Be A Fearless Leader

David was small when he hurled a stone toward Goliath. Many believe he was approximately 14 years of age, but David was fierce. He was was a mighty person of faith. He was able to see what others could not see. When he saw the king of Israel cowering and waiting for a champion he grew upset, after all the champion should have been the king. No one was able to defeat Goliath, because they were afraid of Goliath.

Often we have situations in our lives that we do not believe can ever be accomplished. We look to someone or something to help us out. When we have money issues we look to jobs for raises or to others for assistance. David was not this type of leader, he was a bold and seemingly fearless leader. He accomplished what he set out to do, becauase he trusted in God Almighty to lead him through.

In our own situations, whenever we face an obstacle that is seemingly our Goliath, we can place our confidence in God’s ability to be our source. Do not let the situations surround you and cause a mentality of defeat. The Word of God specifically states time-and-time-again that God will be on our side. In fact one of my favorite verses is “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1, NIV).

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Today I Go Back to Leading


I have been sick for nearly two weeks. I just did not feel good! I have set myself to become an example of healthy living, so I workout in the gym. I have not been able to go for a full week and five days. This has greatly dissapointed me. Even though I was so sick, I still thought about going, but I figured I needed the rest. I did just that, I rested! To be honest, I am sick and tired of resting.

Now I am feeling pretty good. On Friday I began ushering my mentalitly into a state of working out. I set a goal of working out on Monday, but on Saturday I began feeling so good that I decided to stay at home and complete my resting. I did this, but at the same time set a new goal to rush to the gym on Sunday afternoon. It is Sunday and I’m ready to get back into my routine. I have missed the gym. Yes, I said it, I have missed working out for a couple hours a day. I do these workouts for myself, but also to be an example as a steward of healthy living.

Good leaders strive to be healthy in every area of their life whether physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and/or financially. It is important for leaders to lead and ineffective leadership will provide excuses for not leading in certain areas of their life, which effective leaders will chose to lead in all areas of their life. This does not mean the leader is absolutely successful in all areas, but does desire and work toward being a faithful steward of all that he or she has been given.

Feeling Unproductive

You wake up only to find you are not feeling your best and it hits you, “I’m sick!” Recently, I experenced this feeling with great dissapointment. I had a speaking engagement, but alas, I was too sick to meet this obligation. I spent the next few days in bed and in the recliner doing what seemed to be my best work for the week; closing my eyes. In addition to the overwhelming feeling of sickness, I had a bigger problem. On the first day I was ill, my iPhone crashed with the “blue screen of death.” I was feeling horrible being sick, but now the world could not connect with me and I could not connect with it. I quickly hopped onto my computer and chatted with Apple Care, who was very responsive to the issue. As I laid there not feeling my best, I found it easy to stress about the things I was missing out on doing. Everytime I thought about working, I reached for my iPhone only to realize its sad state of disrepair. I was helpless and there was nothing I could do about it.

To shed some light on the situation, I must take you back a month or so. I had begun to step up my game and work harder and longer. I was innovating new ideas and created new resources. In addition, I found myself working out at the gym six to seven days a week for a couple of hours per session. Looking back, I would say I probably overdid it. I was burning the candle at both ends. In fact, when I got back from the gym I would take a stroll through my neighborhood via walking, jogging or running. This is good for the body, but eventually the body screams out for some rest, and in my case it is still screaming. Even while I’m working again, I do not feel my best, but maybe this will teach me a good lesson not to overdue it again and be more sensable about my goals.

Feeling unproductive is not a good feeling, but if you do not take care of yourself, your body will make you rest. Try to find some ways to rest your body instead being in the “constant go” we have become so accustomed to. Take an evening a week and sit in front of the television, go to the movies or read a good book to just relax and unwind. Do this so that you wil become more productive in the long-run. Certaintly, if you do not, you will end up having to take a week or so off of your tasks and then have another week or so of slowly working on your tasks.

…So take it easy!

Maintaining a Healthy Social Life

Sometimes we think being healthy means going the extra mile to workout and create a healthy diet, but this is not the only way to be health. While working out and eating healthy is an important part of every person’s life, we must also direct our focus to become healthy in other areas, such as our social life. Maybe you are reading this and think your social life is fine, but let me take a moment to challenge you to ask yourself:

Does your social life:

  • incorporate mostly social media?
  • focus on television or movies?
  • tend to be focused around your phone?

