Over a decade ago, Pastor Rick Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Life, which went viral and global. I still give it away all the time as a basic primer on life as God intended it to be lived. And this best-selling book starts with a single line that polarizes and leaves no room for negotiation on a single point…

It’s not about you.

I’ve grown the deepest in seasons when God uses circumstances to remind me of this simple fact. Life isn’t about my happiness, health, or wealth. It’s about God’s good pleasure and glory.

Romans 11:33 says, “Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes.” (MSG).

You can believe this or not. You’re free to disagree. But this much is true: Life doesn’t make sense until you realize it’s all for God.

God, in his goodness, is good to us. Why? Because it brings him both pleasure and glory. And when we, as feeble creatures, feast our hearts upon his goodness and grace, he is glorified and exalted in the earth.

When we relate rightly to our Creator, joy results. And when I find my joy in my relationship with Him, everything else starts to make sense.

If it were about me, I’d expect God to fix all of my circumstances. But it’s about him, and he’s more interested in growing my character.

If it were about me, it would be unfair to have to wait for gratification. But it’s about him, so his timing is what matters, and he is set on developing patience in me.

If it were about me, I would need to worry about making sure everyone around me likes me. But it’s about him, so his approval is all that matters.

If it were about me, I’d go crazy trying to do all the things I think are important. But it’s about him, so his simple agenda – his perfect will, is all I’m responsible for. And his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.

At the end of the day, the most important thing you can realize about life is that it isn’t about you. It’s about the One who made you to love you, to make you his, and to make you holy.

You Don't Need a Coach

Sean Cronin — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 10:00:00 +0000

by Mike Ash: One of the questions that we get all the time at CourageToLead.com is, ‘Do I really need a coach?’ I think that there is something in every leader that wants to believe that they can figure things out on their own, and so we want to be the exception and not need any outside help.

Now, you’d think that, because we are an organization dedicated to partnering every leader with a coach, and we frequently say that, ‘Every Leader Needs a Coach,’ as part of our mantra, that our response would be an emphatic ‘YES!!!’ But, that’s not 100% true. Not EVERY leader needs a coach.

Now, before you put yourself into the category that doesn’t need a coach, I wanted to specify the type of leaders who don’t need a coach:

1. Leaders who don’t want to work.

Colin Powell once said, ‘There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.’ If you’re going to be a successful leader, you have to be willing to not just lead with your words, but also with the way that you work. We cannot allow complacency to creep into our lives and our organizations and stop the growth that needs to happen. If you’re not willing to put in the work, there is no amount of coaching that can help you become more successful as a leader.

2. Leaders who don’t want to learn.

Teachability is one of the greatest keys to our growth as leaders. A coach will only be able to help us to the degree that we’re open to learn ways of doing EVERYTHING in our scope of leadership. This is hard, because we have to admit at some point that our preferred methods may not be the most effective methods. But, John Wooden was right when he said, ‘If I am through learning, I am through.’ We have to keep learning.

3. Leaders who don’t want to change.

There is a temptation in leadership to believe that if we could just change our team, the city where we’re located, the name of our business, or even get a cash infusion, then everything would turn around. And, although SOME of that may be true, the first thing that needs to change is the leader. If we’re pointing at everyone else as the cause of our problems, we ignore one of the foundational quotes of leadership from John Maxwell, ‘Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership.’ If coaching is going to help us, then we must be grip our methods, styles, and approaches with open hands, willing to change the way that we lead so that we can become the leader that we know that we can become.

So, if you find yourself in one of these categories, then coaching may not be right for you. But, for the rest of us, coaching is one of the best tools that we can employ to realize our full potential as leaders.

If you don’t currently have a coach, we’d love to help.

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Source: You Don’t Need a Coach

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