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Intentional Leadership — D1, W3, M12 — Belief

History is filled with the stories of people whose beliefs in their mission were so strong, they were prepared to die for them. Surely, it’s not something I’m encouraging you to do, but to be thinking about belief can empower you and your mission.

Consider these examples:

Our forefathers who so blatantly went against the British Crown, essentially signing their death warrants when they signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing full well that if the American Revolution failed, they would all be sentenced to death.*

The first astronauts in the American space program. Yes, they had all science and physics behind them with the brightest minds in aeronautics, etc., designing and driving their mission. But, if something went wrong (and we’ve certainly experienced those moments…), they would surely perish. Yet, they went forth to explore our universe.

The same can be said of underwater explorers. Science, technology, and engineering are making it possible to travel to greater and greater depths, and yet, there is no fail-safe guarantee any of these expeditions will be fully successful.

How many years have climbers been trekking up Mt. Everest…even before oxygen and other technological advances were available to hedge their bets against the elements?

These may be pretty extreme examples, and far from what you’re working to accomplish in your teams and organizations. The point is, belief will empower you to keep forging ahead, even when it’s hard.

As we start our third week in our focus on Belief, I encourage you to spend some time today thinking about how your beliefs are guiding and shaping your current mission. Specifically, focusing your energy on the small steps that will move you forward, over time achieving the big steps that bring you ever closer to your big goal. Write them down…

Now, how passionate are you about your beliefs and your mission?

What hardships are you willing to endure on your journey?

 

*From the Intentional Leadership booklet by Giant Impact. 

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W2, M12 — Belief

Good morning and Happy Friday! I hope this day finds you well and happy, after enjoying a delightful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

I have been working on a major transition in my life for a while now, and more intensely over the past few weeks. Finally, I have stepped through a doorway, so to speak, largely because of my belief in myself, my purpose, and my calling. In a lot of ways, what’s happening in my life was inevitable, I believe. I have a vision; I have the support and encouragement I need; I have knowledge, some level of wisdom, and experience to carry me forward; and I have a strategy to bring my dream into reality. Finally, and maybe most important, I believe I will be a success in my endeavor. So, this month’s topic is particularly relevant to me these days.

How about you? How important is what you believe, right now with where you are in your life today? What does it mean for where you are headed tomorrow?

And speaking of tomorrow…what plans do you have? How will you spend your time this weekend?

What thought are you giving to preparation for next week, as it brings with it a new month and the beginning of the end of 2013?

What thoughts, by chance, are you giving to preparation for 2014? It will be here before we know it!

I am actually taking a bit of a different approach to this weekend; it will be all about family, fun, and relaxation. It’s truly time for a short break…to reflect, regroup, adjust my view of the world, get comfortable with my new priorities…and celebrate a couple of birthdays. Delightfully, my Monday will truly be my own for the first time in a long time.

Whatever you choose for your weekend, I hope you are intentional about it. Remember…as each moment passes, it is gone.

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Reflecting on life-changing decisions…Here’s one of mine

As part of the growth plan I am working my way through, I have recently spent some time reflecting on my association with the John Maxwell Team and the value it’s brought to my life.
Several people have told me they wished they could do some of what I’m doing and asked me about my experience with the John Maxwell Team. After returning from Guatemala my (already great) opinion about the JMT is at a new level. What we took part of in Guatemala was “Historic.” John’s Influence and his team at Equip ( his other company) along with two other organizations ( LaRed and Guatemala Prospera) are the reason this amazing Transformation has begun in Guatemala.
Think about this: Three people trained 150 of us coaches over two-and-a-half days. We were then deployed, along with a translator, to go out and teach four-hour work shops sitting in small circles with military, city and country government officials, faculties of schools, clergy, hospital administrators, doctors and nurses, business men and women, and community leaders; we taught them how to facilitate interactive roundtable discussions on the the topics of Laws of Growth and Values, like forgiveness, listening skills, and others.
Gua Natl Civil Police June13 sm  (Me with the National Civil Police, Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 2013, at the end of our session)
In three days we reached ~19,000 people and left them trained and equipped to facilitate a 30-week follow-up using this same process in their areas of influence and with their families.
It was an amazing, life-changing experience! I don’t know if you can imagine but each one of the participants (captains & generals of armies in uniform, city mayors, doctors, clergy, etc) had to get “real” and be “transparent” rating themselves from 1-10 on how they were at, for instance, “listening” or “forgiving others. ” Then they had to say aloud what specific action steps they were going to take in the coming week to improve their performance in that area.
I’ve never seen such transparency. The stories of what happened were crazy-awesome! When people get real and want to grow, TRANSFORMATION begins.
As of mid-August, 45,000 (yes, 45,000!) others were going through this transformation process in small groups led by the people we taught in June.
I’m still on ‘cloud nine’ about the whole thing. Our own country could so benefit from this process. Third world countries don’t have the distractions we have and they want help to bring hope to their future generations. From the president down to the young people, the whole country is in pursuit of hope. Although this was not a faith-based effort per se, all the principles, laws, and values we taught come directly from the wisdom found in the pages of the Bible.
If you are looking for a personal leadership growth track (speaking, coaching, teaching, etc…), want to move toward growing a business, or be a part of a transformational, powerful organization, you can make that a reality for yourself by joining the John Maxwell Team. Give me a call. I can walk you through the process for enrolling, the investment, and the amazing benefits of joining this team.
It truly is the best thing I’ve done for myself in at least 10 years!
I look forward to hearing from you.
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