That's All I Can Stands!

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
~Harold Whitman

Is that not one of the all-time greatest quotes? I love it.

Isn't it amazing how each of us is wired? Think of it, no one person is wired the same exact way you are. Each of us have different likes and dislikes. Something that makes one person bored completely lights up another. That's incredible to me.

I once heard Bill Hybels give a talk about a topic called Holy Discontent, which he also wrote about in a book by the same name. He said that he spent some time pondering what preceded vision. What happened inside of Billy Graham that made him want to rent his first stadium? What happened inside of Martin Luther King which birthed his dream?

He came to the conclusion that vision is preceded by something that wrecks us, something we can't stand. Something so strong that it spurs us into action.

Popeye had moments like these. They were typically when his beloved Olive Oil was being harassed that he said, "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!" At this point he would gulp down his spinach and then open up a can of you know what.

So what can't you stands? Answering that question will help you to discern what God made you for. It will also help you to understand what makes you come alive. And this is what the world needs, just ask Harold Whitman.

6 X 6 = Great Vacation

Late Friday night we returned from our trip to Sandestin, Florida. It truly was a great trip! I know this because there was lots of laughter, we got to see some incredible things, no one got sunburned and we were all together. I also know it was a great trip because I gained six pounds and I read six books (I was half way through one when we left, so technically I read 5 1/2). OK, I agree, gaining six pounds meant I may have enjoyed myself a bit too much!

I must explain something to you on the book thing. Four of the books were extremely easy and short reads. I also must share that this is the first family vacation in which I could do this. My kids are older now and much more independent (they were reading throughout the trip as well) which left more beach time spent in a book.

Anyway, here is a rundown on what I read:

The Seven Levels of Intimacy, The Art of Loving & The Joy of Being Loved, Matthew Kelly
· Excellent
· Big idea: relationship is for one purpose, to help one another to become the best version of themselves. The author does an excellent job of walking through the different levels. I found this to be an extremely beneficial book that I hope my wife and I spend quite a bit of time in.

A Life God Rewards, Bruce Wilkinson
· Very Good – quick read
· Big Idea: While what we do has nothing to do with where we will spend eternity, there are different rewards available to Christ-followers depending upon what we do on earth.

Rework, Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
· Good – quick read
· Big idea: Don’t do things the way it’s always been done. It’s oftentimes very good to break the rules and go against common thinking in business.

Tribes, We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin
· Good – quick read
· Big idea: The key to a successful business is building a tribe and helping them to thrive.

Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom
· Pretty good – quick read
· Big idea: Faith is key to our lives and is available to us all regardless of our past.

The Power of a Whisper, Hearing God. Having the Guts to Respond, Bill Hybels
· Very Good
· Big Idea: God continually speaks to us, but are we slowing down enough to listen? The author shares ways in which these whispers occur. When we hear these “whispers” we need to act upon them.

Do They Make You Want To Vomit?

Today at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels delivered the opening message and it was right on. He talked about a time a while back in which he was in a leadership slump. Nothing seemed to be going right and it seemed like he couldn't solve any problem, big or small. As a result, he was losing confidence in his leadership abilities.

Then, while spending some intentional time with God, he heard a gentle whisper from his heavenly Father saying, "You can lead. Look at what you've done. You have it in you!" This encouraged him and then God shared with him four foundational leadership principles.

One of those was something that, on paper, looks very elementary...but in practice, it is anything but. One of the principles Hybels referred to was that it takes fantastic people to move anything from here to there, in other words to make significant progress.

In discussing this point, he said that a leader's job is to recruit, train and develop talented people who will flourish in your culture. He said there is a great way to determine how your team stacks up, give them this test.

If you were to receive a text message right now stating that a certain person on your team has just resigned, which of the following would be your response?
1. "Whew! I sure am glad they're leaving!"
2. "Ughhh! They are such a good person and they're doing a good job. Now I'm going to have to find someone else!"
3. You want to vomit on the spot. "This person is a fantastic person with a fantastic attitude and they are a fantastic fit in our culture. They are irreplaceable."

Hybels went on to say that they spent an incredible amount of time going through this exercise with their entire staff at Willow. The time was very well spent, though.

