Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Seth Godin, (2011-03-01) from his book, Poke the Box (p. 80). AmazonEncore. Kindle Edition . I’ve heard it many times that when we are waiting on God to tell us to start, He’s waiting on us to start.   He’s given us the idea and He wants us to do it but we think there has to be a voice from heaven to tell us to start.      Now one reason why we may wait for permission is to be able to blame someone else when something goes wrong.   Let me tell you, even if it is something from God, something will go wrong.    That is a part of the process.   But Seth also said, “Not starting is far, far worse than being wrong.   If you start, you’ve got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don’t start, you never get a chance.” I don’t think being wrong is the worst thing in life.   Not trying is.   So I accepted the opportunity to start writing today.   I didn’t need permi...

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) from his book, Poke the Box (Kindle Location 220). AmazonEncore. Kindle Edition . In other words if you are afraid to fail then you will never do anything.  Failure is a part of the process of success and learning and doing. There are many people who are still single because they are afraid of marrying the wrong person. There are many couples who have no children because they are afraid of the pain of a miscarriage. There was a time that I moved out of the secure job that I had as a staff minister.  I had been a part of music almost all of my life, had a lot of success.  I also had great days as a Youth Minister and then as the Associate Minister in charge of the Adult ministry for a large church.  But I remember the day that I sensed there was something more and I moved with my family to Austin, Texas to start a new church.  The truth is I didn’t know what I was doing.  I had only preached five times ...

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) from his book, Poke the Box (Kindle Location 915). AmazonEncore. Kindle Edition. I was sitting this weekend at my local Starbucks talking to a new friend about life.  I do that a lot.  It is kind of what I do now to make a difference.  I used to be afraid to talk individually with people to strike up a conversation with someone because I was socially shy.  Oh I could get up in front of 100’s of people and sing but one on one scared me.  I was immature socially.  Now please understand that it is a risk to step out of one’s comfort zone in order to make a difference.  Making a difference doesn’t just happen. There was a time that I moved out of the secure job that I had as a staff minister.  I had been a part of music almost all of my life, had a lot of success.  I also had great days as a Youth Minister and then as the Associate Minister in charge of the Adult Ministry for a large church....

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) from his book, Poke the Box (Kindle Locations 129-130). AmazonEncore. Kindle Edition. Have you ever thought about the fact that you have to learn to get past the no’s in your life to get to the yes?  With every yes there are going to be no’s.  Do you realize how many different thoughts that I said no to before I said yes to this one that I am writing about right now?  I could not find one today that really gripped me to start writing about until I got to this one by Seth Godin.  Now I could have stopped at one point and said, I guess I’m not in the mood today so I’ll go do something else but I didn’t.  I changed my location from the Seminole Library to Starbucks and continued looking in my Kindle to different thoughts that I had highlighted in my reading until I came to this one.  Something about it clicked and here I am writing. I didn’t get married until I was 27.  There were a bunch of no’s both fr...

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) in his book, Poke the Box (p. 61). The Domino Project. Kindle Edition . That is the difficult thing isn’t it?  We all it seems have at some moment come up with that idea that will make a major difference.  We are sure that no one else has ever thought of it but we don’t do anything with it and it is lost. Whether you believe it or not you have a tremendous idea about your task at work there in the inner workings of your mind.   It is that idea that will make your task more effective.  It may be that just right idea that will make your office more successful.  You may not realize it but by doing what you do every day you are the person to come up with that needed idea.  But you are afraid of rejection or being laughed at so you keep it to yourself.  It probably isn’t that good any way you think.  So the idea is lost. Now someone somewhere is going to come up with the idea and he is going to ...

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) in his book, Poke the Box (p. 14). The Domino Project. Kindle Edition. Somehow risking has been taken out of our life style because we are so afraid to fail.   Think about this...   I am a Los Angeles Dodgers’ fan.   I love baseball and I love the Dodgers.   To be honest it is tough being an LA fan this year.   But any way, yesterday they played the St Louis Cardinals and a rookie by the name of Justin Sellers lead off.   That means he is the first batter of the game.   Now what if he sees that he is leading off so he goes to the manager and says, “Thanks, Mr. Mattingly for the confidence that you have placed in me but I am too afraid of leading off the game because I might strike out so could you put me down in the batting order?”   What do you think Don Mattingly the Dodgers’ manager would do?   He probably would send him to the minors to never ever play for the Dodgers again.   Now the truth is...

A thought by Seth Godin (2011-03-01) in his book,  Poke the Box  (p. 57). The Domino Project. Kindle Edition. The fear of doing wrong keeps us from so many good things in life.  Being wrong can either be a devastating experience or a learning experience.   It all depends on our perspective.                             Margaret, my wife and I took a Saturday trip  last spring to Orange, New Jersey to the home and factory of Thomas Edison.   Edison is the third most  prolific inventor  in history, holding 1,093  US patents in his name , as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.   He said one time, “ If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.   ” Being wrong was not a problem for him.  It was a learning experienc...