“What you win them with is what you win them to.” - Ravi Zacharias, Christian Apologist, Author, and Evangelist

Recently, I heard this quote from Ravi Zacharias and was struck by how he cautions fellow Christians against altering their message in an effort to make it more appealing. He understands that if you water down your message, you end up with people deciding to believe in something that’s not completely true. Ravi’s quote is related to a religious message, but isn’t the same concept true in the business world?

Consider this scenario: You are great at baking, specifically baking cakes. You launch your new business, and you start making cakes for your friends, and their friends, and before you know it, your business is off the ground. Cake-making is something you enjoy, and it’s the offering you want to build your business around.

One day, someone calls, and they ask you to make a large order of sandwiches to cater an upcoming event. Sure, you know how, but it’s not really what you do. Beyond that, it’s not what your business is about. You decide to do it with the hope of earning this customer’s business, thinking that the next time, they’ll ask you to bake a cake.

Instead, the next week, that customer calls back and wants more sandwiches. Then they’ve referred you to their friends. What do their friends want? You guessed it, more sandwiches.

There’s no problem with making sandwiches, but now, the offering you’ve won their business with is the offering that they keep coming back to.

Or how about this situation? You own a painting company. That’s your expertise and your passion. A large business calls you, but instead of asking you to paint, they ask you to clean their office space. It’s out of the scope of what you do, but you decide that just this once you’ll do it, hoping to earn their painting business down the road. However, every few months they call you back, not asking you to paint, just asking you to clean again. You’ve made a strategic mistake—the thing you’ve won their business with is unfortunately all they want you to do.

As a business owner, I’ve felt this temptation to alter our offerings to gain an exciting new customer. As my imagination runs wild with all the possible ways this client could help grow our business, I realize how easy it is to stray from the core of who we are and what we do well.

I’m not suggesting we be unaccommodating to our clients and customers, but I am cautioning against getting the wrong business. When you alter what you do to attract a customer, they will often expect you to continue doing more things that are not central to who you are as a company. If you continue shifting from the core of your business, your identity as an organization is at stake.

This can take on many different forms. It could mean changing your offerings to appease someone. It could be drastically discounting the rates you charge to get a customer to say yes. It's easy to rationalize when you're just trying to attract new business, but it can often be a dangerous practice. When you’re willing to say or do anything to get a sale, you cheapen your offering, discount your ability, and sell yourself short.

When you’re willing to say or do anything to get a sale, you cheapen your offering, discount your ability, and sell yourself short.

This week, consider your message personally and professionally and ask yourself the following questions.

Are you ever tempted to alter your offerings to gain a new customer or client?

What do you do best as a company? Do you feel like this is being presented clearly to your customers?

How can you work to maintain the identity and core message of your business?

*You may not be in the business world, but this principle applies to churches and charities, as well. No matter the type of organization, mission drift is always dangerous.

Our company ADDO is currently working on an elementary school program called The Voyage that’s dedicated to transforming elementary school students’ perspectives about the decisions they make and the actions they take. Working on The Voyage provides me an opportunity to interact with elementary school students and teachers, and at a meeting a couple weeks ago, I heard an interesting story about one class. The teacher went around and asked the students what each of them did to help out at home.

“I help clean the dishes,” said one little girl.

“I clean my room,” followed a little boy.

“I take out the trash,” said another girl. The children went on like this, volunteering the ways they help out at home. As the students started to grow quiet, the teacher noticed that one of the students had not participated or shared his answer with the class.

“Well, do you help out at home?” she asked.

“Yes, I do,” he said.

“How do you help out?” she followed.

“I stay out of the way!”

While his answer was surprising, and kind of funny, it is also a little sad. The boy may have given the answer in jest, but imagine if he really believes his contribution would always be more harmful than helpful?

This story causes me to reflect on how many adults feel the same way. A lot of people spend their lives living on the sidelines, staying out of the way. They feel like they don’t have anything valuable to bring to the table, so they settle for living their lives as spectators rather than participants.

This is often true of people in the workplace. They show up every day to their job, and their goal is to simply stay out the way. They work through their checklist, answer their emails, wrap up their projects, and go home, even though they see ways to make their company better and their workplace more productive.