Hybels said that they then met with every staff member and shared with them the results of this exercise. To those who were in the third category they would say something like, "You make me want to vomit (with obvious tongue in cheek). Really, if you left this organization, that is what I would want to do. You are a fantastic person and you are doing a fantastic job. We hope you are here for the long haul. Now if God calls you someplace else, we'll throw you a party but our hearts won't really be in it. But we want you to know that we hope you will be with us into the future."

Could you imagine being on the receiving end of something like that? It would feel pretty good, wouldn't it? Hybels shared that these meetings helped to build increased loyalty and passion for the vision that God has given them. It was an extremely beneficial thing to do.

After Hybels was finished, we heard from Jim Collins who discussed the importance of having the right people on the bus in any organization before you can talk about growing the organization. The exercise Hybels mentioned is a great way to determine if you really do have the right people on your bus.

So will you do this with your team?

Discipline For Greatness

A few posts ago, I shared about the fact that some of our Truth At Work groups watched Bill Hybels interviewing Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. This interview took place at the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit.

While discussing what makes companies great, Collins shared this formula for greatness, "Disciplined people produce disciplined thought which produces disciplined actions which produces greatness."

I think it would be safe to say that most of us want to be great (I would also bet that everyone would have a different definition of what "great" would look like to them). Yet, so few want to do what is necessary for that to occur. Not many are willing to pay the price, whatever it might be.

Collins is sharing something that shouldn't be surprising to us. In order for greatness to occur, it must start in the individual, with discipline. That's a word that very few people like. That means hard work and effort and giving up things we really don't want to give up.

Over 3,000 years ago, Solomon shared some similar nuggets of wisdom (all from the book of Proverbs):

• Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth (10:4)
• He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son (10:5)
• Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor (12:24)
• The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied (13:4)
• The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty (21:5)
  

Interested Instead of Interesting

Last week, some of our Truth At Work groups watched Bill Hybels interviewing Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and pictured above. This interview took place at the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit.

Collins had some incredible stuff to share about what organizations can do to be great.

However, one thing in the interview stuck out to me more than any other thing. At that point in his life, Collins had been going through a spiritual awakening of sorts and he was beginning to embrace Christianity. When asked about this by Hybels, Collins replied that his journey had been helped greatly by his personal board of advisors.

First off, the fact that he had a personal board was impressive to me and a great lesson to us all to not do life alone.

Second, he went on to say that he received some of the best advice from one of his advisors who said, “Jim, you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don’t you spend more time being interested?”

Wow. Great advice.

Dale Carnegie said that the best way to attract friends is to show interest in others. That is also a great way to show the love of Christ!

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:4

Axioms

ax⋅i⋅om  [ak-see-uhm]–noun
1. a self-evident truth that requires no proof.
2. a universally accepted principle or rule.

I have become a big fan of axioms. I think I've always liked them but I've become more aware of their power after reading Bill Hybels' book Axiom.

Fortunately, as Chapter President for Truth at Work I am in an environment in which I get to hear new axioms regularly. Here are a few from recent roundtable meetings:

* When you live your life by principles, you have very few decisions to make.
* Transformation begins with a profound relationship with the way it is.
* The answer to the “how” is saying “yes” to God.
* Tomorrow never comes.
* Good management is truth, not avoidance.

I came across the above video and I loved it because it has some really good axioms we can live our life by. I hope you enjoy!

Axioms

About two months ago I completed reading Bill Hybels' great leadership book Axiom. I would highly recommend it. It contains many leadership axioms, or truths that you can begin to apply to your own life immediately.

Here is another list of axioms I happened across on Raptitude.com recently. While this list does not mention the Bible, many of the nuggets here are Biblically-based and very good:

