christopherhildreth

Faith

Posted February 21, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Kingdom of God

I was struck today by a thought that I wanted to pass on to you. In the world of Church, faith is a topic that is tossed around a great deal. We are supposed to have faith for everything from a parking space to healing cancer. I think the more common use of faith is a faith in the ability of others to supply our needs.

There is no need to go into specifics, but I wonder how many people in good churches have been taken to the cleaners by a man or woman who had and “idea from God”. This business idea was supposed to bring great wealth to all who invested and “advance the Kingdom of God”. Typically these schemes rob church people of their money and leave them feeling used and embarrassed.

Why is it that we find it easier to have faith in some outlandish business idea than from God? God has a pretty good track record of doing the things he says he will do.

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Getting Ready for Q

Posted February 20, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Q conference

Well, preparations are underway for the second annual Q Conference. This one will be held in New York at Gotham Hall. It should prove to be as exciting and fulfilling as last year in Atlanta. The list of presenters and learning experiences are terrific. In about a week or so, I’ll begin to review last year’s Q Conference and look ahead to what’s coming this year in April.

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Practically Letting Go #3

Posted February 19, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Creativity, Goals, Uncategorized

Alright, here’s another tried and true way to increase your effectiveness and actually accomplish things on a regular basis. It is not earth shattering and doesn’t come close to profound, but it does work, and for me, that is all that matters.

I have lived through days where my “to do” list seemed endless. My typical movement throughout the day consisted of going from one task to the next, without finishing any of them.

OK, here is the nugget of truth – take a piece of paper (no blackberry, palm or other so-called organizer) fold it three times. On one side of the paper write the top three things that must be done for that day and nothing else. I have found that the myriad of smaller items find their way into my mind whether I write them down or not. Now you have three needful and doable things to accomplish each day. This gives each day focus and purpose and leaves you at the end of the day knowing that you were successful in fulfilling your obligations.

Only put down those things that must be done. This keeps you on track and never behind!

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Propose Solutions

Posted February 18, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Context, Cultural Ideas

Quit asking for polls and opinions and begin to propose solutions. I your life, and mine, there are ample opportunities to hear how other people want things done. Advice is on every corner and in every in-box. Though there may be shortages of some things in our world, there is no shortage of other people offering their reasons as to why you should do things their way.

We can become weak in our abilities to make decisions and stand for positions we agree with. Having an unpopular opinion is not the same as having The Plague. The easy route is to find the “pulse of the people” and follow it’s every whim and movement. The difficult route – and it has always been the difficult way – is to believe in something and stand for it.

Whatever you believe in, one day it will not be popular. One day your ideas won’t be en vogue. One day you will have to choose to maintain the course of your belief or change course based on someone else’s belief.

Stay your course and be a person who offers the way – who offers solutions to others problems. Be the person people go to when they don’t know what to do. Propose a solution, and I promise you’ll find people following you. I know this because people who propose solutions are rare individuals – be a rare kind, disregard popular opinion and offer solutions.

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“Life is too short to be small.”

Posted February 17, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Cultural Ideas, Influence, Uncategorized

I’m into quotes lately. This one comes from Benjamin Disraeli, and it sums up a huge area. When I think of living small, I tend to think of people who simply live for themselves. The extent that they wish to change culture and the human condition ends when it begins to concern someone else. Selfish people are small people. The true impact they have is small, and the life they live is a small one.

When we live a big life, we encourage others to be a part of our lives. We increase the number of people and ideas that we entertain when our lives are big. Considering yesterdays post about time, life is too short to concern yourself with just you. Lift up your head and look around and you will see a world waiting to become part of your world. Don’t settle for a small mediocre life – the decision is yours, and I’d choose to have a “big” life.

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Productive vs. Busy

Posted February 16, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Goals, Influence, Me

This is one of my largest areas of “time wasters”. I will catch myself busily working on something that does not have any application to shortening the gaps between the achievement of my goals and work. I can put in hours and hours on things that either someone else can do (not being prideful, just making a point) or things that have neutral impact on my life.

Time is something that is increasing in value as I age. The seeming indefatigability of youth is catching up to me – I know I’m not old, but the term “old” is relative anyway. I want to do things that get me closer to accomplishing the things I want people to learn from and talk about when I’m gone.

We can laugh about using the terms “legacy” and “heritage”, but each day we either deposit, withdraw or ignore the balance we will leave behind. Passion is great, and something that I find increasing as the days go by, but passion without focus will just make me tired at the end of the day. Passion with focus will bring me closer to my desired achievements and give purpose to my days.

