The following are my notes for a presentation that I recently gave to Elevate Leadership and Consulting.  A big shout out goes to Bible.org for providing the founding principles and the inspiration for a good portion of this presentation.  To download the PowerPoint; click here.

Understanding the Law of the Harvest

We all know the Law of the Harvest, it has been drilled into us from when we were little.  We’ve been told you are what you eat.  Garbage in, garbage out.  You become the average of the friends with whom you associate.  You reap what you sow.

That idea stems from the Bible verse Galatians 6:7 which says “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.”

The verse is talking about you can’t trick God.  If you invest in yourself and in sin, you can’t turn around and say that you are trying to do what God would want for your life.  But beyond spiritual application, there are important personal and business applications that we can take away from this simple verse.

John Maxwell touches on it in on page 13 of Thinking for a Change when he says “If you expect to reap corn when you planted nettles, you’re not going to get corn — no matter how much time you spend watering, ferilizing, or cultivating your plants.  If you don’t like the crop you are reaping, you need to change the seed you are sowing!”

But it goes a lot deeper than that; yes if we sow corn we reap corn and sowing nettles yields nettles.  But that’s just the start.

In reality, there isn’t a law of the harvest.  There are 7 laws of the harvest.

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Or Are You a Learner?

When we are born, and through the first few years of our lives, we have an insatiable appetite for learning.  Everything is new; we explore, test, try, and more often than not, fail.  We get right back up, try again, and keep practicing until we are able to master the skill.  But at some point, that switch turns off.  Somewhere along the way, many people stop trying.  They fail once, twice, or a few times and begin to think they simply don’t have the ability.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if half of the babies learning to walk gave up after failing 10 times?  They simply thought, “I just wasn’t born a gifted child, there’s no sense in trying because I’ll never master it.”  We would have a few billion adults crawling around the world because they thought they were unable to walk!

What this all boils down to is your mindset.  Specifically, is it fixed or open for growth?

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Success Begins in the Heart

Most of us want to be successful.  I have yet to talk to anyone that said, “I woke up one day and decided to fail.” Or a new high school graduate that said, “My goal in life is to be as mediocre as possible.”  No, we want to be successful, we want to soar and do better than anyone imagined.

Yet many won’t.  Many will end up in the doldrums of life and have achieved that mediocrity that nobody wanted.  They will go to a job they don’t like, to a home without love, drive a car they can’t afford, and overall not be happy with what they have.

Fortunately, the secret to success and happiness is far easier than most imagine.  It’s not a long self-help book that will get you there.  It consists of five simple words.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 ESV

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Are We Losing our Ability to be Creative?

I recently started a new book.  “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman is about a man that’s almost 60 years old.  His wife died recently, and he was recently laid off (forced to retire) from his job.  He is bitter, doesn’t like it when people don’t “follow the rules” however arbitrary they may be, and isn’t too fond of his neighbors.

While there are a lot of great little one-liners in the book, one stood out especially.  The book describes his morning routine, and how he percolates his coffee each morning rather than buying a latte; and it talks about the value of a hand-written note.  Ove critiques modern culture as having forgotten how to do anything for themselves, and today it’s all “computers and espresso machines.”

I pondered that for a bit.
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Be Still and Wait

Last night my 74 year old dad fell in his bathroom.  For most of us that wouldn’t be a big deal.  But a unique set of circumstances turned this into quite the ordeal.  Because he has had his knee replaced, there is a metal rod that is embedded several inches into the bone in his femur.  That metal rod provided a sturdy structure against which the rest of the bone pivoted, and the result was that the femur snapped in two.

Despite his ailments, he is still tough and strong.  He managed to crawl out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen (probably around 75 feet of crawling).  He pulled himself upright and found his phone to call me.  Long story short, he is now awaiting a pretty big surgery to put his leg back together.

His recent health issues have reminded me of an important verse; a promise that God has given us.

“but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”  Isaiah 40:31 ESV More »

The American Stupidity Epidemic

There is an epidemic in America.  It’s not one of obesity; although that is a problem and has been a problem.  It is not an epidemic of political polarization; although our viewpoints are becoming much more dichotomized.  It’s not an epidemic of violence and violent crimes; although violence is still a huge issue.  It’s not an epidemic of a decline in morals; although many would say that the country has lost its moral compass.  It’s not even an epidemic of Godlessness; although many believe that the US is no longer a Christian nation, and that certainly is a factor in the epidemic we are facing today.

The epidemic that we are facing is that we are growing stupid.  Despite the fact that American adults are better educated than ever before; we are collectively becoming stupider.
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Prayer has Become a Lost “Art”

One of the easiest aspects of life is communicating with our Savior.  As we drive we can have a conversation.  While we shower, we can talk with Him.  In the stillness of the morning, we are able to praise Him, offer thanksgiving for what He’s given us, and make our requests known to him.

If it’s so easy, why does it get pushed to the side so often?  If all we have to do is talk with Him, not even out loud, then why is it that we go through many days with only a short “thanks for the day” in the morning, and a “sorry for not doing enough for you, help me to try harder tomorrow” at night?

Let’s make it a habit to pray; let’s do that over the next few weeks.

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What I no Longer Believe

Not long ago Ramit Sethi posed an interesting question.  The question can be used as an icebreaker.  It can be used to learn more about people with whom you interact.  And it can be used as a way to look inside yourself and learn more about who you are.  The blog post was pretty short, and simply asked, “What do you no longer believe?”  I took a few minutes, and came up with three things that once shaped who I was, and now I have a totally different worldview.

Naturally these viewpoints might change again throughout the course of life.  But these worldviews shaped who I was, and who I turned into.  As you read, think about what you no longer believe and why.

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How to Overcome Pain

I’m in a couple of business groups.  One, Elevate Leadership, is designed around helping me grow to become a better leader and business owner.  The other, Biz to Biz, is designed around helping me grow the business and ensure that there is plenty of money coming in to take care of employees and family.

A friend and former colleague, Jeramie Meadows, was in both of those groups, and recently gave a talk at Elevate.  He made reference to something his father-in-law used to say all the time, something that on the surface sounds a bit silly, but when you dive into it, it really isn’t.

It will feel better when it stops hurting.

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