Plan An Escape

If you find yourself in a slump and don’t want to stay there the first step to getting out of that slump is to plan an escape.  You need to look at what can be done to turn things around.  You need to be careful not to just accept the same thing as what led you there in the first place.  It’s all too easy to keep on doing the same thing and that will typically lead you right back to the same results so know that you need to do something new.  Plan some changes to several areas at once to ensure you eliminate more of the factors that are holding you in the slump in the first place.

Take Action

A good plan is nothing without some action towards achieving it.  Put some of those steps in place that are needed to complete your plan and look to tackle them.  Don’t let yourself get demotivated if things are harder at first, after all that is how you got stuck in a rut in the first place.  Just continue to look for progress and measure yourself for those successes, ignoring other factors as you especially don’t want to make a slump look any worse than it is.

Do Things You Love

Your attitude is going to suffer no matter what if you are in a slump.  Turning this around can get difficult when progress is slow or non-existent.  However, you can at least enjoy yourself a bit more by picking to do the things you love.  Latch on to your hobbies, your past times and the relationship you truly enjoy.  Even in your work, you can try to spend more time on the things you like to do and less on the tasks that just are not much fun.  Doing this can help to keep your spirit up and a more positive attitude.  Of course, this is useful anytime in life but it will seem even more powerful when you are in a slump.

You’ve Turned Things Around Before

Sometimes when you’re in a slump, you don’t feel like you have the drive or ability to get out of it.  Everything seems to be against you and you start to loose site of any positive outcomes.  It’s a cycle that just makes things even worse if you don’t look to turn it around.  You can do this by ignoring your situation and instead focusing on a time where you have gotten out of a slump before.  Any situation, any type of slump will do.  Think about what you felt and how you behaved to finally get out of that one?  As things turned around, you would have started to have some confidence just as things began to look more positive and the same feelings and reactions can be applied again.  I read about this technique in this article about being more confident and I think that confidence works the same way here.  You need it to get out of the slump and to get it, you can pull it from past experiences and focus to act and feel the same way to pull yourself out of a slump.

Don’t Give Up

If you give up, things will get worse and you will loose control of your actions in a negative time.  Continue to push towards your goals and just keep working to get out of the rut.  Persistence here is key even if you have failures, expect them, look past them and overcome them.

Faith

And finally, the one things that I think is the most important of all is to have faith.  Faith in knowing things will change and will improve, faith in the fact that you can make it through tough times, faith that there are others who know the same troubles and will help you through it, faith that your actions and attitude will make a difference, faith that you can and will persist no matter how long things last, faith that there is something to be learned by all your struggles, and finally, faith that there is a God with grace and an open heart waiting for you to lean on him to develop a relationship and find your purpose and reasons to continue.  Faith in this may lead you in new directions, unexpected places and potentially even other hardships but the rewards by service to others and God will always come to fruition.  When that occurs, however, is not up to us.

Posted by Mike King under Learning | 19 Comments »

Author : Zig Ziglar

A few years ago now when I was absorbed in a number of motivational books and audio cassettes, I listened to one by Zig Ziglar called, "You are a Natural Champion".  Remembering that I enjoyed listening to it triggered me to buy this book when I saw it in a local book store.  I’m happy to say it is a great book and I didn’t even realize that both Ziglar and the book deliver a Christian message that I thoroughly enjoyed and agree with.  Ziglar covers a huge list of topics in life, all focused on how to live those areas successfully and have a lasting impact on others with a purpose behind it all.  He challenges you to see the areas you can live a successful life and he does it with personal stories, humor and great inspirational messages and quotes.

He covers well one of my favorite topics, passion. He helps explore how to use that passion along with inspiration to live successfully and get to peak performance.

Ziglar offers a path to success that involves God and spirituality along the way and he covers how it has come over the years in his life to now be the central theme and purpose he has to offer in his teaching.  He allows his life and he references the life of many other great leaders and teachers who have God and Christianity as their foundation to be an example of living "Better Than Good".  He makes the point about how the education system has shifted entirely away from any spiritual teaching or even exploration and that has limited so many people from getting at least an introduction to a God based purpose driven life.  I definitely agree with him and think its a sad shift that unfortunately supports itself to occur more and more.  Luckily there are still leaders like Ziglar to counter this shift and still provide the teaching and life example needed for our young people today.

So, the book itself is definitely interesting and as intended, inspirational and motivating.  Ziglar challenges you to face every day events from a new perspective and look to find and use your passions to match your work, actions and beliefs together to get to peak performance.  I did find some of his examples of using the phrase, "Better Than Good" to be a bit repititive and they dragged on a little at the time of reading.  The funny thing is that now after reading the whole book, I’m glad that was all there because it set it into my mind and I’ve seen some of the same affects by using that simple phrase myself.  That phrase works great when you are responding to how you feel, how something went or even to give someone else feedback on their own work or help they’ve offered.  Let them know that you are "Better than Good" or that the work they did was "Better Than Good" and you’ll find that there is always an overwhelming response when compared to the more traditional "fine" or "good" that we find ourselves using so many times.

If you are at all interested in exploring peak performance I think you can learn a lot from Ziglar in his books. Those areas he teaches that none of use should ignore which are necessary for success are:

1. Passion
2. Peak performance
3. Purpose

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews & God | 3 Comments »

If you missed them, the previous 2 articles in this short series are

Part 1 – Being Humble: What does that mean?
Part 2 – Being Humble: Action Steps to Be More Humble

This article is going to look at why someone would bother to learn to be humble. What are the advantages and reasons to being humble in your career and life.

First of all, the traits of a humble person are highly valued and seen positively. This is for various reasons and I’ve separated those into three main categories here.

