Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 6, 2019 | Men Of Success - Winter 2019: Primary Greatness - Session 4

Transcript

February 6, 2019 | Men Of Success - Winter 2019: Primary Greatness - Session 4 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, Rodney?
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Doing great.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
0:06
SPEAKER_01: Good.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: Has everybody woken up from the Super Bowl?
0:13
SPEAKER_01: I love the tweets.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: I picked out two tweets that uh found uh on Twitter during the Super Bowl.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: This one was this is like watching Ambient.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: And the other that I liked was live feed from the guy who updates the scoreboard at the Super Bowl.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: What a snoozer of a Super Bowl.
0:42
SPEAKER_01: So do you think they would have uh preferred to have Mahomes in there and uh Breeze, maybe?
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I would have.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I didn't watch it, I listened to it, but uh I think it would have been a lot better for the NFL if the Chiefs and the Saints were in there.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: So we probably are missing a couple guys from last night's ball game.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: But you went to the how many of you went to the KUK State game?
1:08
SPEAKER_01: I think Matt Barker went to the game.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Anyone else here?
1:11
SPEAKER_01: And you went to the game, right, Rodney?
1:13
SPEAKER_01: I did.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about the K State victory.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: It was awesome.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, it's always uh it's always good to beat your older brother, as Sam would would say.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, it was it was that place was jumping.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh I got kind of scared there for a little bit.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: We jumped out to that huge lead, and KU did what they always do.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: They go on these runs and you know, we start throwing up bricks, and um I was like, here we go, we're just gonna lose this game again.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: But um I think our senior leadership actually came through for us this uh sure did.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: Three seniors can beat three freshmen most times, and they sure did.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: Yep, got the uh what do you call that uh off their back?
1:59
SPEAKER_01: They got the got the monkey off their back.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we're in a book.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: This is the last week in our book, primary greatness.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: Remember that Stephen Covey's book focuses on uh primary as versus secondary greatness, primary greatness being on the inside, about character, secondary greatness, well, fame, wealth recognition is on the outside.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't surprise you to hear him say that many people confuse success with secondary greatness.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: But a successful life is about primary greatness, a life of duty, honor, integrity, perseverance, self-sacrifice, and service regardless of material rewards.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: And good parents and good coaches, like football coach you had six, seven years ago, uh were all about primary greatness and character, and then modeled it in that story you told about coming back to K-State, I think, five years later.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: So uh let me review and then we'll jump into the final four chapters.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: First chapter was integrity as versus appearance.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: The challenge here is to choose one area in your life in which you could show more integrity, then do it.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: Second, contribution versus the easy life.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Decide what legacy you want to leave in your personal and professional life.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: That was our contribution challenge.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Priority was third, as versus fatal distractions.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: We need to put first things first.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: What's your burning priority in life?
3:39
SPEAKER_01: What do you need to say no to?
3:41
SPEAKER_01: Do it.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: Number four was sacrifice as versus hidden agenda.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: And what way is your personal ego or ambition a barrier to team progress at work or home?
3:53
SPEAKER_01: Resolve to sacrifice yourself in that barrier, which ties in with number five, service as versus being selfish.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: Bump up your service level today to your wife, to a coworker, even to the secretary.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: Value them, listen to them, do random acts of kindness.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: Six was responsibility as versus being uh playing the victim.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: The responsibility challenge was do you feel like a victim?
4:19
SPEAKER_01: What can you do to rid yourself of victimism?
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Start it today.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: Then came loyalty, number seven.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: The loyalty challenge he focused on was resolving to refuse to talk about people behind their backs.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Number eight was reciprocity as versus what's in it for me.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: What's in it for me?
4:43
SPEAKER_01: I look at that, I can never remember that.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: So, what small steps can you take today to improve a key relationship at work or home?
