What Is Working

When trying to effect change one of the best strategies is to find a "bright spot." That is, find out where something is happening the way you want it to. Then feed that... encourage it, strengthen it and make a model out of it. The idea is stated this way by Chip and Dan Heath in the book, "Switch"

Instead of saying, “What’s broken and how can we fix it.”
Say, “What’s working and how can we do more of it.”

This is a great idea for a company of a church but it works well in relationships too. When your friend, child or spouse is doing something you wish they would change you will likely get more mileage out of finding the right behaviour and encouraging it than you will out of finding the wrong behaviour and trying to fix it. I can already hear the "but" and "what if" and "except for"... and I am sure many of them are justified but the principle still works, try it. :)

Oh my oh my oh my...

Ever wondered why people do what they do? Ever think they are being obstinate, arrogant, rebellious, silly, insecure, unfair, or other things?

It might be good to remember that we are all broken and we all need a lot of work. What do you think God sees when He looks at even the best of us?

He sees something broken, but something beautiful. Something He is willing and wanting to work on, work with and work through.

Welcome to the fellowship of the broken, the accepted, the forgiven and the deeply loved.

Failing Forward Some More

This whole idea of failing forward is one of the key concepts we will need to engage our lives, our families, our churches and organizations in continuous change. It creates a posture of learning and growing. One of the sayings I use around our church is that 'everything new is an experiment'. I introduce a new program or plan with words like this, "We are trying this out" or "we are experimenting with this." That way we develop an experimental and learning culture. If it works, our experiment was awesome and it succeeded. If it doesn't work, we learned from our experiment and try something else.

Here are some helpful hints I read recently,
“Rules for Being Human.”
Rule #1: You will learn lessons.
Rule #2: There are no mistakes – only lessons.
Rule #3: A lesson is repeated until it is learned.
Rule #4: If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they get harder.
Rule #5: You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change.

"Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly." Matthew 36:74-75

"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘ And it shall come to pass in the last days..." Acts 2:14-17

Failing Forward

Failure is seen as a negative in our lives, so we don't like to admit our failures. We would prefer to hide them in a corner and ignore them. The problem is, our failures are some of our greatest opportunities to learn and grow. Ignoring them increases the likelihood of experiencing them again. Facing them boldly allows us to learn from them.


What if we saw failure as an opportunity? What if we were confident that our failure was not final? What if we created a culture in our hearts and minds that declared, "When I fall, I will get back up...I will learn something...and I will move on."

If we did this, falling would still scrape our knee but it wouldn't affect our hearts in the same way.

"Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise;" Micah 7:8
"For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again," Prov. 24:16

What failure in your life do you need to face, learn from, and then with determination get back up and do things differently?

Unconventional Thinking

Unconventional thinking is often what we need in order to achieve a breakthrough. If we want new results we are going to need new ideas, new ways of thinking, new concepts. The problem is that our old ways seem to us like the only ways.

What seems obviously right is the way we are currently thinking and any contrary thoughts seem obviously wrong.


Questioning conventional ways of thinking can lead to breakthrough. It can also lead to a mess. Should we risk the potential mess of unconventional thinking for the possible payoff of breakthrough? Yes, risking unconventional thinking is less risky than the risk of keeping our old ways of thinking. Go for it! Take wise risks. Take on new and fresh ways. Embrace change.

Change

Change is good. So many of us want new results in our lives without engaging in the painful process of change. If we don’t change ourselves we won’t change our actions, if we don’t change our actions we won’t change our results. Change begins with the painful, difficult process of inner transformation.


The more you do it though, the more you become adept at it and you can even learn to enjoy it.

We can’t expect new results if we keep doing the same things. If we want something we have never had before, we need to do something we have never done before.

Or as C.S. Lewis said, “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

Small Changes in the Wrong Direction

“The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” C. S. Lewis


Most really stupid things happen in very small increments. Doing something a little bit worse than what I am already doing doesn’t seem so bad. Be careful of small changes in the wrong direction. They are far more sinister than they seem. Where do you think you may be slowly slipping in the wrong direction? The sooner you wake up, acknowledge it and get going the other way, the better.