What a great look at taken you leadership to the next level

You Cannot Go To The Next Level If…

One of the things I always hear in regards to leadership is that we should always desire to “go to the next level!”  However, there are several things that will hold us back from doing this.  Reality is that you and I cannot go to the next level if…

• You absolutely are in love with the way things are
• You are increasingly obsessed with the people who hate and criticize you the most.  (Here are 7 difference between a coach and a critic, PART ONE & PART TWO & PART THREE)
• You are not hungry for wisdom. (Proverbs 4:5-7)
• You are not willing to make uncomfortable decisions. (Galatians 1:10)
• You are a people pleaser. (Proverbs 29:25)
• You are not willing to accept responsibility for where you are right now.  (The person who always has to blame is always lame!)
• You are not willing to speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:25)
• You are using people rather than valuing them.
• You are more in love with comfort than carrying your cross. (Luke 9:23)
• You never allow yourself to be exposed to new ideas and methods. (Isaiah 42:9, Isaiah 43:19, Isaiah 48:6)
• You take shortcuts (see Exodus 13:17-18)
• You expect people to read your mind and then hold them accountable for things you never actually said but rather just assumed they knew.  (Great leaders will leave you if you do this.)
• You do not hold people accountable to what they have said they will do.
• You are always looking for a fight instead of a solution. (II timothy 2:23)
• You are not begging God to reveal more of Himself to you.

What a great read about spiritual growth!  

Put Them Out

Usually leadership or spiritual growth books and articles are focused around adding things to your life.

A new principle.
A new practice.
A new person.

Many times that can be good, and sometimes even necessary. But I’m learning more and more that the opposite is just as if not more important…removing things from your life.

As great as it is to add to your life, if there are things in your life that are taking up space or are exerting a negative influence, they will quench whatever good the good things could bring.

Who cares if you learn a new principle if the old ones you’re still living by contradict it?
Who cares if you adopt a new practice if your life is too cluttered to actually practice it?
Who cares if you hire an A+ staffer if the rest are D-?

What if going to the next level in your leadership and your walk with God didn’t look like putting something in, but instead putting something out?

Maybe it’s:

• The insecurities in your life that are keeping you from believing God.
• The excuses that are keeping you from obeying the voice of the Lord when He calls you to greater, higher places.
• The fears that are raging in your mind that try to confront your faith and back you down from believing God that the best days of your life are ahead of you.
• The regrets of your past that are trying to paralyze the potential of your future by keeping the spotlight on who you used to be and keeping the potential of who you might become in the dark.
• The voices of negative people who always have 1,001 reasons why it won’t work, but won’t lift a finger to help you get to the place where God wants you to be.
• The people who are keeping you tethered to your old way of life before you came to God.
• Old paradigms of thinking that are just too small for what God wants to do in and through you.

Whatever it is, one difficult but essential solution is required for each of these if you want to go to the next level: Put them out.

Or they’ll put your chances of going to the next level out.

Resource of the Day: I expand on this idea in a sermon I did a year ago during our Sun Stand Still series, called “Why Bother?” To watch it, click here.