If you see something you want changed, don’t be compliant, be a contributor. Take a look at your life right now. Are you spending your time on the sidelines, or are you on the front lines, involved in making your world, your community, or your school a better place?

There’s no better way to see the world changed than to be a part of changing the world.

So what are you waiting for?

Get plugged into your job. Find an opportunity to serve in your church. Sign up to help a local charity. Join the parent-teacher organization at your child’s school. Tell your boss about the idea you had this week. Become a person of action. And when you do, you’ll have a chance to be a part of some amazing things.

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love politics. While I was in college, I received a call from a friend helping coordinate a visit of President George W. Bush to the Atlanta area. My friend said that they needed volunteers to drive in the presidential motorcade and asked if I was up for it. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. To be clear, they did not ask me to drive the limousine carrying the president, and frankly, if they had known about my driving record, they would not have even considered it. Picture this.

There are two limousines in the motorcade: one that carries the president and another that looks just like it. In front of, and behind, the limousines are police cars, and behind the police cars is a fleet of fifteen-passenger vans. These vans could carry anyone from high-ranking government officials, to low-level white house staffers, to members of the press pool traveling with the president. I would be driving one of these vans.

The night before the event, we had to attend a mandatory security briefing, receive instructions about the event, and participate in extensive background checks. There were ten of us who showed up the night before the event, and I sat next to the most excited volunteer. The lady sitting next to me made it known to the group that this was her lifelong dream. She loved the president, and she was so excited to support him by volunteering as a driver in the motorcade. All the information we talked through only fueled her excitement, until they began to walk through the scenarios of what to do if something goes wrong.

The instructions were extensive and specific. Under no circumstances are you to stop. Do not let anyone in between your car and the car in front of you. Stay inside the motorcade at all costs. Their list painted a picture out of a doomsday movie, chronicling everything that could possibly go wrong and exactly what we were to do in the face of an attack or other emergency.

As they were walking through this list, the lady next to me began to breathe heavily, rubbing her hands together. The more scenarios they covered, the more uncomfortable she looked. Shifting uneasily in her seat, she looked at me wide-eyed and said, “I really don’t know if I can do this.”

The next morning, only nine volunteers came back to drive in the motorcade. The lady did not show up. Ultimately, she allowed fear to stop her from doing something she had dreamed about for a long time.

This story reminds me of a quote from author Donald Miller: “Fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.” How many times have we allowed fear in our lives to prevent us from doing what we wanted to do?

You were afraid you might not make the school play, so you never ended up trying out.

You were nervous about the interview, so you decided to not apply for your dream job.

You didn’t want to risk getting rejected, so you never ended up asking the girl out.

Decide today that you won’t allow fear to stand in the way of the life you were created to live.

Decide today that you won’t allow fear to stand in the way of the life you were created to live.

Make the call.

Send in the application.

Ask for the sale.

Take the risk.

Don’t live a life of fear that can ultimately turn into a life of regret and “what-ifs.”

Does the story above sound familiar? What fears are holding you back from living the life you were called to live? Take some time this week to consider ways you can face your fears and pursue your dreams, both personally and professionally.

George Brett was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He played twenty-one years of Major League Baseball for the Kansas City Royals, finished his career with more than 3,000 hits and 300 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

As he neared the end of his career, a reporter asked him how he would like his very last at bat to go. Everyone assumed that his answer would be to go out with some fanfare—it would be the bottom of the ninth, in the World Series, with the bases loaded, two outs, full count, and he hits a home run to win the game. However, the answer Brett gave was surprising and far less dramatic. He said that he wanted the last play of his Major League Baseball career to be an average play. He wanted to hit a slow-grounder to the second baseman, and he wanted the second baseman to field it easily and throw him out as he was running to first. But when he threw him out, Brett said he wanted to be running as fast as he could toward the bag. He said he wanted it to be said of him that he always gave his best and always tried his hardest right up until the very end.

George Brett is a picture of someone committed to excellence, and his story is inspiring and challenging. He wanted to be known as a man that sought excellence in every play of his career, not just the big ones. This mentality didn’t just make him a good baseball player. It led to a successful 21-year baseball career with a consistently high level of contribution to his team and to the sport as a whole.

