In many of the leadership seminars I’ve led, I discussed setting goals. Leaders and budding leaders associate goals and their accomplishment as an inherent component of sound leadership. And indeed it is. Leaders are normally those individuals with a litany of accomplishments under their belts. Quite often these accomplishments are tied to goals. As such, leaders “know the way,” as it were, to achieve success. Many believe setting goals is the key. While setting goals is certainly an important and vital part of achieving a given measure of success, their accomplishment is what makes leaders standout. Having studied various methods of goal setting with the intention of achieving success, I can tell you more is required than simply following a formula. What I’ve learned is that goals ring hollow if they are not directly connected to behavior. That is, action. And not just action - consistent action. That’s where habits come into play. Habits are behavior practiced over time that become s...
There’s a saying in intelligence communities - “admit nothing, deny everything, make counter accusations.” This phrase reminds me of something Jesus said in Matthew. “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24, NKJV). But what does it mean to deny oneself? I pondered this concept of denial. When we think of someone denying something, we typically associate it with intentional refusal to acknowledge, recognize, or admit something. We say things like, “He’s in denial” or “She denies any knowledge of the event” and so on. In essence, denial is a deliberate refusal. Now, in some cases, one might deny something known to be true in order to evade consequences. Consider one of many crime dramas where a suspect is being interrogated and denies knowledge of an alleged crime to avoid prosecution even though it might be true. Such a denial is a lie. So, what did Jesus mean when He said, “deny himself?” Surely, He didn’t mean...