Welcome to “Sunday Inspiration,” a bi-weekly devotional for those seeking spiritual encouragement in the pursuit of their passions. Each post comes from an outside resource (as referenced). I hope these posts will inspire and motivate you in your life and career in addition to our weekly original blog posts. Enjoy!

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” 
Php 2:5 NLT

How many jobs do people lose every day because of poor attitudes? How many are passed over for promotion because of the way they approach their work and the people around them? How many marriages fall apart?

It would be impossible to calculate.

No one should ever lose a job, miss a promotion, or destroy a marriage because of a poor attitude.

Why? Because a person’s attitude isn’t set; it’s a choice.

Chuck Swindoll writes:

“Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It’s more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I’m convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you…We are in charge of our attitudes.”

Paul writes,

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”

He always approached people with love, grace, acceptance, and a heart to serve rather than be served.

So if your attitude hasn’t been as good as it could be, make this your starting point. Pray: “Father, give me a Christlike attitude toward everyone I meet.”

Source: https://www.jentezenfranklin.org/daily-devotions/having-the-right-attitude

In several blog posts I’ve talked about the importance of personal branding. Your brand is key to success in every area of your life. It requires consistency and self respect.

But sometimes you can put your personal brand at risk without realizing it. Especially during any vulnerable point in your career. This can include a downsize or layoff, a slow start to a new business venture, or any other unanticipated time when there’s financial instability.

There is the temptation to take just any job or client that comes along. During the slow times of the year I personally face the temptation of taking on projects or clients I know are against my better judgment. Luckily with practice I’ve gotten better at resisting such temptation.

Other examples of putting your brand at risk include:  saying “yes” to every opportunity, giving away your skills and talent for “exposure,” and taking jobs you’re overqualified for in the hopes of just getting a foot in the door with a certain company or industry.

However, you must keep in mind your career choices, just like your personal choices, reflect on you as a person. (And your business if you’re a business owner.)

Don’t Give Away Your Name

Well-known personal development and entrepreneurship blogger Tim Denning explains this in his post entitled “Don’t Put Your Name On Anything That Makes You Look Cheap“.

He shares examples of how easy it is to make this mistake, such as accepting a job or project that goes against everything you believe in. He refers to this as “giving your name away”. I’ve seen this happen with people who take a job just for the money or out of fear.

If you do any of the above (i.e. agree to do a project for free or cheap, settle for a less than ideal job, etc.), then people expect you to continue doing so. Therefore, it becomes harder down the road to ask for what you’re really worth. This includes not just money, but also time and respect.

The point Denning drives home is this:

“Stop saying yes to everything!”

This doesn’t mean you say no to everything, but just to the things putting your personal brand at risk.

How to Say “No”

Saying “no” may sound very difficult to do, especially for people-pleasers.

However there is a way to stop saying yes to everything and to learn how and when to say no. It all starts with a mission. Your mission is the foundational piece to your personal brand.

What is your mission you want to accomplish in life and why? It’s necessary to have a deep knowledge of your mission if your goal is to take responsibility for and ownership of your life’s purpose.

A personal mission statement of how you want to use your talents to accomplish your vision and goals serves as a filter in making important decisions. You use it to filter out the opportunities that don’t support your mission statement. As a result, you know which opportunities to say “no” to.

The opportunities that support your mission statement or get you one step closer to your vision are the ones you can say “yes” to.

How to Write Your Own Mission Statement

Since your mission statement helps you better discern opportunities, it’s important to put some thought into it. Writing one is more of a process than just jotting down some pithy statement in two minutes.

You should take into account all your strengths, limitations, unique differentiators, potential audience, and more. Think about the following things:

• Who are your various audiences? I use the plural form of audience here because you’ll have more than one audience for each endeavor.
• What is your audiences’ biggest challenge or problem they face?
• How do your unique strengths and skills solve your audiences’ problem?
• What are the additional benefits of your skills for your various audiences?

Protect Your Personal Brand

Having a mission statement is just one piece of your personal brand. In order to protect your personal brand from bad choices, you must have a clear understanding of what your brand is.

What do others think of when they think of you and your work ethic? Are those the things you want people to think about you? Or is there another message you want to convey through your goals and mission?

To gain control of your brand and to build one that’s strong and will take you where you want to go, check out my on-demand course on personal branding. It will give you all the tools you need to attract the opportunities you’ll want to say “YES!” to.

