Roadmap to Success

The best advice I ever recieved was from a dear friend who shared his secrets to success. At the end of each year he would evaluate each area of his business model to determine what was productive. After a careful review he would take the bottom 20% and remove it from his business plan for the coming year. It wasn't always that these areas were unproductive - they simply were the least productive areas of his business. Once that was accomplished he looked over new opportunities and selected what he believed where the best areas to add to his existing plan. Over a period of a few years my friend went from owing over six-figures to the IRS to being, well let's say - VERY COMFORTABLE.

Now it is time for me to take the same approach, not only to my business, but to my life. At age 52 I have become much more interested in the quality of life than I am the quanitity of things I can acquire. So as I look forward to 2012 I have to stop and ask myself what areas of my life are bringing me the most joy, and which areas are just taking wasted space in my day. These may sound trite and obvious - but it is amzing how quickly I can lose sight of my priorities and get caught up in the mundane.

Most Productive:

• Time spent in Bible Study & Prayer
• Time spent with my family
• Time spent with friends and loved ones
• Time spent in forwarding the mission of African Christian Schools
• Focusing on diet an:d exercise

Least Productive:

• Watching Television
• Playing on Facebook
• Playing Angry Birds
• Worrying over things that won't make a lick of difference 50 years from now.

Things to incorporate into the coming year:

• More time writing my blogs & books
• More time spent in exercise
• More time spent in reading good books that will improve my mind.

It all sounds really profound as I sit here on the first of November mulling over the past and making plans for the future, but it is amazingly difficult to implement. Plans are wonderful, goals are essential but EXECUTION is the key to success. So now I start the painful process of trying to execute my plans for Roadmap for 2012 - how about you join me for the ride?

Starting Over - Day 2

Yesterday, one of the readers of my blog made a great point concerning how others often interfere with our efforts to to move forward in our lives. We all mess up, we all make mistakes, and sometimes those actions impact others. Despite our best efforts to repent, ask forgiveness or seek reconciliation, some people refuse to allow us to a second chance.

It is truly tragic when others carry these large invisitble sacks around filled with all the sins, failings and mistakes that others have made. Whenever we trip or stumble, they reach deep down in their sack and provide us a running history of everything we have ever done wrong. This mean-spirited approach to life is tragic for two reasons: 1) I have a hard enough time with the guilt, shame and challenges of getting past the mistakes in my own life; 2) I can't imagine adding to that burden by keeping a ledger of everyone else's failings. What a truly miserable existence.

So, how do we deal with mean-spirited folks who would hinder our spiritual growth, put obstacles in our way as we try to navigate forward through life? It is easy to say ignore them, don't pay attention to their rants, but some folks seem to get great joy out of making our lives difficult. It feels as though all their anger and vitriol is being directed only at us. For what is worth, here are a few suggestions:

1. Pray for them. Yes, I know it is hard, but praying has a calming emotional affect on our spirits and it also changes things. God can and will intercede when nothing else seems to be working.
2. Try to understand why. What is it in the person's life, or past that makes them so hateful? Sometimes knowing the facts provides us a greater capacity to excercise grace and forgiveness towards that person.
3. Remember people only have as much control as we allow them to have. When you get hurt, angry, and bitter because of another's actions - you are turning control of your emotions over to those who care the least for you. Personally, I don't want my "enemies" to have that kind of power over my attempts to live victoriously.

So, here we are at the crossroads of another day. Someone is just waiting to rain on your parade, pour salt in an old wound, or tell you that your Pollyanna approach to life is naive and foolish. Its up to you how much control you will cede to that person.

Carpe Diem!

I Win

"I didn't lose, I just ran out of time at the end of the game."

I laughed the first time I saw this quote on the back of a T-shirt. I figured they are either in denial, or they had a real grasp of what life is always about. Never giving up on your dreams. The teams that lose a championship one year and come back to win it the next - those are the organizations I really have respect for.

I believe there are two keys to living an untethered life.

1. Never give up on your dreams. It is never too late to do great things. At 62 Tolkien published the first of his Lord of the Rings stories. At 71 Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest man to climb Mt. Everest. At 89 Albert Schweitzer ran a hospital in Africa. At 95 Nola Ochs became the oldest person ever to earn a college degree.
2. Embrace the journey. If I am going to be 95 when I get my diploma, or 71 when I reach the top of Everest, I am going to enjoy the journey along the way. I would love to see all my dreams and aspirations come to fruition tomorrow, but it's just not going to happen. I have a series of successes and failures ahead of me, so I will revel in the victories and learn from my defeats, but I will continue to cherish this path God has set me on till I finish the course.

So win or lose, victory or defeat - I win at life. I embrace the journey, cherish the moments along the way and at the end of the day, maybe I will be remembered for something exceptional, but if not, rest assured that it was a great ride.