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Significance Begins HERE

I believe that we all have a longing to be significant, to make a contribution, to be part of something noble and purposeful. In order to accomplish this you must be willing to focus on others.

Every big thing that has ever been done started with the first step. Do you remember Neil Armstrong’s famous words from the moon; “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!” We cannot go anywhere in life without making the very first small step. No matter what, you must take that step if you want to achieve big things.

How do you get started in taking that first small step? Here are four suggestions.

1. Start where you are

• Mother Teresa declared that some of the greatest work has been done from sick beds and prison cells.
• Philosopher Parker Palmer stated that “Our real freedom comes from being aware that we do not have to save the world, we must merely make a difference in the place where we live.”

2. Start With Your One Thing

• I believe that everyone has “one thing” they do better than anything else.
• Henry David Thoreau stated “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.”
• Howard Hendricks from Dallas Seminary used as a life mantra “We tend to put something into everything instead of everything into something.
• Victor Frankl stated that when you cannot change your situation we are challenged to change ourselves.

3. Start watching your words

• Solomon one of the wisest men said “Words kill, words give life: they are either poison of fruit – you choose.”
• There are words that we need in our vocabulary – we, can, will, yes. Some words need to be eliminated such as me, can’t, won’t, no.

4. Start by making small changes

• Mother Teresa once responded to the question what do you need to do to be considered successful in your work. Her response is classic – she stated “…if the Missionaries of Charity have brought joy to one unhappy home – made one innocent child from the street pure for Jesus – one dying person die in the peace of God – don’t you think it would be worthwhile offering for just that one?”
• Success is measured in inches and not miles

Now let us consider the four suggestions on thinking big.

1. Believe in yourself

• Do you believe in yourself? Your belief about yourself will drive your behavior. Many times the thought I don’t think I can arises from the thought I don’t think I am!
• Steve Jobs once stated that the people that are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are usually the ones that do.
• There are many successful people that others do not believe in. However, there has never been a successful person who did not believe in themselves. Start believing in yourself and you just might make a difference.

2. Believe in you mission

• Understand first of all that your life mission cannot be from someone else. It must be your own. Borrowed beliefs have no power, passion and they definitely do not instill conviction that you can make a difference.
• Peter Senge states mission instills the passion and the patience for the long journey.

3. I believe in people

• When you work with a person that truly believes in you, isn’t true that you respond to that person based upon their level of belief about you?
• Don’t you perform at a higher level for a boss you want to please or a teacher who encourages you, or a coach who inspires in you? You work harder because of the belief factor.

4. I believe in my God

• “Everyday should be your masterpiece” – John Wooden.
• God is the one who helps take my best effort as flawed as it is, and makes it better.
• Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
• Anybody can do their best. God helps us to do better that our best – Catherine Bramwell-Booth
• GOD-ROOM is space between your best and room for God to step in and help you do better. Leave plenty of God Room!

John Wesley is credited with the statement “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all of the ways you can. In all of the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

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“If you are going to grow, you have to be intentional” – Curt Kampmeier

If you really desire to make a difference…

• Wishing things to change wouldn’t make them change
• Hoping for improvements will not bring them
• Dreaming wouldn’t provide all the answers needed
• Vision wouldn’t be enough to bring transformation to me or others
• Only by managing my thinking and shifting my thoughts from desire to deeds would I be able to bring about positive change. I need to go from wanting to doing!

Consider these seven benefits of Intentional Living….

1.Intentional Living prompts us to ask, ‘What is significant in my life?’

• Successful people are good in these four areas: Relationships, Equipping, Attitude, and Leadership.

• Living intentionally will cause you to start asking questions and begin to prioritize what is important and not what is urgent. You begin to ask Can I make a difference? Whom should I help? How can I help? What can I do to add value to others?
• An unintentional life accepts everything and does nothing. An intentional life embraces only the things that will add value to the mission of significance.

2. Intentional Living motivates us to take immediate action in areas of significance.

• When you make this shift in your spirit and mind you no longer see a need and ask why doesn’t someone to do something? versus I must do something.
• “DO IT NOW” should be the mantra of every person who decides to start living intentionally.

3. Intentional Living challenges us to find creative ways to achieve significance

Note these comparative statements ….

• Intentional living always has an idea – Unintentional living always has an excuse
• Intentional living fixes the situation – Unintentional living fixes the blame
• Intentional living makes it happen – Unintentional living wonders what happened
• Intentional living says, ‘Here’s something I can do’ – Unintentional living says, ‘Why doesn’t somebody else do something’

4. Intentional Living energizes us to give our best effort to so significant acts

• Most people do not aim to high and miss, they aim to low and hit it!
• Being unintentional is failing to take aim in life. Unintentional people wander through life without focus.

