WHAT CONSTITUTES A TRUE WINNER?

By Dr. Rick Warren

In every area of life, whether in the world of sports, the workplace, or in recreational activities, we enjoy the experience of being a winner.

Winning an important contract, earning a well-deserved promotion, or receiving a significant pay raise all can bring us much happiness and fulfillment as business and professional people. As spectators, we still feel like winners when our favorite sports team triumphs over its greatest rival. Many of us, even when playing casual games at home with family and friends, strive to be the winner.

But is that what being a “winner” truly means? Could it be that there is something more to winning than prevailing over a competitor, or scoring more points than your opponent does? Here are some thoughts about what a true winner is:

A winner… respects those who are superior to him and tries to learn something from them;
a loser… resents those who are superior and rationalizes their achievements.
A winner… explains;
a loser… explains away, making excuses.
A winner… says, “We must find a way”;
a loser… says, “There is no way.”
A winner… goes through a problem, working toward a solution;
a loser… tries to go around a problem, seeking to avoid it entirely.
A winner… says, “There should be a better way to do it”;
a loser… says, “That’s the way it has always been done here.”
A winner… shows he is sorry by making amends for it;
a loser… says “I’m sorry,” but repeats the same offense the next time.
A winner… knows what to fight for and what to compromise on;
a loser… compromises on what he should not, and fights for what is not worth fighting for.
A winner… works harder than a loser, and has more time;
a loser… is always “too busy” to do what is necessary.
A winner… is not afraid of losing;
a loser… is secretly afraid of winning.
A winner… makes and honors commitments;
a loser… makes promises – but then ignores them.

The Bible also offers some challenging thoughts about winning and losing. For instance, the apostle Paul wrote about the importance of becoming prepared to achieve victory: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24). In another passage, Jesus warned about the risk of losing – even if you “win”: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Based on the thoughts above, which are you – a winner or a loser?

© 2012, Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved. Adapted from a column by Dr. Rick Warren, author of numerous books, including the highly acclaimed, The Purpose-Drive Life, which has been translated into many languages worldwide. It affirms the importance of a carefully considered, clearly expressed purpose to guide everyday life. It has been named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century.

CBMC INTERNATIONAL: Jim Firnstahl, President
1065 N. 115th Street, Suite 210 ▪ Omaha, Nebraska 68154 ▪ U.S.A.
TEL.: (402) 431-0002 ▪ FAX: (402) 431-1749 ▪ E-MAIL: info@cbmcint.org
Please direct any requests or change of address to: www.cbmcint.org

Reflection/Discussion Questions

1. Before reading this week’s Monday Manna, what would have been your answer to the question, “What is a winner?”

2. Now that you have read Dr. Warren’s thoughts, has your view of what a “winner” is changed at all? Explain your answer.

3. What do you think Jesus meant when he spoke about someone that would “gain (or win) the whole world and lose his own soul”?

4. Based on Dr. Warren’s contrasts showing what it means to be a winner and a loser, which would these comparisons say that you are?

NOTE: If you have a Bible, consider these other passages that deal with this topic:

Proverbs 6:20-23, 11:14, 11:24, 15:22, 22:4; Matthew 6:19-21,33; Philippians 3:8

DUE DILIGENCE REWARDS SINCERE SEEKERS

By Robert J. Tamasy

In the business and professional world, we often hear the term “due diligence” describing the process used prior to making important decisions. For instance, when seeking a new leader, companies will perform due diligence to find the best candidate. Before introducing a new product or service, a business does due diligence to evaluate consumer interest, competition, product placement, and marketing.

When looking to add a key individual to the staff, due diligence is in order to ensure the right person is selected: skills, expertise, experience, values, motivation, proper fit with other members of the team.

As individuals, when thinking about a significant vocational change, we are well-advised to do our own due diligence – studying opportunities in the job market; the quality of organizations we are considering to become our employer; whether a job offer represents an opportunity to advance our career; and perhaps most important, if we intend to change jobs, what do we really want to do. Do we want to do the same thing we have been doing, only somewhere else? Or is it time to take a totally new career path?

Research often makes up a large portion of due diligence, and today such information is more available than ever. Through technology – especially the Internet and social media – necessary data can be obtained in minutes instead of days or weeks. We have greater resources than ever for making the right decisions. But often we forget or neglect one important source – the wisdom of God.

Sometimes, despite our best efforts and “due diligence,” the best choice remains unclear. At such times it would be advisable to do as the Bible’s New Testament recommends: “If any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

When perplexed and faced with a difficult decision, it has been my practice to pray, asking God for wisdom and necessary insight to ensure that I do not decide in error. Through the years, I have met many leaders that have made the determination, “God is the owner of my business,” so it made sense to them to seek His wisdom for their day-to-day decision-making.

However, there is an important “qualification” to seeking God’s wisdom. We find it in the following verse: “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-7).

