Who Do You Want To Be?

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this glorious Friday morning! Have you ever considered how genuinely blessed we are to have a new opportunity every single day?! That is the posture of my heart this morning…genuinely grateful for another opportunity to live this life fully! 😊

I have started reading Craig Groeschel’s new book, The Power to Change: Mastering the Habits That Matter Most. Earlier this week I read something that struck me as truly profound.

“According to Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, most people recognize they have changed over the past ten years but refuse to believe they can change in the next ten. Gilbert calls this false belief the “end of history illusion.” But the data-driven truth is this: you will change, and you can become who you want to become.”

Interesting, isn’t it? Think of yourself 10 years ago…are you that exact same person? Of course, you aren’t! I am reminded of the quote by Bo Schembechler, the former Head Football Coach at the University of Michigan, when he said, “Every day you either get better or you get worse. You never stay the same.” Whatever type of days we consistently string together determines the quality of the lives we live, the relationships we have, and the people we become.

Please let the truth of Pastor Craig’s last statement sink in: “you will change, and you can become who you want to become.” 10 years from today you and I are going to be different – we simply have to determine what kind of different we will be. If there is an aspect of our lives that we don’t like, we can change it! We can choose to pursue our full potential in all aspects of our lives, or we can choose to live something less. Either way, we will change.

So, the question for all of us is this; who do we want to be 10 years from now? What type of men and women, husbands and wives, dads and moms, leaders, and friends do we want to be? We are going to change, for good or bad, and we have the power to become who we want to become. We simply have to choose to align our thoughts, actions, and words with who and what we want to become and live them out on a consistent basis. Easy to understand, hard to do…so worth it! YOU are worth it! 😊

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can contact me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev

Who Before Do, Why Before What

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! A new opportunity – TODAY! – is here! Let’s run into this day with gratitude, teachable spirits, and servants hearts! We will never see this day again…let’s create a masterpiece! 😊

Earlier this week I listened to one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. It was recorded on February 12, 2017 and it is titled Divine Direction, Part 1: Power to Become. You can watch the full sermon by Pastor Craig Groeschel of Life.Church here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH_NzU4Yxg4. If for some reason the link does not work, please just search the title and it will pop right up.

I want to share the notes I took while listening to the message and I will then offer a few thoughts of my own.

“God is far less concerned with what we do than what we are becoming.”

“The most common question people ask: ‘What do you think God wants me to do?’”

“What does God care about? God cares about who [who we are and who we are becoming] before do [what we do].”

“Gods will for you is to by Holy – set apart, different, not driven by the values of this world.”

“Jesus did not talk about vocation, he talked about character.”

“BETTER QUESTION: Who does God want me to become.”

“It doesn’t matter where you are; be a faithful Jesus follower there!”

“Why [why are you doing what you do] before what [what you do].”

“Proverbs 16:2 - All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.”

“Motives matter to the heart of God.”

“The Lord judges your motive.”

“It’s almost impossible to get to the right destination when you have the wrong motives!”

“Be faithful where you are!”

“Instead of thinking of the big God out there, serve Jesus right here!”

“Who before do, why before what.”

“If you are becoming the right who, God will help you choose the right do.”

“If you are driven by the right why, He will lead you to the right what.”

Powerful stuff, isn’t it? I really hope you will take time today or this weekend to listen to the entire message.

So, the challenges before each of us:

First, who are you? Who are you becoming? Are we Godly men and women of character or something less? I am reminded here of the Andy Stanley quote that says:

“Your talent and giftedness as a leader have the potential to take you farther than your character can sustain you. That ought to scare you.”

Let’s commit, genuinely commit and relentlessly pursue, being men and women of great character. Let’s get our hearts, minds, and spirits right first…and then turn our focus to what we do.

Second, why do we do what we do? Are our motives pure-hearted? For the service of others? Or are they for selfish gain? Or some other sinister motive? You and I can fool every living being however we cannot fool God. He knows our motives and He weighs them…THAT scares me!

As I have thought and prayed about this, and now writing this message, I can’t help but think, much like the gauges in a car, I will need to check myself on these things every day for the rest of my life. It is so easy to slowly fade away from where we want to be, one small step, thought, word, or action at a time. Wisdom would be to pursue the Lord daily, to allow Him to lead me every day, and to grow to become the Godly man, husband, father, leader, and friend that He created me to become. If I allow Him to lead me to the right who, I will end doing the right thing – no matter the situation or circumstance. And I want to do things with the right motives! I have been there when I did things for the wrong reasons and the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach is so repulsive that I want to get my “why” right all of the time.

Each of us must choose what we will do – no pun intended here!!! 😊 – with this information. I hope we will all pray about, and thoughtfully consider, who before do, why before what!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well!

Kev

Resilience

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! What do you say we make this one a masterpiece?! 😊

I am currently reading a phenomenal book written by Carey D. Lohrenz titled Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck. I have been working my way through Chapter 7 which is titled Resilience: Rebounding from Adversity. I don’t know why the chapter has impacted me so profoundly, but it has. I thought I would share a few excerpts from the chapter, a few quotes I have come across this week as I have studied resilience and let them speak to you however they may. Oh, by the way, I would highly recommend you get this book! 😊

A Few Excerpts from Fearless Leadership:

“Resilience is the ability to withstand, recover, adapt, and grow in the face of stressors and changing demands. Resilience is what you’ll need to call upon when you face a major, life-changing circumstance, one you probably didn’t see coming and probably didn’t cause through action of your own.”

