BLESSED FOR SUCCESS – BIZCATALYST 360°: Recent Episodes
BIZCATALYST 360
Recently, one of my clients recommended that I compile a series of posts on the most important lessons I’ve learned over my 30-year career as a consultant working with over 500 different organizations. This is one of them: Most people would rather believe a comfortable lie than accept an uncomfortable truth…
Are you trying to embed Christian business principles into your business or career? Are Christian Business Principles Enough?
As a consultant and author, working primarily with sales forces, I’ve concluded that there is very little difference between Christian principles for salespeople and those employed by the best salespeople — regardless of their spiritual orientation. In other words, the principles that the best salespeople embed in their processes are the same principles taught in the Bible. The best salespeople are probably unaware of the Biblical source of the principles that work for them.
While that is true for salespeople, it is also true for businesses and businesspeople in general. Identify the cream of the crop and study the principles they embed into their businesses and careers, and you’ll discover they coincide very nicely with Biblical-based principles.
Integrity, do unto others as you would have them do to you, honesty, care for one another, etc. are characteristics of the best business cultures and solid business character. One can have a successful business by adhering to these and other Biblical principles, whether or not you make the Biblical connection.
And that creates a dilemma for the sincere Christian in the marketplace. Adhering to Christian principles doesn’t separate you from the mass of good businesses and productive careers. If you are serious about manifesting your Christian faith in the marketplace, then Christian principles are not enough. The next step in the development of a Christian business or a Christian career is to move from principles to practices.
First, a tangentNow, before I unpack the idea of Christian business practices, let’s examine the assumption in the previous paragraph: “If you are serious about manifesting your Christian faith I the marketplace.”
Should you be serious about manifesting your Christian faith in the marketplace? Both the Bible as well as history shout a loud YES. Jesus did say,
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.(Matthew 10:32, 33)
And the apostle Paul, writing I the book of Colossians, commanded “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
While this post is not designed to present the entire Biblical case for visibility in the marketplace, you can’t help but conclude from just these two passages that God wants His people to publicly acknowledge Him.
This is despite the vast majority of Christian businesspeople who have been taught that being active in their local institutional church is all that is required of a Christian. Christianity is for Sundays, and not for the rest of the week, or so the idea goes. This is, of course, one of Satan’s greatest lies. By promoting it from the pulpit and in countless other ways, he ensures that most Christian businesspeople will remain on the sidelines in the great struggle between good and evil. They are sidelined by a comfortable but debilitating belief. Because of that belief, millions of people who could have been exposed to the providential care and love of God, through the practices of a Christian in the workplace, were not. The cost in human souls over time and geography is immeasurable.
So, the idea of being “serious about manifesting your Christian faith in the marketplace” is not optional.
Principles or practicesWhile implementing Christian business principles is necessary for a Christian in the marketplace, it is not sufficient. It is a good starting point, but if you stop there, there will be no visible difference between you and other successful business efforts. To take it to the next level, you must embed Christian practices into your routines.
A principle is big idea, often an abstract, which can be applied in a number of situations. Here’s a dictionary definition: a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning. So, for example, ‘operate with integrity” is both a Christian principle and a commonsense rule that can be applied in multiple situations.
A practice is a specific behavior, usually repeated regularly. Here are two helpful dictionary definitions:
1. the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it.
.2. the customary, habitual, or expected procedure or way of doing of something.
So, “caring for your employees or coworkers” is a Christian principle, but “regularly asking to pray for and with your employees or coworkers” is Christian business practice.
“Planning carefully” is a Christian principles, but “Praying before every planning meeting and asking the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the process” is a Christian business practice.
Because Christian business principles coincide with those practiced by the best companies, regardless of their spiritual orientation, one can hold to Christian business principles and be invisible as a Christian. However, you can’t hide under the radar screen if you entrench Christian practices into your routines. Moving from principles practices is a natural step in the development of fully formed, mature Christian business and effective Christian careers.
So, what are some Christian practices, and how do you expose yourself to them?Our Biblical Business Course teaches a set of fundamental business practices to build the foundation for a viable, excellent Christian business. You can find a list of common Christian business practices here. Above and beyond that, understand that the list of Christian business practices is constantly evolving. A few years ago, no one thought of having a scripture verse on his//her screensaver, for example. Now, it is a common practice.
