think about it

think about it:

if God has a vision for your life...

if there is a purpose for you being on this earth...

a vision that God has designed for your future and what He designed for you to accomplish...

you had better get on it.

seriously.

you're taking a breath right now for a reason. it's pretty silly to go through a whole day and not engage with that vision.

do you know what God's vision for your life is? the reason He put you here?
is so... what are you waiting for?

if you don't know what it is yet...
what are you waiting for?

if God has a vision for your life what could possibly be more fulfilling than that?
You may think you can, but you will never be able to wring enough meaning and joy out of your own petty accomplishments to really satisfy yourself.

Andy Stanley spells out the realization we all need to come to = "without me, what could be--what should be--won't be."

*There is something specific in the world that is NOT as it should be and YOU, yes you, are here to change that. you had better get on it.

"Your uniqueness and individuality will reach its pinnacle in the context of your pursuit of God's [vision] for your life." - Andy

what are you waiting for?

vision casting that makes you want to paint your face blue

vision casting is essential for any leader of any movement.

vision casters have this crazy burning passion for the world to be different and they actually have a clear picture of how the world could be and should be... and they paint this picture for others to see & invite them to be a part of.

every time i watch Braveheart i am blown away by the vision casting skill of William Wallace. there are tons of examples throughout the movie, but here's a brief one:

every single time i hear his vision casting speeches like this one it makes me wanna stand up, pump my fist, & sign up to go fight in the Scottish army.

and i'm not even Scottish.

but i'm like "Give me a sword and some blue face paint and let's go!"

that's what a powerful vision caster can do. they can spark something in the hearts of people. they can paint a picture of a preferred reality that's so clear it compels people to rise up for the cause.

i want to be a vision caster half as good as William Wallace.

kony 2012!

everyone knows Invisible Children... let's hype Kony 2012 this year...
check it out if you haven't watched it already.



who's in with me? - let's hook it up that night in April. i'm up for a good all-nighter on the streets of Charlotte posting some Kony 2012 propaganda!
let's make it a party and join up and do it together.

is there a better way?

is there a better way to do this?

how often do you ask that question? how often do i?
probably not often enough.

i think that when we're doing anything that matters and we STOP asking the question "is there a better way?" then we're already done. our time is almost up.

this is a really important question to ask - to ask yourself and others.
because if what you're doing DOES matter, then wouldn't you want to know a better way?

so WHY don't we ask this question?
is it because we already think we have the best way? no better way exists?
i hope not. i hope that's not the reason. because that's pretty arrogant and at that point we are SO far gone that a conversation on this subject is pointless. if we find ourselves thinking that we already have the best way then we can probably just quit at that point.

so, i'm not convinced that's the reason. i push back all the time on having to ask myself and others this Q. i don't like to ask this Question. but why?

WHY do we not like to ask "is there a better way?"

it's hard

it takes more TIME

more effort

it makes it obvious that we're not the expert/ we don't know everything

it's very uncomfortable

it takes a little bit of humility

if we discover there is a better way then we'll have to STOP doing it our current way and make the necessary changes.

and that is hard.

so, it is EASIER to just keep doing it the same way and not even rock the boat.

but again, let's ask ourselves - is this something that MATTERS? is it worth doing? then it's worth doing better right? if it really matters that much.

maybe the best question to ask ourselves in these moments when we want to bail on doing the hard work of figuring out a BETTER WAY is...

what's at stake if we don't find a better way?

innovation and all his friends

(you can read some of my earlier thoughts on innovation HERE & HERE.)

whether you realize it or not, innovation is vitally important to the world we live in. i would argue that it is foundational to this increasingly postmodern world.

and the NECESSITY for INNOVATION will only INCREASE, imho.

Some futurist experts say this about the way our world is changing:

“For the foreseeable future, information will be the business resource, and innovation the work.”

- Clarke & Crossland

factory jobs and technical skills used to be IT. that was the type of jobs everyone worked. those were the skills in demand.
now the world is very different. KNOWLEDGE WORK is king (information) and therefore INNOVATION is the skill that is required.

