by Dale Shumaker
www.spiritsavvy.net
4spirit@gmail.com
Raised on a dairy farm in the hill country of central Pennsylvania, I stuttered and was introverted. Going to school was a traumatizing, fearful experience. In first grade I was in the slow group. All through school I slowly moved up the pack. Getting into college by the skin of my teeth, having to take the remedial English program, I started at the back of the pack and again slowly moved up the ranks. Then I talked my way into graduate school, again at the back of the pack. Ironically, I completed my graduate program as the top student and was nominated to receive a national merit scholarship in my field.
This pattern seems to have followed me throughout my life. Wherever I was deficient I eventually turned it around to be advanced in that area. If you keep playing hard even when all seems bleak, things eventually turn and go your way. I believe in people, because I know anything is possible for those who keep fighting on in spite of adverse circumstances.
This has shaped my attitude in life in a significant way. Although sure of my abilities, I prefer to present myself in a humble way. As a stutterer, I understand embarrassment in groups. I never put someone in a bad light in front of others. With a degree in speech and theater, I have learned how to face fear and press through it.
My educational background includes psychology, broadcast communications, educational communication and educational administration. Several times I had to fight just to be accepted in a program… start dead last then end up at the front of the pack.
Coming into a company as a person of little notoriety, in five years I was voted by a group of 700 employees to represent them to the company leadership in employee wishes and desires. I believe in each individual’s right for pursuit of happiness. Whether in a corporate setting or the free market sector, each person should be availed their right to pursue life wishes as they desire. Consequently, I avoid judging and seek to understand and accept differences in people. I try to adjust to them as compared to having them adjust to me.
Over the decade of the 90's I’ve studied business development and personal dynamics in life. I was fortunate to have one of the leading practitioners in Spiritual living as a personal mentor—the late Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft. I enjoy entrepreneurism, pioneering new ideas, and bringing new ideas into being. I understand the real struggles of business and those involved in them. Within struggles we learn the secrets that propel us to greatness…the skills we need to lead and charge forth leading the pack.
In 2005 I launched the Spirit Savvy Business. Reading bestselling business books, creating summaries, adding Spiritual Principles, has created a distinctively dynamic system to build entrepreneur enterprise with a strong Spiritual punch. It's my belief this will completely revolutionize a society when given a chance to be integrated in the marketplace. A business with Bible studies, prayer meetings will become common. Many will use a business as a vehicle to build the Kingdom of God in the marketplace which will transform our society. It's a potent Spiritual force that will bring us to a time when the Kingdom of Heaven will be brought to earth, and function on earth the way it is in Heaven.
This vision was birthed decades ago and it was initiated after I went through a severe business failure in mid 2000's. My resources to start it included a library card and a Barnes and Noble coffee shop. The Spirit Savvy Biz blog began publishing biz book summaries each month; the Spirit-based Entrepreneur program was constructed to fire up the marketplace... Spiritual excellence with business excellence. Another in-the-making remarkable move coming from way back. This time bringing renewal to America. And again is happening... wider and deeper than before. Forming as the most remarkable move from the back of the pack in my life.
More on this thrust happening in my contribution years at:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/daleshumaker
Life for me has been a repeating scenario of coming from the back of the pack, so I have an unwavering faith in people and their ability to handle what they face regardless of how challenging it may be. It is within all of us to exceed our past accomplishments and keep improving no matter how well we may be doing. We should always focus on getting better and beating our own best record… and view set backs as unique opportunities in disguise.
My value system upholds personal excellence, but not with arrogance;
being persistent but not overbearing;
striving to be the best but not by putting others down;
when successful give the credit to all involved;
be quick to forgive and overlook others faults
and focus more on what I need to be doing to fix a problem.
Criticizing accomplishes very little,
but encouraging, praising and complimenting people on their gifts get greater results.
"Be bold, be strong for the Lord your God is with you." (Joshua 1)
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki is the process of delighting people with you, your product, service, organization or idea. It is not about getting people's money or getting them to do what you want. It is simply having people being filled with great delight. Enchantment's place is to make the world a better place and is needed when you seek idealistic results, make difficult decisions, overcome entrenched habits, defy a crowd or must proceed despite delayed or nonexistent feedback.
Enchantment is about changing the world and to do that, we need to follow these steps to enchantment.
Step one is achieving likability. Likability involves having a great smile, the way you dress, your handshake, and your vocabulary. When you meet someone give a smile to make your crows feet show, dress in way that shows what you stand for, shake hands firmly with direct eye contact, use words that are simple, active, keeping it short. Accept others and allow yourself to get close with proximity and frequency(presence makes the heart grow fonder). Don't impose your values. Pursue and project your passions, find others who share your passions. Say yes to more people, see options and build rapport. A yes attitude increases likability.
The other half of likability is trustworthiness. To be trusted you must trust others. Be a mensch, which is a person honest, fair and transparent. Focus on goodwill and disclose your interests. Be reciprocal. Give with expecting nothing in return, pay forward, and for the reason just to help others. Gain knowledge and competence. Keep showing up regularly. It takes months to build trust. Be someone's hero. Demonstrate you can come through for someone faced with a challenge.