The best way to come into contact with an evolving set of Christian business practices is to subscribe to Christian business blogs, ezine, and podcasts (like ours) and to join a small group of Christian businesspeople who share best practices among themselves. These groups are all around and range from casual local groups to national organizations. Chances are you know of someone in one of these groups who could introduce you. If not, email me with the word “Groups?” in the subject line, and I’ll send you some ideas.
With all the chaos in our world, millions of people are seeking a source of safety and security. By embedding Christian business practice into your routines, you point the way to the ultimate source.
For most of my life, I’ve been driven by a desire to make a difference. For most of my life that motivation was lurking below the surface, taking up significant space in my subconscious and subliminally prodding my thoughts and actions. Sometimes that thought rose up to the top of my mind and became a recognized, conscious effort.
On those seasons, I would give conscious thought to it. The question took various forms, but it ultimately settled to this, “How do I make a difference — in my life, in my family, in my career, and in my business?”
I suspect that a good number of my readers share the same urge. It’s for that reason that I am sharing what I have learned. As a veteran professional speaker, author and consultant, I’ve had decades of experience on which to reflect. I’ve been privileged to have the experience of interacting with thousands of people, across every state in the Union, most of Canada and Mexico, and a dozen or so other countries.
Understanding that there may be lots of different, and valid, answers to the question of “how do I make a difference,” here’s one guy’s opinion. These three strategies rise to the surface.
- Give dedicated expression to our unique gifts.
I use ‘gifts” as a catch-all term for our unique talents, interests, and motivations. We are all unique and have a one-of-a-kind combination of latent talents, core interests, and life experiences. When we realize that and develop them to the highest degree that we can, we fill a unique need in the universe.
I love the expression that Christ used when He said of his followers that they were salt and light to a dark and hurting world. Salt is only valuable when it is placed in a non-salted environment, where it can touch and flavor everything around it. Light is only useful in the dark, where it to illuminates the world around it. I like to think that, like salt, we are sprinkled into the environment in which we find ourselves. Developing and giving fruition to our gifts is a way of claiming our ‘saltiness’ and influencing those in our spheres. In that way, we make a difference.
- Seek to discover the needs of those who pass through our lives.
Every now and then, I have the experience of hearing someone’s life story. I am continually amazed at the difficulties they faced. Everyone confronts adversity, experiences trouble, and struggles with the ups and downs of life. Lots of people in your world could benefit from your help. Most of us, myself as well, are most times oblivious to the hurting around us. Yet, making a difference means that you make a difference to some individual. The first step in making a difference to that person is to become aware of their pain and their need. Easier said than done in a world where social media promotes superficial experiences and phony personalities. Like the first point, this isn’t an event, it’s a continuous, never-ending process.
- Work at developing a higher character
That our character impacts everything we do is a fundamental human truth, that for generations has been a bedrock to our understanding of what it means to be a mature adult human being. That seems to have been lost on much of the population these days.
Some time ago I came across this quote:
*Watch your thoughts: They become words.*Watch your words: They become actions.**Watch your actions: They become habits.**Watch your habits: They become character.**Watch your character: It becomes your destiny.**
As we develop certain “higher” character traits, we gain the capacity to make a difference. The Bible has a prescription for what those should be, as well as a promise about their impact:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, Christian love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful….2 Peter 1: 5 – 8
Developing the character traits of moral excellence, godliness, brotherly kindness, and Christian love is a great prescription for making a difference.
It occurs to me that the three ideas above all have something in common.
All of these have God in the center of them. It was God who gave us the talents and life experiences he wants us to have. The idea of sensitizing our antenna to the needs of those around us is an oft-repeated encouragement in the New Testament, probably best expressed by Jesus’s commands in articulating the ‘greatest commandment:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment.And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
And developing a Christian character is clearly a Biblical directive. Add those up and you come to the conclusion that in order to make a difference in this world, we need to strive to bring God into our lives. Of course, He has said as much in the Bible over and over again. Here’s one such promise:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In
With him actively involved in our lives, we’ll tap into his power, get in sync with his plans for us, and make a difference. all your ways acknowledge him and He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Without his active involvement in our life, we’ll eventually default to the baser human characterizes – pride and self-absorption.
He’s the ultimate difference-maker.