“Innovation is creativity in its working clothes. It has experimentation as a coworker and failure as a strategic partner."

did you catch that? Yes, innovation appears sexy from the outside looking in, but 2 key components to true innovation and creativity are EXPERIMENTATION and FAILURE! are you willing to be an innovator since it means those 2 will be your friends?

and let me be clear what i mean by innovation. Technology doesn’t guarantee innovation. it's just a helper. When i talk about innovation, i'm saying that only the practiced discipline of innovation will produce innovative results.

this is a discipline which requires carving out space to create. it's a discipline that by its very nature requires EXPERIMENTATION and FAILURE!

and if you're afraid of that or think there's another way, i thought this was an awesome "encouragement" from Henry Petroski:

“no one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from success to go beyond the state of the art."

of course, we would like to be innovators without the hard work of EXPERIMENTATION and FAILURES, but it simply isn't possible. we can't experience one without the other.

While failure can be painful, innovative people and organizations EMBRACEthis pain.

simply put by Clarke and Crossland:

“If you want more innovation, allow more experiments.”

how many experiments (and therefore how much innovation) are you allowing?

enemies of unity

today our staff team and our spouses from Ridge Church talked about these 5 enemies of unity. we want to fight against these enemies with everything in us.

These 5 enemies are from a Dave Ramsey talk & i actually wrote about this talk HERE right after he did it at Catalyst '08.

below are just the rehashed notes again.

this is still so important because we all agreed that NONE of us want to be a part of a church where any of these 5 exist!

The Enemies of Unity 

"Unity is a spiritual happening."

-  Few churches or organizations experience real Unity. Most organizations DO NOT work to their full potential because there is no unity!

- The 5 Enemies of Unity --> **To the extent we fight back these enemies we will have success in our organizations!

1 Poor Communication = when this happens in any form, problems and disunity come. it's hard work to keep up good communication though.

2 Gossip (Dave fires peeps for this... pretty awesome) = it is degrading & will DESTROY a church or organization. 

*"If you're talking to someone who CAN'T fix it, THAT'S GOSSIP!"

*"A successful leader MUST develop & maintain a culture where negatives are handed up and positives are handed down."

3 Unresolved Disagreements = these happen when the leader is clueless or when he avoids confrontation! a Leader by definition must have a BACKBONE! 

[awesome quote] = "Sometimes in the name of being 'Christian' we avoid confrontation. That's not nice it's WIMPY!" [haha :) very true.]

A little confrontation CLEANSES THE WOUND and allows everyone to go forward in a spirit of unity! (the Leader must lead in the confrontation.)

**"When you are aware there are hurt feelings and/or disagreements, act quickly and decisively!"

- 2 GREAT quotes = "An indecisive leader is not a leader. That's squirrel theology. Leaders make a CALL." [haha, get it?... "squirrel theology"!] 

+ "Nobody ever killed anything by saying 'Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim...'"

4 Lack of shared Purpose = this happens when the leader doesn't restate the GOAL, VISION, and MISSION early & often. i can't imagine working in an organization like this. doesn't even register.

5 Sanctioned Incompetence = remember we're ALL incompetent at something so that's not a bad thing. BUT, sanctioned incompetence demoralizes.

"Team members will eventually become demotivated when someone else on the team can't or won't do their job and a leader won't take action (because they all know they're working for a wimp)."  

only 3 real options when dealing with incompetence = 1) Training (to help them be competent), 2) Transfer (to different role), 3) Terminate.

***[we resonate so much with Dave's statements @ Ridge church. especially this one...] = "There's 1 way to penetrate the marketplace = extreme excellence!

*So, the leader must go to battle early & often with these enemies FOR THE SAKE of UNITY!

"When unity is valued in the culture, the whole team will also act to keep these enemies from the gate."

Wow. good stuff Dave. thanks for this

***I am flipping proud to work on a staff team that embraces unity and puts the beatdown on these 5 enemies!

call me an idealist

people call me an idealist.

it's a negative statement (kind of like too passionate) and sometimes gets lumped with other words to describe me like naive.

but go ahead and call me an idealist. i take it as a compliment.
i think idealism is only a negative if it is just talk. no action with it. because talk is cheap.

i agree with Bono:
“Idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very strong, very real, and very present.”

yep. i'm an idealistic pragmatic. i've been called both in a negative tone, but that's OK with me. i want to spend my life rolling up my sleeves and making the world bend a bit.

i want to spend my life seeing things in the world that bother me (should bother all of us) and be the voice that says "we do not have to stand for this."

and if that's idealistic then so be it.

we'll see what has happened 3 generations from now. then we can judge whether or not i was just a naive idealist.

i believe we can change the world. i believe we do not have to stand for this.

go shave half your head

Demosthenes was one of the greatest orators in Greek history. he was a legit communicator and still recognized today as one of the greats.

