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Posts Tagged ‘attitude’

Every Day Is a New Day

June 10, 2015

She wakes up in the morning already tired. The cares of yesterday already dragging her energy. One day just proceeds in dreary succession after the previous.

We have been there. We lose hope for anything better. God? We used to be aware of his presence.

A saying of a Desert Father who said that every single day he made a fresh beginning.

How can we break that cycle of despair and make a fresh beginning of each day? We still have those old problems.

One thing we can do is breathe. In the Greek (actually as in other languages) the word for breath is either the same or similar for spirit. Ancient people have consistently paired intentional breathing with inculcation of the spirit.

We arise early. it is a dicsipline–also can be made a habit.

We find our favorite chair or maybe floor pillow. We sit. Breathe. Deeply inhale. Slowly exhale. We focus our mind on our breath. We relax.

That is one way to begin a morning fresh.

Then we can read. Read in the Bible. Read a devotional book. Read a motivational book. Something for the restoration of the soul and nourishment of the mind.

With the perspective we gain, we can look at yesterdays problems with fresh eyes. We can look at what we can change and what we can ignore and what we can live with.

Every single day we can make a fresh beginning.

Tags:attitude, awareness, focus, meditation, perspective, Study
Posted in Attitude | 3 Comments »

From Optimism To Disillusionment

June 9, 2015

The Stages of a Project:

Enthusiasm,
Disillusionment
Panic and hysteria
Hunt for the guilty
Punishment of the innocent
Reward for the uninvolved.

All of us who have done project work have seen a variation of this joke. Unfortunately, many of us have seen some variation of this in real life. We thought this was a modern thing.

In the sayings of the Desert Fathers, an Elder used to say:

In the beginning when we got together we used to talk about something that was good for our own souls, and we went up and up, and ascended even to heaven.
But now we get together and spend our time in criticizing everything and we drag one another down into the abyss.

How often do we do this? We join an organization. We start a new company, committee, church, project full of enthusiasm. Then someone starts criticizing. Something about criticizing causes it to spread like an invasive weed.

How often I have witnessed its destructive force on people and organizations.

How often I have caught myself crossing the line from analysis to criticism only to say to myself, “Fool, what have you just said?”

There exist at least two problems. One is leadership. Somewhere the leader lost focus or allowed the group to lose focus of the vision. The other that it is easier to criticize than create.

We run into an obstacle–that fearful thing that happens when we take our eye off our goal according to Henry Ford–and instead of saying this is a problem where we need to find a solution we throw our hands up in dismay and wail and cry and criticize.

Those whom you gather around you are important to your own well being. Gather those who talk about something good for your souls. Leave as quickly and decisively as possible those who spend time criticizing.

Tags:attitude, awareness, focus, Leadership
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What If We Were All Disciples

June 8, 2015

A disciple is someone who follows a master trying to be like the master, live like the master, talk like the master.

Jesus called the people around him at the end and gave them a vision. He wanted them all to be disciples and to make disciples of others. He also said that his disciples would be known by society at large by their love.

Maybe it was when the speaker stopped teaching and started “preaching” that my mind latched on to this idea. What would the world be like–what would it have been like–if all of Jesus’ followers actually were disciples?

Suddenly my thoughts were captured by my failures as a disciple. Have I been a good one?

That is the crux of the matter. It’s not pointing fingers at others. It’s looking first at the log in my eye before helping the other remove the spec. The German writer Thomas Mann wrote, “If everyone swept their own porch, the whole world would be clean.”

I wrote that on an engineering blog several years ago. Those darn literal engneers. One wrote back that there would still be vast areas of geography that wouldn’t be clean.

That, of course, is a metaphor. Our own porch is our own life, our thoughts, our actions, our words.

But let’s speculate. What if all people who call themselves followers were actually disciples? What if we were all known by our love instead of our politics, or our unfounded opinions, or our stubbornness, or our fears and angers?

Maybe I’m a dreamer, but that would be a great step toward actualizing God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

And forgive me for my mind wandering during church 😉

Reminds me of the little boy who sat in class staring out the window. The teacher noticed and stopped talking. Eventually the little boy noticed the unusual silence and came into the present world. “What were you doing?” the teacher asked. “Thinking,” said the little boy. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to think in school?” replied the teacher.

That’s me.

Tags:attitude, awareness, discipleship, Love, service
Posted in Mission | Leave a Comment »

Why Become a Leader

June 5, 2015

Betrayal, failure, working excessive hours, exhaustion, worry, fear.

By the time you finish Leadership Pain: The Classroom for Growth by Samuel Chand, you wonder why anyone would want to be a leader. He has written eleven chapters that contain about 30 stories of leaders who experienced all of that and more.

He doesn’t take the easy route out, either. No simple formulae. No quick list of top ten tricks and tips.

There is no easy solution. People are people. Some lie to you and then betray you. Some betray you yet continue to smile when you meet. It happens. It’s happened to me, it’s happened to you.