It is the early moments of creation. God is busy at work, creating the universe, and has just created his most complex entity: Man. Or, more specifically, the man Adam. He is a special creature, made in the image and likeness of God himself and placed at the very top of the created world.
How will God relate to Adam and his progeny? Will he create some special organization, like a church, and command Adam to worship him? Will he give Adam a family and expect that in the myriad decisions of raising children and getting along with his spouse, Adam will seek him out for wisdom and guidance and thereby seek a relationship with God? What will God do with Adam? For what purpose did God create him?
He will give Adam a job. First, a lifetime purpose and then a specific task that contributes to that purpose. Then within the context of that job, God will work with Adam, speak to him, relate to him, and work together with him.
In other words, God created work—and by extension, business—as the venue in which God would speak with man, relate to man, and work with man.
Let us take a look:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Gen. 2:15)
Here is Adam’s life purpose: to work the Garden of Eden and take care of it. While the charge is specifically given to Adam, he was the first of the human race and set a precedent for the generations that were to come. In God’s great plan, working and taking care of creation—not just the Garden of Eden will provide the context for every person’s life purpose. Every man and every woman will have a life purpose that fits within that charge.
Then notice what God did next:
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. (Gen. 2:19)
He gave Adam a specific task that fit within the general purpose. It is as if he said to Adam, “Adam, your life’s purpose will be to care for and work my creation. That will keep you continually engaged forever, as there will be a never-ending set of tasks that will need to be done. So, let’s begin. Your first job is to name the animals. I’ll help. I’ll bring them to you, and you name them.”
The task of naming the animals resulted in Adam imposing his sense of organization on the creation and required a significant amount of creativity. Whereas before there was a certain amount of incoherence to creation—one could not even speak about the animals—now there was a higher level of organization.
Notice that…
Adam’s life purpose was given to him by God, and it was to “work.” Adam’s specific task—his immediate work—was given to him by God. The job given to him required him to use his creativity and resulted in a more organized environment—man’s unique imprint on creation. God worked with Adam to complete the job.
We know that God made man in his own image. There are multiple ways that the characteristics of humans mimic those of God. But the first way mentioned in the Bible has to do with work. One of the characteristics of God is that he is a worker. The Bible opens with the story of him working. We see him working at creating the universe and then resting from his work:
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. (Gen. 2: 2-3)
Since work is so important to God, when he made man, he made him to be a worker. Notice that before he created Eve, before there were spouses and families, before there was “church,” before there were prophets or priests, before there was Scripture, there was work. God gave Adam a job before he gave him a spouse.
And God chose to interact with man in the completion of the task that he gave to him. God worked with Adam to complete the task. His initial venue for relating to mankind was on the job!
Since work is so important to God, when he made man, he made him to be a worker. Notice that before he created Eve, before there were spouses and families, before there was “church,” before there were prophets or priests, before there was Scripture, there was work.
It is as if God said to Adam, “Adam, if you want to talk to me and get to know me, the way to do that is to work with me. Let’s work together.”
So, work becomes a foundational building block, not only of the rationale for man’s existence but also as the venue in which God will relate to humanity. In these two passages, we see fundamental precedents set:
Mankind’s purpose—both lifetime as well as specific will be found within the context of work. God will give man—and, as we will see later, each person—a specific charge within the larger context of “working and caring for creation.”
Man’s work will require him to use his gifts of creativity to create an ever-more-organized outcome.
God will work with and interact with mankind within the context of his work.
The primary purpose of man’s existence is to do work and to do it with God. At this point in the creation story, there are no businesses, as there are no other people. But as the Bible story unfolds and the world becomes populated, we see the emergence of businesses as one of the primary ways work is done.
These precedents set in the first moments of creation describe how God has worked with mankind throughout the ages. It doesn’t matter if he is speaking to a people group (like Israel or the church) or if he is directing an individual (like Moses, Joshua, David, Paul, and Lydia). He gives man a charge: it always fits into the fundamental job of “keeping and working God’s creation.” Typically, it is a more specific task. Then he works with man in the completion of that task.
We see that same pattern—the pattern that he established in the very beginning—repeated over and over again in the pages of Scripture. Moses was given the charge to lead the people out of Egypt, and then God worked with him to do it. Joshua was given the charge to take the promised land from the inhabitants, and God worked with him to do it. David was given the charge to unite Israel into a unified kingdom, and God worked with him to do it. The list goes on and on with examples too numerous to include here.
