I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.

Albert Einstein

“Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” — John Watson

I received an e-mail from a client recently and he had the above quote from John Watson in his e-mail signature.  It really hit home for me because I am a divorce lawyer.  In my law practice I am a assisting people as they go through divorces, property disputes, custody fights and other family court matters.  Most of these people are hurting.  They are dealing with something that no one wants to go through and no one ever thinks it will happen to them.  They are hurting and intimidated by the system.   I have found that being kind helps my clients and they really respond well to it.

While you may not be dealing with people in the same situation and circumstances as I am, you are coming into contact with people every day as well.  This day in time, people all over are hurting and dealing with all kinds of problems.  I challenge you to be kind to those you meet.

“Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave along with you.”

- Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

Convenience is hugely attractive in organizations because it is easy to defend and easy to approve…The problem is that convenient approaches rarely break through or generate extraordinary returns.

- Seth Godin

How has your business or ministry been handicapped by convenience?  As Seth points out, extraordinary returns do not come from taking the convenient approach.  The “bird in the hand is greater than two in the bush” mentality is safe and may be good, but it won’t lead to greatness.  If you always accept what you have in your grasp you will never realize greatness.  In my practice, I have several things that are safe.  I know I can generate a certain level of business each month just by doing a few things.  The problem with that is my time is tied up and I convince myself that things are good.  Before the ideal practice will show up, I may have to jump off the safe road.

What can you do to avaoid ordinary results and move toward extraordinary?

“Our call as lawyers is to minister God’s truth, beauty, goodness, justice, mercy, compassion, or love wherever it is lacking, whether it be in our law office, our law school, the county courthouse, the adversary system, our client’s family, our partner’s life, or at the coffee shop”

- Michael P. Schutt in Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession

“Discover that the most powerful way to help those you love is to lead by example – and realize you’re leading by example all of the time.”

- Joe Caruso

I especially agree with this quote, “It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.”

Here’s to meeting all of your goals for 2009!

The Era of Procrastination is coming to a close; in its place we are entering a period of consequences.

- Winston Churchill

As we enter one of the most challenging financial times in our country’s history along with the normal challenges and bickering that go with a presidential election season people are hurting.  Our country has lived for years by spending more than we make, living on borrowed money, we are fighting a difficult war, crippling ourselves by our reliance on foreign energy sources and not making a plan for how to take care of our own people.

The quote above was spoken when Churchill was discussing Europe’s lack of interest in doing something to stop Hitler before he began his campaign in Poland and France.  The rest of the world’s lack of action caused a world war and devastating consequences throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

While we face enormous challenges today, our calling as the Church has not changed.  Even though church people are hurting too, we are still called to serve our community and to reach our community for Christ.  We cannot call a holy huddle and just take care of our own.  Now more than ever, we can show everyone around us the love of Christ.  Our efforts in the community around us are needed more now than ever before.  The Church simply can’t procrastinate any longer through this period of “consequences.”  The church should be leading the way to the solution.  No government, legislation, tax bill, or economic stimulus package is going to save this world the way the Church of Jesus Christ can.  Let’s turn our eyes out so we can be a blessing where God has placed us.

When you are in touch with your God-given passion you are on fire for life. People can easily tell whether you are passionate about your life or if you are just getting by. You wear that on your sleeve and you can’t cover it up.

If you are living your passion, you don’t watch the clock – if you do, you’re wishing there were more hours in the day to keep one doing what you love. There is no need for an alarm clock because you can’t wait for the sun to come up so you can start your day. One of the most important things about living a life of passion is that you have the objective clearly in mind. Therefore, if a little roadblock gets in your way you won’t be totally sidetracked. You can see far enough down the road toward your end goal that the little things don’t deter you. Once you have identified your passion and you go after it each and every day you will begin to build momentum. As John Wesley said, “people love to come and see you burn.” People want to be apart of something fresh, something exciting, something bigger than themselves.

The opposite is also true. If you loathe your life because you are just busy. You go and do the same thing you hate every day because you don’t know what else you would do. You aren’t living for anything except the hear and now. There is no goal. There is no end in sight. Things are not clear. They are foggy. Your tired, frustrated and stressed out. You know it and so does everyone else. And John Wesley’s quote is more painfully true if you are in this boat. When you are just blown around by the circumstances and worries of the day you are also very lonely because you’re not “burning” so no one has come by to see you.

Have you identified your passions?  We’ll talk on this blog about some ways I think you can find your passion and calling.  What are some ways you have used to determine what God placed you on this planet for?

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it." – Andrew Carnegie 

I read this quote this morning and I totally agree with it!  One thing that great leaders do is empower those around them to get better, do better and succeed.  Simply because you can’t do everything yourself.  You need to train those around you to handle the things that they are gifted in and you handle the things that you are gifted in as the leader.

As an aside, I learned early on when I started running this law firm that I couldn’t do it all by myself.  I always felt like I can do a lot of my own "stuff" because I trust myself and I don’t want to be a burden on anyone else.  But quickly I became the bottleneck.  When I started delegating and empowering my staff, my work load and stress level decreased and our office ran smoothly, efficiently and successfully.