As I have thought about it, in light of all the many decisions that we confront each day, there is one decision that transcends them all: Whether we will sincerely seek to live for God, not only privately but also professionally. Thousands of years ago, the Israelite leader Joshua made this declaration: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Have you made the same determination?

If not, due diligence again is merited. Such a decision, certainly, should not be taken lightly. We would do well to follow the example of spiritual seekers in the ancient city of Berea. In the New Testament, we are told, “the Bereans…searched the Scriptures to see if what Paul (the apostle) said was true” (Acts 17:11). In my experience, such searching has always confirmed and strengthened my trust in God.

Robert J. Tamasy is vice president of communications for Leaders Legacy, Inc., a non-profit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. A veteran journalist for 40 years, he is the author of Tufting Legacies (iUniverse); Business At Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace (River City Press); and has coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring (NavPress). For more information, see www.leaderslegacy.com or his blogs, www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com and www.bobtamasy.wordpress.com.

CBMC INTERNATIONAL: Jim Firnstahl, President
1065 N. 115th Street, Suite 210 ▪ Omaha, Nebraska 68154 ▪ U.S.A.
TEL.: (402) 431-0002 ▪ FAX: (402) 431-1749 ▪ E-MAIL: info@cbmcint.org
Please direct any requests or change of address to: www.cbmcint.org

Reflection/Discussion Questions

1. What is a recent example you have experienced – or observed – of “due diligence” being performed in your workplace? What has been the outcome?

2. If someone were to ask you how to properly go about performing due diligence prior to making an important decision, what advice would you offer?

3. Have you ever considered seeking God’s wisdom in your decision-making process? If so, have you found it helpful? If you have not asked for wisdom from God, does the suggestion seem strange or uncomfortable to you? Explain your answer.

4. In this “Monday Manna,” Mr. Tamasy suggests perhaps the most important decision of all is whether to live for God, both personally and professionally. Do you agree? What do you think of the example cited of the Bereans who “searched the Scriptures” to determine whether what they were being taught was true?

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to review additional passages that relate to this topic, consider the following verses:

Joshua 1:6-9; Psalm 119:9,11; Proverbs 1:7, 2:6, 3:13-15, 16:16; 2 Timothy 3:16-17

CAUGHT UP IN MINUTES – OR MOMENTS?

By Jim Lange

Time. Do you have enough of it? If you are like the rest of the world, you will answer that question by saying “No!” However, you would be wrong. We all have enough time. In fact, each of us has the same amount of time each day: 24 hours. Nobody has more, and no one has less.

The problem with most of us is that we have become addicted to filling our time with things that do not matter. We fill it with tasks at work. We fill our time on social media like Facebook and Twitter. We fill it by transporting our children to numerous events and after-school activities. We fill it watching TV. We find ourselves constantly in motion, squandering precious minutes and hours.

We have allowed very little margin in our lives, so we frantically rush around trying to squeeze everything into our schedule. Sadly for many of us, at the end of the day we have missed out on what really matters: relationships.

I have three questions for you to ponder: 1) How do you spend your time? 2) How is that working for you? 3) When you are on your deathbed, will you be happy with the way you have spent your time?

I heard this subject discussed recently and it got me thinking about my life and how busy I seem to be. I do not think God desires me to be this busy. I do believe He wants me resting along the way and taking time to enjoy the journey, but sometimes it seems so hard.

However, I have determined to jump off this “hamster wheel” by frequently asking myself what is truly important. I have had a tendency to do things simply because I have always done them that way. I have been very task-oriented which, on one hand, has been helpful in some areas of my life. However, it has hurt some of my relationships, as I have erred in emphasizing tasks at the expense of people I genuinely care about.

As a result, I have begun a process of evaluating all that I do and asking myself how important each opportunity really is. Would you be willing to do the same?

For many of us, such a process of self-evaluation can be unsettling, perhaps even frightening. But the bottom line is this reality: If we continue doing things as we always have, we will continue to get the same results we have always gotten. And this includes the way we use our time.

Our days are all numbered. Just as we cannot add a single minute to a 24-hour day, we cannot add even one day to the span of our lives. Time is the most precious commodity we have. So would you join me in trying to make the most of the days you have left – by looking to create meaningful moments rather than maximizing your minutes? If we are focused on maximizing each minute, this will lead to us trying to create microwave relationships. Trust me, this does not work well, especially long-term. We can be efficient with things we do, but we must learn to become very inefficient in our relationships. This is where moments are created, and they cannot always fit a convenient schedule.

In the Old Testament book of Psalms we find this wise advice: “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

© 2012 by Jim Lange. Jim is a chapter president with Truth@Work (www.christianroundtablegroups.com), a ministry to people in the workplace. He writes a regular online blog, www.5feet20.com, and is the author of a book, Bleedership: Biblical First-Aid for Leaders. He and his family live near Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A.