Even in the New Testament, John was given the charge to prepare the way for Christ; Jesus himself was given the charge to usher in the Kingdom of God and was enabled to do so by the power of his Father. Paul was given the charge to take the Kingdom to the Gentiles and provided with the power of the Holy Spirit to do it.
The pattern is repeated so often that it is impossible to miss it. It is a fundamental way that God works with mankind. The apostle Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Ephesians:
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)
Work—and by extension, business—is so important to God that he has created “works” for each of us to do, and he prepared them way in advance of our being ready to do them. Just as he gave Adam the task of naming the animals and then worked with him on that task, so he gives each of us tasks to do and works with us to do them. It is how he designed his creation to operate.
While we are familiar with these grand movements of God and the great stories that describe them, we have missed one of the underlying truths: That the primary way God works with man is through our labor and the businesses that emerge from it. We have never seen that because we have never looked for it. The religious establishment, because it chooses to view business as a necessary evil, has had no reason to attempt to uncover the biblical view of business or the incredibly important role it plays in God’s master plan.
If we can look at these Bible verses objectively, it is clear that God created man for work and, by extension, for business!
"Chances are, if your business is at all successful, you are going to confront that question." ...
I just closed a Zoom meeting with one of my clients. He told me this short story. He recently took a promotion to the corporate office. Word had gotten around the new environment that he started his meetings with a prayer. Out of the blue, a co-worker asked if he could be a part of that prayer time as well.
I remarked that the marketplace is full of Christians and faithful people who are just waiting for someone to go first. I told the story of the aftermath of 911. At the time, my office was on the second floor of a seven-story office building in downtown Grand Rapids. The Monday after 911, I decided that I needed to do something, so I printed up a little flyer, and slid it under the doors of all the other offices in the building. The flyer announced that at noon the next day, I would be in the common space in the basement, leading a prayer. At least 75 people showed up to pray together. Beyond nodding good morning on the elevator, I knew none of them
Both of these stories are examples of the power of leading. It doesn’t need to be anything huge. Just go first in something that is on your heart. No need to test the water, no need to solicit opinions and seek advice or other options. Ask the Lord’ to provide you with the idea. Then, just do it. Go first. Announce that “At this time, in this place, I will…….” and invite others to join you.
Here’s another example. When Covid hit, as you know, everything shut down. Churches stopped meeting, and schools closed. I felt there was a need for my grandchildren to be exposed to Bible truths. I have one set of grandkids who are 18 – 26 years old and another set in the 6 – 12-year-old range. So I decided to get on Zoom once every other week and tell a Bible story. No big deal. Just a 15 – 20 minute Zoom sessions in which I told the younger set of grandkids a Bible story. I’ve been doing it ever since. I even captured some of those sessions and put them on YouTube in a new series called Bible Stories with Gramps.
The ‘fields are white unto the harvest.” Don’t be sidelined by thinking that you have to be an evangelist. Just live your faith in the marketplace and do what seems right to do. Go first. You may be astonished at how many people have been waiting for someone just like you to go first.
Do you have a similar story? Please share it with us in the comments section below.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could get through life – or at least our work day – without any unpleasantries? Alas, we all know that won’t happen. Not only do we have to deal with difficult situations and trying people, but even our language contains words that make us uncomfortable and anxious.
In this series of posts, I’m going to identify five uncomfortable words that we would rather not hear, and propose a solution to dealing with them.
Here’s the first: Personal Responsibility.I’m sure you are familiar with the concept. The idea is that every person is responsible for their own actions, and that those actions have consequences. As a general rule, therefore, most people have created their own circumstances through the decisions they made and the actions they have taken.
Of course, there are exceptions. People are born with disabilities, or encounter situations over which they have no control. Someone is injured in a car accident or orphaned at an early age, for example. Granted, events over which we have no control can overtake us and shape our lives. However, for the mass of humanity, at least in our work lives, the truth still remains that, generally speaking, we get what our actions have brought to us.
That idea, too many, if not the majority of folks, is a troubling, uncomfortable thought. It’s easy to see why. Every day we are presented with examples supporting just the opposite view. The media glorify the victims. The courts are full of people wanting someone else to blame for their circumstances, and the government exists, at least in part, to buffer people from the consequences of their actions.