When I was growing up, people used the axiom, “busy as a bee”, it worked because it rhymed – I think bees are far more productive than just being busy. I do concede, however, that “productive as a bee” doesn’t quite have the same ring.

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“Everything Popular Is Wrong”

Posted February 15, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Cultural Ideas, Influence

Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying, “Everything popular is wrong”. I tend to think he was correct. The context we find ourselves in today’s world exists on the ebb and flow of popular thought. Information overload has helped to destabilize the prediction process of the masses. Where once we could statistically predict certain outcomes of certain situations, now we are hit with a sharp shift in the population’s attitude about a given issue or occurrence.

We saw early on in the Presidential primary coverage that exit polls and projected winners were going to be far more difficult to decipher than had previously been thought.

It seemed the country’s collective psyche was transforming right in front of us. Things we had been told were so by statisticians were proven wrong, and in an instant our perception of candidates and their ability to lead changed. Those who were the front runners and the supposed party candidates suddenly found themselves gasping for footing amid a flood of popular anxiety.

Is “everything popular…wrong”? In many cases it seems so, but we cannot be against something because everyone else is for it. We must be people who examine issues and look at the substance of a debate. We must weigh the information we have in front of us objectively.

Will we make mistakes? Most certainly, but they will be mistakes made not because we did not have courage enough to pour over decisions, but mistakes made for incomplete or inaccurate information. Our decisions define us as both people and as a nation. When we choose based on what we ourselves know and believe, we step into a realm that has been paved for us and trod over by many generations before. If we choose based on the tabloids, we take the sacrifice of those generations for granted and cheapen the cause of liberty in our age.

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The Gift of Love

Posted February 14, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Cultural Ideas

How can I not write about love today? The landscape is littered with hearts, candy and flowers. Yesterday I wrote about the gift of Hope, and today we look at Love. The ability to love is amazing. The idea that we can choose to love or not to love makes the concept of love even more grand.

The fact that I don’t have to love you, but I choose instead to love you gives a great weight to that decision.

In religious circles the love that was expressed by Jesus’ dying for mankind was a choice. It was an act He could choose to do or not do. Considering the pain of the consequences of His choice, it is also important to add the joy with which He progressed toward the end of His life. He knew the need of His act, but He also knew that it had to be done in love. That expression of love exemplifies to us, all other expressions of love.

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The Gift of Hope

Posted February 13, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Cultural Ideas, Influence

A lot has been said recently about the topic of Hope. It has been used by political figures to define either what they feel American people want or what American people need. I think the answer is both – we want and need hope. The human being was designed to live in an atmosphere of hope; to constantly be looking for the good positive and beautiful. The resource of this hope is not, I believe, a political figure. Although a person can embody a feeling of Hope, the action of believing and working for Hope lies in the person themselves.

Once Hope has been born within a person, there is not much that can cause it to go and leave. Hope is infectious and contagious – it passes from person to person with ease. Because we have a desire for it – Hope comes to us like a magnet.

It is true that Hope is a gift. A gift can be given and received; Hope has to be either given or received, if it is not it is simply belief. Hope is much stronger than belief; Hope goes beyond mere belief. Hope invades the person and pushes them to think further and do more. Hope energizes and invigorates a person to greatness and great things.

Hope lets us see how things can be and instead of dreaming with a big smile on our face, we are enable to make it happen.

May your day be filled with a passionate Hope both for yourself and for those around you.

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Living from our strengths

Posted February 12, 2008 by Chris
Categories: Books I'm Reading, Context, Creativity

I have to say that one of my favorite people to read and listen to is Marcus Buckingham. He worked with the Gallup organization for several years and co-authored the books, First, Break All the Rules; Now Discover Your Strengths and authored the book The One Thing You Need to Know. His emphasis for some time now has been to help people focus on living through their strengths instead of trying to improve their weaknesses. His point is taken with an example of a scale from 1 to 10: 1 being weak and 10 being strong. If you are an 8 in one area and you improve by a point or two, great; but if you are a 3 in an area, you have the potential to only get yourself up to a 5 or 6 – still mediocre at best.

His analysis displays the fact that when we live and work from our strengths, we are happier people. No one has to tell you what you’re good at – you know it, it is instinctive and you feel pleasure from it. Conversly, no one has to tell you what you are bad at – you know these things also. you dread them and they deplete your energy.

When we focus living in our strength zone, we make life better for ourselves and those around us. A team of people working from their strengths can change the culture of an organization and increase the whole workforces attitude about a particular business. The impact cannot be emphasized enough.

Living and working from our strengths utilizes the best we can offer to any person or situation. It breeds success, and decreases failure, resulting in much more confidence and inner direction and (pardon the pun) strength.

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