Do something great... lay the groundwork and preparation to make it successful. A great product is deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant. Conduct a premortem. If the project failed what would have caused it to fail. Make it easy to do the right thing. Make it short, simple and swallowable. Use tricolons, metaphors, similes, keep it short, positive and show respect. Remove fences and provide default options. Establish goals, create checklists.
Now, after you have developed a great cause, create a great story others can be immersed in the cause. People are drawn to your story when they hear you have great aspirations that forge a better way; when it's a David and Goliath story of the underdog taking on the big guy; when others see a profile in courage of overcoming an injustice or seemingly devastating defeat. A personal experience involving family that is meaningful. Immersing people in your cause includes enabling vicarious experience, getting close to the real situation, anchor your story to something they are familiar with, and show the difference this will make from past experience. Embrace those who are nobodies and are more likely to promote your cause. Then ask people for their support of your cause. Present the big idea, then ask them to make a small choice. Get your first follower. A good first follower will attract other followers.
Enchantment is a process, so reluctance will enter in. People are reluctant due to inertia... a thing not in motion will stay not in motion. Some won't reduce choices, are afraid to make mistakes, lack role models, or your cause may not interest them. Create a perception that it's a growing concern. Familiarity breeds commitment. Make it look scarce, but certain to be. Use one good example of how your cause is important versus non-emotional lists of statistics. Use images that are dramatic and you can't get out of your mind. Find a way to agree. Get on the beach first before taking the mainland. Use data to support your point of view and change people's minds. One who has done you a kindness will more than likely do it again. So don't feel people will resent you for asking for a favor when they did it once.
Make enchantment enduring. Internalize values by helping people to identify with your values and then internalizing by believing in them. Invoke reciprocity by giving with joy, giving early, give often and generously, give unexpectedly. Build a community that complements the cause by being involved in user groups, having blogs, using consultants and developers, resellers and conferences. Identify and recruit evangelists, give people things meaningful to do, publish, foster discourse, publicize the existence of the ecosystem. Build a diverse team including advocates, skeptics, visionaries, adult efficiency (get things done people), evangelists(spread the word), and rainmakers to close deals.
Kawasaki also recommends how to use push and pull technologies. "Push" includes presentations, email, Twitter, etc. New technologies are constantly being introduced. Some enduring principles for now and later are engage fast, engage many and engage often. Use multiple media, provide value, give credit. give people the benefit of the doubt, accept diversity, don't take any crap, limit promotion, disclose your conflicts. In presentations, customize introductions, sell your dream, think screenplay (not speech), dramatize, shorten, practice, warm up the audience, speak a lot. When using email keep these principles in mind, get a real email, get an introduction, personalize the subject line, keep it to six sentences, suck up(do your homework), minimize attachments, ask for something concrete. Engage people manually, promote your cause. make it personal.
Use pull technology to distribute large quantities of information. These include websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube pages. Keep this on the forefront. Provide good content, refresh it often, skip the flash and let people right in, make it fast, sprinkle in graphics and pictures, craft an about page, help visitors navigate, introduce the team. optimize visits for various devices, provide multiple methods of access. When using Linked In make a great profile, get visible and reach out. Reach out by searching by name, search by company, find shared interests, check the reputation of people, scope out companies.
Kawasaki continues on to discuss enchanting employees and your boss, and how to resist enchantment (that's resisting the unethical enchanter). Learn enchanting skills responsibly and in a manner that benefits all involved, if not the world. You can link to Guy Kawasaki's Facebook and blog at his website: http://www.guykawasaki.com/
Jesus was very high on enchantment. He was very likable... many followed him and crowds pressed to see him everywhere. He was trustworthy and many placed their whole trust in him and gave up everything they owned for him and He did great things. And promised we would do even greater things.
Jesus taught with real authority. And people saw a genuine character unlike others who were just motivated for political or self-ambition reasons. "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law." (Matthew 7:28, 29)
And because of this authority, as they saw Him as the true Son of God, the Messiah, the One that God was sending in flesh and blood to actually see the character of God in person. When they saw all of this first hand, they also saw someone they could trust. "Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up houses or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.” (Luke 18:28-30)
"They flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus." (John 12:9-11)
Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” Luke 10:19,20)
And Jesus did great things and healed, walked on water, raised people who died. Beyond this He promised the greatest reward which was we would be raised from the dead like He was and we would live in a world of wonder and bliss. As He said that we should be most grateful because we would share in everything God owns.
Being in Him we would share in this great inheritance, equal partners with Him, in who He is and everything He did... All of His miracles! Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water. "yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus." (Matthew 14: 28, 29)
He was so enchanting that the masses loved Him although those in leadership at that time despised him because he kept upstaging them. Doing things that proved He was the son of God and even more than that was the only person to predict coming back from the dead and then doing it. "Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.: (Mark 8:31)
And Jesus did. He was killed, raised from the dead, and now has gone to prepare a place for us.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)
But even now, Jesus promised we would do even greater things than He did with His Spirit in us on earth. “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father." (John 14:12)
We will live always, from right now through forever, in a life that is beyond our imagination with joy and happiness we can't even describe in our human terms. It's worth it to be enchanting in the Spirit of Jesus and live as He did.
