Raise the bar through the day

In my strategy to keep the main thing the main thing in life, I am constantly on the watch for new ways to express time honored goals. My school board hat gives me a flow of material that helps me raise the bar not only in school things but in my pastor role and life generally. If I am to be an effective communicator and leader today, I need to understand what is possible to expect from people. In order to do that efficiently, I need to clarify needs and establish improvement goals and targets. There needs to be benchmarks in my life to tell me my level of achievement. The best way I have found to do that is to create conditions that are conducive to that improvement by studying, praying, listening and serving. I find that I really need to be a better learner and the rest will take care of itself.
There needs to be an awareness and urgency to improve. Without that I become satisfied with status quo. Current state may be good but it’s not great. Excellence recognizes that there is always room for improvement and new levels.

“Start early and begin raising the bar throughout the day.”
-Bruce Jenner

Open your wings and catch the wind

One of the areas of focus last night in the evening service at our District Council was the lesson from eagles. It is not a time to fold our wings and lie in the nest but rather a time to go to the edge of the nest, open our wings and catch the wind. It is better to fail trying to fly than to stay in the nest and die. The nest is a good place to be born and a good place to develop but it is also a good place to leave. It is risky and dangerous to go to the edge, but the rewards are bountiful and fulfilling.

There are many areas of life that this lesson applies to. If we are stuck in a rut today, it may be because we have gotten too comfortable with the way things are and we simply need to try new packaging of our product. There may be nothing wrong with the product, it just needs a new box around it. That new box will generate interest from new people. New relationships bring in whole new vantage points, one of which may change your life.

Listen up !

I have found that most of the times that I have found myself in trouble, it is because I did not employ good listening skills. The art of careful listening is worthy of development and improvement in all of our lives.

"I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen." - -Ernest Hemingway

Someone once said there is a reason that God gave us two ears and only one mouth. Good listeners make sound thinkers.

Paying attention will pay benefits that will come no other way. I either need to be really good at that or I need to surround myself with people who are so they can keep me posted of times I am veering off course. Life is full of “Near misses” that are a result of not paying attention. Although it would be nice to be surrounded by people who have as their passion keeping me from embarrassment, it is hard to find friends with that kind of time. The better plan for me is to learn listening. Some of the wisest people I have ever met are some of the quietest. If you can get a word out of them it is worth listening to. I think if I try today, I could spend more time listening.