5. Intentional living unleashes the power of significance within us

• “If you first help others get what they want they help you get what you want” – Zig Ziglar
• The Bible states that we are to prefer others before ourselves. Scripture had it right long before the leadership guru’s of the day. It is in helping others that you realize that your needs are being met.

6. Intentional living inspires us to make every day count

• John Wooden, famous Hall of Fame College Coach stated, as a leader of my team, it was my responsibility to get the most out of my players. As a coach I would ask myself everyday ‘How can I make my team better?’
• How many of us ask that question of those we are leading daily. I am afraid we must confess that our agenda and schedules rule what is important without ever understanding what is significant.

7. Intentional living encourages us to finish well

• August 13 2012 was an important day for a man that turned 60. He asked the question for six months – “How can I finish well?” Here is what he wrote…
• I want to finish well therefore I will…Be bigger on the inside than on the outside because character matters
• I will follow the golden rule because people matter
• I will value humility above all virtues because perspective matters
• I will travel the high road of life because attitude matters
• I will teach only what I believe because passion matters
• I will make every day my masterpiece because today matters
• I will live God with all of my being because God matters
• I will finish well because faithfulness matters

Who was this man? – John Maxwell

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Consider these 4 steps to start writing your story of significance.

1.Put Yourself In The Story – No one ever stumbles into significance – you have to be intentional in your daily action. Victor & Mildred Goertzel wrote a book Cradles of Eminence. They investigated the lives of 300 highly successful people. Here is what they found…

1. Three-fourths of them came from severe poverty and broken home relationships
2. Many of them experienced severe psychological drama being played in the home daily by their parents
3. Over one-fourth suffered physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, and crippled limbs
4. “To dare, is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself” – Soren Kierkegaard
5. If you are not in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? T.S. Eliot

2.Put Significance in Your Story – If you want to live a story of significance, do not wait until you become good – start now so you can become good. Everyone starts out bad regardless of what your are practicing for. We start however, so that we can become good.

1. In the Orlando Science Center there was a sign that read “Experiment – Experience – Explore.” DO NOT TOUCH is not in the vocabulary of significant people! Awesome!

3.Put Your Strengths Into your Story – In answering the question, “What is required to bring about a positive life-change to any community? Jim Collins responded with these three statements:

1. Can you be the best in the world at what you do? – Maybe or Maybe not! Can you be the best YOU in the world – ABSOLUTELY!
2. Are you passionate about what you are doing? Significance begins in the heart when we desire to make a difference.
3. Do you have the resources to change the world? Do you have the tools? You know doubt have many resources at your fingertips.

4. Stop Trying and Start Doing – “I’ll try my best” is a statement that we have all made at one point or another. What we are really saying is that I am going to try but I am not going to take responsibility for the outcomes. So here is the million dollar question: If we are going to live lives of significance are we going to succeed simply by trying? I don’t think so!

1. Trying does not communicate true commitment. It is half-hearted at best. It definitely is not a pledge to achieve a goal. It is another way of saying that we will make an effort.
2. An attitude of doing is powerful. Steven Pressfield writes, There is a force resisting the beautiful things in the world and too many of us are giving in.”

When you begin to get involved in making a difference in other people it is going to have a lasting impression and effect upon your life.

• Jim Rohn states one of the best places start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental ‘I should” list.
• Action is what converts human dreams into significance.
• You will reaffirm your values – acting upon your values will clarify those values and make them permanent as a guiding priority.
• You will find your voice – taking action will give you confidence and you will begin to develop a moral authority with people.
• You will develop character – Passive people will allow their character to be shaped by others. Active people will take charge of their own character.
• You will experience an inner fulfillment – Contentment is found in being where you are supposed to be.

A butterfly cannot go back to being a caterpillar. When you start living a life of significance you will not go back!

LINKS

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Growing yourself enables you to grow others

If you are not doing something with your life it does not matter how long it is!

Adding value to other people should be a high priority for leaders in both the profit and nonprofit arena. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “I would rather have it said ’He lived usefully’ than ‘he died rich.’” 

According to Dr. Jon Van Hornes of the Library Company of Philadelphia stated that Franklin’s philanthropy was what I call a collective nature. His sense of benevolence was aiding his fellow human beings and doing good to society. In fact Franklin’s sense of benevolence was his religion…doing good for mankind was in his sense, divine.”

