Tim Milburn has a nice book on leadership entitled, "Leadership Starts with You." In it he suggests that the fundamental test of leadership is self-leadership: The real secret to developing strong, lasting leadership starts with YOU learning how to lead YOU. Because the people whom you’ll eventually lead are wondering: If I can’t trust you to lead YOU, how can I trust you to lead ME? One of the insights he shares in the book is what he calls your growth P.L.A.N. Here's how it works ... Purpose -- What do you need to know and why? Learning -- Where do you want to learn it from? Why? Assessment -- How will you know you learned it? Next Action -- What will you do with what you learned? His premise is simple: personal growth just doesn't happen on its own. To read more about P.L.A.N., click here.
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Our Friday morning men's group is studying the book of James. Today we were in chapter two and covered these verses: "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" (James 2:1-4) James touches on a common human tendency: to want to impress those who impress you. In so doing, we often look down on those who don't impress us. It's why "average" people fawn over celebrities and then turn around and treat rudely…
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This is from the Wall Street Journal Blog. It's about how the advertising industry understands habit formation. Implications for your ministry or job? ********* "Ninety-nine hundredths of our activity is purely automatic," the psychologist and philosopher William James famously wrote. "All of our life is nothing but a mass of habits." James was pointing out that, though we give habits little thought, they define our lives: how much we eat, save or spend, how often we trek to the gym and what we say to our kids each night. But these compulsions aren't inscribed in our genes or hard-wired into the brain at birth. Scientists are discovering that habits are simply an extreme form of learning, a behavior that's so familiar we no longer need to think about it. The malleability of habits isn't news to Madison Avenue: Effective commercials show how people can be quickly trained to do something…
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“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” - Leo Buscaglia Buscaglia was right. Risk is not only a part of life, it is one of life's best growth engines. When a child is no longer satisfied to scoot along the floor, she takes the risk of learning to walk. Without taking that risk, she would never learn to skip, hop, or run. When we get to the dating and courtship phase of life, there is the risk she will say no. Those who have started businesses or churches or organizations, understand the risk of failing comes with the territory. Artists who take their craft from the basement to the stage, risk rejection. As Buscaglia says, you may avoid suffering and sorrow but…
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“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela Are you playing small with your life? Truth be told, many people are. Whether it's an addiction to mediocrity or a fear of failing, too many people live life in the small-to-medium range. And it's acceptable. So, how do you know what kind of life you are capable of living? You try ...
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