Related Posts:

• A Simple Way to Make Big Decisions
• How to Take Responsibility for Your Own Career Growth
• You Don’t Have to Be a Slave To a Paycheck
• Want to Be a Public Speaker? Beware of the “Exposure” Bait

A few weeks ago I came across a vision board I created for the year 2011. It was the first year I’d ever done a vision board.

I vaguely remember tucking it away at the end of 2011 feeling somewhat discouraged. Only half (or slightly less than half) of the things on my vision board came to fruition.

When I recently re-discovered the vision board, I was excited to see all but one of the items have now come to fruition!

I can also look back at my goals and vision boards from the past three years and see so many things I’d written down have come to pass. It’s true what they say. People who write down their goals are 50% more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t.

Of course, most of the goals I’ve set I have some control over and can easily achieve as long as I’m committed and persistent. Others depend on forces outside my control. All of them require some level of faith for full achievement.

Goal-setting for those who hate goal-setting

There are all kinds of ways to set goals and several resources available for goal-setting as outlined below. I personally have used various ways such as vision boards, mind mapping, lists, and my Passion Planner calendar.

But maybe goal-setting isn’t your thing. Perhaps you’re more of a problem-solver instead of a planner or goal-setter.

Well, just recently I heard about a simple way to set goals from a problem-solver’s perspective according to Bob Biehl. It’s a great method for those who cringe at the thought of setting goals but light up at opportunities for troubleshooting.

Here’s how it works:  create a chart first listing 2-3 problems in your life you want to solve. Then think about what goals would help solve those problems. Finally list the opportunities you have surrounding those problems and goals. The opportunities are the steps you would take to solving your problems and, as a result, will achieve your goals.

Here’s what the chart looks like:

By starting with a focus on the problems first, you’ll be more motivated to set goals since this approach matches your skills and your preferred method of working.

Even though I’m not one who gets excited about problem-solving, I decided this year to use the above approach. It actually helped me think of some goals I may not have considered having not followed this approach. It was even flexible enough to allow me incorporate some of the other goal-setting tools I’ve used in the past.

The Best Resources for Setting Goals in 2019

No matter how you prefer to set your goals for 2019, I encourage you to utilize the resources I’ve provided over the years that have also helped me achieve my own goals. These resources include:

• The 8-Step Goal-Achievement Plan, free when you subscribe to the paNASH newsletter.
• The on-demand program Don’t Just Set Goals, ACHIEVE Them! (A video version of the 8-Step Goal-Achievement Plan, free for a limited time when you purchase the on-demand bundle.)
• Articles and blog posts on the topic of goal-setting. (Check out the link in the category list on the right.)
• paNASH Pinterest board on goal-setting.
• The Passion Planner. It’s a wonderful calendar system that helps you break your goals down into actionable steps, making them significant game changers for your life!

Who knows. Maybe by using the above resources and putting your goals in writing you’ll also look back one day and see just how much you’ve accomplished.

Oh, and the one thing on my 2011 vision board that didn’t get fulfilled? Well, I’m choosing to believe since all the other items were fulfilled in God’s time, that final item eventually will be too.

Happy 2019!

Welcome to “Sunday Inspiration,” a bi-weekly devotional for those seeking spiritual encouragement in the pursuit of their passions. Each post comes from an outside resource (as referenced). I hope these posts will inspire and motivate you in your life and career in addition to our weekly original blog posts. Enjoy!

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:2 KJV

A vision is a picture of what “can be” rather than “what is”.

Your vision may be to bring health where there is sickness – like the vision Albert Schweitzer had for Africa. Or of education where there’s ignorance – like the one that motivated Gilbert Tennent to help establish Princeton University.

It may be a vision of freedom where there’s oppression – like the one that made William Wilberforce give up a life of privilege to eradicate slavery.

Or your vision may be smaller and simpler – like being the first one in your family to graduate from university, or becoming a great parent to your child even though you yourself never had one.

Or breaking a bad habit before it breaks you…or moving to a different country…or spending your t most-productive years traveling the world.

Thoreau said,

“If you’ve built castles in the air…put foundations under them.”

But having a vision isn’t enough; there has to be a commitment to act on it. That’s called a mission – and it requires setting specific, measurable steps to achieve it.

Those steps are called goals; they establish a plan for accomplishing your mission and thus fulfilling your vision.

You’ll generally have one vision, but many goals. And each goal you reach brings you a step closer to fulfilling your vision.

And here’s the really good news: when your vision comes from God, He’ll give you the strength, wisdom, connections, relationships, and resources to make it happen because He’s “the author and finisher of our faith”.

Source: http://w4u.ph/ask-god-for-a-vision/