Can you say the same of yourself? Do you strive for excellence on the ordinary days, not just the big ones?

In the middle of the mundane, we should commit ourselves to excellence every single day.

I get it. We all get tired, burned out, and go through seasons of discouragement. But in the middle of the mundane, we should commit ourselves to excellence every single day. It’s easy to do this when you’re trying to land the big job, get the big client, or close the big sale, but on the day packed with meetings to attend and emails to return, are you committed to the same level of excellence?

Take some time today to think about the way you walk through your personal and professional life. Do you strive for excellence in the mundane moments? Do you pursue your relationships constantly? Do you strive to produce your best work at all times, even when nobody’s watching?

Trust me, I know it’s a lot easier to say than it is to put this into practice. But if every one of us showed up every single day with excellence as our goal, imagine the impact we could make!

Recently, I was in a meeting with my team at ADDO, and we were discussing possible candidates for a position in the company. We shared evident strengths and potential weaknesses as we evaluated each candidate, hoping to find a new member for our team.

When discussing the potential weaknesses of one candidate in particular, someone suggested, “He seems very ambitious.”This comment puzzled me. I’ve always considered ambition to be a positive thing. After the meeting, I decided to do some research and have been surprised by the varying negative and positive definitions attached to ambition. Let me give you a couple examples.

Dictionary.com defines ambition as “an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.”

To me, this definition is negative. Someone who has an earnest desire for power, honor, fame, or wealth and works hard to get these things is self-centered at best. This person is also probably greedy, arrogant, and downright selfish, so yeah, with this definition, ambition is definitely a bad thing. However, let’s look at a different example.

Google.com defines ambition as “a strong desire to do or achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.”

This definition is positive; isn’t it? Someone has a goal that will be difficult to achieve, but this person has the resilience and drive to attain this goal. This person is hard-working, a problem-solver, and eager to achieve success.

The greatest difference between these two definitions is how they define success. The first claims success is “power, honor, fame, or wealth” for the ambitious person. However, the second doesn’t clearly define success. It leaves it open and provides an opportunity for success to be a positive thing, even a selfless thing, that achieves something positive for both the ambitious person and the people around him.

Make goals. Work hard. Solve problems. Achieve success. But, do these things for the good of something or someone beyond yourself.

After thinking through these two definitions, I believe that ambition can be a good thing and a bad thing; it just comes down to the motivation behind the ambition. If a person is motivated by greed, their ambition is self-serving. However, if a person is motivated to serve other people, their ambition is admirable and selfless.

Are you ambitious? How do you know if your ambition is admirable or not?

Here are some admirable things worthy of your ambition:

Providing the best products for your customers.

Adding value to your employees and coworkers.

Solving problems that create peace at work and at home.

Growing your influence to impact lives.

Sharing your faith boldly with the people God places in your life. This week, take some time to analyze ambition in your personal and professional life. Make goals. Work hard. Solve problems. Achieve success. But, do these things for the good of something or someone beyond yourself. The world needs more ambitious people eager to improve the lives of the people around them.

This week, millions of people will make New Year’s resolutions. They’ll write lists full of goals—things they want to do or things they want to stop doing next year. Their goals might be professional or personal. They might be focused on losing weight or growing a business. They could be the first step to pursuing a dream or an important relationship. The bottom line is that people will make promises, to themselves and others, many of which will ultimately be broken.

However, the greatest problem with New Year’s resolutions is not the risk that we may not keep them. The biggest issue is that our lists focus mainly on what we are going to do and often overlook why we are going to do it. Have you ever listed not only what you want to accomplish, but the driving force that motivates you to accomplish it?

It’s difficult to identify one single motive that drives what we do each day, but I believe that most of our decisions and actions fall into one of the following categories: survival, approval, fun, and calling.

‍1. Survival:

‍We all make decisions necessary to survive in this life. Many of us have jobs so we can pay the bills, put food on the table, and meet the needs of our family. This desire to survive is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s necessary, but in isolation, it is simply not enough to fulfill us long term.