Cicero called him "the perfect orator who lacked nothing", and Quintilian called him "THE standard of oratory" and said that "he stands alone among all the orators". that is some pretty high praise!

but this speaking ability did NOT come naturally. His first speeches were embarrassing, miserable failures. awful. he sucked.
in fact, he probably had a speech impediment.

so, this is what he did to go from being awful to being one of the greatest communicators in history = he shaved half his head!

yep, that was the solution. he shaved half his head and went and hid in a cave.
During his day, a half-shaved head was a public no-no. So he intentionally quarantined himself in order to reflect on what he most desperately had to say. 

He searched his soul to find his passion, his sense of identity, and his reason to communicate. did you catch that? he had to find his PASSION. what what was his whole reason to communicate? [because without these things... you can never be an effective communicator]
He thought about what his Greek audience truly valued and the language that would speak most meaningfully to them. he desperately wanted to connect with them. in a relevant way. in a way that mattered & in a way that THEY thought mattered.

Then Demosthenes practiced speaking from his heart. practiced in the back of a cave, apparently, with half his head starting to look like a chia pet or something.

When he came back out into society he won the admiration of the toughest critics the world has ever known. His name has been married to speaking eloquence for more than 2,000 years. all from a guy with a speech impediment.

why?

all because he shaved half his head.

maybe you need to shave half your head?

then lock yourself away for a while until your hair grows back...
and until you find your voice. until you locate the burning passion deep inside you. what do you HAVE to say or else you feel like you'll explode? what is your reason to communicate? and how can you say it in such a way that people actually care? how can your PASSION and your REASON to communicate be RELEVANT to your audience? what do you most deeply have to say?

so do whatever it takes. shave half your head. do whatever you have to do.

i am.

because i'm not a great communicator, but i know that what i most deeply have to say is too important to not be heard and grasped and lived.

back to school (GCTS, Harvard, & a little flavor of Cambridge)

after a "short break" that has now lasted OVER 4 YEARS... i'm headed back to school to finish my Master's Degree.

My 1st class starts Monday. I'm currently a little over halfway through the degree. It's a Master of Arts in Leadership or a Master of Arts in Religion with the focus in Leadership... haven't quite figured out which i am technically doing because it's the exact same classes for both.

it's at the same seminary i started at = Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. i love that place and my time there so far has been awesome. It's actually located up in Boston, but there is a really nice campus here in Charlotte and the professors are amazing.

i've only got 9 classes left + a Thesis to write.
i'm going to try to be on the fast track and knock this thing out in just a little over a year by going full time this Spring, Summer, & Fall.

i'll actually take 1 or 2 of my remaining classes at Harvard up in Boston. Gordon-Conwell is in some type of partnership with Harvard that allows students from either school to take a certain number of classes at the other for their degree.
i'm definitely looking forward to sitting in a Harvard classroom.

i'm pretty pumped about some of the awesome classes and profs i'll have here at GCTS too.
For example, starting Monday i am in a class all week with a prof i'm really excited about. He is actually a long time Cambridge Professor in the PhD department! And he just comes to Gordon-Conwell to teach this class in his specialty... then heads back to Cambridge for the semester. should be awesome. never had a Cambridge prof before.

some more of my remaining classes include:
The Leader as Communicator (focus on casting vision & creating organizational culture)
Foundations for Leadership
Team and Team Building
Issues in Sexual Ethics and Bioethics
Managing the Non-profit Organization
Biblical Theology of Leadership
Managing Conflict
just to name a few.

i'd like to go ahead and make this clear. i don't really give a rip about a degree. a certificate with my name on it & some letters after it is worthless, imho.
trust me, the pursuit of a degree is SOOOO not why i'm subjecting myself to all these THOUSANDS of pages of reading, staying up late & getting up early working on school stuff, pulling all-nighters to write research papers, and spending a ridiculous amount of money on tuition.

so why go back?

the #1 reason that far outweighs all others = to grow, learn, improve, better myself, to be a better leader, and to hopefully gain tools that will help me on this world-changing mission i'm on...

#2 - to finish what i started.

#3 - to not waste what i've already done = half a degree. all that time, hard work, and MONEY.

