I feel like the only issue we have with reaching a goal sits within our effort...

I know that can feel a little unfair - but with all the times I have seen persistence win, or perseverance, or patience win the day... Could it be that we are giving ourselves too much "room" for failure?

Today we talk about... Do or Do Not... There is no try.

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SHOW NOTES

Before I begin I want to share a testimony and an apology 

I have been absent for the past month getting ready for our first camp… and it was amazing!!!

I will be putting a video together, but let me say that the families that were here had such an encounter with the Lord that we believe it will forever be a part of their lives!

Todays leadership podcast is titled…

Do or do not - there is no try

I am not a big Star Wars guy

LOVE Star Trek - shout out to my dad on that one

But there is a figure in the Star Wars saga of a teacher, a creature that teaches the young Luke Skywalker how to use the fullness of his abilities… and in this particular scene, Luke says that he can’t do something (that Yoda the teacher KNOWS he can)… Actually Luke says Alright - I will give it a try

Yoda says no… try NOT

Do or do not, there is no try….

That is the theme of todays session on leadership

I have been blessed to group coach an amazing set of young men at the church over the last few months.  When I say amazing, I mean young men who WANT to honor God, become better men and prepare for Gods future for them.  These guys sacrifice half a day a month to learn about how to be a purposeful, godly man and they seem to enjoy it

Ha ha 

In these meeting we are talking about a LOT of things from knowing themeselvws and how God designed them 

To knowing WHO God has placed in ther lives and their responsibilities to them

Even into discipleship and discipline 

But we hit the wall on something as a group concerning discipline 

It’s a wall that is super common among men - 

prob common amount  everyone

The wall is the space between what we want to do 

and what we actually do!

Paul writes it this way

Romans 7:15

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I..

IN other words

The things I want to do - I don’t

The things I don’t want to do - I find myself doing

When Paul writes this - we can feel his pain!

We know that feeling of doing what we don’t want to do, abd not doing what we know to do!

But I feel like we make the words of Paul a get out of jail free card. 

Paul wasn’t declaring surrender or defeat, it was voicing what is likely the biggest battle that we will face.  

Doing what we know to do

When we look at the life of Paul, there were many things that he obviously overcame - 

denying the flesh, 

living a life of servantude to the Lord

Sacrificing his life for the call

But as Christians - well we play around with sin.  

Instead of “warring” against our flesh or our desires... we accept them.  

Or worse - we just “try” to change them 

Why do I use the word Try

Well that is where I realized the wall that these young men were hitting.  

And it’s not unique to them

We all use this word... try

So in one of my charges I shared 

that spending time with the Lord on a daily basis 

is the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT step of a 

foundational walk with the Lord.  

That at the minimum they should be having a daily walk with the Lord - r

eading the word, 

praying and listening to the Holy Sporit.

When we went around the room to declare our actions steps 

I heard several say “I’m going to try to wad my Bible everyday”...

And it hit me

I “try” a lot of things

I try to lose weight 

I try to eat healthy 

I try to be a good example to my kids

I try to love my wife the way Christ would

And in all those areas I have accepted a “failure” rate 

or at Best the 

“good enough level”

I mean why is that? 

Why is it that we give ourselves safeties -

I will only have Taco Bell once a week

My wife just made a decision that blows me away - 

Not going to tell you what it is - but it reminds me of the promise I made Years ago that I wasn’t going to have Taco Bell for a whole year.

Believe it or not - I did it and it was HARD

But New Years eve I picked up Taco Bell and ate it after midnight

Seriously

It’s like we don’t want to look at ourselves in the mirror and consider ourselves failures 

Of anything that we attempt to do that we don’t get it done completely. 

So instead of seeing a failure, we avoid it by throwing the word try in there.

But let me give you some of the dangers of the word try

What I have found is that when we live a life of “try“ we’re never fully satisfied with our attempts 

we never get the best or the most out of our failed attempts 

we never get to fully celebrate when we win 

and we never truly mourn our loses…

But why are those things so important us

why is it important to feel accomplished 

why is it so important to recognize a failure and not avoid it?

 why is it so important to celebrate a win?

Let’s break those areas down like this…

What does trying cost me. 

