Motion brings Clarity | Part 3

Continued...from Motion brings Clarity | Part 2

....When you buy from the leaders, like Barnesandnobles.com or Amazon.com, their technology recommends related books each time you revisit their site.  How easy is that.

Don't be afraid to buy three to five books at a time on a subject to immerse yourself in.    Although this may end up costing you a hundreds of dollars a year, think of it as an investment in your future.  That investment today could net you many thousands of dollars tomorrow.

I remember when I was a 22 year old college graduate working as a youth minister at a small Midwestern town.   It was a smaller church and I was paid a meager salary of $300.00 a month.  I worked a part time job to bring in additional money to provide for my necessary needs.  Looking back it was some of the best times of my life.  During that initial season of ministry I was listening to one of the leading church leadership teachers of the day.  It was 1994 B.C.D - (before CD's) it was a tape.  I have lost the tape, and even forgotten the title of the leadership lesson, however I have never forgotten the message.

At the end of this tape the communicator asks the question, "What is your Plan for Growth?"  I didnt' have one.  After all, I had just graduated from college and was concerned about paying my bills, and what the theme of the next youth group all-nigther needed to be.  I was in survival mode like many others may age or older who did not realize that you either daily grow or you gradually die.  If you don't have a plan, then you have just accepted by default the goal to survive and not to thrive.

The speaker...who became an audio mentor of mine that day began to tell those listening that we needed a plan for growth.  He even went on to share that he had designed one for those what would like it.  The plan he had designed cost $699.00.  I signed up as soon as I could to launch on my plan for growth.  It was simple plan...but it was a plan.  I have found that half of life is just showing up.  The other half is showing up ready!


The plan was to spend 1 hour a day with God, listen to two tapes on leadership a week and to read one book a month.  It was the best year of my life.  Now, you have to understand that I didn't have $699.00 in the bank.  I was only making $300.00 a month as the youth pastor and the board member that I rented an apartment from charged me $275.00 for rent.  I choose to make a sacrifice, I chose to skip meals and even ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for several meals a week (I don't even like peanut butter) so that I could find the money to grow. 

That year changed my life.  I read each of the books at least once, and listened to each of the tapes multiple times.  The hour I spend in the mornings in the Word and in prayer refined the me.  Those books marked me, the tapes mentored me.  That plan for growth spoke into the leadership DNA of my life.  I do not know where I would be today if I had not had a leader challenge me to grow.  You see, you can either pay today and play tomorrow, or you can pay tomorrow and play today!  You choose!  There is a cost to growth!

You say, I can't afford it Mark.  I would say, you can't afford not too.  Be resourceful.  Invent ways to lesson the bite for the cost for growth.  Ask your employer for an expense account for growth related resources.  Let your employers know that the books can then be put into a library that other employees can use.  Not every boss may agree, but some will, so it's worth a try.  Make a book list to send to your family as ideas for Christmas or birthdays. Check books out at a local library for "FREE".  You can often find used books online for a fraction of the cost of new ones.  Used books are used once you read them anyway!  Don't worry about how good the book might look on your self.  After all many of us have books on our selves that give us a sense of pride which have never been read and internalized.  In short what I'm saying is..."if there is a will...there is a way!"

As you read magazine or journal artices, you can begin to look for book recommendations....

to be continued