4:50
SPEAKER_01: Take those steps.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: So now we move to numbers um nine, ten, eleven, and twelve.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: And I told you that I wanted 10, so you got stuck with nine and eleven.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: I got stuck with these.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: Jim didn't want these, so I'll have to teach on them this morning.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, I'm kidding.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, so this this first level uh lever is the lever of diversity.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Um and what it what it roots out, uh, why this is important to primary greatness is it roots out sameness.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read this quote that he starts off this chapter by.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: He says, uh it's by Ma Maya Angelo.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: He says it's time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there's beauty and that there's strength.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: He says that people that focus on primary or who people who focus on secondary greatness, they tend to surround themselves with people who are just like them.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Um they surround themselves to people who uh listen, uh, who are just like them, who have the same opinions as they do, um, and then they have and they also have trouble tolerating people who have differences of opinions, differences of backgrounds, differences of uh education or and even experiences.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: It's just people that um that pursue primary greatness, they seek out diversity.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: And and he says um he says nothing kills success in our lives or in business faster than a lack of diversity.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: Because when you have a lack of diversity, what happens is you have uh you have incomplete data and you have narrow thinking.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I never thought about diversity in that way, that there's this there's this beauty and that there's this strength in diversity that you're able to see from a broader perspective.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: The more diversity you have, you're able to see from a broader perspective.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: And sort of the like the Christian emphasis on the on the different parts of the body.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then he goes on to say that, you know, our natural tendency, my natural tendency, your natural tendency is to surround your people who are just like you.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And he and he he says, this is why.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: He says, when you're a leader and you surround yourself with people who are just like you, it gives you a false sense of security.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh people who act like you, talk like you, think like you, um, doing like you, referring to you, quoting you, and drawing like you, you feel like you're being validated as a leader.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: And you feel like you have value because other people value being like you.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but they're only telling you what you want to hear, not what you need to know.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Um and so the I the ideal here, and what so then he goes into why is this so dangerous?
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Um it's dangerous because it creates negative energy.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: That those people who are around you who are just like you, it's negative energy because they're just like you, and they never get to um they never get to develop their skills or give their input because everybody around you is is uh uh is the same.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: And then then he tells a story about his wife and this builder.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you remember the story in the chapter.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh his wife with him and his wife were meeting with a builder and an architect, and he asked the builder a question about some plans that they had, and then he asked the architect, and he said, Well, what do you think about what the builder just said?
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And I go, Well, I agree with him.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: And then he kind of they went back and forth and he looked at one of them and goes, uh, okay, well, we don't need you anymore.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: And God kind of was like, What?
8:24
SPEAKER_00: He's like, when two people agree, one of them's unnecessary.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: He said immediately at that point that guy got it, he's like, No, you know, what I bring to the table is very I I can't disagree with you because that doesn't get us anywhere.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: There's no there's no synergy, there's no, like I'm not bringing anything valuable to the table.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: And so um what needs to happen when we're thinking about diversity is that we need to think about diversity, that these strengths, oftentimes when we think about differences, we view them negatively.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: He says, What we need to do is we need to flip the script and think about diversity and these strengths being actual or these differences actually being strengths for us in our lives.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Um and then he kind of later on in the chapter goes into, you know, we when we invite diversity, we actually get a great privilege, and I I mentioned this earlier, there's a great privilege of being able to see things from a different perspective.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Um you'll be able to make decisions and live life um with a broader viewpoint, and you won't be limited by um by this uh incomplete data and narrow thinking.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I I always hear, I've never been on a missions trip.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Have any of you guys been on a mission trip?
9:46
SPEAKER_00: The number one thing I always hear when people come back from missions trips, or golly, my life has been changed.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And I think the reason why is because they experience something different from them and it changes them.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: They all of a sudden view life from the viewpoint of, man, what if I lived over there?
10:05
SPEAKER_00: My wife got uh an opportunity to live in uh Uganda for a month, and she said that just changed the way that I think about things.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's so true that there's this when when we put ourselves, when we invite diversity into our lives, there's this beautiful thing that happens inside of us.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: So my my question for you guys is um, you know, do you welcome diversity in your life?
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh in your in your marriage, uh diverse opinions that your wife may have, uh in the business, diverse opinions that you know maybe a business partner has than you do.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh do you welcome it in church?
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh do you welcome it in your life?
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Do you welcome it in mentors that you seek out, or even younger people that you you choose to pour into?
