My Three Words for 2012 – Basics, Focus, Strength

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Several years ago I ran across an article that spoke about the end of the year and the setting of “new year resolutions.” The author of the article was someone who I have followed every since (Chris Brogan). Chris’ blog is a business oriented blog, but his idea about the new year is to find three words that best describe your intentions in the new year and then focus some portion of everyday to those three areas.

I like that much better than some resolution that is going to be set by the wayside within just a few weeks of beginning (as has always been my habit). This year my three words are: Basics, Focus, and Strength. My plan is to accomplish something everyday that will move me forward in those areas. My end will be a life better lived for directing my attention to these three words. Thanks again to @ChrisBrogan! (His twitter handle.)

What does your new year hold for you? Are you going to make, and then break, a great sounding but meaningless set of new year’s resolutions? Maybe instead you could take a lesson from this great business mind and find your three words?

I would love it if you would share your three with me here! What do you think?

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As a Pastor and a business owner, I am often confronted by the stresses associated with “growth.” A church needs new growth to help expand ministries and do more to make God real in its community and of course businesses need to grow to become viable and to make a difference to clients, customers, and, as with churches, the community.

So, when considering the whole idea of growth, those in the know tell me that I need a growth strategy.  According to the dictionary a strategy is, “a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.” With this definition in mind I have developed a five part strategy to produce growth:

1. Pray – God knows everything and so I need to consult him first. He promises that if I do, he will order my steps and make my life to prosper at his hand.

2. Listen – Once I have taken my inquiry to the Lord, I need to wait on him to open my eyes to his direction and will. Sometimes this comes immediately and sometimes this takes a little while. Either way I should not move until I listen for and “hear” his thoughts on the matter.

3. Pray – After I am comfortable that I have listened and heard the mind of the Spirit on the matter, I need to pray some more. In this time of prayer, I will be making sure that the directions I believe that have come from God are indeed from him and not from “other voices” that invade my thought processes. This praying make take the form of a single prayer in which God’s Spirit gives clear understanding to proceed or it may take a little time to get that clear and confident understanding.

4. Think – Now, I have clear direction, a God directed strategy and the indication from the Lord that this is the way to go. Next step – THINK! Notice I didn’t say question. In this stage I simply want to get comfortable with God’s direction and make sure I can implement it as he wants it done. Running off “half-cocked” is never a good idea. Following ALL of God’s directions is!

5. Do – If you never implement your strategy, you will never grow. (Not as a church, not as a business, not as a person.) God never gives us a plan, confirms that plan, and refines the implementation of the plan for us to put it on a shelf and never follow through. No strategy is effective if it is not implemented.

Now, you may not be trying to grow a church or a business, but all of us should be trying to grow an effective and powerful life (You were designed for greatness). If you will implement this general strategy that provides for direction from the Lord, you life will be one of passion and purpose.

Hope this helps ….

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There is this story in the Bible about building. The story speaks to the idea that if a man was going to build a tower, he would certainly need to count the cost of the building so that he would not get half way through and not have enough to finish it. He would be seen as a foolish man for doing such a thing.

For the longest time, as I thought about that story, I thought only of the price of the tower as the “cost” he was to count. While I understand that this is absolutely the primary interpretation of this passage (Luke 14:25-35, by the way) the bigger consideration might well be if he has the passion to fulfill his purpose for the tower.

No one builds things for no reason and the reason for building the tower has to be powerful enough to get the builder through all of the difficult times that will surly come through the course of the project. Even with plenty of money, the stress of building without purpose (or a half-hearted purpose) would never withstand the whole process.

In the end, building with purpose (created by your passion) is the key ingredient in helping you become successful in anything God leads you to do. So, take time to think things through and make sure that God has directed you and filled you with passion and purpose. Otherwise, when you quit halfway through, your testimony will be damaged and people’s confidence in you will be hard to repair.

Talk more later ….

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Well, the holidays are over! Now its time to really begin to look seriously at the year in front of us and ask ourselves the age old question: “What’s next?”

Personally for me things have changed drastically in the past six weeks and this new year is truly a year of new beginnings. It is very exciting and I am looking forward to all the challenges these new beginnings hold. You may be in the same position or not, but there are three things that I think we all need to consider in the year to come:

1. Positive thinking will raise our attitudes an our expectations for the new year. The global economy is still in tough shape and the struggles the world faced throughout 2010 are still here in the opening days of 2011. We can let these things destroy our attitudes and expectations for the new year or we can localize our thinking and, as Steve Jobs once said, “… make a dent in the universe.”

2. Look for answers rather than problems. I know a few people who can find a dark cloud behind every silver lining. Every day is either too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, too windy or too still. No matter the blessing, there is always an equally bad option looming on the horizon. When problems arise this year, look for answers and then pursue them with gusto!Su

3. Set your sights on success in everything that you do. Learn to live life from the perspective of success rather than failure. Nothing in life would ever get done unless someone believed that it both could and should be done. Be that kind of person. Life is much more fun and exciting when you are!

Life in the day to day can seem like just another verse of the song that never ends. You have the power to make it a different tune every day.

Have a great year!!

Talk more later ….

