Tuesday, March 09, 2010

How Successful People Think... Experiencing God

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
417-224-3517

How Successful People Think by John C. Maxwell outlines the how and why of successful people's ways of thinking. Maxwell explains why you should change your thinking. It is not automatic, it is difficult, but worth the investment. And he says how to be a better thinker is to expose yourself to good input, to good thinkers, think good thoughts, act on good thoughts, allow your emotions to create new good thoughts, and repeat the process. Put yourself in the right place to think... to think your thoughts, shape your thoughts, stretch your thoughts, land your thoughts and fly your thoughts.

Maxwell explains the why's and how's in each area of thinking. I will focus on the How's for each. Maxwell is very extensively thorough in explaining the why's and how''s.

Cultivate Big Picture Thinking. Look beyond the bridges you will need to cross, learn to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity, learn from every experience, gain insights from a variety of people and give yourself permission to expand the world.


Engage in Focused Thinking. Remove distractions and do first things first, make time for focused thinking, keep items of focus before you, set goals, are you making true progress.

Harness Creative Thinking. Value ideas, explore options, embrace ambiguity, celebrate the offbeat, connect the unconnected, don't fear failure and venture out. Remove negative influences and ask the right questions, and hang around creative people.

Employ Realistic Thinking. Develop appreciation for the truth, do your homework, think through pros and cons, picture worst case scenarios, align thinking with resources.

Utilize Strategic Thinking. Break down the issue, ask why before how, identify the real issues and objectives, review your resources, develop your plan, put the right people in the right place, repeat the process.

Explore Possibility Thinking. Focus on possibilities not impossibilities, stay away from experts or people who know it all, look for possibilities in every situation, dream one size bigger, question the status quo, find inspiration from great achievers.

Learn from Reflective Thinking. Set aside time for reflection, remove yourself from distractions, regularly review your calendar and journal, cement learning with actions.

Benefit from Shared Thinking. Ask these questions. Am I emotionally secure? Do I value people? Move from competition to cooperation. Have an agenda when you meet. Get the right people around the table. Compensate good thinkers and collaborators well.

Practice Unselfish Thinking. Put others first. Expose yourself to situations where people have needs. Give quietly or anonymously. Invest in people intentionally. Continuously check your motives. Give while you live.

Rely on Bottom Line Thinking. Identify the real bottom line which is what your really want. Make the bottom line the point. Create a strategic plan to achieve the bottom line. Align team members with the bottom line.

Final thoughts: "Life consists of what we think about all day." (Emerson);
"The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts." (Locke)
"You are today what your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where
your thoughts take you." (Allen)
"Nothing limits achievement like small thinking." (Ward)
"Whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of a good report, think on these things."
(The Apostle Paul)

More from John C. Maxwell at
http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/

In Experiencing God through Prayer, Madame Guyon emphasizes that you must learn to pray from your heart. She says prayer is entering the Presence of God and remaining there for Him to speak, heal, console and just be with you. Start by digesting the Word of God, and then pray the Word of God. The Kingdom of God resides in His Temple and we are now His Temple. We can enter that most Holy and Powerful place.

Look at the Lord's prayer and dwell on these words. Our Father... we are His child. Let Him know your heart's desire. Remember, what a Father does and especially our Father in Heaven, creating of us and everything we see and don't see. What can this do? Ponder on what just, "Our Father" means. Let Him reign in you, and His right to rule over you.

Then continue as you ponder and reflect on Thy Kingdom Come and Thy will be Done on Earth as in Heaven. Ask God to accomplish His will through you on earth as it is in Heaven.

"Give us this day our Daily Bread." See yourself as a sheep before your shepherd. Look to Him for your food. Tell Him about your needs and family's needs. God is within you, walks with you, so He cares for you and your personal needs. Simply yield to God's operations in you until He completes His work. It's all attainable for those who seek God, simply begin.

Enter in His Presence. Stay silent and simply enjoy God and who He is. The road to perfection is abandonment. It is the key to enter the inner court of Spirit, to abandon oneself to God, casting off all selfish cares in order to be at His Divine disposal. Guyon says you must want only what God has willed from eternity. Remain steadfast in God and all things will be done to perfection. Put your confidence in God and remain quiet where He has placed you. Forgetting your faults when in His Presence is proof you have been purified in them.

Be led by the Spirit. When you are not being led by the Spirit you will feel either forced or constrained. When under the Spirit your actions will be free, easy, and so natural that it will almost seem as though you have not acted at all. When your spirit is centered on God, all activities He initiates will be noble, full of peace, natural, and so spontaneous that it will appear to you there has hardly been any activity at all. God's attraction is both a perfume to allure and an ointment to heal. Yet each soul is given freedom without constraint to follow Him. God never uses force, instead He attracts us by His powerful sweet presence.

God assures us that we need fear nothing. He promises to take very special care of us.
"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb." (Isaiah 49:15-16)
After reading these beautiful words of consolation, how can you ever again be afraid of abandoning yourself wholly to the Guidance of God!

The Spirit will increase in proportion to as you lose your self hood. By departing from self-hood, you will have acquired the purity and innocence of God. Gold cannot be purified except by fire, which consumes all that is earthly and foreign. Our earthly part must be melted and dissolved by the force of fire. It must be cast again and again into the furnace until it has lost every trace of pollution and every possibility of being further purified. You must be purged through the fire to be purged of self. It may last a long time. But do not become discouraged. Yield yourself to the Divine Spirit until you are wholly absorbed in Him.

Press on, press on, press on to know God.

(You can personally contact me at 417-224-3517, 4spirit@gmail.com ...and I also do courtesy on-site presentations of biz book summaries with a Spiritual spin.)

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