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Um and if you don't, why not?
10:51
SPEAKER_00: What's keeping you from that?
10:53
SPEAKER_00: I think there's I think we miss out on something if we if we don't seek out that diversity.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: There's so much beauty in uh diversity.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't planned, oh uh, here's a diversity challenge by the way.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: What example of cloning have you personally seen?
11:09
SPEAKER_01: What kind of groupthink is holding your work team, church team, or family team back?
11:13
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't planned on telling this story, I hadn't even thought about it, but as you're talking, Rodney, I thought about uh a story I'll tell really briefly.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: So I'm uh now the chairman of the board of an organization called Jews for Jesus, even though I'm not Jewish.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: Almost everybody else, uh the uh 16 on the board is Jewish.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: They invited me on the board after flying me out and interviewing me and so forth.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: They they were attracted to me because I gotta have a master's degree in Hebrew, speak a little Hebrew, take trips to Israel, and I've always loved Jews for Jesus.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: So so my first so they still make fun of me, even though I'm chairman and they're not supposed to make fun of me.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: They make fun of me because of something I did in my very first meeting.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: So I'm sort of a religious person.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: They are very wealthy, they're all quite wealthy Jews, multimillionaires, a number of them, doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: And they're very Jewish.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: I did not know how Jews, how Jewish people are.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna sound a little racist, but you'll forgive me because this is from the inside.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: So the meeting starts at 8 o'clock in the morning after breakfast.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: And at 10 o'clock, we take a 10-minute coffee break, and I go straight to the director, the youngish, he's about 45 at that time, 47.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: He's the director of Jews for Jesus.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: And I say, Can we go to your office right now?
12:30
SPEAKER_01: We got 10 minutes.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: He said, Sir Jim.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: And I've this is my first meeting.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: But I feel like you know, I'm a pastor and I need to do what's right.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: So we go up to his office, close the, and we close the door, sit down, and grab hold of his hands, I say, Let's pray.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, I pray and I pray for him and I pray for his attitude, and he said, So at the end he said, Well, thank you for that.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: Now, what was that about?
12:52
SPEAKER_01: I said, That's what was that about?
12:54
SPEAKER_01: I said, blankety blanket, they're just basically called you a liar, and somebody else said your ideas were so stupid they didn't even deserve begin on so forth.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: I said, I really feel for you.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: I I imagine you're really steaming right now.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: What?
13:07
SPEAKER_01: He said, You don't understand we do that to each other all the time.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: We're Jewish people.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: He said, He said, We got 15 Jews in here, we got 25 different opinions.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: And and and I had, I remember coming back, and my when I went to my next elders' meeting here, I thought, you know, we have a really, we have such a sameness about us, we tend never to disagree, you don't want to hurt each other's feelings.
13:33
SPEAKER_01: But since I've been associated with the Jewish people who constantly telling each other how stupid they are, I mean, and disagreeing super strongly with opinions, and somehow coming out with real vibrant solutions that I feel are led by the Holy Spirit, uh, I have changed.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: I really encourage diversity in different opinions now in a whole new way.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, just want to share that story.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: So I do want to add this.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: He he does give this final caution in the in the book.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, you can't just have diversity for diversity's sake.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're a business owner, you just don't go like, hey, you're black, why don't you come and um be a part of our team?
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't just do that.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: There's there's limits on that.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be wise in that.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: Um when you're seeking out diversity, the key is that you seek out diversity with people who share this common vision as you do.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Um you you're you're all heading towards the same goal, and then you invite that diversity.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Whether it is skin color, um, if that's the diversity that you're seeking after, or if uh it's totally different educational background, you you just don't go after it because then at that point it just becomes tokenism.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Um it has to be true and authentic.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: I think he also says that when you're looking for a wife or a husband, go for same, look for somebody who's like you because he says the diversity will definitely come out afterwards, no matter what.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: You'll find out how different you are.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was a good point.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Continuous learning is number uh 10.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: I grew I wanted this one as versus irrelevance because um I'm older, and I know some of you are too.