What you know is that you have a vision of how you want to make a difference. And it takes an organization to make that difference. You want to build a business, a ministry, a church, a non-profit. You begin to hire people and you think they share the vision. Then someone will turn on you. Or there will be a market setback. Revenues dry up. There are big challenges.

What Chand shows is how people worked through all the crises. You will suffer some degree of pain as a leader. It is inevitable. One would hope not to suffer as his examples did. You have to have examples out on the extreme a little in order to have enough drama for a good book.

But we all get in the middle of something and discover the pain.

How you handle the pain is the key to growth and success or decline and failure. Pain is inevitable. Overcoming it is probably a myth. But we must work through it to emerge on the other side as a stronger and more energized leader.

Many people had only intellectual knowledge of potential negative side effects of leadership. Experience drives real understanding. Especially experience reflected upon and viewed as a tough teacher.

Why lead? Because we have a vision and want to make a difference. Is it worth it? Yes.

Tags:attitude, awareness, experience, Leadership, vision
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What If I Change My Mind

June 4, 2015

But, what if I change my mind?

The flight attendent last night asked the mandatory question of those in the exit row of the airplane. The guy beside me said yes, as we all did because we wanted the extra leg room. Then he said, “But what if I change my mind?”

He was joking, but I found the question appealing.

Now, I am not going to touch the Baptist’s “once saved always saved” doctrine.

But what if we changed our mind?

“OK, God, you win.” Followed by, “What you are asking me to do is too tough. What if I change my mind?”

Or, change the other way. Moses thought he’d defend his fellow Hebrews, then changed his mind and fled to the wilderness. Then God changed his mind–with much reluctance on Moses’ part–but now Moses grew into the role.

Or Jeremiah. God asked him to speak, much like he asked Moses to speak. Jeremiah protested. God put the pressure on. Jeremiah changed his mind.

Elijah? God put the pressure on, and he changed his mind.

Paul the Apostle? Same deal. I believe this, oops, excuse me, I changed my mind, now I believe this.

I bet there is a book lurking in this phrase.

Where do we need to change our minds today?

Tags:acceptance, attitude, awareness, decision
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We Limit Ourselves

May 6, 2015

A TV series that ran in the late 1960s followed the travails of a baffled man who found himself in a village. It was a happy place. Everyone was smiling. Everything was clean and neat. It did not seem sinister, at least on the surface. Perhaps a little like that city Disney built outside Orlando where every thing must be the same. Nice and neat and clean. And everyone is happy all the time.

The man felt trapped even though very well cared for. There was no way out.

The man was in constant pursuit of Number Two. This person would be the gateway to discovering Number One—the true overseer of the captivity.

Gene Appel, pastor at Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim, CA, pointed out something that resonated at a deep level. “Your past mistakes limit your future options.”

You’re a guy with a group of guys. Just hanging out. After midnight. Do I need to state that nothing good happens when there is a group of guys hanging out after midnight.

Someone has a brilliant (well so you thought) idea. The net result is that the whole group is busted. Arrested. Jailed. Tried. Even if it’s a misdemeanor, it’s on the record.

Now you want a job that requires security clearance. Oops.

Or, you’re a girl or young woman. All the other girls have guys. They all talk about the great sex they are having (or so they say). You’re guy applies a little pressure, and…now you’re pregnant. Yep, your future is now limited.

Our choices may not be that extreme, but they do limit future options—sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s bad.

When we are limiting ourselves, we had best do so intentionally. Stop and think about the future consequences of our choices.

Oh, and the man in the village? During the last episode he gains a meeting with Number Two. An empty chair is in the room reserved for Number One.

Number Two of course tells the man to have a seat. He’s been Number One the entire time. He has imprisoned himself!

What about you and me? Have we let our mistakes and poor choices imprison us? Time to break free.

Tags:actions, attention, attitude, awareness, change, decision making, decisions
Posted in Awareness | Leave a Comment »

Maintaining a Tranquil Mind

April 20, 2015

Everyone felt the stress deep inside. A large group of people needed to stay together as they navigated an airport in a foreign nation. None had been through that airport recently. But navigate they must in order to board the next plane taking them home.

The first plane landed at one end of the airport. The plane carrying the group over the Atlantic was scheduled to depart 50 minutes later–from the other end of the airport.

Some people in the group were reasonably fit and could make a fast walk/run. Others were challenged by one of a variety of physical conditions that would slow them down.

Upon arriving at the gate, which no one really knew was the gate, the group was divided and then shuttled from one queue to the next and back again.

At times like this, one needs to have practiced the wisdom of Proverbs so that it is deeply imprinted on the soul–“A tranquil mind gives life to the flesh.” (14:30)

We made it, of course.

And then made the JFK connection and arrived home safely.

I was part of a group that vacationed on a Danube River cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. Ten days. Tired at that point. That’s why I reposted 10 days worth of blogs–which I guess didn’t get picked up by the email app. I’ll have to check that out. I tried to write ahead, but ran out of time.

