Welcome to the December 31st edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
Like this?
Pay it forward by sharing it with someone who could benefit from it. They will thank you for it.
The Story of My Week
Happy New Year.
Yes, a new set of 365 days is upon us.
Another opportunity to make a difference in our lives and in the lives of the people who matter most to us.
Honestly, nothing will change in the next 365 days if you don’t change as a person.
Or better still, realise the uniqueness of what you already have and how you can maximize it for the greater good.
During the last 7 days of 2023, I had the privilege of speaking to two multicultural audience groups from different countries.
The feedback I got was positive from both groups. Someone from New Zealand gave me her form of highest compliment “I could listen to you all day.”
Why do I point this out?
Over the last 7 years, I have had the opportunity of speaking to people who come from almost every continent in the world.
And they have connected with me.
In the coming year, I am going to try to leverage and maximize the impact of that uniqueness.
What uniqueness do you bring from the past years that will maximize greater benefits in the new year?
This can be one of the things that would really up the game for you in 2024.
5 Major Things I Learnt in 2024
1 - Be Bold to Explore New Relationships: During the year, I connected with someone who would become my executive mentor later in the year.
I had reached out to her to engage her for someone else. During our conversation, after assessing the situation, she indicated that she didn’t think she and the person would be a perfect fit for her at the moment. Perhaps later.
Afterwards, we continued talking and I resonated very much with who she is and how she does what she does.
It was at that point I asked “How about working with me?”
Asking that question opened the doors and the rest is current events.
As it turned out, I didn’t know the full gist of the value she was bringing to the table.
I am glad I took that step when I got a hint of the value she had during our conversation.
2 - The Right Relationships Will Come Prepared for You: When I reached out to connect with my executive mentor on Linkedin, a couple of things clicked for her to accept my request.
First, I sent an email to her office to seek her service for someone a few years back. According to her, she was impressed that I was willing to make that investment for someone else. That kept my name on her radial.
Second, she had reached out to someone in my company for sponsorship for an event that she had held a few weeks back. That put the name of my company on her radial.
I was unaware of her sponsorship request since she was dealing with another country office. I had seen the event and was impressed by it. My LinkedIn request had come with a message congratulating her for the success of the event.
The combination of my name and my company’s name, add to it, the congratulations on the event, made the “accept request” easy. Requesting a Zoom call was easy-peasy.
The rest is current events.
3 - The Relationships of Today are for the Opportunities of Tomorrow: The 2 months of the year have brought opportunities that are quite shaking - emotionally and in every way else.
The relationships that have helped me navigate these opportunities better are my spiritual director, business coach and executive coach. They helped give me a measure of stability during times of emotional shaking.
At the moment, I have made a list of people I need to engage further in the new year to help me move further faster.
As you can guess, they are people already in my relationship cycle.
This has reminded me of the need to keep giving value to people when I meet them.
Some of the people on my list are people I have given value to already.
So, I will not be a bother to them.
Some of these relationship have been developed through referrals from other existing relationships.
People will only refer me to others if they trust that I will be respectful of these relationships.
I hope to continue doing just that.
4 - The Sacrifices of Yesterday Provide Freedom Tomorrow: To take advantage of the new opportunities in a way that gives freedom to my family, I need some finances in place.
As it turns out, the past 2 years of making certain financial sacrifices are paying off.
Those sacrifices are giving me the leverage to do exactly what I need to do.
5 - The Greatness of Tomorrow’s Opportunities is a Sign of the Value in You: The scale of the opportunities requires more than I currently think I have.
But I see this as a sign that there is more in me than I think.
As I take the first steps toward reaching my goals, I see the capacity in me expanding.
God has put more in me than I know.
Now I have to live it out.
Postscript
May you see the great challenges of tomorrow as a sign of the great value that you carry in you. Amen.
Like this? Pay it forward by sharing it with your friends.
Was this forwarded to you? Sign up so you don't miss any edition. Click here
Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
0 comments