Humble Leadership

I started out planning this article by looking specifically at humble leadership and as I thought more about being humble, I realized, it is so much bigger than that, which is is why it grew into a short series and why there are several categories now in this article. As for the leadership angle however, being humble is a very attractive trait of many leaders and is often named as one of the most important leadership qualities. Leaders need the ability to recognize others, show appreciation to others, never take credit and to always take the blame for the benefit of a team. These go hand in hand with being humble so its easy to understand why humble leaders are easily respected.

If you look through the list of action steps from part 2 , you can see that by listening, not judging, showing appreciation, giving credit and thanking others are things to be more humble, these are also all important leadership traits. Leadership is not power and so it doesn’t need showmanship, authority or dominance to lead others. What it takes, is influence , and influence is achieved by having the ability and motivation to make an impact at a personal, social and structural level.

So, if you are looking to be a better leader, learning to be a humble one can make a significant different in how others see you, follow you and with the influence you have.

A Humble Character

Being humble is not only effective to be a leader, but it is also useful for developing your overall character. Being humble will help you to focus on others instead of yourself which is a very noble character trait and will be liked by all who experience or see it. When people see how you respond to others and don’t attempt to overshadow them or dominate them in any way, you will make yourself far more approachable. This can lead to many great things but will likely have the biggest positive impact on how easily or quickly you build relationships. People generally don’t develop bad first impressions of someone who is humble and its generally easier for a humble person to earn the respect of others.

Think about your first impressions of someone who is showy, pompous, or arrogant when you meet them. Is it easier of harder for that person to earn your respect than a humble person? What do you think of someone when they take credit or make themselves look good at the expense of others? Its not really a valuable character trait to have.

Humble Spirituality

I find that being humble is so much easier in the presence of God. I find that I’m just naturally more humble when talking with people about spiritual topics. I’m not sure exactly why this is, maybe its because I really know nothing, am more careful to not judge others or ideas, or simply find God to be rather overwhelming. In any case, I know that Jesus lived a very humble life and there are many things to be learned from Him in how to be more humble. These spiritual thoughts provide a great sense of inner peace to me and is a strong reason why I want to learn to be more humble.

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled , and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Mat thew 23:12

Posted by Mike King under God & Life | 5 Comments »

Author : C. S. Lewis

Even though this was written over 50 years ago, its still entirely true and Lewis delivers just a brilliantly simple and clear outline of what Christianity is all about and how it impacts our lives. He doesn’t quote a bunch of scripture, preach about his own interpretation or opinions and he doesn’t try to sell you on Christianity in this book. He simply writes a clear and convincing set of facts, stories and truths that are essential to learning the essential principles behind the Christian faith.

He delves into an area of exploration on the concept of morality and how God is the center of that moral body of knowledge in every human being, regardless of our perception of right or wrong. This steers every choice that’s made and is the backbone of where mankind finds an obligation to oblige (to varying degrees) this moral derivative in our lives. This concept of morality streams through several chapters leading into Lewis’ explanations about the serious impact to our lives and how Christianity shows such relevance with these moral issues.

He explores how God is a personal God and how the human concepts of time and space do not apply to God and what that means in recognizing obedience to God and acceptance in faith. He describes these difficult and touchy subjects amazingly well and the entire book as a challenging, yet easy to read introduction and explanation of many areas of Christianity. Its a timeless book and I look forward to reading many more of Lewis’ books (as this was my first one)!

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | No Comments »

Author : Lee Strobel

This is the first book I’ve read by Strobel, but it won’t be my last. Here, he examines 13 of God’s outrageous claims and explains why they are believable and how they are supported and what they mean in a person’s life. He explores both the aspects for believers as well as for those seeking and not yet believing. Living in the modern world has people suffering from complacency, where the constrast is living an outrageous life for Jesus that can bring excitement, meaning, and purpose to anyone’s life!

Strobel delivers compelling evidence and personal stories about each of the outrageous claims he covers. They are very revealing and honestly told stories which really reinforce the struggle but emphasize why the claims are so believable and how they can affect one’s life.

The claims themselves covered are:

#1: There’s Freedom in Forgiving Your Enemies
#2: You Can Even Learn to Forgive Yourself
#3: You Can Survive the Rat Race Without Becoming a Rat
#4: You Can Make a Difference That Will Last for Eternity
#5: God Can Give You Power as Power Is Needed
#6: You Gain When You Give Yourself Away
#7: A Dose of Doubt May Strengthen Your Faith
#8: God Has a Cure for Your Secret Loneliness
#9: God’s Rules on Sex Can Liberate Us
#10: Random Acts of Kindness Aren’t Enough
#11: Heaven Is More Than Wishful Thinking
#12: Jesus Is the Only Path to God
#13: Playing It Safe Is the Most Dangerous Way to Live

Personally, I enjoyed how the struggle with some of these questions is explored and it reinforces throughout the book that these questions are normal and faith building. They bring you beyond the standard answer of "because the bible says so, that’s why" and looks at truths within the context of Jesus’ life, his actions and how that can be applied in a life on earth today. Strobel gives practical insight on each claim and guidance to overcome many of the habits holding us back in our relationships, spirituality and faith. Its a well written, enjoyable and spiritually challenging book that will teach and inspire at various levels anyone who reads it.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | No Comments »

There is one thing that most people neglect and have some regrets about near their time of death, and that’s not living their ‘dash’ to its fullest! The dash on their tombstone that is, meaning the life between your birth and death. Everyone’s lives here on earth end, unexpectedly or not, and the time to do the things you really want to do are now, not someday! You don’t know how long your life will really be and its easy to get stuck in normal daily activities consuming every waking minute of your life. It quickly passes by without realizing that you’re not doing the things you truly Continue Reading »

Posted by Mike King under God & Life | 2 Comments »