‍2. Approval:

‍In some way, shape, or form, each of us has a desire to be accepted and respected by our peers, mentors, and subordinates. We feel a surge of excitement when people like our Instagram photos and retweet our thoughts from the day. The words of affirmation cause us to hold our heads higher and swell with pride. Seeking the approval of others drives our decisions and actions, but this motivation only leads to fleeting moments of satisfaction in our boosted egos. And it can actually be dangerous because when the approval flees, our sense of self-worth goes away with it. As Steven Furtick said, “He who lives by the approval of others will die by the absence of the same.”

‍3. Fun:

‍People are often motivated by pleasure. We seek adventure in the places we go and revel in any entertainment outlet offered to us. We seek things that please us and help us escape from the pressures of everyday life. The problem is that we can’t escape forever, and just like the rush that comes with man’s approval, the pleasures of fun won’t last.

‍4. Calling:

‍Survival, approval, and fun are all things that motivate us to act, but ultimately, the only motivator that leads to a life of fulfillment is calling.

Ultimately, we should be motivated by our calling in this life. Your calling is rooted in who you are and what you believe. This calling allows you to exercise your gifts and do something you enjoy that can impact the world around you. A calling does not always have to be a career or a job. For some of us, our jobs give us a sense of calling, but for others, a volunteer organization, a relationship, or a role at home might reveal a personal calling.

A sense of calling may not change what you do, but it always infuses what you do with meaning.

As you go into 2017, begin to think about why you do certain things. If you’re focused on the what the not the why, you’ll leave another year feeling unfulfilled.

Success next year will not only be determined by what you do but also why you do it. Before you make that laundry list of New Year’s resolutions this week, reflect on why you do what you do and let your calling shape your goals for 2017.

Today, I’m on my way back home from a ski trip with my wife, Laura. Laura is an experienced skier and loves the sport. On the other hand, I had only been skiing once in my life before this trip. The prospect of packing and trying to fit all of those big and bulky cold weather ski clothes into my luggage was not something I was looking forward to! It reminds me of a story I told in The Lepers’ Lessons-

The first time I took college students overseas for a study abroad program, the weight limit the airline set for a single checked bag was fifty pounds. We had informed all our students about the airline’s policy, but one young lady must not have read the memo (or maybe she assumed no one would notice). At the check-in counter in Atlanta, she could barely hoist her bag onto the scales. It weighed 110 pounds! In this case, the airline didn’t offer the option of paying an additional fee for excess weight. If she didn’t get her bag down to the weight limit, she simply couldn’t go with us.

Her parents had come to the airport to see her off. The three of them opened her bag and went to work. For the next thirty minutes, tears streamed down her face as she took out shoes, clothes, and other things she had been so sure she needed for our trip. Over and over again, she zipped up her bag and put it on the scales. Each time it was still too heavy, and she had to take more things out … prompting more anxiety and more tears. Finally, she achieved her fifty-pound limit. The moment was marked with equal parts relief and sorrow. I’m sure she thought she would run out of clothes after a few days, but she made it just fine.

Have you ever had to repack your bag at the airport? In some airports there is actually a designated area specifically for this called a “repack zone.” It’s frustrating and embarrassing to open your bag in front of everyone, showing what’s inside, and to sort through your personal property. Your anxiety builds as you don’t want to miss your flight, but you also don’t want to leave without the things you need. As I reflect on this story, my ski trip, and the purpose of a repack zone, it causes me to consider what I am taking with me into this new year. No, I’m not just talking about literal items, but what baggage am I bringing with me into 2017?

Sometimes, when we enter a new phase of life, it’s easy to try to take too much with us. The truth is that we all have baggage, but in this new year, is there anything you are bringing with you from last year that you need to leave in the last year?

Leave the baggage of 2016 in the repack zone, and let go of everything that might prevent you from reaching your goals this year.

When we go on a journey, we need to have the right stuff with us. For this ski trip, I had to pack bulky ski clothes, but there is such a thing as overpacking. There is even a degree of overpacking that can prevent you from getting to your destination. Even though it can feel frustrating and embarrassing, spend some time in the repack zone at the start of this year and evaluate the baggage that you need to let go. Let go of your resentment from the relationship that went wrong this year. Let go of the family argument that happened over Christmas dinner. Let go of the frustration you have toward your coworkers.