1. You can’t change other people, and it’s rude to try.
2. It is 100 times more difficult to burn calories than to refrain from consuming them in the first place.
3. If you’re talking to someone you don’t know well, you may be talking to someone who knows way more about whatever you’re talking about than you do.
4. The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.
5. Everyone likes somebody who gets to the point quickly.
6. Bad moods will come and go your whole life, and trying to force them away makes them run deeper and last longer.
7. Children are remarkably honest creatures until we teach them not to be.
8. If everyone in the show you’re watching is good-looking, it’s not worth watching.
9. Yelling always makes things worse.
10. Whenever you’re worried about what others will think of you, you’re really just worried about what you’ll think of you.
11. Every problem you have is your responsibility, regardless of who caused it.
12. You never have to deal with more than one moment at a time.
13. If you never doubt your beliefs, then you’re wrong a lot.
14. Managing one’s wants is the most powerful skill a person can learn.
15. Nobody has it all figured out.
16. Cynicism is far too easy to be useful.
17. Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours.
18. Whenever you hate something, it hates you back: people, situations and inanimate objects alike.
19. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works alone can teach you everything you need to know about living with grace and happiness.
20. People embellish everything, as a rule.
21. Anger reveals weakness of character, violence even more so.
22. Humans cannot destroy the planet, but we can destroy its capacity to keep us alive. And we are.
23. When people are uncomfortable with the present moment, they fidget with their hands or their minds. Watch and see.
24. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.
25. Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier.
26. Credit card debt devours souls.
27. Nobody knows more than a minuscule fraction of what’s going on in the world. It’s just way too big for any one person to know it well.
28. Most of what we see is only what we think about what we see.
29. A person who is unafraid to present an unedited version of herself to the world is as rare as diamonds.
30. The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort. It wrecks dreams and breaks people.
31. If what you’re doing feels perfectly safe, there is probably a better course of action.
32. The greatest innovation in the history of humankind is language.
33. Blame is the favorite pastime of those who dislike responsibility.
34. Everyone you meet is better than you at something.
35. Proof is nothing but a collection of opinions that match one’s own.
36. Knowledge is belief, nothing more.
37. Indulging your desires is not self-love.
38. What makes human beings different from animals is that animals can be themselves with ease.
39. Self-examination is the only path out of misery.
40. Whoever you are, you will die. To know and understand that means you are alive.
41. Revenge is for the petty and irresponsible.
42. Getting truly organized can vastly improve anyone’s life.
43. Almost every cliché contains a truth so profound that people have been compelled to repeat it until it makes you roll your eyes. But the wisdom is still in there.
44. People cause suffering when they are suffering themselves. Alleviating their suffering will probably remove their inclination to create it for others.
45. High quality is worth any quantity, in possessions, friends and experiences.
46. The world would be a better place if everyone read National Geographic.
47. If you aren’t happy single, you won’t be happy in a relationship.
48. Even if it costs no money, nothing is free if it takes time.
49. Emotions exist to make us heavily biased towards or against something. This hinders as often as it helps.
50. Addiction is a much greater problem in society than it’s made out to be. It’s present in every person in various forms, but usually we call it something else.
51. “Gut feeling” is not just a euphemism. Tension in the abdomen speaks volumes about how you truly feel about something, beyond all arguments and rationales.
52. Posture and dress change profoundly how you feel about yourself and how others feel about you, like it or not.
53. Everyone thinks they’re an above average driver.
54. The urge to punish others has much more to do with venting frustration than correcting behavior.
55. By default, people think far too much.
56. If anything is worth splurging on, it’s a high-quality mattress. You’ll spend a third of your life using it.
57. There is nothing worse than having no friends.
58. To write a person off as worthless is an unparalleled act of violence.
59. Try as we might to be otherwise, we are all hypocrites.
60. Justice is a human invention which is in reality rarely achievable, but many will not hesitate to destroy lives demanding it.
61. Kids will usually understand exactly what you mean if you keep it to one or two short sentences.
62. Stuff that’s on sale usually has an annoying downside.
63. Casual swearing makes people sound dumb.
64. Words are immensely powerful. One cruel remark can wound someone for life.
65. It’s easy to make someone’s day just by being uncommonly pleasant to them.
66. Most of what children learn from their parents isn’t taught on purpose.
67. The secret ingredient is usually butter, in obscene amounts.
68. It is worth re-trying foods that you didn’t like at first.
69. Problems, when they arise, are rarely as painful as the act of fearing them.
70. Nothing — ever — happens exactly like you pictured it.
71. North Americans are generally terrible at accepting compliments and offers of help.
72. There are not enough women in positions of power. The world has suffered from this deficit for a long time.
73. When you break promises to yourself, you feel terrible. When you make a habit of it, you begin to hate yourself.
74. A good nine out of ten bad things I worry about never happen. A good nine out of ten bad things that did happen never occurred to me to worry about.
75. You can’t hide a bad mood from people who know you well, but you can always be polite.
76. Sometimes you have to remove certain people from your life, even if they’re family.
77. Anyone can be calmed in an instant by looking at the ocean or the stars.
78. There is no point finishing a book you aren’t enjoying. Life is too short for that. Swallow your pride and put it down for good, unfinished.
79. There is no correlation between the price of a brand of batteries and how long they last.
80. Breaking new ground only takes a tiny amount more effort than you’re used to giving.
81. Life is a solo trip, but you’ll have lots of visitors. Some of them are long-term, most aren’t.
82. One of the best things you can do for your kids is take them on road trips. I’m not a parent, but I was a kid once.
83. The fewer possessions you have, the more they do for you.
84. Einstein was wiser than he was intelligent, and he was a genius.
85. When you’re sick of your own life, that’s a good time to pick up a book.
86. Wishing things were different is a great way to torture yourself.
87. The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.
88. Killing time is an atrocity. It’s priceless, and it never grows back.

