comes to church why would we talk about what they wear? Of course they wear party clothes that's the life they live! If you care, then buy them something else. Otherwise, be quiet and let the Holy Spirit do His job which is change people from inside out.



God is love. He loves people even before they accept Him...that's why He sent Jesus. He knows that we aren't perfect, nor does He expect perfection from us. At least not perfection in the sense that we never make a mistake or sin. IF it was that easy, there would not have been a need for Jesus to die on the Cross...we could have just choosen perfection. Now that's not a license to do whatever I like b/c like the Apostel Paul said we should be "constrained by the love of God."



For the record...love doesn't go around pointing out people's faults...looking for every opportunity to tell them how much they've sinned. Love doesn't keep record of wrongs. Love believes the best about people. Love isn't always talking about hell. Speaking of which...I believe there is a heaven and a hell, but when I read about how Jesus and the disciples lead people into the kingdom, they never mentioned hell. So it's interesting to me that most calls to salvation inside and outside the church talk about hell.



When Jesus met the woman at the well, he didn't say, "Look you're a whore and if you don't change you're going to hell." Why not? He knew that if He could show her the love of God, she would come to him and HE could deliver her from the bondage of whoredom." Same for calling in the disciples...he doesn't tell them about hell if they don't follow him...so why in the world do Christians keep trying to scare people out of hell into the kingdom?



Am I the only one who has the experience of coming to Jesus because I'm scared to death of going to hell? Over time the fear leaves and the feelings that I was never going to be able to stop sinning so I was going to hell anyway caused me to just walk away from church. It wasn't until I learned the love of God and that he wasn't sitting in the sky with a big button waiting to sin me to hell that I was able to continue walking with him.



Between church people talking about hell and being mean as, well you know what fits there, why would anyone want to be a Christian? Even as a pastor, I can honestly tell you that most of the stuff I hear people say about the kingdom doesn't make me want to join. And then when you combine that with a group of people who say they know Jesus, but spend all their time pointing out your faults....is it any wonder people are rejecting Christ?



So what can we do? We can remember that people who are sinners SIN and even people who love God still sin until they are renewed in their minds so we ask God to show us people as HE SEES THEM not as they are. We can remember that no one is perfect and we all have shortcomings and we can treat people the way we want to be treated when and if we blow it. We can stop gossiping about the mistakes people make while pretending we are just telling to pray about it. We can take a new believer or a struggling believer under our wing and spend time "modeling" what love, holiness and integrity look like. We can be compassionate and empathetic remembering that whatever we've been delivered from...is because of grace...because of love.



My challenge to every believer is that we put judgment down and pick up love and grace. When we have to point out someone's sin, we do it from a place of true love and concern and a desire to see them be free...not a reminder that hell waits on the edges if they don't change. That we remember that NO ONE is perfect and that we all have things we are working on, but it doesn't mean we don't love God...we're just growing up in Christ. When we have an opportunity to lead people to Christ, we model Jesus lead them into a kingdom of love....

Create the Life you want

It seems as though I'm always thinking about thinking ... mainly because I understand that my thinking controls every area of my life. I know from past experiences that trying to change areas of my life without changing my thinking only produces a temporary change. Before long I revert back to my previous behavior. Why is this? Because for the most part our thinking is set on auto pilot. We just cruise along at the same altitude until we hit a little turbulence that cause us to adjust, but just like the auto pilot, once we have navigated the storm we return to our programed altitude. Often our desire to change comes from a crisis. For example, we when we get our paycheck and it's not enough to pay our bills, we talk about getting another job and promise to do something different, but once we pass through the storm we settle back into auto pilot. We do the same with our health, our relationships and dreams. We know we want more, we know God has created us for more, but yet we stay in the comfort of auto pilot. Why? Because even though we want change, we haven't done the work to produce change where it matters most...in our thinking. As a result, we continue to repeat the same cycle expecting a different outcome, even though we know it's insanity. We offer up so many excuses as to why we don't change, but in reality all those excuses cover up the real thing holding us back ... fear!

"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God: Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Nelson Mandela receives the credit for saying this, but he was actually quoting Mariam Williamson. In the end it doesn't really matter who said it first, it's true.

Fear causes us to accept just existing rather than living which is so far beneath the abundant life God created for us. Fear causes us to refuse to allow the God given dreams in us to become the reality we live! Fear causes us to be more comfortable with things that we should never tolerate. Fear controls our thinkink causing us to place and accept limitations as normal living. We get so focused on how hard it is to return to school that we can't even envision oursleves with the degree in hand. Our fear keeps us from seeing that millions of others have overcome the same issue...not because they are favored or more blessed, but because they eradicated the fear by dealing with their thinking. They disproved the lies established by fear by taking consistent counter actions to their fears.If others have overcome fear to achieve their goals, then I can...you can. But the first step is deal with our thinking.

Here are four things we must do to change our thinking so that we can live abundantly

1) Locate ourselves - How do we think? Spend time thinking about our thinking. Why did I respond that way? Am I limited myself? Why do I procastinate?

2) Make a Commit to Change - We must make a quality decision that enough is enough and that we are willing to do the work necessary to produce the change we desire.

3) Surround ourselves with successful others - Our environment is always working on us so the best thing we can do is surround ourselves with others who are also committed to living abundantly

4) Develop successful systems - We need plans to make our dreams come true. Nothing just happens. If the goal is weight loss, then let's plan our meals and schedule our workout time...it won't happen if we don't. If we're going to start a business, carve out time to work on the business plan and teach others in your life to respect that time. If the goal is to grow spiritually, then make bible reading and church attendance a priority and don't read your bible when you're sleepy...you know you are going to fall asleep.

5) Do all you can and trust God to do what you can't. God wants you to succeed way more than you do. He's given you everything you need to be successful, however, He needs you to do your part. When you have done the natural...you can expect the supernatural.Each of us is here on purpose for a purpose. Our lives are more than being consumed with uninspiring activities and reality tv. Let's be the best we can be, make a difference in our lives, those we love and the world!