#4 - my wife made me. she said now's the time to go back when Keira is so young and i'm not missing her soccer games or ballerina performances or whatever it is little girls do. this is pretty much my last & best chance.

so it's back to school time for me. gonna be a lot busier for a while, but i'll manage.
& hopefully i'll emerge at the end of this journey as a radically better leader. that's the goal.

push them from the very bottom of your soul

when you think of James Earl Jones you think of that AMAZING voice. right? that's a God-given GIFT of speaking right there. too bad i wasn't BORN with that.

but James Earl Jones wasn't born with it either. His family moved from a farm in Mississippi to Detroit when he was only 6. (thanks to Boyd Clark for this story, btw.) 
this move was pretty traumatic for him & it prompted a stuttering crisis for him. a BIG stuttering crisis.

he hardly spoke a word for 8 years!

did you catch that? from 6 to about 14 this kid hardly spoke! that's pretty hard core. probably not the kid who's at the top of your list of kids who will grow up to become great orators.

In his high school English class they all had an assignment to write an original poem and then present it in front of the class. BUT James Earl's stuttering was SO BAD that his teacher was going to let him SLIDE on the reciting it to the class part! i never had an English teacher like that :)

but the teacher also called him out a little saying that the poem was SO GOOD, he wondered if James really wrote it, or just copied it from somewhere?

here's what Jones wrote about that:

"My honor was at stake. Plagiarism was bad business. I had written every word of this poem myself... I was shaking as I stood up, cursing myself. I strained to get the words out, pushing from the bottom of my soul. I opened my mouth--and to my astonishment, the words flowed out smoothly, every one of them.

My classmates were amazed, not so much by the poem as by the performance."

it's hard to think of a more important lesson for a communicator or a leader that communicates to learn...

Make sure the words are yours.

    
Push them from the very bottom of your soul.

         
The performance will take care of itself.

summing up renown

i think if you had to sum up our whole existence
if you had to sum up this whole STORY in 1 word

it would be renown.

God wants glory - literally renown - for Himself. & on the flip side, we're only ever happy when we want it for Him too.

renown is not a Question of "if" but of "when" & "how".

i think the reason for the sky & trees & clouds & fish & bushes & mountains & oceans & galaxies & polar bears & stars & all that we see and experience is 1 renown.
that 1 renown is the whole reason for it all. it's the point.

for us to say "wow." & "Whoever made that must be flippin amazing."


so our stories (lives) exist for 1 renown too. that's the only reason we even have a story.

but, we also hijack our stories for our own "renown" and different "renowns".
   [& i use "renown" in quotations because it's not real. renown is literally unending fame & there's only 1 of those.]

"Renown" for our name.

for our company's name.

our team's name.

for our country - (wherever we may live).

but all of this "Steals" renown from the 1 ultimate renown that is the whole point of everything.

as if...

as if - because we can't ultimately "steal" renown (or else it wouldn't truly be renown), but we just trick ourselves into thinking we can steal some. but all we're really doing is robbing others (and ourselves) of joy, satisfaction, and the amazing, fulfilling lives we were meant to live.
that's all we're doing any time we direct anyone's attention away from the 1 renown that matters onto any other fake, wannabe "renown".

we're screwing people over.

because actually there is only 1 true renown. all other attempts don't live up. the fame ends at death... or 100 years after they're gone. OR (if you can call making it into the history books "renown") maybe it sticks for even 1,000 years or 2,000 years?  but then the clapping ends and the fame stops.
but the 1 real renown doesn't even slow down... it just gains momentum.

what is renown if we had to sum it up? it's God's glory & His Name. that's the epitome of renown.

we only even know what renown is because we understand it through God's fame. He's pretty much as famous as it gets.
should be a pic of God next to renown in the encyclopedia... just to clarify for everybody.

or at least on wikipedia. maybe one of you can help us out with that?

and this...

and i think success also looks like this:

"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things 

that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines.

Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore.

Dream.

Discover.

(Mark Twain)

because i HATE disappointment! i loathe it. so if i can help it, i don't want to experience it tomorrow or 20 years down the road.

so i think i'm just gonna go for it now. and if i "fail".

oh well.

i'll just try it again.

what does it look like?

what does it look like to have succeeded in life? i think we have all kinds of different opinions on that.
here's 1 view of it:

To laugh often and love much

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

endure the betrayal of false friends

To appreciate beauty

To find the best in others

To leave the world a bit better [or a lot better]

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition

To know even one life has breathed easier

because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

(usually attributed to Elisabeth-Anne Anderson Stanley

who probably had too long of a name to ever be successful)

good idea?