In this environment, the specter of personal responsibility takes on the semblance of a monster in the latest teenage horror movie – something to avoid and run from whenever it pops up.
I see this phenomenon most frequently in my work improving the effectiveness of sales systems and salespeople. Get a group of salespeople together and listen to the litany of reasons why sales aren’t as good as they should be. It’s the company, the product, the service, the price, the competition, the customers – everything but themselves. The idea that they could improve everything by improving themselves – personal responsibility – hardly ever crops up. It’s been my observation that in any random group of 20 salespeople, only one has invested $25 in his own improvement in the last 12 months. Only one of 20 get it – that their results are produced by their efforts. And they can improve their efforts. Only one of 20 accept personal responsibility.
I suspect that salespeople are no different than the rest of us. Probably that one in-20 ratio holds true for many professions and careers. James Allen said, many decades ago:
Men are often interested in improving their circumstance, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they, therefore, remain bound.
Getting to the point where you accept personal responsibility for your own life, your career, and your business can be a life-changing step in the journey, freeing you of the internal constraints of a ‘victim’ mentality, and springboarding you to a life of greater achievement and fulfillment.
At least it was for me. Here’s my story.I had been the number one salesperson in the nation for a company – my first full time professional sales job. I had it made – adequate salary, good benefits, company car, bonus potential, and the respect of my employer and colleagues. But the opportunities were limited, and I decided to move on to a job that was completely different. I took a sales job with a new company, selling surgical staplers to hospitals. It was a leap from the secure job I had to one that paid straight commission, and for which I had to buy my own samples and literature from the company.
But I was cocky, filled with the success of my previous job, and sure that I could make this work also. It wasn’t hasty. I looked at the amount of existing business in the territory I was slated to get, and determined that if I could double the business within six months—a doable task, I was assured – I’d be back making about what I was used to. Then, as I increased the business, my income and lifestyle would evidence the difference.
It all sounded good, and I left my old job and arrived in New York City for six weeks of intensive training in the new one. During the time that I was there, my district manager was replaced. When I arrived home after the training, the new manager was eager to meet with me. In our first meeting, before I had a chance to begin working, he informed me that he had revised the sales territories. The territory that I thought I had — the one I was hired for – was not the one I was going to get. Instead, I was going to receive just a fraction of that. And the new territory only contained about 1/3 of the existing business of the previous one. This change meant my plans for making a living were shot. It now became an impossible task.
I was upset and angry. How could they do that to me? At this time, I had five kids to support. I immediately began to look for another job, determined to quickly leave this unethical, uncaring company.
Things got worse. As I interviewed several companies, I discovered that they saw me as the problem. Instead of understanding what the company had done to me, they thought I was an opportunist who was looking for an easy way out. Basically, no one else was going to hire me!
I grew more and more angry and bitter. In addition, I had little success selling the staplers. After six months, my temporary draw came to an end. I owed the company $10,000, was making almost nothing, and had no prospects for another job. I felt squeezed between the proverbial rock and hard place.
Somewhere in there, I had an epiphany. Yes, the company was unethical. Yes, they had done a bad thing to me. But the reason I was not achieving had nothing to do with that. It was my fault! It was me. It was my anger, my bitterness, my resentment –yes, my “victim attitude” that was keeping me back. The product was still exciting, and the opportunity was still great. The real problem was my attitude – my bitterness and anger were getting in the way of everything.
So, I accepted my responsibility to change my performance. I saw that I had to change my attitude. I set about to do so. I looked up Bible verses that were very inspiriting. Versus like, “If God is for you, who can be against you?” I wrote them down on 3X5 cards. Then, as I drove into my territory every day along I-96 in Detroit, I held them in my hand on the steering wheel and read them over and over to myself. Slowly I began to do away with my bitter attitude, and replace it with hope and expectation.
My results began to change also. Things began to go better. Six months later, I had paid off the debt to the company and was making more money than I thought possible. The job became more fun, more financially rewarding, and more fulfilling than anything I ever expected.
The change happened when I accepted my personal responsibility.
I’m probably not unique.I discovered that which millions of others have found. When you choose to remain a victim and hold that your circumstances are the result of someone else, you live in a world of anger, impotence, and depression. When you accept personal responsibility, you go forth with empowerment and expectation.
Personal responsibility is not to be shrugged off and avoided, it should be embraced.