15:16
SPEAKER_01: And there's a tendency, I think, among some of us to stop learning.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: Henry Ford, anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Greatest thing life is to keep your mind young.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: Covey quotes that.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: And what he says he means by lifelong learning, he says it's not so much about big campaigns, programs, and academic degrees as it is about short daily study sessions and doses of on-the-job training, pushing the learning lever a little bit each day, keeps you sharp and relevant.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: And he quotes uh, you know, uh the Christian man who's the head of the Ritz Carlton, who has a standard one of the things he wants from every employee, no matter where they are, is to learn something every day.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: And then he mentions four kinds of lifelong learning that he suggests.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: Number one, specific research, maybe uh, you know, something having to do with your business, but you do Google it and you work on it.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Second, he says a personal reading program in current business books.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: Hey, way to go, you're here.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: And current magazine, business magazines.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Third, he says classic literature, you know, uh some of the great books that maybe you've never read.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: And fourth, he says, you know, you can just go on the internet, look up Ted's talks, and take online courses.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I grabbed this is that uh, you know, I this is um, you know, this is who I am.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I really, for instance, uh with Isaiah, you know, one of the things that excited me about Isaiah is I there's a well-known commentary, two volumes, commentary in the Hebrew language of Isaiah, that's about uh 1,500 pages.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: And I knew that if I taught on Isaiah, uh I could go through that commentary, every word.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: And it's and I am learning, it's just it's supposed to be the best commentary in the world on Isaiah, relatively new.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: So that would be specific research when it comes to personal reading.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Rodney and I both love current business books.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: Third, I try to read at least uh, you know, you know, there are these classic books.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: I'll bet a number of you read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte back in high school or something.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: I've never read it.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: So this year's classic book that I'm reading, I started a couple weeks ago, is, and I check it uh out on books on tape at the library because I'm in the car a lot, and so I just plug it in and hear the next chapter.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: That's the book I'm of classic literature.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: And then I do like to turn into TED Talks.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: And I would just suggest to those of you who are a little older that you refuse to um be satisfied with what you've learned in life, but to continue to you know improve yourself, just be driven to do that, and then you'll never grow old.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: So the learning challenge is where do you need to increase your learning, set a learning goal or milestone by the state?
18:01
SPEAKER_01: I'll read this, or I'll complete an online course in, or I'll learn how to, you know, do whatever.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, Derek Rowe and I are out for lunch yesterday, and we were actually talking about this, talking about possibilities, and he was talking about stuff, you know, directions that he was thinking about going in online study.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: Today, online study is just so far advanced beyond what it used to be.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a number of guys at our church who are doing that.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: And um Derek's research that you might want to talk to him about possibilities, but there's a lot of good schools that you could get courses.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: And and you know what?
18:38
SPEAKER_01: I think that there's this deal at Washburn.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: I knew this really old guy, about 85 years old.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: He's he's died now, but he um his name is Wayne Prabasco, but he the last five, ten years of his life, less you know this, he started going over like two or three afternoons a week to Washburn, because apparently, if you're like over 120 years old, they'll let you take courses free.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: So he would go over there and constantly take a new course.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: And so you're not qualified, you're way too young, so you have to pay money.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: So I really like the Henry Ford quote.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: That is so convenient.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's really good.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: All right, take renewal.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: All right, so uh lever number 11 is renewal.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh this this principle of renewal, what it lifts out is this slow decline in our lives if we if we neglect uh renewing ourselves.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Um and he says that we cannot achieve primary greatness by neglecting ourselves.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: We can't achieve it by neglecting our health, um, our mind, our emotional state, and even our spiritual lives.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Um so using this lever at any time uh in any of these four areas, what it helps to do is it lifts out, it it combats this slow decline that happens in our lives if we just kind of let ourselves go.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is so important.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: He c he talks about this in the seven habits of highly effective people, this idea of sharpening the saw.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, and he gives a quote by Abraham Lincoln about like, hey, you know, if I was to go cut down a tree, I'd spend the first two hours or five hours, however long.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Just sharpening the edge of the sword or of the axe.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's so important, especially for us as men, that if we get so enthralled in the busyness of life, like we all have tons of responsibilities, right?