(Contact info: Dale Shumaker, 4spirit@gmail.com, 417-224-3517)
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Disciplined Dreaming by Josh Linkner involves systems for breaking through to creativity. The five-step method of ask, prepare, discover, ignite, and launch can be applied by any business or business venture-minded person. Using systems that are common left brain attributes, any person whether right brained (commonly the creative side) and left brained (more systematic and linear) can be innovators and creators in their business.
What do you do in each step?
Step 1: Ask. Identify and clearly define your specific creative challenge.
Step 2. Prepare. Get ready to meet the challenge you identified.
Step 3. Discover. Explore the avenues that might lead to creative ideas.
Step 4. Ignite. Spark creativity and get more ideas.
Step 5. Launch. Make your best ideas a reality.
What approaches can you use to invigorate each step?
Disciplined Dreaming will bring solutions to you in three areas: Breakthrough innovation, high-value change, everyday creativity. To expand your creativity, you will need to tolerate ambiguity, avoid right and wrong answers, accept ruts and grooves, listen, don't be rigid or stubborn, seek input.
Linkner's method uses a systems approach that a left brain person as well as a right brain person can use and feel quite at home at doing it.
Ask.
Build a creativity brief. Common elements of this brief include an overview which is a description of the project or problem you are trying to solve.
The history, what has led up to this point?
The objective, what specific outcome is desired to be accomplished?
The deliverables, what will come out of this that will be delivered?
The target audience, whom will the message reach?
The timeline, dates and milestones throughout the project.
The client, who are the decision makers, those who approve each part?
The budget, what financial restraints must be adhered to?
Creative warmup exercises are provided to warm up the mind to creative function.
To lead you to breakthroughs in thinking ask three questions: Why? What if? Why not?
To dig deeper into a thought ask Why? five times. For each response follow with another Why? Sounds a little like your 2-year old growing up, but works great to get deeper in a thought or idea. Master innovators have five skills: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, networking(or getting ideas from varied sources).
Prepare.
Do fun, off-the-wall things to loosen everyone up... word games, improv, field trips.
The seven rules of creative culture are fuel your passion... develop a sense of purpose, promote collaboration, celebrate ideas, foster autonomy, encourage courage, fail forward, think small, maximize diversity.
Prepare the environment. Go to different sites, rearrange rooms that are open, bright, colorful, with lots of sunlight, have people sit in different places, on different things( maybe everyone gets a bean bag to sit on).
When you conduct a meeting off-site, follow these practices.
1. Start with clear objectives. Make sure your creativity brief has been prepared.
2. Establish ground rules. Some things to keep in mind are confidentiality, dive deep, steer people back from tangents, demand clarity, how do we take it home.
3. Make the most of intros and endings. Start with something motivational and end it with inspiration to carry on.
4. Warm it up. Use quotes and other activities to get creative juices going.
5. Create a theme. Use sub-themes as quideposts along the way.
6. Sprint and break. Take a break every couple hours. Keep cell phone's off during meeting.
7. Move outside your comfort zone. Do activities different than the norm.
8. Get stimulated. Food, guest speakers, videos, live entertainment. Group fun.
9. Encourage broad participation. Be a facilitator not a lecturer.
10. Prepare. Ask people to prepare in advance activities they are in charge of.
Discover.
Look at a problem through different lenses, as if you were a musician or engineer, someone not normally associated with the area being discussed. Pretend you are that person as you explain it to the group.
Capitalize on inflection points. As technology, culture, economic conditions, social interaction styles change, these are inflection points that can unleash new opportunity. What's the significance of these changes and how can you capitalize on them? Opportunities can lie at the intersection of multiple inflection points or trends. In addition to discovering something totally new, they can add a new twist to an old idea.
Discover from borrowed ideas. Something may be working somewhere else that will work when applied to a problem. Keep up on what others are doing, and see if it would work for you.
Turn the problem upside down. Use the "instead of" and "what if" process. Play with an idea that you could pretend that "instead of" this, "what if" we did this. Apply this to existing problems and see what might come out of it.
Put patterns to use. What patterns exist that you can apply. In World War II the pattern of birds flying was used to determine air formation patterns. Many inventions and creative solutions came out of observing other patterns and applying them to something else. Look through magazines for ideas that could be used to innovate your situation? What inflection points affected others in how are they responding to changes?
Ignite.
The Creative process is nonlinear. It doesn't start with a complete idea or thorough concept, it begins with sparks. To spark the creative flame start with a number of small sparks, even though quite incomplete. Be very careful not to quickly extinguish those sparks.
Twelve ways to strike the spark of creativity.
Use Imbizo groups, which is a group of people with diverse backgrounds. They merely discuss the project. Their diversity brings new and different perspectives.
The hot potato is to randomly pass something like a nerf ball around and who catches it must shout out an idea in only one sentence.
The start ain't always the start. Begin even if it's an idea for on down the road. The goal is to start sparking and start collecting ideas.
The wrong answer. Like how to win an award for the worst customer. It's fun, gets a few laughs and starts to spark the creative juices.
Stick to the man. How could you generate an idea that could get some people mad at you. As you are politically incorrect, then you will see the other side of what a non-offensive idea could be.
Get stimulated. Step away from your activity for while and let the mind recycle. When you come back and refocus the creative comes alive and makes something of an idea discussed earlier.
In the time capsule go back about 50 years. How would someone from that era solve this problem and come up with a better idea. Then jump 50 years in the future and do the same thing. This gets the mind rolling.