I just hung up the phone from a coaching call with one of my clients. He was applying for a significant executive position and wanted my help with his resume and interview strategy. We talked for a bit, and I suggested a different way to look at his resume.
A light bulb went off. All at once, he was full of energy and enthusiasm. Just a moment prior, he was sober and analytical; now he was excited and couldn’t wait to get at the task of revising his document. In a matter of a few moments, something changed. As a result, he now saw possibilities where before there were only obstacles.
What changed?His perspective. The situation was exactly as it was a few minutes earlier. He was the same person, with the same set of skills, life experiences, and qualities of character. But he saw things differently, through a different lens. His perspective changed, and that changed everything.
That experience was, from my side of the table, a great reminder of the power of perspective to stimulate and shape behavior. We see examples of it all around us.
Our perspective, in many ways, influences and shapes our actions. I have often observed that people generally find that for which they look. I’m not talking about our misplaced car keys. I mean in situations involving dealing with other human beings, we generally see the qualities and traits of character that we expect to see. For example, as salespeople, we may go into an account with the perspective that this account is populated with small-minded people who are going to squeeze us for every penny they can and choose the lowest cost provider no matter what. Guess what? Generally, that’s what we find.
On the other hand, we can go into the account with a different perspective. Let’s say our point of view is that this account is run by well-intentioned people who want only the best for their organization. Amazingly, that’s generally what we will find.
Now don’t jump all over my example and claim, “Wait, some people really are penny-pinchers, regardless of what I think.” Granted. People are different, and there are some in every type and classification. I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about us.
In my example above, the objective truth is probably somewhere in the middle. They may be well-intentioned, striving for quality, and cost-conscious. Don’t miss the point. If we expect people to be untrustworthy, it will be their untrustworthiness that rises to the surface of our radar scan. If we expect them to be kind, we’ll notice their kindness. If we expect them to be self-absorbed, we’ll notice their lack of concern for others.
And, since we generally notice those qualities and traits that we expect to see, that perspective changes and influences our behavior. That’s the point. I have often observed that, when people talk about other people, they really reveal more about themselves than they do about the subject of their conversation. That’s because their judgments reveal their perspectives.
Let’s go back to my example. Regardless of the objective truth of the issue, if our perspective is that they are penny-pinchers, our experience will generally confirm that, and we’ll treat them that way.
Clearly, the opposite is also true. If we expect them to be value-driven, we’ll see them that way, and we’ll treat them accordingly.
The thing that makes the difference in how we treat them is not them, it is our perspective of them.
As a lifelong educator and sales trainer, I have observed a powerful truth about human behavior. It is this: Our perspectives on ourselves are far more important than our perspectives on other people. As we see ourselves, so shall we be. If we see ourselves as victims, we will forever be a victim. If we see ourselves as successful, we will eventually arrive there.
| The Institutional Church has spent 530 Billion dollars on itself and has not increased the percentage of Christians by even one percentage point. It’s time thoughtful people asked some questions. Read Is the Institutional Church Really the Church? |
If therefore, we can uncover and release ourselves from our limiting perspectives of ourselves, we can transform our behavior and enjoy dramatically improved results.
I’ve seen it countless times in the work that I do. I’ll have people come into my seminars with the perspective that this is just a job, and leave with a vision of themselves as professional salespeople, and proud of it. Since they now see themselves as professional salespeople, they act that way. As a result of their changed actions, they enjoy dramatically improved results. Here’s the equation:
Changed Perspective = Changed Actions = Improved Results
But the principle is bigger and more applicable than just sales. It applies to every aspect of our lives. The more I reflect on my life and those around me, the more I see that so much of our behavior can be attributed to perspectives gained during our formative years.
For example, for my entire life, I have been both empowered by and hindered by the perspective that I was forever on my own, independent, self-sufficient and self-contained. That perspective was a direct result of my parents’ intentional actions to instill it in each of their six boys. My father had a heart condition and was never expected to live a full life. My parents, therefore, intentionally instilled that perspective into us to enable us to get along in a world without a father’s presence.
That has been a powerful perspective, shaping my actions and character throughout my life.
So, too, for each of us. The perspectives we gained as we grew up shape our actions and reactions. They harden and form into habits, attitudes, and eventually, character traits.
If we want to change our results, then we ought to work on changing our perspectives.