“I refer to these types of experiences as “crucibles,” and every person faces them in life. They are traumatic, life-changing events that end up forming the way you lead – and the way you live. They shape what you believe to be possible about yourself and your team. Crucibles are huge, life-challenging moments. To lead fearlessly, you’ll have to develop the resilience to succeed despite them.”

“Do. Not. Panic. Panic-stricken people do not make good decisions, nor do they inspire confidence in their team.”

“The ability to bounce back when adversity strikes is one of the greatest predictors of long-term success and happiness. If you discover that you can learn from and find real meaning in the trials of life, you’ll know that you have what it takes to be a fearless leader.”

“Adversity introduces you to yourself.”

“…breakthrough experiences – the situations that you’re not fully prepared for – are extraordinarily valuable. But only if you learn from them. Leading through adversity is a marker of a successful leader. What you learn from overcoming adversity plays a crucial role in your future success.”

“Giving up is the only way to guarantee you won’t achieve your dream?”

About this time I am also reminded of the Stockdale Paradox. Do you remember it? I wrote about it in a previous Happy Friday. As a refresher about Admiral Jim Stockdale, here is the excerpt I shared at the time about Admiral Stockdale from the book, Good to Great:

“The name refers to Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again.”

So, wouldn’t you agree that Admiral Stockdale knows something about a crucible? Here is what Admiral Stockdale stated:

 “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Your situation may be difficult, perhaps brutally so. Face the facts, never lose faith that you will prevail in the end, learn, and keep living life one day at a time! According to these great leaders, if we do so, we might just find ourselves! 

I also want to share a few quotes that I found while studying resilience this week.

“Obsessing over what is wrong will not invite what is right. Dwelling in darkness keeps us from embracing the light.” – Anthon St. Maarten

“Take away your trials, and you take away the magnificent reward of overcoming.” – Richelle E. Goodrich

“Strength doesn’t come from what you do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” – Rikki Rogers

“Beware trying to iron out all the quirks, perceived flaws, and doubts. It’s often these things that help you find strength, compassion, empathy for others, and heart.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru

“You are stronger than your challenges and your challenges are making you stronger.” – Karen Salmansohn

Remember Sweet Friends, knowledge without application is just knowledge. Knowledge with application is wisdom. Let’s be wise! Let’s learn, grow, and become all we are capable of becoming! Please, whatever you do, don’t give up!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev

Words

 Happy Friday, Friends:

I hope and trust this post finds you having a great day as a glorious new day – full of hope, opportunity, and promise – begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! 😊

I promise you; today I am not going to tell you a single thing you don’t already know. The heart of this Happy Friday is found in this quote:

“Knowledge without application is simply knowledge. Applying the knowledge to one’s life is wisdom — and that is the ultimate virtue.” ― Kasi Kaye Iliopoulos

Earlier this week I was listening to a Craig Groeschel podcast titled, Ghosts of Christmas Past Part 3: Labels. It was recorded on December 18, 2016. You can listen to the entire podcast here: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e2d29a64-9469-4157-a018-c7dd715323e8/episodes/bbe142c0-74e4-40f2-8dba-d71c5a027b77/life-church-with-craig-groeschel-ghosts-of-christmas-past-part-3-labels

In the podcast, Pastor Groeschel says the following:

“How many of you know words can be very, very powerful? Words have the power to create. Words have the power to heal. Words have the power to shape. Words have the power to motivate. On the negative side though, words have the power to hurt, right? Words have the power to wound. Words have the power to discourage. Words have the power to destroy.”

A little later he quotes Proverbs 18:21 (NIV) which says in part:

21 The tongue has the power of life and death

Not a thing you didn’t already know, right? So here is this Happy Friday’s challenge: are we going to simply know or are we going to have the courage to step into wisdom? Will we apply what we know and intentionally use our words for life – to create, heal, shape, and motivate? Or will we choose to be like, sadly, most of our fellow humans and spew words that hurt, wound, discourage, and destroy?

I know it is short…sometimes fewer words are better!!! 😊

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well!

Kev

What Kind of Day?

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! 😊

Last week I came across a sign that said, “What a difference a day makes!” You ever thought about it?

• You were born one day…that day made a difference!
• Maybe you got married one day…that day made a difference!
• Do you have kids? The day they were born…that day made a difference!
• For those who have discovered their purpose…the day you got clarity made a difference!

So, what about this day – March 3, 2023? Will this day make a difference? The answer, Friend, is found in how we, individually, choose to live it!

Many people live the same day over and over again. There is no intentionality, no purpose…just alive but not living! There are no goals/dreams to pursue, there are no hopes, and there is no desire to love, care for, or serve another…just ourselves and our wants. Is that how we are called to live? I don’t believe so!

This day can make a difference if we choose it!

• Today we can pursue our purpose…that will make a difference.
• Today we can reconcile a relationship…that will make a difference.
• Today we can love, care for, or serve someone in need…that will make a difference.
• Today we can do that thing we have been meaning to do for months or years…that will make a difference.

Here is the deal, Friends; God willing these next 24 hours are going to come and go and we will still be here. We get to choose how we will live them. We can choose anything we want however we are not free from the consequences of our choices…we will walk out the life we have chosen to live. So, whether this day is a day that makes a difference – when we finally walk in our calling, quit a bad habit, change our attitude, etc. – or if it is “just another day” is completely up to each one of us. I choose to live a day that makes a difference and I sincerely hope and pray you do as well!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well!

Kev😊