Courage…, Anyone?

Do you feel like you’ve been called to do something that is beyond you? Do you have an idea so big you don’t even know where to begin? Well, you are in good company!

The truth is, God will never ask you to do anything that you can easily do all by yourself.

As long as you view your dreams and/or your calling as something *you* must do, you’ll always be overwhelmed; but when you consider that God lives in you and He wants to accomplish certain things through you, it becomes a different prospect altogether.

Have you ever wondered why so many people in the scriptures were told to be courageous and not afraid? Those people weren’t wimps, they were men and women of valor but God knew that what he was asking of them would be daunting for even the bravest of men.

Think about Mary, a teen whose marriage had been arranged and agreed by both families and what God asked of her. Imagine if God had left her to go explain to Joseph and her/his parents why she was suddenly pregnant! But God wouldn’t do that. He took care of the situation by talking to Joseph directly. Moses also once told God, ‘If Your Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here!’ (Ex 33:15). It’s the assurance that God was with them that helped them through those tough assignments. That is why we see throughout scripture how God was always quick to reassure His people that He was with them.

The same is still true today – we can do what He calls us to do because He goes with us, working out His plans through us. He may need our hands, feet, money, contacts, even personalities but never forget that the project is His and as long as we allow Him to remain in charge, we can literally do all things.

I don’t know about you but I find that very liberating!

So the next time you start to think: how on earth will I do this? Count it an honor that He has chosen you to be a vessel for His work and boldly step up, knowing that you won’t have to do anything in your own power and all you’ll have to contribute is the courage to let Him do His work through you. God is more than able to accomplish His own work.

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Fact vs Truth

Are you dealing with some cold, hard, facts in your life right now that you can’t seem to get past? Facts are compelling, aren’t they? They don’t get to be called facts unless they are backed by evidence that is hard, if not impossible, to dispute therefore they are not easy to ignore.

But there is one big fact that we sometimes overlook. The fact is: God’s Word is true. In fact it’s the only truth that really matters and which can also set us free (John 8:32).

When faced with unpalatable facts, we have a choice. One verse of scripture that I really like is where Joshua challenges the Israelites to make a choice (Josh 24:15). Life is all about choices and we make hundreds daily. Making a choice means making a decision when faced with more than one option; taking a stand through your action(s).

This week, while studying the book of Galatians I found myself going back to one verse which says the flesh and the spirit are opposed to one another. One translation says they are antagonistic to each other (Gal 5:17); and I thought wow, that’s a very strong word! No wonder it’s often hard to know what to do when confronted, indeed bombarded, by the cold hard facts of life. Think about it, your flesh is actually antagonizing your spirit – making you pay closer attention to the facts that are being presented to you daily via your five senses and almost ignore what you believe and confess to be the truth. Remember, facts are compelling and difficult to ignore.

That’s why the only way out is to make a decision. Just like Joshua did when he said: as for me and my house we will serve the Lord, make a clear decision on what you’ll believe upfront because that is what determines what you do (and say) in every situation.

So this week, whatever you’re faced with, by all means identify the facts of the matter but please don’t stop there. Go one step further and decide on which you’ll choose to believe: the Fact or the TRUTH?

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Cultivate A Deliverer’s Mentality

What do you know that can help others? Do you have something in your power – even if it isn’t of value to you – that can set someone else free?

I’m sure you’ll agree that we all tend to undermine or undervalue what we have to offer from time to time because we may not know what they’re worth to others and sometimes, frankly, because we may not want to be presumptuous. Over the past few weeks as I’ve spent time with Christian entrepreneurs at my retreats, it’s dawned on me once again how much we all have to offer one another.

Some of us quite naturally donate our excesses to Charities and contribute extra foods etc to Food Banks because we know someone else on the other side of town may be in dire need. If only we’d give the same consideration to our gifts and those intangible things that God has blessed us with.

So this week, I want to challenge you to look again at your gifts – those things that come naturally to you with little or no effort at all; things you may not consider valuable or a ‘big deal’ and see if they can change someone else’ life. Are you blessed with the gift of insight? Are you a natural comforter who has a word of encouragement at the tip of your tongue all the time? Are you a facilitator or a ‘people person’ who enjoys connecting people? Have you lived a varied and interesting life that others can learn from? Your experiences – good and bad – are valuable! How about consciously and generously applying those gifts to the people you meet.

I heard a wonderful story this week about how a kind word from a total stranger literally made a suicidal man reconsider what he was about to do. You just never know, you may be the deliverer someone’s been praying for.