Did you ever have an experience like this? You set out on some new activity energized by the exciting expectations of the good things that will result? You may have begun a vacation, visited a relative, hired a new employee, taken on a new project, or launched a new product. Your mind naturally thinks about the result and creates expectations: The vacation is going to be glorious; the visit will be fun and fulfilling, the new employee will immediately contribute, etc.
And then, alas, the expectations weren’t fulfilled, the actual results weren’t up to your expectations, and you end up discouraged.
And because you are discouraged, you question your value. “Do you really have the talent to make something like this happen,” you wonder. You cast a shadow over your relationship with God. “Does He even know I’m here. How could He let this happen?” Your energy and creativity wither and you spend some time sitting on the sidelines of the next opportunity.
Discouragement must be one of Satan’s primary tools. By generating discouragement in the hearts of Christians he effectively places them on the bench in the great contest between Satan and God. It’s like soccer – bench a couple of your best players and the team is less likely to win.
When we distance ourselves a bit from the process and look at the big picture, it’s clear that the problem wasn’t the results we experienced, but rather the difference between those results and our expectations. Since the gap between reality and our expectations was so great, we filled it with self-doubt and discouragement.
It is easy to view every initiative through the lens of high expectations. The world is full of advice to create high expectations.
Every team wants to become the champion. Every entrepreneur dreams of making millions. The idea that we should create lofty expectations goals as a precursor to significant achievement is ubiquitous. It is so deeply embedded in our culture that to question it is to make you feel like a heretic. Create high expectations and then work to achieve them. — that’s the way progress is made and success is realized. It has become part of the common wisdom, so universally acknowledged that only the ignorant would ever doubt it.
Maybe the solution then is to be a bit more thoughtful about our expectations. Don’t do away with them, just lower them a bit. Then we’ve reduced the likelihood of the ultimate discouragement coming from not meeting high expectations. Lowering our expectations looks like a simple solution.
But is it? What if there were another solution?
The problem with lowering our expectations is that those expectations come from the same source – ourselves. In defining our expectations, we reach into our heads and hearts and generate a vision of what could be. The source is us.
But what if we tapped into another source? Instead of us deciding what we’d like to have happen, we deferred to God?
What if, instead of thinking, “I want to begin this new thing and achieve these results” we begin with “Lord, show me what to do and I will trust you with the results.”
In other words, we began a new effort, not because we wanted the end results, but because we were being obedient to God. What if we didn’t even think about expectations, instead we left the results up to Him. That would require a whole new paradigm and a major step on the ladder of spiritual development.
And that brings us to a new term: Expectancy instead of expectations. The thesaurus lists ”hope,” “belief,” and “anticipation” as synonyms. The idea is this: Because the source of the idea is God, we anticipate a greater good to come from the effort than anything we could have expected. We believe God is in control, we hope for a great outcome and we eagerly await the revelation of the results.
He did say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
If we stopped ‘leaning on our own understanding” and instead incorporated “trust in the Lord” into our routines, we wouldn’t create high expectations, nor any expectations at all. Our actions may be just the same, but the core motivation would be different. Instead of thinking we are in charge, steering our vessels down the paths we chose to the outcomes that attract us, we would now be motivated by doing God’s bidding in the worlds we occupy. This transformation of heart and motivations would mark a significant step on our spiritual journeys.
We’d cut discouragement off at its base. We’d eliminate discouragement from germinating in our hearts, and we’d be 100% able-bodied and equipped for every challenge, ready to be thrust into the starting lineup of every contest.
All because we substituted expectancy for high expectations.
Note: Article inspiration came from my good friend, Deb Brown Maher, author of Sell Like Jesus: 7 Characteristics of Christ for Ethical Sales.
"The spontaneous tendency of our culture is to inexorably add detail to our lives: one more option, one more problem, one more commitment, one more expectation, one more purchase, one more debt, one more change, one more job, one more decision. We must now deal with more ‘things per person’ than at any other time in history." ...
"Every professional and every business executive will regularly confront situations in which they’ll need to sort it out. Which is more important? " ...
"To successfully navigate our unprecedented and complex world, we need to build into our lives and businesses certain disciplines, systems, attitudes, and habits that hold us back and, just as intentionally, build in those things that drive us forward." ...
"We need to make sure that we are building into our lives and businesses the proper infrastructure to help us survive and thrive – both personally as well as organizationally. ..."
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