The Hemingway bridge. Start the next idea at the end of the day so you have a head start the next time you meet. It helps get you rolling faster when you come back.
The persona method has you create ideas around certain personas. Each persona will generate a different view. This opens the mind to news ways of seeing things.
Use provocation to generate off the wall ideas. A provocative statement usually stirs people up and may come out really stupid. These extreme comments get you looking at things from a different perspective.
Dagnabbits are times you get really frustrated about something. Find natural pain points and see what they stir up.
Think, doodle, write, repeat. Some great ideas start as we doodle. When we doodle away the artist side of us opens up.
The eight commandments of ideation are
1. Thou shall not judge. Let ideas flow and without evaluation early on.
2. Thou shall not comment. Let someone continue even if an idea sounds idiotic to you.
3. Thou shall not edit. Don't let grammar, spelling to get in the way of the flow.
4. Thou shall not execute. Don't try to figure out how it will work too soon.
5. Thou shall not worry. As outrageous ideas are permissible, we release fear from our own minds about sharing a dumb idea.
6. Thou shall not look backwards. "It didn't work before" thinking is not allowed in idea generation.
7. Thou shall not lose focus. When you wonder off the subject, put the idea in a parking lot, that may be picked up later.
8. Thou shall not sap energy. There are two kinds of people.... zappers and sappers. Zappers make you feel energized. Sappers cause energy to drain from you. Negative and droning comments kill creativity.
EdgeStorming is taking an idea to its greatest extreme. Making a long list forces you to dig deeper to new and fresher ideas. To get ideas from your ideas substitute and combine ideas, adapt an idea, magnify or minimize and idea, put it to another use, eliminate parts, rearrange or reverse.
Launch.
Now return to the left brain side and put both sides in force. Determine the best ideas, let go of some and put them to work. Create a scoring card of one to ten and rate them in time savings, low initial investment, easy to implement, requires little training, fast change timeline, low safety hazards, low ongoing costs, low operation risks, and long term benefit.
In comparing ideas consider if it meets your desired outcome, solves your original problem, impact on your company or career, reception by your target audience, meets your definition for success, return on investment.
Test your selections by using prototyping, making a physical model, acting it out, simulating it, making a movie, demonstrating it.
Look at these results and then build a detailed action plan including budgets, roles and responsibilities, detailed timelines, top risks with contingency plans for each, resources needed including money, people, time, and the communication and rollout plan.
More from Josh Linkner at http://joshlinkner.com/
Anybody set on a mission, in business or life, will benefit from the following process. Use this to create your own a flight plan. It is a Spirit directed process, with Spirit inspiration to empower your efforts along the way, with creative and innovative strategies propelling extraordinary results.
The Spirited-Powered Goal process for innovation and Divinely-Inspired strategies...
Follow the Joshua (1) process... Know where 2 or 3 agree Jesus is there.(Matt. 18) It's about....
Seeking God First in all things,
Set directions as God gives you.
Recording what His Spirit brings to mind.
(write the vision daily, the prophetic word by the prophets was written down)
Craft the strategy, organize your thoughts as Spirit directs.
Re-enforce it with faith, and reminders of past victories.
Use Scripture Power reminders to overcome insurmountable obstacles
(Again, write all this down)
Speak Scripture promises affirmatively.
Share what is inspired with another.
Speak it back to each other.
Say it out-loud to each other and continue to proclaim it.
Proceed into battle with a shout, proclaiming His promises in confidence of voice.
Carry out the strategy with boldness.
Support each other,
fight as a unit and combine faith Spirit.
One in Spirit is your Power. Be one in effort, in Spirit
Speak faith into each other.
Report what is happening and keep each other going.
Get new insights, proclaim it and go back into battle.
Keep each other going.
Keep a record of victories, and return to seek God for the next battle.
Carry your Fight Book with you everywhere, and constantly record the Spirit as He speaks to you throughout the day.
To summarize the process:
Pray it,
See it in Spirit in mind,
Confess it,
Scripture it,
Write it, craft strategies,
Share it,
Unite in it,Boldly advance,
Proclaim it,
Support each other,
Review victories,
Constantly seek God.
Be Bold, be Strong, for the Lord your God is with you.
Expect Miracles, live expectantly !!!
With God's plan in hand, you walk with power in your step because you walk in His steps.
Make your own Spirit-powered goal system,
(build your own notebook, with your design, methods similar to your personality), and keep refining as you learn each day. This will increase its power.
Each person's notebook should be personalized.
Each person should have his/her own style, but the ingredients be similar.
This is your Flight Plan, your Fight Plan, your Power Plan.
Be Bold, Be Strong, for the Lord, the God over all conditions of earth,
is With You!
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Recently I had the privilege of having a phone conversation with Dr. Henry Cloud about his book Necessary Endings. My interest was to learn more on how the small business entrepreneur can benefit from Necessary Endings to increase performance while adapting to life as it shifts around us.
Dr. Cloud said he was finding that in his dealings with people that life is a series of endings. Handling them well can create quantum leaps in our lives.
First I asked how the desperately hopeless person such as the homeless can overcome hopelessness. He said Necessary Endings wasn't written necessarily for the homeless. This is an area that needs addressed differently. But he did share a few insights about this.