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Perfectionism – A Crippling Disease

I’m meticulous by nature. Always love things to be ‘just so’. Combine that with an analytical mind and you have an almost lethal combination. I would normally plan things out step-by-step even before taking step number one. I failed to see the point in moving until I could guarantee the end result. Consequently, I rarely moved at all sometimes – grounded and immobilized by my quest for perfection.

Can you relate to that? You may not be as bad as I was, but take it from me, perfectionism is a disease. It is fear in fancy dress!

Life is not a dress rehearsal and he who dares wins! Successful people learn as they go along. They learn from their experiences. They roll with the punches and improve on their past errors and mistakes. They don’t cower in the corner waiting for the perfect time, perfect opportunity or perfect education.

I love the imagery in Ps 119:105. Seems to me a lamp at your feet can only show so much of the road ahead. I was looking for floodlights.

So, let’s call a spade a spade. While waiting for the perfect time, what are you really saying? Is it that you are afraid that if you do it now, you’ll fail? That’s fear of failure. Are you afraid you’ll fall flat on your face and others will laugh? Well, how about we call that fear of embarrassment? Maybe you’re afraid some may ask who you think you are and what qualifies you to do what you’re doing? Fear of judgment.

There are other fears that aren’t always anticipated too. Have you thought about how your life may change if you became more successful than you could ever imagine? How will your family and circle of friends react? Will you still be able to fit in with the ‘gang’? Fear of success – yes, success can be scary and you’ll be amazed at how many people self-sabotage in order to ‘fit in’.

I often meet people who tell me all kinds of wonderful things they’d like to do when the time is ‘right’, for example, when their children are older; when they get married; when they have enough money or time; when they retire; when they’ve lost twenty pounds in weight, etc., but you know what, there will never be a perfect time for you to live your life. The only time you have control over is now anyway so why not seize your opportunities right now and make that valuable time count?

Fear comes in many guises – many of them perfectly reasonable and justifiable – but don’t be fooled, fear is fear. Not perfection.

My challenge to you this week is: identify what you’re afraid of. Make a list if necessary. Confront them, deal with them and go live your life. Life is for living!

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Can Faith and Business Mix?

Continuing with my theme of stretching, I’ve finally ventured into the social networking world and opened a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account! My pages are looking great and I plan to put them to good use. I just had a quick look as I write this and found that I already have some activity on both pages – even though I have zero content so far. What a leap of faith on the part of those wonderful people who’ve already connected with me!

Talking of faith, I once wrote about how I often marvel at Christians in the business world who try to conceal their faith and I received quite a few emails about that post; some arguing about how difficult it can be in some ‘real life situations’ to mix business with your faith.

I’ll have to beg to differ though because, in my view, without faith there can be no business at all. Think about it. What is faith? It’s the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen, right? Okay, didn’t you once hope to have a business or a job? Your business right now is the ‘substance’ i.e. the tangible, physical result of what was once your ‘hope’ i.e. invisible (for example, a thought or an idea). Am I right?

Let’s take it further – it takes faith to write your business plan not knowing if your bank manager will take one look at it and send you packing. It takes faith to pick up the phone and make cold calls to generate business. It takes faith to respond to an advert or apply for a job not knowing whether or not you’d be accepted.

Let me tell you, there’s no shortage of faith in the business world and both Christians and non-Christians practice it daily – without faith, there’ll be no business.

Faith is all about taking action, based on no physical evidence at all, in the hope of achieving a desired result – in other words, taking risks. Isn’t that also true of business?

The question therefore becomes ‘who’ or ‘what’ your faith is in and whether or not you choose to make the answer known.  For example, will you let your faith shine through in your business dealings or would you rather conceal your connection to the Source? Now that’s the real question.

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Stretch Yourself!

Just returned from a powerful retreat in Kiev, Ukraine about effectiveness in life and business and I am still buzzing from it!

Pastor Sunday Adelaja was on fire! And I, along with about 60 others from all over the world – including the US, UK, Holland, Denmark, France, Spain, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Ghana, Poland – felt so privileged to be there because it was the first time he’d opened up this particular program to English speakers.

Did you know that the human body is capable of much more than we give it credit for? For example, I’m a natural night owl and could happily stay up all night, but p-l-e-a-s-e don’t wake me up too early! I used to think that I would just die if I had to get up less than 8 hours after going to bed but slowly over the years I’ve found that I could do okay on 6-ish, which was a major deal for me. In fact, I remember the first time I had to get up at 5am to catch a flight and when my alarm clock went I thought Noooo! I made a quick mental note to NEVER book an early flight again.