Let go of your regret from some poor business decisions.

Leave the baggage of 2016 in the repack zone, and let go of everything that might prevent you from reaching your goals this year.

Decide that today will be repack day. Decide what you don’t want and take only what you need into next year.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices…

During the Christmas season, we constantly hear the word hope. But what does hope mean to you? What kind of hope are you seeking? What makes you feel hopeful?

Perhaps, you’re a student that sees the light at the end of the tunnel. The hope of graduation is just a semester, a class, a paper, an exam away, and you’re ready to embark on a new adventure.

Maybe the phone finally rings, and after six months of being without work, you finally have the hope of an interview and the prospect of a job.

You wake up rested and realize that your six-month-old baby slept through the night for the first time. The hope of restful nights to come give you the extra energy you need to make it through the day.

The scans finally come back clear, and after a two-year battle with cancer, the hope that you are cancer-free brings a sigh of relief and new dreams for your life.

It is amazing what happens when human beings experience hope. It is a thrill when it happens today, and it was a thrill when it happened more than 2,000 years ago.

After 400 years of silence, God finally spoke to his people through the cry of a little baby named Jesus. In a field nearby that little manger, shepherds tended their sheep. Crooks in hand, they watched over their flocks late into the night, ready to protect them from any beast or man that might threaten them. Suddenly, the black night sky burst with a brilliant light that caused the shepherds to cover their faces. Their hearts raced, and they fell to their knees in fear, unable to protect themselves or their sheep. Blinding light surrounded them, but the comforting voice of an angel filled the air:

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” The shepherds’ fear melted into celebration at this miraculous news. The hope of a Savior lay in a manger nearby, and they were going to see him!

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining;

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

Til He appeared and the soul felt it's worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

There are many things for which to be hopeful, but perhaps the greatest is a baby born in the town of Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago.

As we approach Christmas, remember again the thrill of hope found in Jesus Christ. May He be every bit as exciting to you today as He was to the shepherds when He was born.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas;

Let your heart be light.

Isn’t it funny how the greatest seasons of joy and celebration are often also the most busy and stressful times of year? I find this to be especially true as Christmas approaches each year.

There’s the mom who wants Christmas to be perfect for her family. She spends hours decorating, shopping, cooking, addressing Christmas cards, and planning the events that surround this special day, only to find she feels overwhelmed and underwater.

There’s the business professional trying to hit his sales quota for the end of the year.  Instead of enjoying time with his family, he works late into the night, hoping to take time off closer to Christmas.

There’s the pastor planning Christmas Eve services and working hard to make sure volunteers are coordinated and everything is perfect for church members and guests. He is so deep in the weeds that, in spite of his role as a minister, it’s often difficult to keep his focus on the true reason for the season. Amidst the family, friends, food, presents, parties, programs, and end of the year goals, this season provides more opportunities to feel overwhelmed than ever before. As the stress builds, the charge to “let your heart be light” can feel like an impossible task.

But let’s take a step back together and imagine an even more chaotic Christmas than the ones we experience today. Imagine Mary on a donkey, traveling the five-day road from Nazareth to the small town of Bethlehem. She feels each crack and rock on the road beneath her and holds herself steady on the donkey at nine months pregnant. On the dusty road, her stomach churns as she consider the census ordered, and the taxes she and Joseph will have to pay before the birth of their baby. Finally, Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem only to find that there is nowhere to stay. Mary’s heart sinks, and the contractions start. The only place to go is a filthy stable, full of animals, dirt, feces, and hay. The stench is pungent, and setting is unfit to welcome the King of the universe, but nonetheless, his cries pierce the night.

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas; let your heart be light." - Hugh Martin

Perhaps, Mary felt like she had failed Jesus already, as she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger. To her, the first Christmas must have felt overwhelmingly chaotic. So, what did it take for Mary to keep her heart light? I wonder if as she looked into Jesus’s little eyes, it caused her to stop, rest, and remember the grace that would save the world.

During this Christmas season, take some time to stop, rest, and remember. It doesn’t matter if everything is perfect. Take a deep breath and enjoy your friends, family, this season, and the meaning behind it.

Let your heart be light.