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Football and You

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football-game

I’m a football fan. Maybe even a football freak. But one of the realities of being a fan is that you are the shorter version of fanatic. I remember watching the NFL and the AFL on a black and white TV with rabbit ears with my Dad and thinking, this is a great game.

I’m a Georgia Bulldog fan. That means that I fully expect to start the season 5-0…but wait for it…October and November are coming! I’m an Atlanta Falcons fan. I fully expect to be missing my heart as I watch it stomped upon, one more time!

But let’s face it. Anybody can have a day where nothing goes right. Kind of like the University of Tennessee two days ago. Or the Falcons earlier today.

The question is, do these teams have three critical elements that all of us need to overcome a setback and get back in the win column. Our lives are similar to the game of football. So, here are three elements that you might find helpful in your life’s game.

  1. Strong teams and strong players recognize that you are going to fail, but that doesn’t make life fatal. Every single winner has had losses. The real question is what did you learn from the loss that matters. Losing is essential to appreciate winning! Get off your pity party and get back up, dust yourself off and get back in the game!
  2. There will always be naysayers! Plenty of people stand on the sidelines and babble on about what they should have done. It’s always an easy call from the cheap seats! A buddy of mine once said that if you are pedaling uphill as hard as you can, you don’t have time to deal with every yapping dog that is chasing after you! Leave the stands and get on the field. There are plenty of things to focus on. Dream poopers aren’t one of them. Press On!
  3. Get back in the gym. Get back in the film room. Refine your trade. Work your plan! Stay the course. When we surrender our willingness to learn, we have surrendered our right to lead. Preparation is the fuel of champions! My friend, Dr. Jay Strack offers this thought on getting prepared to win, or to win again: “The future belongs to those who are prepared.”

Don’t offer emotional, uneducated assumptions from the cheap seats. Get in the game. And when all goes wrong, take your losses and the critics and toss them away, after and only after you have learned all that you can from them. Then get back in the gym. Get back in the film room and get back on the field.

You have been created to strive for excellence. You are equipped to overcome loss and the critics that come with it. Once you are prepared, play to win! Walk off the field spent and exhausted from the battle and lay your head on the pillow tonight and close your eyes as you think over the events of this day with the joy of knowing that you did all you could, with all you have. Friend…there will always be days when you must look in the mirror and state: “All I can do is all I can do. And all I can do is enough!

–AChuck

The Taxes We Pay

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The Taxes We Pay with ACHUCKAllen

It’s that time of year, again. Tax Time. Its that day when you look at your previous years income and realize that you have paid for a lot of Americanism. If you lived in the Ukraine, Syria, or Somali, you’d gladly pay those taxes to have the freedom and prosperity that we enjoy, here in the USofA. 

But there are other taxes we pay. 

  • There is a tax on leading anything: You will be criticized. 
  • There is a tax on being a parent: You will be broken-hearted. 
  • There is a tax on a happy marriage: You will learn to sacrificially compromise. 
  • There is a tax on Peace: You must remain strong. 
  • There is a tax on friendships: You learn to hurt when they hurt and celebrate when they celebrate. 
  • There is a tax on serving others: You will be taken advantage of. 
  • There is a tax on loving Jesus – Openly: You will be hated and belittled. 
  • There is a tax on sin: Be sure your sin will find you out. 
  • There is a tax on giving: Living with an open hand will cost you something. 

Whatever we do, that truly counts for something worthwhile, will cost us something. King David said, “I will not bring an offering to the Lord, which costs me nothing.” 

Let’s be found guilty of paying the tax on leading, loving and serving well. Let’s not grumble over that tax because King David is still right, in 2017. Live loud, live large, and live this life with an open hand. That will require a tax – a tax well spent. 

Peace — AChuck

YOU

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If you’re a leadership and productivity geek like me, you probably know that thought leaders and scholars the world over have conducted mountains of research to answer the question: What are the characteristics of great leaders?

I’d like to suggest that we are never qualified as a “great leader” without one particular and crucial trait for success.

In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that this is the one leadership quality any person aspiring to lead others, absolutely must add to their personal development plan in 2017. What is this trait that great leaders must discover and hone? Self-awareness. And I believe it is a learned skill.

Self-awareness requires each of us to assess not only our own strengths but also our shortcomings, limitations and blind spots. What you don’t know about yourself might be limiting your relationships, leadership, and joy. The lack of self-awareness most certainly increases stress, tension and productivity. 

So where do you start in your quest for accurately assessing your self-awareness?

Thanks for asking…Let’s start with a few questions. Ask yourself…

  • Why do the same issues keep coming up over and over in my business, marriage, friendships, health, or life?
  • Why do I respond to situations with anger, fear, optimism, or withdrawal? And once identified, address them. 
  • What makes me think, act, and feel the way I do? Especially when I feel defeated or negative thoughts take control of my mind.
  • What makes me get up in the morning? What pushes me to give more of myself?
  • What tasks are torture to me? What are those things that drive me to procrastination?

But first, get over yourself! We all have strengths. We all have weaknesses. It is when we primarily function in our strengths that we discover contentment and fulfillment. That fulfillment is then greatly increased when we surround ourselves with people that are strong in our weakness and weak in our strengths. We were created by the Divine to live in community and in need of other folks that make us better and we in kind make them better. That never happens apart from a healthy self-awareness.

Ego and entitlement need not apply–it works against increased self-awareness. As we get introspective about some fault or shortcoming we have, we need to handle the obstacle of denial. Denial is a powerful detriment to personal development, and it can keep even the brightest and most successful people stuck. It can be the greatest hurdle that we face in becoming a healthy, self-aware leader. Remember that the brighter your strength, the more glaring your weakness is. 
I think we’re all pretty much guilty of that at some point or another in our careers. We all have egos that need to be stroked, fears and insecurities that need to be smoothed. And we all have emotions that need to be tamed and tucked away.

Many of us don’t realize that success may be just around the corner but first we need to humbly acknowledge the blind spots that need to be identified and overcome. Once you identify those blind spots, this effort will be one of the biggest wins of your life. And your family, friends, and relationships will thank you for it.

Just in case you are pondering the validity of this exercise, here are a few thoughts from Scripture to encourage you.

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

Galatians 6:3 “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

Romans 12:3 “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

And for good measure, let’s all take a deep breath and remember that Jesus had a lot to say about great leaders. He said that “if you want to be great, you must become a servant.” The true measure of self-worth and self-awareness is found in our willingness to serve, not in who serves us.

Stay Cool, Chuck

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