Welcome to the September 10th 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.
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The Story of My Week
It is great to have advisers and people who can speak into your life.
Recall last week I mentioned that my spiritual director asked that I should sit a bit more with God regarding the rebuke God gave me.
I did that this week.
And I got something more.
God told me I had become lazy in the exercise of my faith. When He said it, I took time to understand it.
I had become focused on staying with the normal process - nothing bad.
But my life requires something more. I have to demand more of my ability to see God at work in me and through me.
In every area of life.
And that is what I am pursuing at the moment.
A new level of exercising my faith
To create results that are beyond me.
In every area of life.
Things I Learnt
1-Never Limit Your Options: During the week, I was speaking with someone who works as a performance consultant. He told me the story of how he got to work with a much-accomplished coach.
According to him, about 2 decades ago he went to a conference where he ran into another top speaker. The speaker was speaking at another event in the same hotel and they struck up a conversation.
The speaker liked him and told him that he needed to attend a training of the much-accomplished coach. He told him he didn't have the funds to afford it. The speaker gave him a leg up and he was able to do that.
Joining the session was not easy - this was before the days of Zoom or high-speed internet. He would buy an international calling card to join the live call-in training.
Eventually, someone told him about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls. That's how he became a regular at the local cybercafe during overnight browsing so he could be on the call.
He would always show up early for all the calls. At one point, the much-accomplished coach would move him from the holding line to the main line and start a conversation with him. He was consistent in doing all the tasks he was given.
At the end of the training, an offer for an opportunity to work closer with the coach was offered. He could not afford it but he was able to see options.
He reached out to the much-accomplished coach and offered to be her virtual assistant transcribing all her training in exchange for having a 15-minute one-on-one session with her every quarter.
She agreed.
Interestingly, during the period, she also sent the recordings from the expensive training he could not afford for him to transcribe.
Years later, she continues to coach him. Now he is paying. Not as much as everyone else.
He has grown a practice that delivers $1m annually.
But it all started because he created options in his mind, he was able to propose options for her.
I was impressed.
I told myself - Never limit my options.
2-Let Your Process Align With Your Values: Still on my conversation with the performance consultant, he told me a few things about why you don't copy someone else's process without checking to see if you share similar values.
To explain it, he told me about a fellow performance consultant. He said the guy gets results except his process does not align with his values.
No, it's not something shady or underhand.
The other guy uses accountability groups that create high-pressure situations for the people he works with.
In the short term, they deliver results but it is difficult for them to live in a high-pressure environment permanently.
It is emotionally draining.
When prospective clients tell him they are considering him or the other guy, he tells them - to go for the other guy.
Why?
Because if their values don't align with his, they will find it difficult to trust his methodical process that builds high performance gradually over time.
Sometimes, some of these people come back after being drained out.
They got the results but can't live like that.
So, they come for something more sustainable.
Lesson learnt for me.
Work with people with values that align with mine.
It will be easier for them to trust my process.
Postscript
May you be confident in your values and the gift of God in you not to play the comparison game with others. Amen.
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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.
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