But during this retreat, if you got 3 hours sleep you’d done very well indeed! I think the least I got was half an hour but guess what, I DIDN’T DIE!!

Now that I’m back home I’ve reduced my sleep-time to 4 hours a night and I tell you what? I’m finding those extra suddenly available hours very useful and productive! How could I ever have slept for 8 hours?

Call me crazy, but this is the way to go for me now. And do you know what’s the funny part? I’m actually enjoying it – it’s like someone’s given me a secret advantage over the world! You know how we all enjoy getting a sneaky one-up over others… oh go on, admit it!

My challenge to you this week is: Stretch yourself! Do something you never thought you could do and see how you feel.

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What Easter Means To Me

Spending Easter in London and I cannot avoid all the wonderful Easter eggs and all that goes with it, but while I love chocolate as much as the next person (probably more), I’d hate to think that’s all Easter has become in our culture today.

I remember last Christmas and the uproar in the media about how the majority of greeting cards were turning ‘politically correct’ by not having the word Christmas on them, preferring to have season’s greetings and holiday greetings when we all know that without Christ, there is no Christmas.

As a Christian and a business person, I’m amused at how some people will do anything to play down their beliefs in an effort to appeal to more people when, in my experience, the fact that one stands up and is identified by his or her believes only adds value. My clients know that I will treat them fairly and not reap them off or provide substandard services because of who I am and my Christian values. How can that possibly be a negative?

So, for me, on what is the most important day in the Christian calendar – Easter Sunday – I love nothing more than to spend the day meditating and reflecting on all the benefits I enjoy in this world (Ps 103:2) because of the exchange that was made on Easter Sunday.

On this Resurrection Sunday I want to say publicly that I am thankful. Thankful for the life and love that God’s sacrifice represents. Thankful for the opportunities it has afforded me and thankful for the Grace that abounds because of that humble act. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

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Negative Positives!

So I’ve been thinking… how can some things that started off positive end up becoming or being perceived as negative? Strange how a good education is sort after by many, but there comes a time when you could become ‘overqualified’! This week I spoke to a group of people who were recently ‘downsized’ from their jobs. Highly qualified with great experiences in the corporate world, one would think getting a new job would be a doddle. I mean imagine the kind of value they’d bring to a startup or SME, right? Yet, quite unbelievably, even when many of them were prepared to take significant paycuts, they’ve found that their vast experiences and qualifications were often viewed as liabilities!

That’s what got me thinking, and here are some thoughts that might help people in similar situations?

  1. Refuse to see your positive as a negative. Don’t buy it! It’s very easy to begin to apologize for something that’s a positive in your life and not want to share it because you’ve been made to feel it’s a negative. Refuse to do so. Whatever it is, you have worked hard to achieve it and is a positive situation for you in your life and you should remain forever thankful for it. Now, the situation or environment you’re in may not appreciate it as a positive position at the moment, but it is a positive nonetheless. Don’t let anyone talk you out of your positives!
  2. Try a different approach. Instead of going to a lower level job with your CEO CV how about trying a new version? Perhaps one that emphasizes the value you can bring and your real life, relevant experiences instead of your educational achievements. Do this not to deny your positive but to accommodate the people you’re dealing with. You’d be presenting yourself in a ‘non-threatening’ way, which can only bring about a win-win. You never know, it could well be the employer or manager that finds your qualifications intimidating because he’s not as qualified and may feel that he’d be undermined. Put yourself in his shoes and present yourself accordingly.
  3. Present your positive in a better light. Sell it. Let people realize that having an ‘over-qualified’ person in such a role could be an advantage. I once worked with a gentleman who ran a home removal company. He had an advanced degree but as he had taken over the business from his father, he struggled to identify with the job because he thought he was too qualified to do it. I asked him to consider how he could convert his perceived negative into a positive. After a few weeks he came up with a new tagline which showcased his educational background as his USP (unique selling point). Suddenly people realized that this wasn’t just another removal man. He’s an intelligent man that they could trust. His bookings went up 75% among corporate bookers who wanted peace of mind when relocating their executives. They felt they could relate to him better than his competition!

So, do you have any positives in your life that’s threatening to turn negative? Have the points above helped you to view them from a different perspective? Well, send me your comments – I’m intrigued!

And if you’ve ever faced a negative situation brought about by a positive in your life, get in touch and let me know how you handled it.

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