Moving Forward, pt6
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 082
Five Forward Gears
1. You must determine that the place you are in is not the place where you will stay.
2. You must clearly identify where you are.
3. You must be committed to a sequence, not just an action.
4. You become the responsible party.
5. Forward motion takes repetitive, redemptive, and renewed effort.
Repetitive
Here’s what I’ve learned about life: When something works, it works not just because one thing happened, but because there was a repetitive thing that happened. When I have listened to business gurus, the one thing I have discerned from them is the need to take repetitive actions. (This can also be called systems.)
This is a foundation of training or discipleship. You do it over and over and over again so that when something happens, you sink down into your training.
John Wanamaker, the founder of the first real department store, said, “90% of work is drudgery.” In other words, it’s monotonous. To move forward, you have to be committed to repetitive action. I’m going to go to school until I get my degree. If you enjoy the bills being paid, you have to go to work.
Redemptive
There will be actions you take that will not be perfect, and you will fail, and then you will have to take redemptive action. Things will go wrong, and you will have to fix them. Just because you are sincere, serving God, and trying to do the right thing, does not mean that everything will necessarily go right or be easy.
Don’t be afraid of making a mistake, because you are going to make a mistake. If a batter hits the ball one out of three times, he is a successful batter because he got on base. You are not going to hit every pitch that is thrown. You get up and do it again. Be committed to redemptive action.
Renewed
If you are going to do the first two (repetitive and redemptive actions), you are going to have to have some gas in your tank. What I’ve noticed about most good leaders is that they know how to resource themselves. They are not just drawing out of their well continually. They know how to draw out of their overflow because they are filling themselves up.
Let’s look at our spiritual life. Prayer is important. It is something that should be a repetitive action. In order to pray every day, you will need some renewed efforts. You’ll have to pray with other people, listen to good teaching on prayer, read history on how prayer changed circumstances. That is what renewed looks like. You are renewing the ability to be repetitive. You are pumping new life into what you are doing. You are looking for new resources.
Where are you going to get that renewal from? What are you going to do to resource yourself? Many people with good intentions have broken down because they haven’t been able to throw another log on the fire by resourcing themselves.
Let’s be people who are moving forward. To move forward, we need to understand the following:
1. You must determine that the place you are in is not the place where you will stay.
2. You must clearly identify where you are.
3. You must be committed to a sequence, not just an action.
4. You become the responsible party.
5. Forward motion takes repetitive, redemptive, and renewed effort.
God does not want to leave you where you are. He wants to take you forward in your life.
