Lead Well

We all have dreams. No, not the dreams we have when we sleep. The other kind of dreams. The ones where we want to do something big. We want to make a name for ourselves, be a great parent, or start something totally new. We’re trained very early on to think about this. We ask our kids all the time, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Then there are dreams, that are God-given dreams. Something God has placed in your heart. You can’t explain it, but you know it’s something that you must do. Unfortuntely the circumstances of life can steal away our attention. After a while, we look around and ask ourselves, “How did I get here?” Jesus knew this would be a problem. So in Matthew 6:25-34 , he addresses all the things we worry about in life. Our clothes, our food, our children, our homes. He guarantees that our Heavenly Father will take care of all these things for us, if we do this one little thing. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these t...

Calling is a funny thing. When we’re in youth group it seems to be all they talk about. When career is talked about with today’s generation, the topics quickly fall to passions, giftings, and some, calling. Many spend years trying to find their calling. Others think it’s going to strike them like lightning. Most, however, find themselves just wandering through life jumping for one thing to the next. For Christians, it’s a little different. We all want to follow God’s will, but His will can sometimes seem elusive. All of us would love the Damascus road experience of Paul, but very few of us actually experience something so life-altering. So for the rest of us, here are five easy habits for us to live out’s God’s plan for our lives. While I’ve never had an experience like Paul, I have felt the direct leading of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately in all these encounters the full picture was never fully laid out. I have discovered that going against God’s will is like walking ...

Recently, I was in a mentorship group led by Jim Wideman . He is a children’s pastor who served here in the late 80′s and is mostly known for running Willie George’s children’s ministry during is atmospheric growth. During one of his teaching sessions, Jim taught us a quick and easy exercise to set goals and keep them. Pick 3 goals. We’ve talked about the different types of goals here , and how to set huge goals here . However these need to be small and easily attainable. I made the mistake of setting long reaching goals that were difficult to maintain and easy to get behind. Sadly, I failed the three during this exercise, but that hasn’t stopped me from setting new ones. Set a deadline. A goal without a deadline is simply a want, and unfortunately will never happen. This is why teachers give due dates for those dreaded book reports. If they never told you when it was due, you’d never turn that thing in. It’s the same here. Figure out a reasonable timeline to accomplish y...

in Share One bite at a time. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked about goals.  You can read more about them  here ,  here , and  here . A big part of goal-setting is making the goal attainable.  But what if you want to do something crazy, like run for president, become the CEO of a company, or provide for your family long after your gone? Jim Collins in his book  Built to Last  talks about setting a  Big Harry Audacious Goal (BHAG).  The very title means that the goal seems unattainable.  However if we want to go far in life, then we need to set a big goal to get there. So how do you make an impossible goal, attainable? You break it into little pieces.   Earlier , I talked about running a half marathon. It’s a seemingly impossible size for someone of my size, but I broke it down and accomplished it.  Here’s what we can do to break down a big goal into little goals. Develop a road map to get...

Only a mediocre person is always at his best. W. Somerset Maugham You are always better than you were before and you will never be as good as you will be in the future.  We all get comfortable in our lives and our position and never push forward. I'm a gamer. I've spent a lot of time playing a lot of different games for most of my life.  When I was in college my friends and I got really good at a popular game called Halo.  We thought we were the best players, and no one could possibly beat us.  There was just one problem.  We only ever played with each other.  We were good, but only at beating each other.  When playing online with millions of other people,  I was shocked to find out that I wasn't as good as I thought.  In fact, I was horrible. This happens in our lives all the time.  We think we have something handled.  We think we have mastered something.  Then we are pushed into a bigger pond and realize that we stil...

Last week we talked about goals and how to create them for our life.  You can read more about that  here .  If you've ever sat down to make goals, you've realized that not all goals are created equal.  There are goals that are easily reached and some that will take a lifetime.  Some concern your job and others your family.  In order to maintain balance in our lives we need to have at least one goal for each dimension of our lives.  Otherwise, we will find ourselves out of balance, which would be like driving with a flat tire. So, here are the 7 types of goals and why we need them. Career.  The one question every kid gets in their life most often is what do you want to be when you grow up.  We all have dreams of what we want to do some day.  We have to set goals to make that dream a reality.  Without career goals we could easily find ourselves either floating from job to job without focus and never achieving our dreams. Fin...

Goal-setting.  It seems like such a simple concept, but how many of us do it regularly and successfully?  Our bosses talk about sales goals and making our quota.  Our teachers in high school and college talk about it like we already have them laid out, and TV is always talking about our financial goals before we call their company. For some, goal-setting is second nature, for others they know it should be done. and still others, it's a foreign concept.  So whether you've been setting goals all your life or you have no idea how,  here are five easy steps for you to set goals and actually meet them. Your goal must be specific and must be measurable.  When I ran my half marathon, I had to set a clear goal.  It wasn't enough for me to say, "I'm going to go running to get into shape."  I had to say, "I'm going to run a 13.1 mile race by finishing the race and not coming in last."  When we set goals, it is far too easy to be vague. For inst...