Imagine this truth as an invisible garment you can put on each day that gives you superpowers. Then, learn to build with God daily and never surrender to anything less than His purpose, promise, and victory in all of life.
How we see the past influences our future.
One of the exercises we do in Prayer-Plan Your Life is create a timeline of significant experiences and turning points where things changed. The goal is to see whatever happened through God’s eyes.
When we see the toughest times of our lives through the lenses of God’s redemptive love and faithful provision, we can respond differently when we face challenges in the future. We also make bigger plans.
Building ourselves up in the truth of who Jesus is in all of life helps us to deal confidently with whatever we will face in advance. We see and believe ourselves victorious. And we ultimately win in every situation because He has already won for us and promises to win with us today.
2. Expect favor and blessing.
What you see, hear and say most is what you believe and do.
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts because everything we do flows from it. Stop letting negative news, gossip and the noise of life be the dominate your mental diet. Take charge of what you see and hear.
Give yourself the gift of a directed mind, and a heart flowing with love and a positive expectation for good.
Describe in a sentence or two who you know in your heart God is calling you to be. Write it in a letter to God telling Him you want to go for it. Read your letter out loud every morning. Ask God to bless you with more understanding of how to live according to your calling. (I even place mine under my pillow at night keeping these thoughts close.) When stress comes, take a few minutes to refocus, read your letter, and charge ahead!
Here are a few other ideas:
- Begin each day with prayer, meditating on the promises of God.
- Identify at least 10 promise Scriptures for your life. Write them on index cards or sticky notes. Review and proclaim them over your life and work daily. Ask God for insight and understanding. Boldly confront every problem or challenge with the certainty of victory and practical wisdom for success.
- Create a “playlist” of music and teachings available when you commute or have waiting time.
- Politely refuse to engage in gossip and other negative conversations.
- End each day by documenting your progress and what you learned.
3. Ask empowering questions.
Questions are a powerful tool of focus that can defeat stress.
When life happens, most people respond by asking some form of the following question: “Why does this always happen to me?”
Instead, when facing a stressful or challenging situation, ask different questions:
“What if this will work?”
“What’s the way forward?”
“What’s the most important thing I can do or learn right now?”
“What could be great about this?”
4. Learn what you need to know.
There’s a learning curve in anything you want to do.
Building the plane after you’ve already jumped off the cliff can be stressful. But you don’t have to go it alone.
Invest whatever it takes to get the information and coaching you need.
What are your top three personal and professional goals?
What must you know and do to achieve your goals?
Who has successfully done what you want to do?
What are the top 10 questions you want them to answer?
5. Keep you eyes on the prize.
There are so many deadlines staring me in the face as I type this blog post. I’ve got a venue to land for our annual conference and a course to record next week for TrueTribe members.
It feels overwhelming.
And then I pause to think of the people who will be encouraged when I press publish, the hundreds of lives that will be refreshed and practically equipped at the conference, and how my new course will help people make better decisions now that will count for eternity.
Then, I get a surge of determination and energy that makes me invincible to the nagging stress.
It’s important to get clear about what you want and why.
The reason we invest significant time helping you to clarify this in Find Your Why Forward is because when you have a compelling why, you’re in a better position to handle the stress of how.
6. Strengthen your mental muscle.
The ability to respond resourcefully to stress and stay focused in an avalanche of distraction is a mental muscle you must develop.
One of the ways you can do this is through prayer and meditation.
Beyond the obvious benefits, science tells us that prayer and biblical meditation help to recalibrate our brains and expand our capacity to respond to life in resourceful ways.
Breathing exercises, brain games, getting enough sleep, and proper nutrition and supplementation also help.
7. Eat the frog.
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”—Mark Twain
Your “frog” can be defined as your biggest, most important task.
Too often our response to stress and overcome is to procrastinate.
Ask yourself: “What’s the most important thing to complete right now?” Then get it done. Completion is a powerful energizer.
Invest time to learn productivity hacks and tools to help you get more of the right things done in less time.
8. Protect your focus.
Nothing can stop or defeat you until it breaks your focus.
God created us to dwell with Him and to build with Him. He provides a way for us to be focused and fruitful in the crush of business demands, relationship tension and the everyday challenges of life and work
When you believe this deep in your soul, you will become fierce in the management of your focus and slay the giants of distraction.
The truth is, all distractions are equal. They stop you.
You must decide that no matter what happens, you will find a way to keep moving forward—even if it means waking up an hour earlier in the morning or having hard conversations with others.
One simple question to ask yourself is this: When I’m at my best, what’s true? The answer to this question will help you identify insight and understanding about what focus looks like for you.
Focus and the momentum that comes from it are a formidable force that make you extremely productive.
Protecting your focus allows you to navigate confidently through the minefields of past problems, cranky bosses, nutty customers and messy situations, and it allows you to blaze a trail to success that is energizing, rewarding and true to your God-inspired values and vision.
9. Choose and create supportive environments.
What’s around you determines what grows inside you.
Every environment has a purpose and a product.
Different environments support different levels of focus, productivity and connection. For example, don’t try to do work that requires high levels of concentration in an environment filled with distractions. And the local coffee shop may be an ideal place for meetings.
Begin with your home and office.
Clean up and clear out the clutter.
Choose a specific place in your home to meet God.
Decide a place to write or do creative work.
Put your mobile phone in airplane mode, turn off notifications.
Have an agreement with others around you to minimize interruptions. You must train people to respect your focus or they never will.
10. Schedule times to rest, relax and renew.
Studies show that taking time off can help you be more productive at work. But more and more people are putting off vacation time.
Why?
Studies show that there are three primary reasons: (a) they don’t think they can afford it, (b) the fear of returning to a mountain of work, and (c) they don’t think anyone else can do their job.
Don’t let these be your excuse.
Get creative. Learn to use points and miles to travel inexpensively. Plan and prepare for time off. Don’t let fear or pressure to conform to a workaholic culture rob you of the blessing of rest and renewal.
“I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back” (Phil. 3:12-14, MSG). {eoa}
Linda Fields is the founder and CEO of 7M-pact (7M-pact.org), the marketplace ministry expression for the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri, and beyond. Sharing insights from over 30 years of corporate training and teaching university business classes, Field speaks, consults and coaches individuals to lead well. She is the author of IMPACT Your Sphere of INFLUENCE: Bringing God’s Presence in the Workplace, Find Your Why Forward and other resources.
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