Those who never choose to face challenges of life(such as the seriously depressed homeless) live in a learned hopelessness. They need a software rewrite (thinking systems) in their brain so the hardware (living patterns) functions productively. They begin to think in predictable ways. Their minds are in a closed system. Without strong positive outside sources influencing them, they remain predictable in their thought/life patterns.
The person who is performance based responds to hopelessness in more life transforming ways. Here a person may leave the rut of his life. Hopelessness becomes a necessary change ally. It forces the person to see the reality of his situation and it forces change... which is needed and will lead the person to what's better. He then adopts thinking and behavior that moves him to greater accomplishment in other areas.
I asked him what parts of Necessary Endings would he recommend to the small biz entrepreneur. His first suggestion was the section on seasons. We need to learn that life has seasons. This is especially true in the business world. Sometimes we may be a little late to the game. Determine where this is in your life cycle.
In all things we encounter, there is place to hope and a place for not having hope. We need to see the realities around us and respond hopefully where hope is warranted. He also suggested the chapter on Hope vs. Wishing. (I will summarize this chapter below.) We need to get in a mindset of a larger narrative. Successful people look at things with a larger narrative. For example, a football quarterback doesn't lose a game because of one interception. A setback may come in the game, but in the view of the whole game this is just one setback. Some have come out of bankruptcy and started much better, being more timely, with a better designed company that then will flourish tremendously. Failure is part of business. It's rare not to have failures in business. Dr. Cloud encourages us not to waste this experience. Learn from it. Do a postmortem, do an autopsy. Find out what went wrong. What can we do better? Look at the big picture. Learn more about yourself and your choice of the people around you, and the reasons behind what happened.
In concluding our phone visit, I asked where Spirituality fit into our business lives. Dr. Cloud answered by pointing out it's not so much Spirituality fitting into us, but us fitting into It, aligning ourselves with It, the nature of the universe. There are transcending principles that govern everything. When we are misaligned with these principles, it wouldn't work. When we are aligned with a God relationship, we're in a line of principles that make things work. It includes trust, seeing reality clearly, treating people right, forgiving others. We metabolize faster (or energize productivity) when we are aligned with Spiritual design. It works better.
Necessary Endings was originally summarized January 24, 2011. Here's an overview of the chapters Dr. Cloud suggested would be a good review for the business entrepreneur. Also note Dr. Cloud's website: http://www.drcloud.com/
In the chapter Hoping versus Wishing, Dr. Cloud pointed out the difference between what's worth fixing and what should end. The past is a good predictor of the future. People have patterns and behavior responses to the past that may repeat again in the future. We need reasons to believe. Nine factors can help determine if you can have hope, that tomorrow will be different from today. Business entrepreneurs who desire different results would benefit when they subject themselves to this process.
1. Verifiable involvement in a person to get involved in a change process.
Is a person willing to undertake actions to improve the future?
2. Additional structure.
Creating a structured path with regular meetings including coaching, support, training.
3. Monitoring systems.
How do we know this is happening... is it being watched and measured?
4. New experience and skills.
Getting new information with new experiences that teach what is needed in order to make the future different.
5. Self-sustaining motivation.
Being on fire to change. Are meetings being attended, material being read and others are being included in discovery ways to change the future.
6. Admission of need.We must really feel a need to change and seek out valued help.
7. The presence of support.
Being surrounded by people who support our desire for a better future, including professional support along with friends, peers.
8. Skilled help.
Someone in our circle of help who knows what's going on.
9.Some success.
Movement is good. To be able to ascertain that something is happening, even if
initially things get worse.
Create a structure that includes the right amount of energy at the right time.
Create urgency to stay motivated and stay energized for change.
This includes:
1. Creating ending alliances. Those we hang around affect us... those who have hope for a future and are committed to see it happen.
2. Create vision. We create what we see, so keep the picture of a good future in your mind.
3. Set deadlines. Living by a sense of urgency requires deadlines along the way to keep getting things done. Without them we lose momentum and motivation.
4. Create structure. Structure is time, plans, critical paths, milestones, deadlines, allocation of resources. Without structure the non-vital takes over. Structure places the rails in place that the train runs on.
What we do everyday will make what we want more likely to happen. We also need the people doing the same thing around, to see that it happens.
Stay close to misery. Realizing our misery is also a motivator as it keeps us moving away from it. Creating urgency around necessary endings is key to what happens to your time and energy.
Dr. Henry Cloud is highly respected. Necessary Endings is a necessary reliable resource to have around.
As Believers our Hope is heightened through Jesus who so powerfully works through us. And our strength is enhanced by His might and the relationship we have with other Believers.
As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 15. "...that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." We confidently hold on to this hope which gives us the real hope for our future.
Jeremiah said that our hope for a future rests in God's great plans for us. "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
(Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)
His path leads us on the path to a bright future.
It's important to note that when we stay in His structure and we are diligent to obey the principles of His Laws, we are guaranteed wonderful results. “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter. If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to you... a land flowing with milk and honey.!"
(Deuteronomy 11:8,9, NLT)
The promise for obeying is a future overflowing with wonderful things.
And Paul said that His Spirit works so powerfully through Him. "...through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Read all of Ephesians 3 as Paul keeps emphasizing God's power at work and the Confident Hope it brings us.
