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  • Head Down

    I go into the office at least once or twice a week.  We have a nice small suite in a three story office building just outside of Nashville in a popular “office building area” with a bunch of other folks who are in the same office building.  There are a ton of restaurants, dry cleaners, grocery stores, etc. nearby. Everything is set up and ready for office workers like me to get everything we need while we are near the office working!
     
    On each floor of our office building we have an area near the elevators where the bathrooms are located (we don’t have a bathroom in our office suite).  So anytime I need to go to the bathroom or I need to leave our office suite I pass by other people in the building.
     
    Growing up in the South my personality is such that I usually look people in the eye and say Hi.  I try hard not to text/read on my phone while I am walking in the building (I still do it sometimes though!). Many of the folks I see are either looking the other way, typing on their phones or not interested in saying hello. I try and be kind and speak to them anyway!
     
    What do you do when you are leaving your office suite or headed to the bathroom in your building and you see other workers? Is your head buried in your phone like theirs is (and mine sometimes)?  Do you look the other way when you see someone?  Or do you go out of your way to speak to them and be courteous?
     
    A Real Christian Businessman will use this opportunity to display a simple act of kindness and speak to other people that we come across in our office building.  Some people may not have anyone be nice to them the entire day so who knows what a small hello might do for them when we see them.


    “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Heb 13:2 (NIV)


    Make it a point this week to say Hi to folks when you are walking around your office building.  We never know what type of impact this could be having on others.

  • Work To Do

    Are we “working” while at work or thinking about other things?

    Look at what Nehemiah said:


    “Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall.  All my men were assembled there for the work, we did not acquire any land.” Neh 5:16 (NIV)


    It makes a little more sense in The Message Version:


    “I had work to do; I worked on this wall.  All my men were on the job to do the work.  We didn’t have time to line our own pockets.”


    When we are at our workplace it’s easy to think about all the other things we could be doing or getting into!

    Let’s be diligent like Nehemiah this week and let our work be our work.

    Let’s get it done!

  • Got it Done

    I just closed a loan on Friday that was one of the most difficult ones I have done. 
     
    But it was also one of the most rewarding. 
     
    The young man I helped was renting a house and the owner’s husband recently passed away.  She decided to sell her rental house along with her personal home and move closer to her daughter out of state.  She offered Jeremie the first chance to purchase the home before she put it up for sale.  He wasn’t sure he would be able to buy it but he didn’t want try and find a new place to live for his family (5 kids under the age of 14 along with his longtime girlfriend); plus he lived 5 minutes from his work place.
     
    His job as a manager of a junkyard didn’t allow him much time to communicate during the day, so most of what we did was in the evenings and on weekends.  His credit wasn’t the best and we had to overcome numerous obstacles to get him to the closing table but we somehow were able to do it.
     
    How rewarding it was to see him sign all the paperwork and become a homeowner!


     
     
    A Real Christian Businessman knows that sometimes the hardest things we do at our workplace can sometimes be the most rewarding.  Helping Jeremie become a homeowner when he thought there never was a chance makes doing what I do that much more worth it.


    “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.”  Col 3:23-24 (ESV)



    If we look at the underlying things we do at work, in some way we are always helping others to achieve something they didn’t think was possible.  And we are always serving the Lord.
     
    Does that report that you do really make a difference in your weekly meeting? Does talking to a customer on the phone with kindness and respect give them a sense of worth?
     
    Even the little things we do can make a difference in other peoples lives.  It may not be as obvious as helping someone purchase their first home when they thought they never could, but look closely and you will see that what you are doing makes an impact on others.
     
    And it also is serving the Lord. 🙂

  • Whatever…

    “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Phil 4:8 (ESV)


     Let’s take the right “whatever” approach and make an effort to think about these things!

    There is enough “other” stuff to think about already…

  • Morning Routine

    My morning routine has gotten in a rut.  The morning time has always been my most productive time and it still is, but lately I have found myself wasting it away.  Reading useless things on the internet, working on laundry, or even walking around in circles moving stuff in the house (I really do this sometimes just ask my family!).  Lately I have found that I no longer make the efforts to “do the things that are best” versus “doing things.”

    What does your morning routine look like?

    Have you ever even stopped to think about it in a detailed way?

