When’s the last time you stopped and thanked God for the blessings in your life?  When’s the last time you thanked your team for their work and commitment? When’s the last time you gave thanks for what you’ve accomplished instead of what you have left to do?

A few weeks ago, our house caught on fire. Thankfully we were home and were able to put it out with the help of some neighbors, so there was only external damage. It has been a frustrating process of haggling with insurance companies and work orders and all that junk. But, it has also brought numerous thoughts of thankfulness to God’s protection and provision. Without God’s protection, we could have lost everything. If our neighbors weren’t there to tell us and help us, we would have lost everything. If we wouldn’t have bought a fire extinguisher 2 years ago at an auction (for $3 I might add!), we wouldn’t have had enough time to put it out with just the water hose. If our neighbors had gone to the beach like they originally planned or we had gone to the gym a few hours later  or if…you get the point. God’s protection and provision were huge through the entire situation.

After that, I began to think about all that could have been lost in the fire and became overwhelmingly thankful for all that he’s provided. I am incredibly blessed and God has been good to us. I want to do huge things with my life and am always looking to the future of what needs to be done next. If you are like me, then you rarely slow down to recognize the blessings that are evident in your life. Today, slow down and recognize that you are blessed. Keep working towards your goals and dreams, but cultivate a thankful heart and you’ll have more joy in the process

With the assumption that God is in ultimate control, nothing produces results like action. If you want to see an idea take off, you need to act. If you want to see a book come together, you must write. If you want to see your family accept the gospel, you must act. If you want to make the team, you must act. If you want to start a company, you must act.

Action leads to opportunities which leads to results.

There are all kinds of ways to take action. Prayer does make the list, but most of the time when we are “praying about it” it really is a fancy way to say we are scared to act. After you’ve prayed about it and feel confident that God is giving a green light…ACT.

One reason people don’t go for it is because they are afraid that they’ll fail. You need to figure out a way to get over that. Everyone has ideas that fail. If you have no ideas that failed you probably aren’t doing much. Everyone who ever did something great failed many times along the way. The difference between them and us is they figure out a way to move on and keep taking action.

All change starts with action. What do you need to take action on?

It’s Conflog time again. If you are not farmiliar with the concept, its a blog confession booth. Basically we air some dirty laundry.

I don’t always follow my own advice. For example, someone will ask me my opinion on say a relationship with conflict involved. I’ll then say something on the lines of being patient with the person, listen to what they are saying, don’t try and be right or get your own way. Try and solve the deeper issue of the problem.

But, I have such a hard time doing that myself. I love to be right. It’s right up there with birthday’s and chocolate.

You? Anything you need to confess?

Nobody likes hearing bad feedback. Nobody wants to know they missed expectations. We’d rather hear how great we did or how we blew everyone’s expectations away. But what do you do when the feedback is bad? It can be about you or your job. Either way, its never easy.

I just experienced this first hand. Someone had expectations that I was ultimately in charge of meeting….and they weren’t met. I took a page and a half of notes of the situation and how he felt. I then asked him, if he were in my shoes, how would he resolve the unmet expectations. Some of the circumstances are out of my control. But some of them are in my control.  So what do you do?

1. Don’t deny the unmet expectations. Playing ignorant helps no one. Admit it and move to the next step.
2. Figure out if the expectation can be met and point out the steps you’ll take to meet them.
3. Once steps are identified, own the decision.
4. Implement
5. Follow up. This step is huge, because one of the reasons expectations go unmet is because of lack of communication. Follow up to help build better communication.
6. Reevaluate and learn from your mistake.

Don’t get bitter. Get better.

or their artwork, their CD or support their non-profit.

Everyone loves getting hooked up by a friend. You know, free golf, discount on tires, a free coffee. If you have a friend that can hook you up, you’ll take it every time.

But, should you take it? Should  you take the discount? What about the freebe?

What got me thinking about this is I’ve got a few friends that have books coming out soon and they are getting ready to start promoting. One of their goals is to obviously sell some books. As a friend, my first thought is, well, surely he’ll hook me up with one. But then I thought, no, I’d hope my friends would support my work and buy a copy–no, buy 10 copies when I release a book. I should not ask a friend to hook me up with his book, he worked hard on it, put in time and money and to expect a freebe is to ignore that completely. If our friends won’t buy our art, why would we expect strangers too?

So, if you have friends that are artists in any way, do them a favor-buy!  Nothing will encourage them more, that is, unless you buy and then get 10 friends to do the same.