What an awestruck promise to have God's very Spirit living in us. We live with confidence in hope as His Power works through us. His plans are revealed to us and He sees that they come about as we stay diligent in doing as He says.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John C. Maxwell trains you on the ability to connect. Maxwell briefs you on the principles and then the skills of connection. This is a pinnacle factor for success today. Our society is becoming a highly connected society and those with this skill will excel beyond others . Connection happens when we see others go the extra mile for us, we get unsolicited appreciation, others show an ungraded openness, their communication increases with us, experiences are enjoyable with emotional bondedness, while a positive energy brings us into a growing synergy, and unconditional love causes others to accept us without reservation. How do we get to the place where these attributes become part of us?
Maxwell lists five connecting principles.
1. Connecting increases your influence with others. Talk more about the other person, bring something they value to them, and ask others how you can help them.
2. Connecting is about others. Instead of correcting others, focus on them and connecting with them. To value others , we must first value them. Others ask: Do you genuinely care about me? Can you help me? And can I trust you?
3. Connecting goes beyond words. Your actions speak louder than words. More than 90% of an impression has nothing to do with what we actually say. Every message contains a piece of you. Connecting then is how people see you. Do you have a sense of purpose and an open posture? Do people understand you. When you find yourself you find your audience. When connecting emotionally, people may hear your words, but do they feel your attitude. When speaking your words with tone, inflection, timing, volume, pacing you enlarge the connection factor.
4. Connecting takes energy requiring us to be deliberate about it, such as spending time together, remembering names, making others feel special. Show initiative and approach others, preparing yourself, being patient, being selfless and giving, and having stamina which is taking time to recharge.
5. Connecting is more skill than natural talent. What makes people listen is the quality of relationships, who you know, what you know, what you have done, what you can do and how you have lived. Have an interest in the other person, place value in that person, put their interests ahead of yours, express gratitude to and for that person.
Five practices that will help you connect.
1. Find common ground. The first rule to connecting is finding what you have in common, and this happens when you don't focus just on yourself. What prevents this happening is making assumptions that you know how others know, feel, think, arrogance in that you don't need to know, indifference or not caring, and control where you don't want others to know.
Cultivating common ground includes availability... choosing to spend time with others; listening... paying attention to what others are saying; asking questions...finding out more about the person or going deeper; thoughtfulness... being considerate of life events important to someone else; openness... allowing people into your life and being vulnerable; likability... when you like people, they like you; humility... lifting up others, more than grandizing yourself; adaptability... being flexible thinking of others world, their challenges, their dreams. Connectors go first. Be the first to ask, asking others how they feel, what they see, what they know, what they want. When you really want to get to know someone ask what they dream about, what they sing about, what they cry about. As you get to know them, share where you have common ground.
2. Keep it simple. When sharing information it should be characterized with humor, having heart, bringing hope, and helping the other person. The art of simplicity is easy to understand but harder to do. Talk to people, not above them. Get to the point. Say it over and over again. (To get it, people need to hear it often.) Say it clearly with short simple sentences. Ask for feedback and what they heard.
3. Create an experience everyone will enjoy. How can you be interesting? Take responsibility for your listeners and change yourself first to help them grasp you. Get into their world and communicate in terms they relate to. Capture people's attention from the start by making reference to a situation at hand, introduce yourself, relax, use humor, create a sense of anticipation. Activate your listener by asking questions, getting people moving, doing something. Say it so it sticks by linking to what people need while being original. Be visual by creating mind pictures people can easily see too. Tell stories and share part of your life. Be the kind of person others would want to connect with.
4. Inspire people. People need to know that you understand them and are focused on them, that you have insight to what they are thinking, what they are saying. They need to know you have high expectations of them and belief they are capable of those expectations. People need to see your convictions, credibility, that your character is evident. People need to feel your passion for the subject and for them. Do I believe what I say, has it changed me, will it help others, and change others? They need to feel your gratitude for them. Say the right things at the right time and help people with action plans. Tell them the importance they have and what they can become. Keep them inspired.
5. Live out what you communicate. People trust you when the way you live outweighs your words. You are the message. Connect with yourself, honestly right your wrongs and willingly apologize, acknowledge mistakes to others, and make appropriate amends. Be accountable, tell the truth, be vulnerable, and treat others the way you would want to be treated. Deliver results. To be successful in the long run you need to connect, keep connecting and live out what you communicate.
Connecting is not a talent but a skill you can learn, and by applying these principles on a regular basis you will become a premier connector, influencing change in the world.
The John Maxwell blog:
http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/
How to develop a strong prayer life?
Prayer has different expressions. There's devotional prayer (reading God's Word and fellowshipping with an intimacy with God), intercession for revival and justice, being a prayer covering which is praying for others and God's protection for them, healing and direction, and praying for the sick. A consistent prayer life is essential for any mission called of God in one's life to be fulfilled through them.
Prayer energizes your spirit, releases God's blessing, and results in changes in people around us, circumstances around us, even without us taking direct action. It softens people's hearts so they are receptive to what we say to them.
