day 1297: Emotion, Choice and Distraction

"But Jesus told him, 'Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.'”
  
All good sales people know that they must know and recognize, and then be able to respond to, the answers they receive that are the beginning of a deal slipping away from them.  But the rest of us try and close deals everyday with our teams, partners, investors, employees and yes, even with our bosses without the same experience or skills.  Here are three responses to watch out for: 

• The "Emotion" - "I just don't know how I feel about this...."  
• The "Choice" - "I have some alternatives that I need to review first..."  
• The "Distraction" - "Right now, I just have too much going on to pay attention to this...  

 How we anticipate and ready for these common responses can make the difference between being able to close the deal, or not.   

As Jesus reached out for disciples to follow Him, He heard in response many reasons why not.  These responses were filled with emotion, choices and distractions as reasons to not follow Jesus. We do the same.  We let our emotions, choices and distractions get in the way daily of our walk with Christ.  Work in itself is filled with each of these.  We don't feel like we can make the hard choices and when we get to that point there are business trips, meetings, a crisis that needs us now.  Within a moment, we have lost our path.  Jesus' love is unwavering.  His gift for us comes without ties or catches and the only person who can close the deal, is ourselves.  Are we ready to put aside the emotions, the choices and the distractions and put our focus on Him?

Reference: Luke 9:62 (New Living Translation)

day 1128: Distracted Living

"...I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible."

As we are told and reminded over and over again, distracted driving is dangerous and can cause someone, ourselves included, to die.  Even when we know it though, that desire to be on top of everything  and current at all times can take over and there we are, texting or checking email at the stoplight or while the car is moving.  Driving takes focus as do many things in our work today.  But, competing with that focus are the instantaneous and compelling distractions of our phone, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, Apps, etc.  You could say that we live in the age of distracted living.  We know this in our businesses where it is nearly impossible to keep our consumer’s and customer’s attention beyond the briefest of moments.  Ask yourself when the last time you watched something that wasn’t live when you actually allowed the ads to play all the way through.  That would be the golden age of advertising that didn’t last.  We must understand, compensate and compete vigorously against the distractions if we want to build and grow brand loyalty.

Our spiritual lives are on a constant barrage of distractions!  The devil dangles all he has in front of us all the world has to keep us distracted and less engaged with God. Sometimes it is like Satan has the DVR controller and he just fast forwards us from Sunday to Sunday and loves that we didn’t see, hear or feel anything of God for the whole week. Think about it that way and it gives a whole meaning to the term “controller”.  As we know, our workplaces are the perfect place for distraction as well.  One hour to the next is filled with something or someone who shifts us off course, sometimes slightly and sometimes horribly.  Our challenge today is not to be distracted and to fix ourselves on Him today.  Don’t be discouraged if you aren’t perfect.  Like the scientist trains hid mind or the athlete trains her body, we have to train ourselves to have resolve, commitment and unwavering focus on what really matters; bringing glory to Him!

Reference: 1 Corinthians 7:35 (New Living Translation)