20:33
SPEAKER_00: But if we would if we uh neglect ourselves at the end of the day in the midst of going out, we'll be ineffective.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh he says oftentimes we will live with uh ineffective tools, poor social skills, uh dull minds, incapacitated bodies, and weakened spirits.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you this morning, um I just encourage you, get some time with yourself.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Get some time in these four areas.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes through these four areas that are really important that you have to you have to be uh very proactive about pursuing.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh and the first one is this uh is your physical.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: So he says, he says, in order to get people to try to think through, okay, what do I need to do?
21:19
SPEAKER_00: He says, he says, make these four assumptions in your life.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: Basically a lens to look at each one of these lives by.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: So the first one is physical.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: So he says, imagine if uh you already had one heart attack um or a business failure.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: So what would happen if that would if that were to happen?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: He says a lot of times if if you live your life through that lens, you'll start to uh uh you'll have a proper diet, you'll get on a regular, you know, exercise plan, um, you'll start to you'll start to think about how am I gonna treat my body physically in order that I can have uh more, many more.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Many more years of life ahead of him.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: And he he gives a story of this guy that he knew.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: I think he worked at Harvard or something like that, very prestigious university.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: He was a teacher.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: He said, Guy had a heart attack.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: He was overweight, he was stressed out, and he said that changed him in a moment.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And he said he ran into him 25 years later, and God was a completely different person.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: He said, What changed?
22:23
SPEAKER_00: He said, When I had that heart attack, it really woke me up that I actually quit my job, went to a less stressful job, uh, uh offloaded some of the responsibilities that I had, and started eating healthy and started exercising regularly.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And he says, that added 25 years to my life because the doctors didn't think that I'd lived that long.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: He says, just by getting in a regular habit of doing that, that helped him.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: That's convict.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to the next one.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: He said, the next assumption.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: And you know, another thing you could do is, you know, I used to go to the Y every day to play basketball.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: You know who always came into the Y?
22:57
SPEAKER_01: I'd go, I haven't seen you in a year or two.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: I said, What's the deal?
23:00
SPEAKER_01: He'd go, I got divorced.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: I got to catch another woman, so I'm back here to work out.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: So you could just imagine that you'd gotten divorced and you're on the hunt.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: Forget I ever said that.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: So if you're gonna delete them from the recording.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Delete them from the recording, Sam.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: So anyway.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the mental assumption.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that your knowledge or skills will become obsolete within three years.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, imagine if um I think this is I think this is really important, especially considering your last the last one that we just covered, this continuous learning.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's easy to get into a career and just kind of coast right on through.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I was reading this other book that I'm reading for work, and it talks about how most people in these professional jobs, it's just kind of getting their job, they just kind of coast along.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: They're not actively pursuing.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And so um uh he says you gotta leave your comfort zone, you gotta read and you gotta think broadly.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: This just helps sharpen you as a person.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Like you're not just you're not just reading about what's happening in your career field, you're thinking about uh everything that's happening in the business world.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: And just it just keeps you sharp.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Um he says the reason why this is important is because the way that business happens nowadays, the way that skills are, uh, that at any moment in time, you could be replaced by a new product or a new process.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: People who are out there begging for$15 an hour at McDonald's, what do they do?
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll just put up a few kiosks.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of you guys.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: What skills do you have that we can't replace with a product?
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Those people who are just begging and just assuming that I'll get this.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: And no, you gotta continually sharpen your skills because at any moment in time, for me as an accountant, any moment in time, a new system can come in and say, you know, don't need you anymore.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: So what do I what do I do?
