My Ten Maxims For Life

God has dealt with me to train and develop leaders this year.

In the past, my approach has been more of a mass teaching (with very little success).

I want to begin by teaching very specific groups and those that respond to the teaching will be who I focus on.

Here is what I am looking for:

Those who will LISTEN

Those who will LEARN

Those who will LEAD

Goal:

Help you become a better leader.

Who must a leader lead first? THEMSELVES!

How do you lead yourself?

You must know yourself.

The good, bad and ugly

You must know where you are going.

To answer these questions, you must take a real look at the CULTURE you have created.

Culture: way of life - an outward, visible display of what is valued.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say!”.

What culture have you created for yourself?

In the early ‘90’s God began to deal with me about this, although I had no idea it would become this...

Started in my first prayer notebook as a 10 Most Wanted List.

Somewhere about the time I got married this began to take shape and then my first pastorate and by the time the kids came along, I had the foundation of the kind of man I wanted to be written down.

An unwritten plan is nothing more than a dream...

My Ten Maxims for Life:

I will be obedient, faithful and steadfast in my relationships with God, my family and my church.

I will lead myself well first, my family second, my church third, and finally everyone else last.

I will be responsible for my actions and responsible to those that I lead. The Buck stops here.

I will be humble, kind and a gentleman of peace.

I will treat everyone with respect, look them in the eye and give firm handshake and smile.

I will always give the benefit of the doubt and a second chances.

I will never assume and always forgive.

I will speak and live truth.

I will endeavor to be clear in my speech and actions.

I will be quick with public praise and private criticism.

I hand write these every quarter in my calendar.

I read over these throughout the week.

Countless times I have arrested my actions or changed a decision because they were contrary to the code, ten maxims that I live my life by.

These are the ten things that I have purposed I will live my life by.

I have violated them on occasion, often in the early days a lot…

BUT this is the culture that I have created for me to live in!

What culture have you created?

What needs to change?

Next steps:

Honest self assessment (what/who are you?).

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

How do you want to be perceived? (what do you want to be?).

Make the list.

Challenge: write your own obituary, then live your life to fulfill it!

Homework: first 3-5 things on your Ten Maxims list.