Gordon MacDonald suggests a series of questions to ask of who encourages us and then become a person who encourages others…

• Who mentors you and offers a baseline of wisdom?
• Who mentors you to aspire to be a better person?
• Who challenges you to think?
• Who cheers you to dream?
• Who cares enough to rebuke you?
• Who is merciful when you fail?
• Who shares the load in pressurized moments without being asked?
• Who brings fun and laughter into your life?
• Who gives you perspective when you become dispirited?
• Who inspires you to seek faithfully after God?
• Who loves you unconditionally?

1. BE GRATEFUL – People who are not grateful are not givers. They rarely think of others – they constantly think of themselves. Zig Ziglar stated that you can get everything in life you want if you help enough people to get what they want.
2. PUT PEOPLE FIRST – Possessions are temporary – people are what really matters.DON’T
3. LET STUFF OWN YOU – Richard Foster writes that owning things is an obsession in our culture. If we own it, we feel it will give us more pleasure.
4. DON’T LET PEOPLE OWN YOU
5. DEFINE SUCCESS AS SOWING, NOT REAPING – Robert Louis Stevenson said “I consider the success of my life based upon the seeds I sow, not the harvest I reap!”
6. FOCUS ON SELF DEVELOPMENT, NOT SELF FULFILLMENT – Self fulfillment thinks of how something serves me. Self-development thinks of how something helps me serve others.
7. KEEP GROWING TO KEEP GIVING – Whenever people stop actively learning and growing, the clock starts to tick down to a time that you will have nothing to give of worth.

The greatest gift you can give to someone is your own personal development – Jim Rohn

LINKS

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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Significance Begins HERE

Growth Always Increases Your Capacity

There is no finish line – Nike

Have you ever maxed your capacity? Have you ever reached the fullest expression of yourself? If you are breathing, you have the capacity to enlarge yourself. Authors Kriegel and Patler state in their book If It Ain’t Broke…Break It, The potential that exists within us is limitless and largely untapped…when you think of limits, you create them.

How do you push through toward your potential and keep increasing your capacity? I have heard it said that we only use about 10% of our potential. STOP! That is an amazing statement to ponder! So the next question becomes, how do we tap into the other unused 90%? I believe that the answer lies within changing how we think. MORE does not increase capacity. More of the same is simply more of the same.

Consider these three ways to increase your capacity.

Stop thinking more about work and start thinking about what works – Working more is the typical answer to the question, “How do you increase your capacity?” More of the same is more of the same, when what we want is better than what we have. Working long hours and managing an ever increasing To-Do-List is not becoming a person that reaches full potential. Here are a few questions to ask to improve what works: (1) What am I required to do? (2) What gives me the greatest return? (3) What gives me the greatest reward?

Stop thinking can I? and start thinking how can I? – When you ask Can I? indicates hesitation and doubt. It is a question of limitations. Ask it often enough and this single question will sabotage your effort even before you can begin. When you ask the question How can I? assumes a solution and positive outcome. There is a way, I just need to find it !Sharon Wood the first North American woman to climb Mount Everest stated discovered that it was not solely about physical strength but about psychological strength.

Author Price Pritchett in his book YOU writes, “Your skepticism, which you presume is based on rational thinking and an objective assessment of factual data about yourself, is rooted in mental junk. Your doubts are not the product of accurate thinking, but habitual thinking. Years ago you accepted flawed conclusions as correct, began to live your life as if those warped ideas about your potential were true, and ceased the bold experiment in living that brought you many breakthrough behaviors as a child. Now it is time for you to find that faith you had in yourself before.”

Stop Thinking One Door and Start Thinking Many Doors – Do not bet your future potential on just one door for the fullest expression of God’s creative work in you.

• There is more than one way to do something successful.
• The odds of arriving anywhere increase with creativity and adaptability.
• Movement with intentionality creates possibilities.
• Failures and setbacks can be great tools for learning
• Knowing the future is difficult; controlling the future is impossible.
• Knowing today is essential; controlling today is possible.
• Success is a result of continued action filled with continual adjustments.

Having just examined how to increase you thinking capacity, let us turn our attention to increasing our capacity for action. Consider the following…

Stop doing only those things you have done before and start doing things you could and should do – The first step toward success is becoming good at what you know how to do. The more you do what you know how to do, the more you discover additional worthy things you could do. When you reach this point you have a decision to make. Will you continue doing what you have always done or will you leap and try new things. Picasso stated “I am always doing that which I cannot do in order to learn how to do it.”

Stop doing what is expected and start doing more than expected – We live in a culture that awrds people with trophies for just showing up. Former CEO of GE, Jack Welch says this is not helping people to get out of the pile – you have to rise above average.

Stop doing important things occasionally and start doing important things daily – Writer Henry David Thoreau stated once “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; and he will will live with the license of a higher order of beings.”

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!