The Old Normal Has Left The Building

On Thursday last week, Bill Hybels kicked off the Willow Creek Leadership Summit with a talk entitled, Leading in a New Reality. He mentioned that "the old reality has left the building." We need to understand we are and we will be leading in different times.

As a result, he said the one thing that he has found has been happening to him, and to others around him, is that he is spending more time at work. He has gotten caught up in that temptation to just work harder to get out of this hole. God has begun to speak to him about this, much like he did 20 years ago when Hybels was on the verge of complete burnout. God has been saying, "You can't sustain this."

As a result, Hybels is on a mission to reclaim his life...to put some margin back in his life...to replenish his bucket. Here are three things that he is doing that we all can benefit from:

1. Ask, "Who do I need to be around more? Who replenishes me? And, who drains me?
2. Physical exercise - he has doubled what he was doing
3. Starting every day with God. Instead of getting to the office early where he usually spent time with the Lord, he has been spending the first part of his day with God at a designated place in his home. This way, there is no temptation to tackle the mounds of work on his desk at the expense of his time with the Lord. He says that when you show up at work with a fresh spirit, everyone around you benefits in tangible ways.

What do your followers and colleagues see? Are they worried about you? Do they see someone who is exhausted and fearful? Or do they see someone who knows God is in control and knows that He is going to do something amazing in our time (like in the verse below)?

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known.

Habakkuk 3:2a

Dripping Pride

Drip. Drip. Drip. That was the sound that came from two of our bathroom faucets in our house. Last Wednesday, I went to the hardware store to purchase seats and springs to fix the issue. I am not the most handy guy on the planet, but I can typically do stuff like this (I have done this about 5-6 times in the past). Because of my "experience" with this issue, I figured this job would take about 15-20 minutes to fix both faucets.

When I arrived home, I put in the parts and found they were the wrong size. So...trip #2 to the hardware store.

After returning, I put in the new parts and they fit great. I then reattached the faucet, turned the water on, and...nothing. Not even a drip. So, I was very successful at stopping the drip, because now nothing came out of the faucet!

I took it apart and reassembled it...now just a slight trickle. Took it apart, put it back together, now, nothing. I repeated this countless times with no positive results.

So I gave up on that faucet and went to the other one. Same exact results.

Then my wife and 13 year-old son, Robbie, come home from a pool party our church youth group held. After explaining the situation, Robbie says to me, "What about that thingy?" He was pointing at the aerator on the end of the faucet. I said, "No, that couldn't be it since water was coming out fine before." After all, how could a 13 year-old have the answer to this "complex" problem?

After a few more tries, I became totally frustrated and gave up for the night. Because I was busy, I didn't get back to it until Saturday.

Saturday morning, I took the entire faucet apart and went to the hardware store for the third time. I asked their plumbing expert what I was doing wrong and he told me everything I was doing seemed right to him. He wished me well and sent me on my way.

So, back home I went to try it again. After a few more tries with the same result, I found myself grasping at straws. I thought I might as well take the aerator off to see if Robbie was right, as I had no other options.

Sure enough, it was totally clogged by some sediment I must have stirred up while working on it. I cleaned both aerators out and the faucets work fine now! Had I listened to Robbie from the get-go, I would have saved myself several hours of frustration.

I wondered to myself how many other instances I ignore words of advice because it is coming from someone whom I don't feel could possibly have any wisdom to share.