CBMC INTERNATIONAL: Jim Firnstahl, President
1065 N. 115th Street, Suite 210 ▪ Omaha, Nebraska 68154 ▪ U.S.A.
TEL.: (402) 431-0002 ▪ FAX: (402) 431-1749 ▪ E-MAIL: info@cbmcint.org
Please direct any requests or change of address to: www.cbmcint.org

Reflection/Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever thought, “I do not have enough time?” How often do you feel this way?

2. Jim Lange asks three questions. What are your answers to the first two: How do you spend your time? And, how is that working for you?

3. He uses the analogy of the hamster wheel, the image of little mammals running frantically on the metal wheel and going nowhere. Others make the comparison of being stuck on an unending treadmill. Do you ever have the sense that your life is like that? If so, have you tried to remedy that – and what has been the result?

4. What, in your mind, is the difference between “meaningful moments” and “maximizing minutes”?

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to review additional passages that relate to this topic, consider the following verses:

Psalm 89:47; Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,11, 8:5-6, 9:11-12; Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5

CREATED MEMORIES THAT ENDURE

By Rick Boxx

Last year I was coordinating a conference for business and professional people, and one of our speakers was Peter Herschend, co-founder of Silver Dollar City, a recreational theme park located in Branson, Missouri, U.S.A. As we were arranging the microphone that Peter would be using for his presentation, a man from our audience walked up to the podium and handed him a small gift.

Having a listener from the audience approach with a gift was highly unusual, especially before the presentation. So with surprise and a bit of hesitation, Peter opened the box. It was a photo album containing colorful pictures of characters and employees at Silver Dollar City.

The giver explained this album represented the memories his family had accumulated over numerous years of attending Peter’s entertainment center. The photos were a token of the family’s appreciation for the many happy moments they had enjoyed and would always have as treasured memories.

As it turned out, the gesture fit perfectly with Peter’s talk on his company’s mission, “Creating Memories Worth Repeating.” Ironically, the kindness of the guest at our conference produced a lasting memory for our speaker.

Should this not be a primary goal for all of our businesses, no matter what product or service we provide – to create memories worth repeating? The job we do may not result in entertaining photographs. But our work should still be of such quality that it forms positive mental images, ones that linger through the passage of time.

For example, a patron at a coffee shop might hold memories of pleasant aromas and flavors of the local brew, along with friendly service and interesting conversation. Customers at a retail store may remember the courteous and attentive response of salespersons that were eager to guide them to exactly what they were looking for. A client might hold lasting appreciation for the efforts of a financial planner to address practical matters that did not necessarily generate additional income for the advisor.

Admittedly, an entertaining experience – such as a visit a theme park like Silver Dollar City or attendance at a sporting event – might lend itself more easily to enduring memories, but a grocery store where the cashiers routinely greet customers with smiles and pleasant greetings can be meaningful as well. Whatever our product or service might be, it would be wise to create an environment that, after the customers, clients and suppliers have worked with us, they leave with the conclusion, “I’m glad I did business with them.”

In the Old Testament of the Bible, Proverbs 10:7 teaches, “The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.” Good experiences leave lasting memories; bad experiences are either intentionally forgotten or leave negative, even bitter feelings that ensure the customers will not be returning to do business with us.

Will the memories you create for your customers today become a blessing – or will they perish?

Copyright 2012, Integrity Resource Center, Inc. Adapted with permission from “Integrity Moments with Rick Boxx,” a commentary on issues of integrity in the workplace from a Christian perspective. To learn more about Integrity Resource Center or to sign up for Rick’s daily Integrity Moments, visit www.integrityresource.org. His book, How to Prosper in Business Without Sacrificing Integrity, gives a biblical approach for doing business with integrity.

CBMC INTERNATIONAL: Jim Firnstahl, President
1065 N. 115th Street, Suite 210 ▪ Omaha, Nebraska 68154 ▪ U.S.A.
TEL.: (402) 431-0002 ▪ FAX: (402) 431-1749 ▪ E-MAIL: info@cbmcint.org
Please direct any requests or change of address to: www.cbmcint.org

Reflection/Discussion Questions

1. What is the most vivid, positive memory you have of a place you have enjoyed visiting, or a business you patronized that left you feeling very pleased and satisfied?

2. Do you think the intent of the motto, “Creating Memories Worth Repeating,” makes sense for your company or organization? Why or why not?

3. How can a memory become a blessing, as the verse cited from Proverbs suggests?

4. If you were to rate your workplace on the “memory creation scale,” what score would you think it deserves? If that rating is low, what steps could be initiated that could result in creating more memorable experiences – ones worth repeating?

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more about this subject, consider the following passages:

Proverbs 11:16-17, 13:9; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 4:17, 11:24-25; Philippians 4:8