Month: December 2017
We have to be tough enough to continue even when we are hit with huge setbacks. Life is not all about easy but about pressing forward through the challenges we all face. We can bend but we must not break…..
Life is already hard for most of us. We should not be making it harder on ourselves than we need to. Take time and plan all the details of life as much as possible. Realize also that life happens not matter our best laid plans. Grit is what we must have in our lives.
Instead of giving in we should not give up. We need to keep the fight when we know it is the right thing. There will always be haters in our lives. They will not always dislike us but often it is our message. Never allow a few people to steal our dreams.
Jesus on the cross never allowed the haters to stop Him from accomplishing what He set out to do. We must run our race in life…
We are coming into a new year full of opportunities to change our lives. The question becomes what opportunities are we going to pursue? What direction in our lives are we moving toward? How will we get there if we have not laid down a path?
The end of our year should begin with our new plans for the coming year. I am not speaking of New Year resolutions but commitments. When we commit to doing something we are moving to make that become a reality. When people make resolutions too often they have become a wish list. The wish list has no place in our lives without actions.
Dreaming is something we all do. If we have no actions to our dreams we will never see them become reality.
D- Deciding on the opportunity
R- Rising to the occasion
E- Education of ideas
A- Arranging priories
M- Managing the path
S- Singing the song of the dream
The dreams we have will never become reality if we do not follow all the steps to creation. Dream big but follow through even bigger..
Never allow your dreams to be stolen, write them down. Decide if the dream of today should be the future of tomorrow.
The productive person knows that certain seasons call for certain kinds of work.
There are no short cuts we must pay attention to the mundane details that make us successful. Seasons change as we see with our eyes. With those changes, we must notice and see the signs of change in our businesses. The signs are all around us of growth, personnel changes, events in the world, social changes, things like the internet changed businesses forever.
Those who did not see the changes right away paid a price. Those who did not see the internet coming were behind. Some are still playing caught up because they have not found people to help them stay up with changing technology and how it impacts their business.
Business is full of change and sometimes we can struggle to keep pace with those changes. The important part of understanding these changes is having someone or a team in place to tackle the ever-changing environment of business.
The day was busy with us hurrying the kids out of bed. The morning was crisp and full of wonderful expectation. We were trying to get the crew of people out the door for Christmas Eve services. Our son said, I am putting on a suit today just like dad.
We had to get the food, bags of candy, and fruit out to the truck. Finally, off we went to enjoy Christmas service. As my son and I sang I was to moved by his heart coming through in songs. During communion, many of us were moved in remembrance of Jesus being born and His love for us.
As we brought some kids over to have Christmas at our house like every year they were tickled. They decorated cookies and opened some presents. The spark in the eyes of a child when pure love flows out is so precious. It is nice having a woman who loves giving so much. This Christmas Eve was so special like so many we remember. God has blessed us with so much and may we all continue to give back to someone and everyone. Blessings to all this Christmas and never forget the reason we celebrate the season.
As we near the time of year many will stop and celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus. I hope we do not forget that love, respect, kindness, and humility are some of the greatest things Jesus taught. In a world that is filled with pain, fighting, and purposeful deception to get ahead, we should stop and take a moment to consider what is truly important.
The Savoir being born in a little town of Bethlehem in a stable should allow us to see a great picture of Humility. Jesus the Son of God could have arrived in any fashion but chose to be born in humble means to come as a servant to those around Him. Jesus also showed us an example of true love when He laid down His life so that we can all have the opportunity to live forever in Heaven. He made the sacrifice to reconcile us to our creator. Jesus showed kindness to many who he healed and touched even though some of them never even thanked Him.
We can all take some great examples from Jesus on how to treat each other and those around us. He has shown us what kindness is and how to love with the greatest gift the world has ever known.
Believe
Have we stopped dreaming?
There are times in life when sitting with and talking to many people some themes come to the surface in conversations. One of those themes I have noticed is that of limiting belief. It’s as if someone has taken away the dreamer inside of many people.
It is sad to think that somehow during life that someone has lost their desire to dream. The people I have encountered which number in the thousands have some things in common. Most of the people who make under 50,000 combined income as a family are hit the hardest. I am not saying I have not encountered it with people making more but less often. Life seems to have beaten them down or something has happened that has stolen away their dreams.
When talking with them they had dreams early in life but circumstances and lost opportunity had hit. Why should we allow our dreams to be stolen? What are the reasons we allow our dreams to die?
Do we in America as we grow older allow our dreams to die?
I personally say never let the dreams inside us die, dare to dream and dream big. We as people can accomplish great things if we do not stop dreaming. I just wonder if that why we as a country began to fall back with some other countries in development. There is research that suggests that we have fallen back.
I am daring to ask to ask the question, are we daring to dream again?
One of the greatest things about being in business for yourself is the ability to create your own income. When working for an employer our income has very little movement upward over time. As a business owner we can make as much as we wish.
One of the problems I have notice among new business owners is they want the rewards without the efforts. The seeds of business have to be planted properly and in time as we take care of them we will get a return. The cycle must be one we continue to embrace daily as we learn and grow.
Self improvement to the new business owner is a must. We all have to get better and become more valuable as a person to make more money. There are the one hit wonders out there but they topically do not last if they do not work on themselves.
Know your purpose
Sell out completely
Prepare the ground
sow the seeds
properly nourish
prepare to harvest
I will cover some more of these in detail in later posts but for now understand part-time or full time business owners are the backbone of our society. Most people today need to find extra income or a new way to made the money they need. Business ownership is possible but it will require work and learning……..
Those who do not want to work for things but want things handed to them should not head toward business ownership. It is for people who do not mind working hard.
Sarah walked down the pathway toward town in 1921. As she walked down the pathway she seen a young women who was shivering in the cold. They were sitting about one mile away from the tiny town. The wild was blowing as the young girl sat in a small homemade shelter. Sarah shared that she was about the celebrate her 60 birthday. They talked and even laughed a moment or two, then Sarah said I must get to town.
The snow had been coming down for several hours and they talked for about 20 minutes. The young women had taken refuge before heading on the 5 mile trip home. Sarah notice the young women was not property dress and doubted she would make it home. Sarah knew she only had a mile to go and she offered her coat. The young women accepted the gift, promising to return it as soon as she could.
As Sarah walked briskly down the path toward town she began to shake. She began to shake more and more until about a fourth a mile from town she dropped to the snow. Sarah would never know another day on earth. The young women learned of what had happened that spring. She felt so bad but as Sarah’s grand son told her please do not be sad.
She would have even given the clothes off her shoulders to help another. Sarah died believing life is about giving to those she could. She loved to give and died doing what she loved, giving to you. Can you imagine if we all were that giving.
What is it we have given to others?
When is the last time we gave a gift that was selfless. We have been given examples of great women such as Mother Teresa. During this time of year may we take a lesson and learn to give unconditionally to others.
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