Bill Hybels has said several times during the Willow Creek Leadership Summit that he looks to learn from all sort of people. As a result, they have had some speakers at the Summit, who would probably surprise you...not people you would typically see at a Christian event. Hybels knows we can all learn from anyone, even if we don't agree with them about everything.

Hybels is right. We can learn from anyone...if our pride doesn't get in the way!

Hope

I was at Cedar Creek Church yesterday which is a very cool church in our city. I was there for a kickoff and introduction to the lineup who will be speaking at this year's Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Cedar Creek is the host site for Toledo as this is shown via satellite at hundreds of sites around the world.

Bill Hybels talked during the webcast yesterday about the speakers for the upcoming event in August and then showed video clips of many of them. It really looks like it will be an incredible event, as it always is.

Hybels mentioned that he is constantly looking to learn from other leaders. He said he especially wants to know what they did when they were in a similar mess to what he is in much of the time.

I thought that was very good. I have heard it said that a smart man learns from his own mistakes while a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

The interesting thing about the Summit, is that Hybels actually goes out of his way to find speakers who are coming from a different place or have a different perspective. They typically always challenge you in ways you didn't think you needed to be challenged. There have been speakers in the past whom I have dismissed as someone who probably won't be that great, who have absolutely knocked it out of the park.

I have learned that I, and all leaders, can learn from anyone and this was exhibited at the function yesterday in an unexpected way.

After listening to Bill Hybels and video clips from some amazing leaders, a great friend of mine, Bob Borcherdt (president of Midwest Paper Specialties) got up to address the crowd and to promote our upcoming Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast and Leadership Seminar featuring John Maxwell we are helping to organize in Toledo on May 7th.

Because of all the great speakers we had just heard from, Bob was the last person I expected to hear the most memorable line of the day from (although he is filled with much wisdom), yet he said something that stuck with me. Bob said, "There is a lot of fear out there. As Christians, it is our role to help to give people hope."

How true that is; however, it can be very easy to get bogged down in the "doom and gloom." But we know the end of the story--our team wins! So let your hope be infectious!

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15b

Axioms to Grind

This summer I was fortunate to have attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. This was our 4th year for attending and it is something I look forward to each year.

Bill Hybels delivered a couple of messages during the two-day conference and one dealt with axioms that he and others have used in their lives to help them to make tough decisions or to steady them during turbulent times. He listed several of his axioms and the axioms of other great leaders.

Here are a few axioms from Colin Powell:

• Check your ego at the door
• Promote a clash of ideas – “Who has a contrary opinion?” – will help you make a better decision
• Reward of your best performers, get rid of non-performers – you cannot tolerate non-performance

Studying these axioms has been so powerful to Hybels that he wrote a book titled, Axiom, Powerful Leadership Proverbs.

I recently received an email with a link to a 3 minute movie that contains some other powerful axioms. Check it out here.

All In

Do you want to live life the way it was meant to be lived? I mean do you really? Even if it might be painful at times?

Yesterday I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit which was incredible. Today is the final day and I am looking forward to it very much.

Bill Hybels yesterday shared something during his talk on The High Drama of Decision Making. It is something that I have heard before, but for some reason it really struck me yesterday.

He said, "You will never live life that is truly life until you are fully and uncompromisingly devoted to Christ." This means in every area of your life.

Pretty simple, right?

So let's do it! Let's be like the poker players on TV and go "all in."

Eating Humble Pie

I was at a meeting about the Willow Creek Leadership Summit yesterday afternoon. In addition to talking about the conference, the subject of some changes at Willow Creek Church came up.

They did something last year which surprised a lot of people. They did a survey of their congregation as well as the congregations of six other churches to find out what was working and what was not working. What they found surprised them.

They found that people were not growing in Christ the way they thought. As a result they are making some changes to the way they "do church." This is impressive to me. Not only are they willing to set their pride aside and say, "We were wrong about a few things" but they are willing to admit it to the world. (To read more about this go here.)

Bill Hybels, the senior pastor at Willow, has taken an incredible amount of heat over this. There are many who are laughing at him for being wrong. Many are inferring that because he was wrong in a couple of areas that he is wrong about everything.

That could not be further from the truth. What Bill Hybels and the leadership of Willow have shown is strong leadership - admitting when an error has been made, making corrections and moving on. We can all learn from this!