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Gotta hone myself.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: You switched to Mein's Hauser last month.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: That's what you did.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh number three, social assumption.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that everything you say about another person will be heard by them, both at home and at work.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that everything you said about a person would be heard by them.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: That's convicting for me.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: This idea of loyalty that we covered maybe a week or two ago.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: You say loyal to people who are there, who are not there, stand up for them, don't let other people talk about them or not.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: You don't talk you don't talk bad about them as well.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: He says this in the book, he says, he who lives by the sort of criticism will also die by it.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Um when you talk bad about another person or you allow the people to talk bad about them, like that that just kind of you lose your trust.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Um if you want to be renewed, if you want to have um you gotta you gotta you gotta not let that stuff happen.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: You can't talk bad about other people because it just ruins who you are socially.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: You have poor social.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: Except for John Calapari, you can talk about him.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And then uh fourthly, the spiritual assumption.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that you will soon have a one-on-one accounting with the people you love, uh um the people you love and who love you, or with your boss and your team members, and and you'll have to be, you'll have to give an account for the stewardship, what you've been given, your physical health, your skills, your knowledge that you have, um, how well you've employed those, what you've learned, how true and loyal you've been to others, and how well you've developed your spiritual side.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so why are these so important?
26:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna get I'm just gonna do these real really quickly.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: He goes later on in the chapter says, This is why these are important.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Physically, one, um, it's important because what it when you when you sharpen yourself, when you renew yourself physically, you just feel better.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Um your body doesn't feel as terrible.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: I notice every time I start to eat healthy and exercise, I just feel better.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: It adds years to your life.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: That's a good discipline to have.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh learning, it preps you for future opportunities.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: It keeps you in control of amidst the changes in in our world, uh especially in technology.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: If you stop learning in your career, you'll become obsolete.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: You'll no longer add value to where you are, where you work, or who you're around.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh thirdly, social, uh, it'll you'll be more empathetic towards people.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh you'll uh you'll have more trust in relationships, people will trust you.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: So that's the reward of uh of that.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, spiritually, you'll have more inner peace, harmony, you'll have more confidence, you'll be encouraged to do the right thing, knowing that, hey, at one time, at any time, I could have to give an account for how I've lived my life, the the stewardship of what I've been given.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: The last point in the book, uh last of uh his twelve, is teaching as versus loss of learning.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: His argument here is something you and I know, which is that the best way to learn something is to teach it.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: If you really want to learn a chapter out of the Bible, volunteer to teach that chapter, you know, in your small group or in your Sunday school class.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: If uh, you know, whatever you want to, if you want to learn these these principles of primary greatness, take them and volunteer to teach them to the other staff, you know, where you work.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: And that's just the way it works.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: I think we all know that.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh a famous William Glasser's famous list is we learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, we know primary greatness.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: We are great, aren't we?
28:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: So the teaching challenge is when do you when are you given opportunities to teach at work?
28:44
SPEAKER_01: At home, at church.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: Seize those opportunities at work, at home especially, and at church.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: Don't let them get away.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: Teaching challenge.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: And then he closes the book, uh, Rodney, with a sort of a chapter saying, everything I've said up till now is get wisdom, which is right out of the Bible, Proverbs 4 7.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom, though it costs all you have, get understanding.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: That's starting with the inside moving out, right?
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: So next week we're going to start another book, John Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: I have put a 12-page summary of the book out here on the chair.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: Grab one as you leave if you'd like.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I'll also be sending you the link and email this week.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: And um today in our discussion, we got these two questions, Rodney.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: You want to So Learning and Teaching, uh, where do you need to increase your learning?
29:40
SPEAKER_00: And what teaching opportunities out there for you that you need to really take advantage of?
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then number two, what's one way you'd like to renew yourself physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually?
29:54
SPEAKER_00: And then I would just add my question in there, Jim.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, what areas that um where you need to that you're not seeking out diversity that you think you need to?
30:05
SPEAKER_00: And and if you're not, why aren't you?
30:08
unknown: Yeah.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming, guys.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Let's uh let's pray.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Shall we close in prayer, Father?
30:15
SPEAKER_01: Bless these guys, bless their families, bless them at work, prosper them.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Any who need to find jobs, we pray that you'd help them find jobs.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Any who have nagging, maybe even secret illnesses, we pray that you would heal those.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we ask for guys here who need to show a new uh spirit of compassion, new spirit of diversity, new spirit of discipline in any of these four areas.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: We ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would come and bring that to us today.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Bless our discussion at these tables, Lord, in Jesus' name.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: Amen.