God asks us to pray so we connect with His heart to have a deeper relationship with Him. As God said of David, that he was a man after His own heart, inspite of all the atrocities he committed while being King of Israel. Asking is a foundational principle of the kingdom of God at work around us. The Bible specifically says to ask. We should not just think and dwell on our needs and problems, things we are frustrated about or desperate about. In everything by prayer, let your requests be known to God.
There are blessings that God has chosen to give, but that He withholds until we ask Him. In this way, He protects His relationship with us by not answering until we connect with Him and ask.
Three ways to strength our prayer life are to schedule prayer, make prayer lists, and have a right view of God. Scheduled time for prayer, as your sanctuary time with God in His inner Chamber, should be held sacredly in your life. Lists keep us on track to cover what is close to our hearts and things we need to persevere in prayer for. Our prayer focus should include intimacy, to love and adore God, petition, asking God's blessing on our lives and mission, and intercession to pray for others, places and concerns in the world. In prayer, prayer brings us His Gifts of the Spirit that work Supernaturally through our lives, fruit of His Spirit that we function in His character of love, and wisdom which is having God's mind be part of our mind.
The view of God in prayer is that He is a tender loving father, who loves us, is wanting to help us. He has the desire and power to do it. He is not inattentive to our voice to Him and He controls all the power of the universe to the smallest detail in that He can help us. He seeks to be close to us and work close along side us. See God as enjoying being with you and He wants you to enjoy being with Him.
One substantial way to bolster your prayer life is by feeding on His Word. When in a posture of prayer, and mind focused on God, the reading of the Scriptures enlarges our Spirit to receive all of who He is. Scriptures give you the conversational material for your prayer life and makes prayer more enjoyable. Bible study leads to more dialogue with God. Scriptures enlarge your capacity for believing His promises as they are presented, and exhorting you to obey what His principles say.
Take time to journal and write down what is impressed to you in prayer. Take time to linger in His presence. That's why scheduling and setting aside specific time is so important. Speak affectionately, speak slowly and softly, speak in short phrases as this is how we normally think, speak minimally and allow silence with pauses.
This will bring strength with might to your inner man through His Spirit.
For more, google Mike Bickle, How to develop a strong prayer life. He has a video and outline to down load on the above.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
This process will help you discover and reinforce what mission God has for you. Give each area some thought. Then go over them with a trusted friend (who may have additional insight) and see where God is preparing you.
God Calls
What defining moment (or moments) stand out in your mind? What dramatic or traumatic experience, surprising achievement, or something that has left an imprint on your thinking ever since? God's calling many times comes out of a defining moment which has inspired you to want to contribute to others because of the impact the event has had in your life. (It can be a very positive or negative experience.)
God Equips
Consider all your experiences from childhood to now. List education/training, activities, lifestyle experiences, work, hobbies, responsibilities, accomplishments which made you proud, that stand out to you. All these experiences are part of an equipping process. Create a lifestyle resume of achievements, education, activity/work experience that are part of your make up and make you feel strong/fulfilled when you think about them.
God Sends
In business we call this our market. God puts in our minds a group of people that we want to make a difference in their lives. It could be households, children, businesses, singles, disabled, etc. Have you ever said, "Someone ought to..." You may be that someone to do it. What creates a stirring in your soul when you think of contributing to a facet of people's lives? To whom or where would you see God sending you?
God Contributes Through You
Where God sends us, he equips us and many times this is birthed from defining moments. How do you want to help, serve, contribute to others' lives? What are you passionate about, and you want to make a difference in their lives? This is a group that God may want you to disciple. In a practical way, you become His Shepherd, caregiver in Spirit, for their lives. A customer, supplier may be who God wants you to build up in Christ. Like the Apostles, as business people you are His missionary directly to the marketplace.
God's Mission for You
Write a statement of who you feel God is calling you to, how He wants you to serve them and develop them, (i.e., disciple them for His Kingdom). And how God would want to use your business venture as His platform to build up the body of Christ through you.
The Secret to Spiritual Power
1. Find a partner to share in God's mission. Be prayer partners, encouragers, and share ideas and strategies.
2. Commit to take action. Sharing your actions with each other, and their results. Be the motivator to keep each other going.
3. Develop a personal, Spiritual growth discipline. Create and follow a Bible study plan, a prayer plan, a commitment to build the Kingdom of God daily through your business and life.
The Lord (to Joshua)... meditate on the Word day and night(renew your mind).
Jesus... seek His Kingdom first and all will be added to you as well.
Paul... persist in your prayers for all believers.
As God said to Joshua (Chapter 1), do this and you will succeed in all you do.
I will do a workshop for no charge for someone(s) wanting to put this to work... in person, or over phone (417-224-3517).
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud guides us through bringing to an end episodes and conditions in our lives that are necessary to end. To grow, some things have had their time and need to end. Dr. Cloud guides you through the process to make an accurate determination on what to end, when its time is up and how to go about it... then rebuild again after the ending. Bringing something to an end is not being a "quitter" and sometimes painful as we must prune off what we have grown too attached to... even though it may be holding us back in our life pursuits and desires.
Bringing something to an end is a pruning path. What do we prune? What's healthy that needs room for more; what's sick and not going well that's holding us back; and what's dead and just taking up space. Jack Welch, former GE CEO, applied this at GE. Either fix it, close it or sell it. Necessary endings are a normal part of life and business.