Recently, I went to a restaurant in Yuba City expecting to have a great time with the people I was with. Interestingly enough my time was interrupted constantly by loud noises. You may know what I am talking about, it a family who was playing games on their cell phones. I am not against people using cell phones in restaurants or even playing games, but I do think a restaurant is a place where the volume should be turn down, so not to disturb others or even (and I pray) the volume is muted. This interrupts face-time for me. Please respond to this post with your opinion on this subject. My point is I would like peace at times and this experience did not lend itself to providing the rest and conversation I desired by going to the restaurant with my friends.

I bet you can begin to see my point. Keeping in contact with others is important and we can use those methods to keep up-to-date on the happenings in our friends and families members lives, but there is something to be said about face-time. When I say face-time, hopefully you do not think immediately of Apple’s video chat. I am talking about spending time with your friends or family members in person. This is the time to talk to them and enjoy their company. Yesterday I spent some time with an old friend and we sat outside and chatted for a couple hours. There was really no point to it, except that we enjoyed spending time with one another in person. It is amazing how face-time can relieve stress and just makes you feel good. I left my friend feeling relaxed and rested by just taking the time to sit outdoors and talk.

Maintaining a healthy social life can incorporate electronics, but face-time is essential. Face-time is just spending time with others chatting about the weather or non-sense. Face-time is playing games together. Face-time is relaxation. It is important to get away from the demands of your career and let go and face-time provides this.

The Best Is Yet To Come

Isn’t it interesting how life keeps happening despite our own desire to slow the pace? Life is constant and fluid, continually pushing forward to the next moment. Often we desire to grab a hold of moments, which have already past; those precious moments that fade all too quickly. But the future leads on.

Forward thinking leaders look to what is next and rarely look to past victories. It is because the future is exciting and transcends what we currently know. I can honestly say, I look forward to the unknown. There are so many limitless possibilities out there, which could be discovered. Today’s problems brings tomorrow’s solutions. It can be difficult and scary to look into the void of the unknown future and many attempt to avoid it, but there is so much good to be had in looking forward.

We can place our eyes on our surroundings and so quickly see a black hole, which almost seems to suck us in, but we must be reminded to look forward with a joy and hope of what the future can bring. There is a well-known phrase coined by Robert Browning and when you wake up each morning tell yourself that “the best is yet to come!”

Situational Ethics

Situational ethics are present within many organizations. The truth of situational ethics exists within the untimely demise they may be posturing. To continue forward as an organization there must be a set of core ethics, which the organization can rely on.

Without the development of core ethics an organization can be thrown into a tailwind of ethical misdirections. When a line is drawn that determine the core ethics of an organization, a standard exists to guide that organization. Any situations that present themselves for a variance concerning ethics are immediately measures to the standard, which is placed by the core ethics put in place before the problem ever presented itself. 

Finding the measure of core ethics is not difficult, they typically line up with generally known ethics, including ones own personal ethics. There are rare occurances, when ones own ethics should not be applied to ones organization. It is wise to consult with team of members to develop core ethics that can be mutually agreed upon.

Develop a standard of core ethics to guide your organization today and leaf forward ethically. 

Make Me Drink

Sometimes you consider the value of your achievements and you are not sure if you are actually making an impact. You put a lot of your time diligently trying to move things forward. You feel like no one really understands the actual time you put in researching or learning to implement ideas into your leadership craft. You feel like a failure. Does this sound familiar?

The principle of leaders and followers is a large study, which some have committed their whole lives to, but often we think we can figure it out all by ourselves. The more I lead, the more I understand I must commit to learn more! Leadership is one of the trades in life, in which you must never stop learning. If you want people to follow your leadership, you must be at least one step ahead.

You are taking people to places you have been before, or into new areas you have planned and prepared to lead them to. The statement, “you cannot lead from behind is true!” If you do not believe me, try going into a dark tunnel that you have been in before, but instead of you leading the way, let someone else who has never been in the tunnel go a head. Let them make the decisions and see what happens. Chances are you will be lost in a matter of minutes. That’s the thing about your leadership; you know where you are going. People are excited to follow you into areas they have never been to before and things they never dreamed possible. You have done the work and have mapped out a plan. The right people are willing to follow.

There is a common idiom, which has been used and passed down throughout the ages, which says, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” I learned the fallacy of this statement from a long-time friend who passed away in 2015. He taught me, take the horse to the water and if the horse will not drink, put salt on its lips. Salt creates a desire for water, just as we must create a desire for our followers to follow our leadership. So, please pass the salt!