day 783: Quitting

"Watch out, so that you do not lose the prize for which we have been working so hard. Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward."

I once heard that quitting was a permanent resolution to a temporary problem. I spend time with many executives who at different times and for different reasons consider quitting. We all do, right? There isn't any decision that we make that we won't at some point second guess or at least scratch our heads and wonder if we are on the right course or not? But, the decision to quit is a different decision. Quitting means that we are going to abandon the hard work, the money invested, and turn back on what we once said was important to achieve. We read about these decisions every day in the business sections of the news. Shedding a division, a product line, a competitive market, etc. are decisions that means that someone decided it was time to throw in the towel and go another direction. Quitting is not always the wrong decision, but as we enter into strategic directions, partnerships, hiring, and financial commitments, we have to be sure we have thought through each step as much as we can so that we don't start and then stop. I advise that we should always ask ourselves the question as to whether or not this is one of those things that would be better to never start than to start and stop. It's a good litmus test to be sure that starting and stopping doesn't do more damage than it should.

Our spiritual journey is one where each and every day we are faced with those things in our life that want to tempt and sway us from keeping our eyes on the prize. The promise that we are given is that if we don't quit, and we stay diligent that there is a "full reward" to be gained. We know as believers that the full reward is to live eternally in the presence of our Lord. In God's eyes, if we give up and quit, He hopes it to only be temporary as He takes us back each and every time. If we remain sincere in our journey, with our eyes on the prize of Him the rewards are beyond what we can fathom. I would also add that by not being a quitter that we are setting a model and living out the example of Jesus. As we know, He could have quit any time He wanted, but He didn't. When we persevere, and when we follow through, and when we stay focused, and when we don't look back, and when we progress with enthusiasm and hopefulness, others will see that something special in each of us. One never knows what and when that moment will come to explain to others why.

Reference: 2 John 1:8 (New Living Testament)

day 624: Perservance For The Future

"It was in the midspring, during the fourth year of Solomon's reign, that he began the construction of the Temple of the Lord. This was 480 years after the people of Israel were delivered from their in the land of Egypt."

In business, we just can't think day to day, week to week, month to month, or quarter to quarter. We have to have a long-range vision and plan to execute if we are going to continue to move in a constant and direction. However, this is harder to do than say. Forces are always moving against and toward us to take off of our plan and to deviate from the vision. It's not easy to stay consistent and to follow through. Most of us would never think of what we do on our job having much, if any, bearing on what the company will be like in 50 years. I have a friend who likes to ask people in their jobs if then can name the person who was in the job before them, and then before them, and then before them. Unless they are CEOs, the line of questioning usually stops at the third generation question. Better yet, ask someone who was the first person in the company to be in the job and they won't have a clue. We don't think that long, even though we should. If we did, then we might find that we would make better decisions and investments of our money, resources and time. It's just not in our DNA to think much further ahead than the lifetimes of our offspring and when we do think about the future it is usually bleak or fatalistic. When did Hollywood create a movie about the future that was not post-apocalyptic? Yet, it is easy for us to make the past look good. To be the best we can be, we need to be able to look into the future and then deal with it for the hope and the optimism that only the future can bring.

Solomon built the Temple from what should have been started 480 years earlier, even though he wasn't around then. He planned and laid the foundation that nearly 500 years of history would be built upon. He gives an example of what it means to grasp a vision and then stick to it, without waver. Maybe what some of us need to do is start looking a little harder now for the future and then setting a plan to get there. If we decide that that future in our careers and life are to be days, weeks, years and decades that we will invite God to walk along and inside of us then we will find that we can see a bright and exciting future that others will want to follow us towards. The walk we make to the future with conviction and perseverance is a powerful message to others who are looking for a reason to want to see the future. Think today about what that futuristic direction you can begin taking today and will follow through with as Solomon did with the Temple. Start building that future today. Another day of waiting gains nothing.

Reference: 1 Kings 6:1 (New Living Testament)