got to meet Blake today. talked about my vision for Africa a little bit. specifically my newest 1st step into launching that vision.

then talked to a marketing director for TOMS and he asked to hear my vision so i dropped it on him. good times & good talk.

so, TOMS has decided to totally fund anything i want to do.

just kidding.

hopefully they won't "steal" my idea before i can launch it. haha... i guess if they do then it must have been a good idea.

i hear that the best "vetting" system for ideas is to talk them out with as many people as possible. so they can tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly. and who better to talk my idea out with than the guys who have gone 1st in a similar sort of way.

they told me they actually thought it was an awesome idea. "definitely go and do it" they said.

gonna start posting a ton of thoughts i'm processing from Catalyst  - so be on the lookout.

words are POWERFUL

i guess i've always known words are powerful - for good or for bad. to encourage or to pull down.

but over the past 2 years it's been more and more real to me.



but recently i have been blown away by some of the words spoken to me. the kind that completely catch you off guard. those unsolicited words about me spoken directly to me.

people looking me in the eyes and speaking their mind about me.



several people have spoken POWERFUL words to me recently. maybe 8 or 9 people in the past month. the kind of powerful words that can simultaneously bring me to tears and pump me up so that i can even feel the adrenaline. the kind of words that produce powerful emotion. the kind of powerful words that i'm still thinking about a week or 2 or 3 later.



those people have no idea the weight those words carry. words that let me know i'm not wasting my time. maybe i am worth something. my life matters. maybe... just maybe these crazy dreams and grand visions i have can be accomplished. words that let me know people believe in me more than i ever realized.

maybe you think great things about someone. maybe sometimes you have something powerful to say to them. but you don't.

maybe you think they are really gifted or maybe they have made a massive difference in your life. they have no way of knowing unless you tell them.

Your words are POWERFUL. Use them for good.

because i can feel the power when it's done for me... i desperately want to do the same for others.

the bean & belle

i can't even begin to express how STOKED i am about the big, huge, EPIC Grand Opening of "The Bean & Belle" tomorrow!

i predict that this children's art studio will be dank, dope, exquisite, righteous, and (add your own stereotypical adjective here) _________  all at the same time.



this is YOUR special invitation to be there at the Grand Opening & Open House tomorrow anytime between 10am-5pm. you really don't want to miss this. (And if you're there at 10 you might even get to meet the Mayor!)



it's right in the heart of downtown Waxhaw. click HERE for the website (where you can also find directions to the B&B).



and if you come you might even find out more about the mystery room!

but whether you make it to the big day tomorrow or not, if you have children you seriously need to SIGN THEM UP. we're all created as artists. we were created to be creative. that's just who we are. i'm thankful my mom took me to art class after art class as a child and awakened my creativity.



and art is one of the most awesome ways to express the beauty that surrounds us in this life and point toward things that are more revolutionary... to point toward a world that will be even more beautiful than this.



as awesome as this art studio is, to me, the fruition of the vision is even more beautiful. our awesome friend, Jen Williams had this vision long ago for the B&B - a flippin awesome children's art studio. & tomorrow is when it "comes to pass". that's a beautiful thing. a dream birthed in her heart is now born. i can resonate with that 100%



proud and excited for her. she's like my "blood sister-in-law" or "sister-in-blood" as she might call it. could basically count these B&B founders like family. privileged to have even a peak into their journey.



look out Waxhaw (& beyond) this is the era of THE BEAN AND BELLE.



if you don't make it to the Bean and Belle you're missing out. so, i'll see you there.

hard lesson in pursuing a vision

i know there are TONS of lessons to learn in pursuing a vision. and i want to learn them. i prefer learning the hard lessons from others who have been there & done that.

one thing that i know is hard for
visionaries to understand is when everybody else isn't as pumped up
about your vision as you are? how could they not be, right?

i read something recently that i think is a valuable lesson for me and anybody else pursuing a vision. John Maxwell wrote about a time he asked someone to follow him into this new vision and they didn't want to go. didn't feel like they should. he was really bummed. then his wife said this:

“Your problem is that you
want to take everybody with you. But not everyone is going to go on the
journey. Let it go.”

thanks for the advice Mrs. Maxwell. well said.

not everyone will, should, and/or CAN take the journey. and i'm ok with that.

nope

I will.
Not.
Give up.

no matter how many times I “fail”. I can be bummed for a minute, but then I’ll just keep going. Again and again.