International travel is a growth experience, if you choose to approach it that way. You pick up pieces of new languages. Experience other cultures. Learn that people are people no matter where you go. Good, evil, mostly good.

And with a little stress at the end, you learn about your character in the response to it.

This is where self-awareness enters.

I know that I can mostly maintain the tranquil mind. When things are out of my control and I have no knowledge of the system, I get quite snippy about perceived lack of good policy and procedure–especially at airports. But then I can settle back into the state of tranquility.

Nice to be home again. But I do miss Nuremberg and Budapest–two of my favorite cities.

Tags:attitude, awareness, Character, growth, Peace
Posted in Attitude, Awareness | Leave a Comment »

Promoted Beyond Confidence

April 17, 2015

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” –Walt Kelley, Pogo Seth Godin, famous marketing guru, has written several books, but now he writes short thoughts on his blog. Yesterday, he wrote a corollary to the Peter principle.

The original Peter Principle made perfect sense for the industrial age: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence.” In other words, organizations keep promoting people up the organization until the people they promote reach a job where they are now incompetent. Competence compounded until it turns into widespread incompetence. Industrial organizations are built on competence, and the Peter Principle describes their undoing. Consider a corollary, one for our times: “To be promoted beyond your level of confidence.” Too often, the person who wrecks our work is us. In every modern organization with upward mobility, good people are promoted until they get to the point where they lose their nerve.

How often it seems that organizations promote people who were good at something, but they were not good at the new job. The original Peter Principle was derived from education. A teacher is good at communicating with children and controlling a classroom. Promoted to Principal, she must now supervise and motivate teachers as well as deal with more parents. Promoted to Superintendent, she must now deal with the school board and supervise and motivate Principals. Each move up the ladder requires new skills. Maybe in churches, a pastor is good at preaching and dealing with a few committees. Then going to a bigger church, now she must deal with more committees, supervise and motivate a larger staff, do more strategic planning, and upgrade preaching skills. Today in flatter hierarchies, Godin says the problem is confidence. He may have something. We get into something that we are no longer confident of handling. “How did I get into this,” becomes the question of the hour—or minute. It may be mostly the same skills, just on a different level. Leaders lacking in confidence may wind up micromanaging. Or they may withdraw. Either way, they become ineffective leaders. How do we gain confidence?

Seek out mentors
Study
Get over needing to be “the smartest person in the room”
Celebrate small accomplishments—both personally and with the team

Tags:actions, attitude, Leadership
Posted in Leadership | 1 Comment »

What One Thing

April 16, 2015

I first heard Andy Stanley talk about Nehemiah several years ago. He boiled it down to a talk about What One Thing. That talk was just repeated (or given again) in this week’s Your Move podcast/video.

Combining this thought along with Dr. Henry Cloud’s thoughts on “Necessary Endings” significantly changed my life for the better. I’ve removed myself from a couple of dysfunctional relationships and found new focus.

Nehemiah was the man who served the Persian emperor Artaxerxes somewhere around 444 BC. He heard a report from his brother about the terrible condition of the walls around Jerusalem destroyed by the previous empire–that of the Babylonians (the two are still fighting each other, by the way).

He decided to do something about it. So he went to Jerusalem as sort of mayor and project manager and started rebuilding the walls.

This work was going so well that some enemies in the plains below the city got worried. They needed to get rid of Nehemiah and stop the work. So they sent a message to him as a lure into a trap to come down from the city (which is on a mountain) to meet with them.

Nehemiah replied, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

Great Work

If you use this time of the year for reflection and rededication as I do, this is a great thought to meditate on.

What great work am I or should I be doing this year?

Ending a relationship?
Beginning a relationship?
Strengthening a relationship?
Breaking a habit?
Starting a new ministry?
Becoming more compassionate?

Figure it out. As we set our minds, so shall we become. Let’s set our minds on our great work.

Tags:attitude, Discipline, focus, planning
Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Energy Is Key to Productivity and Much More

April 10, 2015

Last week I was driven to complete a lot of work in preparation for leaving town for a week. My energy level shot up several notches in intensity.

Much important work was accomplished. Items disappeared from my to do list at a gratifying pace.

Physicists know that energy is the underlying physical force in the universe. We know that energy is an underlying force for success in our lives.

Time management skills are good. Especially when tied to thoughtful construction of to do lists. But those skills don’t get things done. They organize you. Doing gets things done. And to do requires energy.

Ramping up energy has amazing benefits. After three days of higher personal energy:

My weight finally dropped below the plateau
My meditations, being active, brought more insight
Things got done
A consulting session with a client was fruitful
I was able to work through a travel schedule crisis calmly and effeciently

I teach young (and old) soccer referees to show energy on the pitch. When the players see that you have energy, they respond. They respect referees who are working hard. When you exhibit great energy, you’ll be in better positions to make better calls. You’ll manage the game better.

Same with our life in general.

That was good yesterday. Now what about tomorrow?

Tags:actions, attitude, energy, focus, productivity
Posted in Attitude | Leave a Comment »

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