1- prevents growth from failure

Let’s read what the apostle Paul what’s

2 Corinthians Chapter 12

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Think about it what is Paul saying here? He say that he takes pleasure in his failures 

he takes pleasure in realizing when we are weak - 

God is made strong in his mistakes. 

Can I tell you the power of realizing that!

I used to talk about this as removing the destructive power of failure 

but it’s really not removing the destructive power failure 

it is harnessing the power of failure 

what I meant by removing the power failure in times past 

is the power of our emotional distress and failure. 

But we have to realize just like fear is perverted faith 

what I mean by that is that fear is simply putting more faith in what you are concerned or are afraid would happen 

versus what God says and what God‘s Word says about the situation. 

It’s the same way with failure!

You can choose to be empowered through failure or to live in fear. And when you remove the power of failure - or I should say the fear of failing 

and instead realize the empowerment of failing 

then you look forward to every situation no matter the outcome.

And that’s a tough statement

Notice I didn’t say I look forward to the opportunityof every situation

Im still learning this as well

And if I’m speaking to leaders that I think I am – 

I know that feeling that failure is not an option. 

And I am trying to - I am SHARING this interesting cycle

When we see that failure is not an option, we tend to lower the goal

Instead of giving our all and letting failure be a process!

When we say we’re going to try we are literally literally literally giving our self the very option that we don’t want to give ourselves. 

We’re afraid of failing but we’re making room to be ok with failing…

Because here’s what happens when we give ourselves room to fail. 

We don’t give our best effort. 

Because once we bring in the word try into our goals

we have told ourselves in our mindset the fro Ne-Yo of our thoughts that’s the biblical word for the seat of our motions 

Actually its Psyche - sorry - the seat of our emotion, and Phrone is the seat of our THINKING… so 

Both

WHEN WE DO THIS - WE ARE SAYING

IN OUR MIND AND OUR EMOTIONS 

 we are likely not going to accomplish this and we are too afraid to hold ourselves accountable to giving our best effort

Why? Because should we feel FAIURE - WE ILL THEN then we’re not good enough —— BELIEVING A lie of the enemy

point 2

Trying prevents growth from success

 Not only does it rob us from learning from our failures

It prevents us from learning from our success!

I know this one seems weird but hang on with me 

let’s keep talking about our emotional mindset when we put the word trying into our goals

We put this word trying we succeed accidentally. 

Or we succeed at goals that are not satisfying

That didn’t require hard work

What do I mean by that? 

When we try something with part of our effort, with some reserve, with something left in the tank – than what we succeed at is only a portion of what we were capable of doing.

The word of God tells us that this is not the wya to LIVE!

Sticking with the Pual Theme here

He writes tot he church of Colossians

Colossians 3:23-24

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

 In the world of business coaching we aim for 90

Daily goals that stretch them 

Its what they feel like they can accomplish along with all the other things that they need to do. 

And I’m gonna be honest with you when a company comes back and hits 100% of their goals I’m disappointed.

Why? 

Because that means that we set goals that we knew we could accomplish. 

Now, that is a blanket statement and there are definitely times when it took all of the effort to get 100% of the goals done. 

But what I’m referring to I really want us to be somewhere between 80% and 90% of her goals reached. Why? 

Because that means that we pushed ourselves to the limit. 

We gave our best effort and we got most of our goals done. 

And! It gives us the room to grow!

We literally have examples of areas that we didn’t succeed so that we can analyze them look at them work on them and grow from them!

There’s nothing more disappointing than accomplishing the goals and learning nothing in the process. 

So when we put tri-into our goalsetting we don’t get the full benefit of celebrating our success. 

Because on the inside of us we know we could have done better!

In the Old Testament the priest would atone for sins through two animals.  The sacrificial lamb and the scapegoat.  The lamb took away the sins and the scapegoat would literally take the shame out of the city as it was released…

I want to challenge you

Sit down and write down ONE goal

One goal for the next 3 days, or the next week or til the end of the month.

I want you to make it hard

Make it something that will require you to GROW in order to succeed - and Then I want you to write It out

I WILL ….

Here is mine -

I will exercise 3 days a week til the end of June (at the gym)and my daily 1.5 mile walk with my wife doesn’t count…

Here is another one of mine…

I will complete my new Kingdom Business Mastergroup strategy - by the end of June… Including all the roadmaps, sheets, pages and launch ready status. 

Do or Do not

There is no try…