when it comes to this vision God has given me - He's the only one who gets to tell me to stop. nobody else and no other circumstances. even if it looks like it's not working for 20 years...

i'll be pushing this thing forward for the rest of my life.

i'm never giving it up.
nope.

people are afraid of change

i plan on changing things.

lots of things actually but let's just start with the world.

i know that may sound crazy and audacious and stupid and naive and idealistic. i say it with humility and dependence though. i'd love to start a movement that changes the world. to change the way people live... on both sides of the spectrum. to change the way the world actually works. to spark a revolution. the kind of revolutionary change that can't be stopped.

i believe it's the reason God has me on this earth. it's the reason i'm taking a breath right now.

and maybe you're with me? maybe you don't think it's so crazy... or maybe it is crazy, but you're as crazy as i am.
either way - we're in the same boat.

here's something for both of us to remember then:

when there is such cataclysmic break from the NORM there will inevitably be backlash.

just count on it. i think Jesus pretty much promised it. look back in history at every world-changing revolution. it's just the way it rolls for change agents. PEOPLE DON'T LIKE CHANGE.

“Dramatic change is perceived as a threat to the status quo, primarily because it is.”  

- Phyllis Tickle

right on to that Phyllis. right on. People don't like change because it feels like such a THREAT  to everyone's status quo way of life! and it feels like that because IT IS!

this world-changing revolutionary vision in my soul is a STRAIGHT UP THREAT to the entire status quo way of living. your vision probably is too.

but our tendency will be to dislike those people, get angry with those people, feel attacked by those people, QUIT because of their attacks, etc... BUT DON'T.

i know i'll struggle with this, but somehow we have to remember = their reaction in and of itself is not a destructive or even a malignant thing. it's just natural. it's just the way it is when change comes and status quo is overturned. it's maybe almost as if they can't even help it? they don't hate you and me, they just can't imagine a world without their current status quo.

you and i can imagine that world though. 

and it's beautiful.

it's worth everything we do to make it happen.
because somebody has to ignite the change.

success! (part 2)

ever read a book and been overwhelmed with the feeling that the author is talking directly to you? i've mentioned before that this is how it is for me with Visioneering by Andy Stanley. i don't know how to explain it other than that it's like he's having a 1 on 1 conversation with me. i don't think he would say anything differently to me if he were a very close personal friend and sitting down at a coffee shop with me giving me advice.

A couple weeks ago the words spoken to me from this book were so powerful and dead on for me that i was totally overwhelmed.

i talked about it a little bit yesterday in my preamble to success & i'm continuing it below.

i'm in this "waiting" stage - but i feel very unsuccessful in this "waiting" stage. yes, i'm praying and planning like crazy... but it feels like i've been rolling that ball up the hill for too long now.

this praying and planning stage is so difficult for me (and everyone probably) because i get confused about what success actually is!
Andy reminds me:
“There is a tendency to confuse success with the rewards of success. If I am where God wants me, fulfilling the responsibilities He has given me, I am successful.”  

*this is HUGE for me right now!

Andy's Definition of Success = “Success is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for me.” (“Success is not the raise, the promotion, recognition, Christian home, or wonderful children. Those are simply enjoyable mile markers along the way.) Success is staying faithful to the process that contributed to those things becoming a reality.”

*So, most successful peeps are successful long before they see the fruits of their success. make sense?

success isn't about "the moment" when the vision hits it big. it's about all the tiny little moments along the way that build to "the moment". it's about all these moments where i just keep plodding along. continuing to pray and plan. rolling the ball forward.

Andy puts it another way = “You are as successful now as you will be the day you see your vision materialize.” 
WOW*** That’s freakin’ sweet! and the timing of me working through this stuff again is impeccable. as if God was behind me being able to hear this somehow...

“Confusing success with the rewards of success is one of the primary reasons people abandon their dreams.” – whoa! This is big to remember! i cannot imagine me abandoning this vision. i wouldn't know what else to do. BUT i'm not naive. i'll work hard from now on to NOT confuse success with the rewards of success.

“Waiting time is not wasted time for anyone in whom God has placed a vision… He is the master strategist.”

this sentence brought me to tears. because that is the name i need to give to God in faith right now. He is the Master Strategist. even though i can't see it He's up to something.

my praying/planning/waiting time is not wasted... He's prepping me and everything else that needs to happen to make this vision go off. He's gonna make it happen.

it's His vision anyway. what am i so worried about?