In my sermon this past weekend, I shared several demotivational slogans from Despair.com. They are parodies of the motivational posters you can hang in your office. One of my favorites was this one: "Underachievement: Because soaring with the eagles requires so much more effort." As funny as that it is, it's also true. Because achievement, effectiveness, and success require work, there are some who opt to underachieve. It's easier to be average. Coaches who turnaround losing teams understand that it requires more -- not less -- work. Breakthrough leaders in any field have a low tolerance for quitting. Artists or engineers who pursue excellence do so knowing that it comes with a cost. As hard as it might be, when you reach cruising altitude, the view makes the hard work worth the effort.
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In every life, bad things will happen. You might have a bad moment, a bad day, a bad week, or a bad year. Not every bad thing that happens to you will be of your own doing (but let's be honest, we bring a few bad things on ourselves). We will face circumstances beyond our control. Accidents. Mean-spirited people. Bad things will happen. That bad things will happen is beside the point. Bad things have always happened. In theological terms, we live in a fallen world. Sin has been defeated but not eradicated. The effects of our sinful behavior are obvious (just see Paul's list in Galatians 5). But here's something I've noticed: bad things happen to all people but not all people live with a victim's mentality. Did bad things happen to the apostle Paul? Well, that depends on how you define being shipwrecked, beaten, and thrown in prison.…
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"Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions." -- Proverbs 18:2 By this standard, we are surrounded by fools. Fools on the television. Fools in the next cubicle. One or two at the breakfast table. If I had someone to talk to on my commute to work, there would be at least one fool in my car every morning ... and it would be me. When Stephen Covey wrote his seminal work on effective habits, he included one about seeking to understand then be understood. The principle itself is as old as the Bible. A little self-examination may be in order. Am I more interested in telling people or listening to people? Do I speak first and listen later? Am I ever guilty of forming my response in my head while the other person is still speaking? Do I have a filter that keeps my tongue…
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In his book on boundaries for leaders, Henry Cloud uses a wonderful analogy to help us understand why it is important to have difficult conversations. When we avoid a difficult converation, we are allowing a dead fish to stink up the room -- only no one wants to admit there is a problem: "I don't smell anything." In other words, no one wants to bring the dead fish out into the open. This might happen when ... No one wants to confront an abusive leader. A teammate's misbehavior is allowed to continue. A parent chooses to overlook statements and actions that indicate potential trouble. Excuses are offered instead of changes. Businesses, churches, families -- each can suffer from a dead fish in the room. No amount of room deodorant will fix the problem; the problem is not in the air, it's the fish. The room may smell nice for a…
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Jim Collins is one of my favorite authors on business and leadership. I've been reviewing my notes from a talk he gave at the 2012 Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. He was sharing principles based on his book, "Great by Choice." This line from my notes jumped out at me: "The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change but is chronic inconsistency." For the most part, few of us wake up and decide to be mediocre. It's not a typical life aspiration -- or shouldn't be! But when we allow chronic inconsistency to creep into our lives, our routines, our families, our work environment -- we are allowing ourselves to become mediocre. Everyone may miss a deadline here or there. We all make mistakes and occasionally exercise poor judgment. Welcome to the human race. Mediocre people, however, are chronically inconsistent. They are known by spurts and bursts. What…
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