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As I started 2010, I was busy in a lot of areas. I felt like all of them had value (and still do). But, what the year taught me was that I needed to simplify, get back to my root joys and live the quiet and peaceable life.

As a result of all that I have learned, I am looking forward to the new year with great anticipation. To live more simply, to love more openly, and to enjoy life rather than endure it holds a great sense of hope and appeal to me.

My prayer for you all who read and enjoy this blog is for you to know the “right” direction for your life. I love to see the light come on in a persons eyes when they know that they are living their dream. I also know the daily struggle of just making it on to the next day. The one allows us to live life and that more abundantly, the other just sets us up for failure upon failure.

Have a great Christmas holiday! Start off the new year with an excitement and commitment to living the life God made you for! Don’t stand for anything less.

Talk more later ….

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As we approach the end of 2010 and look wonderingly forward to 2011, there is only one thing that is at least reasonably certain. That one thing is that the world keeps spinning. Now I know that even that has some measurable probability of not happening, but I for one am not betting on that happening.

So, since the world keeps spinning, what should we do in the coming year?

I have three thoughts:

1. We should keep looking for ways to make life better.

Life is so often a struggle and there is so much that needs to be handled that we can easily get into ruts that don’t make life better. I once remember hearing someone say that a rut was nothing more than a grave with the ends kicked out. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a great place to live to me. It also doesn’t sound like a place from which I can do anything to make life better for me or for anyone else. The takeaway here is “GET OUT OF THE RUT!”

2. We should make it our purpose to follow our passion.

It is passion that moves people forward. It is passion that changes lives and as Steve Jobs says, “takes a dent out of the universe.” What wakes you up in the middle of the night? What drives you to move your life forward? What would you do even if there was no money to be made? What is your passion? Make it your years goal and go after it with all the strength and courage that you can muster.

3. We should engage our maker in the process.

God’s desire for all of mankind is to live in a close personal relationship with him. You may not understand that or even care to at this time, but I am telling you the truth. If you don’t know God or you aren’t living life with him in mind, make a commitment right now to spend 2011 in search of his wisdom and knowledge. You will be very surprised what you will find. (Really WHO you will find!) I lived a lot of years without him and many more on the fringe. Neither provide purpose, direction, or passion for life. This year I am going “all-in.” Wanna come with me?

Today is December 14. There are seventeen days of life left in this year. The decisions that you make in those seventeen days may well set the course the entire new year for you. What choices will you make in these remaining days. No matter what you choose the world will keep spinning and for the most part life will carry on. If you are ready to make a difference, climb out of the rut, follow your passion, and live in fellowship with God. Your year will reflect all those things and your life will be better for it!

Talk more later ….

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Did you ever make a right decision that was almost immediately followed by something happening that made you doubt your right decision?

I know that I have and I know that many of my friends have too! The lesson in this is that life is a battle! That being said, how should the battle effect us?

I believe that there are several lessons that we need to learn:

1. The battle will make you stronger IF you choose to grow from it.
2. The battle will make you smarter IF you choose to learn from it.
3. The battle will make you better IF you choose to rejoice in it.

Life’s battle is a just a fact. It destroys some and elevates others. The only difference between the two is the attitude you have toward the battle. Those who think the battle to be unfair usually end up damaged at best and destroyed at worse, while those who live life to the fullest through the battle will succeed.

The choice is yours – How will you do in the battle?

Talk more later ….

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I have made a choice. I am going to change my world. I am going to build organic friendships and an organic business. I don’t know how things are going to work, but I have faith that they will.

I believe that my faith is the most powerful gift that God has made available to me and I have chosen to live that faith with reckless abandon. This blog will be the platform for the life that God has told me to live. It will include every aspect of life and will hopefully encourage others to make a similar choice.

I will talk about life in general, relationships, business, health and how all these fit into a life of faith. I hope to be a blessing to everyone who reads while challenging people to think in new and fresh ways.

This declaration is a promise that I am making first to God and then to you. It is not a “pat on the back” or a “look at me” declaration, rather it is about walking worthy of the vocation to which I have been called. May God bless you as you read. Please comment, please challenge me, please step up to change your world.

May God bless you as we change our world ….

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The second blog that I want to recommend is the blog written by Seth Godin. I really began following Seth after I read his book “Tribes.”(affiliate link)

I was fascinated with Seth’s clean and clear view of things and his simple way of saying things. I didn’t always agree with him (as a matter of fact I even emailed him about one difference. And he answered me too!) The cool part is that agree or not, Seth is a great guy to get you to think. Since I like to think, I can’t wait to read his posts each day.

If you don’t have a lot of time to read blogs and you want to use your time wisely, don’t forget to follow Seth Godin every day. You will become a better thinker and a better marketer if you do!

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The first blog that I want to share with you is www.chrisbrogan.com.

Chris is an interesting person (at least he is in his blogging). He seems to be willing to tell you anything that he knows as well as to tell you he doesn’t know everything. His posts are fresh and his insight is incredible. He seems to have put together a very nice business with the formula of honesty and a quick wit.

The thing that I appreciate most about Chris is his desire to give you information that is useful while also providing thought provoking posts that require you to think and create for yourself. I read ChrisBrogan.com every day and I recommend it to you as well.

Thanks Chris for helping a “newbie” learn the tricks of the trade.

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