Winning Doesn’t Mean they Lose

Whether you’re a business owner, a manager, or a professional, you are competing for business with someone else.  Most people believe that in order for their business to succeed, their competitors should fail.  That, however, is a fallacy.

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,” Proverbs 24:17 ESV.

In the book of Proverbs we learn about being a good sport.  It’s a great way to make sure your heart stays kind, and it’s a great way to ensure that your life remains stress free (not to mention you show the love of Christ).  But we can extrapolate this to more than just being a kind person.

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Innovation is a Requirement for Survival

Many people think of innovation as something that only a select few get to do.  They think of people like Steve Jobs innovating and revolutionizing the smart phone world.  Or James Dyson and his vacuum cleaners.  Or perhaps, on a more local level, Big Sky Collision Center innovating and turning the auto repair industry on its head.

But those are just the big examples.  Those are some examples that shook up industries and became immensely popular in our culture today.  Innovation, however, happens many times throughout the day on a much smaller level.  In fact, you have probably innovated today without even realizing it.

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How to Deal with Uncontrollable and Controllable Events

I recently read the book Chop Wood, Carry Water by Josh Medcalf.  Then, over the previous couple of months, my Biz to Biz group has been going through and having a bit of a discussion on it.  I had the opportunity to talk about one of the chapters last week.  If you haven’t had a chance to read it, then you need to pick up a copy, it has a ton of valuable information.

I was assigned to Chapter 23.  During preparation, I was able to glean a bunch of insights; and the words of Ben Sweetland rang true, “We cannot hold a torch too light another’s path without brightening our own.”  Here is what I discovered in my journey.

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Growing through the everyday “stuff”

Normally I try to sit down once each week and write some brilliant insights.  Generally they are focused on something I have read recently, or perhaps a Bible verse that I found applied to life.  Today… I got nothing.

I have recently read through the book Chop Wood, Carry Water by Joshua Medcalf.  If you haven’t read it, then I highly recommend it.  The basic premise, at least around the title, is that you have “chores” to do that must be done every day.  If you try to skip them, it throws everything off.  Lately, I have been chopping wood, and carrying water (and taking the morning off to go to the trampoline park with my son).  That means I have been working on these things, instead of exploring insights.

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Get What You Want, Every Time

We all have needs, and we all have desires.  Often, however, we have to put our desires aside because they’re either unattainable, or unattainable at this moment.  But what if I told you that there is an easy way that you can get what you want, every single time, and all you have to do is ask?  It sounds absurd, but we can claim that Biblical promise laid out to us in Mark 11:24

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24 ESV More »

Instead, Resolve to Tackle Your Goals

I despise New Year’s resolutions.  It took me quite a few years to realize why, but I finally discovered it is because the majority of resolutions revolve around superficial “stuff” that really doesn’t matter in the long run.  Sure some are noble, some are healthy, and some are good.  But for the most part, resolutions largely revolve around things that look good on paper, but in the end don’t really matter.

Instead, about 20 years ago, I resolved to never again make a New Year’s Resolution.  A few years ago, I sort of broke that resolution and resolved to start setting goals for the calendar year.  Those goals, however, are different than my resolutions.  Those goals involve action steps to make sure I get there.

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What’s Your Motivation?

In life we have goals.  We all have something that we are working toward, and we all have our wants.  Some are lofty, some far-fetched, some reasonable, and some absurd; your actual goal, for this discussion, doesn’t really matter.  What matters is how you are going to obtain that goal.

If you have made it to the point where you were able to sit down and plan out your goals, then you’re doing better than many people.  There are quite a few that never even put thought into what they want to accomplish.  Now comes the hard part: developing the strategy to reach your goal, and maintaining the discipline to get there.

To start, you need to know whether you want a carrot or want to avoid the stick.

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Or Do You Get To?

If you read much of what I have written, then you know I’m a big proponent of attitude.  Simple tweaks can take you from being stuck in a rut, to being wildly successful.  For instance, if you take a little bit of time every day to be thankful, you’ll notice that your entire day suddenly is a whole lot better.

When you change the way that look at things, then you have the ability to change the way your mind relates to them.  Fortunately, you are easy to trick.  All it takes is a couple of sentences, and then your whole mindset changes.

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This is Halloween… or is it Christmas?

Tim Burton’s film, “The Nightmare before Christmas” came out over 26 years ago.  It immediately saw huge success earning a 91% approval rating, and bringing in over $75 million.  But I’m not here to talk about its success, nitpick the finer details of the movie, or even whether or not you like it (personally I like it).  I’m here to take a peek into some of the psychology behind the movie.

It’s not that this movie is particularly astute, or that it stood out to me more than others.  The reason is that over the weekend I watched it, and, frankly because today is Halloween Day.  I’m sure that you could look at a number of other movies and find the same insights if you pay close enough attention.

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How to Lead to Empowerment

The goal of running a business is to finely tune your leadership skills so that your employees have a strong desire to help grow the business.  Your goal is to lead the organization so that it will run without you, and the only way to do that is to make sure that your employees take ownership of what they do.

While there is no one step that will get you there, there are many little steps that will help you arrive.  One of those ways is to know where you’re going with your company and develop your leadership abilities around that vision.
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