See necessary endings as a good thing. Where do necessary endings apply? Life has seasons and certain seasons come to an end. It's normal to end it then. Sometimes life produces too much. Pruning is vital to make room for what's most important to grow. This can be painful, but necessary. Other things are an incurable sickness and even evil. These must be eliminated... no matter how much it hurts.
Remember that pain can be a good thing when we remove something that is hurting us, but after recovering from it we feel so much better.
Examine your internal maps. In some cases we may have a high pain threshold. We put up with things we don't like. We cover for others, when we don't need to. We may feel we have failed when ending something, although it is better that we do, so we should not feel like failures. Over-extended loyalty makes us feel overly responsible for someone else. And someone's pain may not be our responsibility. Overt codependency and enabling is not healthy for all involved.
When the old must end, how do we motivate change. A sense of complete hopelessness causes movement toward what's better. When holding on with false hope, look to see if there are grounds to abandon what we want to hold on to. Checking our realities will give us a true read of whether to hold on to a hope, with a future, or eliminate a hopeless condition absent of a future.
When entering in the process of change with someone, you cannot deal with each person the same way. There are three types of people:
wise people,
foolish people,
and evil people.
The wise person will respond to correction and ideas that make things better. He willingly accepts new information that can make a difference, and will work with you to bring positive change.
The foolish person will not respond to talk. What we tell them doesn't register. They will be defensive, be rampant with excuses, see themselves as the victim.Talk won't work, only the experience of consequences will. Doing something that makes them feel the consequences of their behavior may be what turns them around. When they experience what it costs them, they may pursue other behaviors.
The other type of person is the evil person. This person is wanting to hurt or harm you in some way. They require lawyers (legal action), guns ( law enforcement) or money. It is best to avoid them, or flee from them. So with wise people you can talk to them, foolish people need to realize consequences, and with evil people don't talk to them, period.
Urgency must be created toward an ending which creates movement. We must sense the smoke and see the reality of a better future. Picture it, see it, smell it. Use our imaginations to create a compelling movie of a new reality. To empower this, create ending alliances, create a vision of a good future, set deadlines, create a structure to get there, stay close to the misery(which creates strong desire to move from it), measure constantly. Make urgent the new normal.
To overcome resistance, we must lose some things to free us up for the right thing. Do it now, and avoid the "I will get to it later" mind. Use self-selection. Regardless of who or what we deal with, make others meet the standard we have set. When others come toward our standard, that's self-selection. When we set the standard we draw the line in the sand where the other person must be.
Embrace grief. Along with a necessary ending, time is needed to grieve the ending before moving ahead. Don't deny or bury your grief. Have your funeral. Take time to allow metabolism to take place... find the good and use it, and eliminate what is unusable. Learn the why behind what went wrong, what needs to be made right, and then move on.
We should take the steps we need to take, maintain sustainable resources, and make the best out of whatever we have. Learn from the process, pour yourself into what you can be, and people will notice.
Dr. Henry Cloud has more at his website. http://www.drcloud.com/index.html
Jesus' disciples asked him when will the end of the age happen. Jesus went on to explain all the things that will happen when the earth will have a necessary ending.
All things on earth will disappear so a new heaven and earth will form. This may be pruning at its highest level. But before the new comes, the old will be eliminated. Jesus said you can't put new wine in old wine skins. The old ones will crack and not hold the wine. What we have on earth in this life now, will not hold water in Heaven. To experience Heaven, a wonderful existence, we must die first on earth. This is a necessary ending, so we can live in something so much better... so much better we can't even imagine it.
As one who has come close to death, what the after life is all about is very fascinating to me. Jesus made many references to the resurrection of the dead. For those who have nearly experienced death, we have had an exhilarating experience. It's hard to put in words we have today. But the vision of its future we live for has benefits that are so incredible. So we endure the pains and displeasures of earth looking for that immensely wonderful existence. The necessary ending, death, is welcomed and we look forward to it. The Apostle Paul talked about it. He said he would rather be with the Lord, in Heaven, but remains here for the sake of those on earth He is to help and prepare for this New World... an unblemished Kingdom of Heaven.
When the end of the age approaches, the discomforts of earth will increase. Weather will be erratic, people will become more hostile toward each other, life will increase in a sense of hopelessness, and people will seek more and more for happiness but not find it. (See Matthew 24:3-9.)
The future is found in the Spirit. The Apostle Paul said that God will put His Spirit in man and we can live in the New World in Spirit before we get there in person. The secret is that the very Spirit that Jesus said He would send from Heaven will live in us. All power of God remains at our disposal when we allow death to earth to happen spiritually and we incarnate the Spirit of God. All Powers of Heaven are in us and we can overcome all problems and troubles of earth. Hopelessness of earth is translated into hopefulness in God's Spirit. Spirit will leave this body and be transferred to a Glorious body, a body designed just for the New World completely saturated by God's Spirit.
In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he said, "...be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy."
(NLT, Col. 1:11)
"This is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory."
(NLT, Col. 1:27)
This is worth doing some dreaming about. Go off to a quiet place and get a sense of what this implies for us.
So necessary endings in life are a good thing. The ending in physical death is a good thing. The end of the age is a good thing. Be of good cheer, something so much better is just ahead. We have a future to look to and labor for.
The Best is yet to come...