    A Real Christian Businessman knows that having a good morning routine sets the stage for the day and allows us to lead by example.  Here are some quick tips to consider regarding morning routines:

    Start with quiet time
    Do this first before getting into useless screen time or other things that can eat up our most productive hours.  As a Real Christian Businessman this has to be a non-negotiable. Even if it means reading just one Bible verse!  I’m not here to slam you or me for not reading our bible enough but starting the day with a verse and a prayer is just like “eating an apple a day” (from the old school saying ‘an apple a day keeps the Doctor away’…  It works to help keep Satan away too – lol).

    Do some exercise
    It’s a game changer for almost every single person when exercise happens. And it doesn’t have to be a big deal. A simple walk to the end of the street and back or a few jumping jacks in the living room can ignite our day in ways we don’t even realize.

    Make a list
    When we write things down that we need to do instead of winging it each day we feel more productive and are actually able to accomplish more.

    Focus on one thing at a time
    I won’t get into this extensively as I know many folks think they can multitask well (I can’t!) but research shows (even a recent Stanford University study) that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time.


    “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Prov 21:5 (ESV)



    What is one thing we can change in our morning routine that will make the day go better?

  • Diligency

    “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Prov 21:5 (ESV) 


    Do you move quickly without thinking about what may happen like I do most of the time… or do you take a moment to make a plan?

    Which one do you think yields better results?

    🙂

  • Sales Meetings Are Fun

    Over the course of my career I have been in more sales meetings than I can remember.  Some have been productive. Many have not been.  My current weekly sales meeting is actually very helpful. We talk about some of the struggles and successes we all are facing with different clients and loans and also review current guidelines and programs to keep us all sharp.

    When it comes to talking about the struggles we face and the difficulties that come up, many of the conversations turn negative.  How easy it is to jump on the negative bandwagon and talk about all the difficult clients and things that are going wrong!  I find myself doing this more often than I would like.  Why not? Everyone else is being negative. I can easily do that too.

    A Real Christian businessman knows that going the negative route in a sales meeting is not the direction to go.  Would a better course of action be to keep my mouth closed if I don’t have anything nice to say? (thanks Mom for teaching me that). Or how about giving out encouragement to others that may be experiencing genuine difficulties with a particular client or loan instead of being negative about the whole situation and piling it on?

    It’s not easy to go the way that we are expected to go. Today’s world causes us all to have a negative bent!  I can attest to this first hand as I am constantly battling this negative tendency.  

    Take a moment when you find yourself doing this in your next meeting to step back and either not speak (very hard for me!) or speak with encouragement and curiosity (how can I learn from my colleague’s situation so that I can be better at my job?) 


    “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up…” 1 Thes 5:11a (ESV)


  • Learning

    “To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.” Prov 12:1 (NLT)


     Be someone who is teachable, so when someone points something out that you have done incorrectly at work you can take those words and become someone better!

    It’s not always easy for me to do this but I continue to try!

  • All Cooped Up

    We have been cooped up due to the snow and ice for the last week.  It started last Sunday and hasn’t stopped since.  School has been out all week and although businesses opened up some starting Wednesday, it rained Thursday and on Friday the temperatures dropped so the roads turned to sheets of ice. It shut everything down again until the temperatures get above freezing sometime on Monday.
     
    What does this have to do with being a Real Christian Businessman?
     
    A lot. 
     
    You see trying to work from home when you don’t have a choice to go out is challenging!  I can’t have any in person meetings or go to the office when the road conditions are like they have been.
     
    I also have to juggle between doing my job versus stopping to play a game with the family or work on a puzzle or help make a cake with my daughter.
     
    It’s hard for me personally to juggle all of this! My mind races about what I need to do and where I need to be versus stopping to spend time and ”smell the roses” by being with my family.
     
    A Real Christian Businessman knows that when we have opportunities like this with our family we need to stop and take advantage of them! These opportunities to be all locked up with them get fewer and fewer as our kids grow older and have school and other activities that take up all of their time.
     
    Don’t be like me and get all legalistic about making sure your work gets done while letting the opportunity pass you by when it comes to being with your family. 
     
    You can make up the time on the job next week! 


    “…Enjoy every day of your short life. God has given you this short life on earth—and it is all you have. So enjoy…”  Ecc 9:9b (ERV)


  • Kindness

    Even when we’re at our worst, Our Father is kind; you be kind.” Luke 6:36 (MSG)


     It’s easy to put people down when we are not at the top of our game.

    Remember this when it is happening! 

    Let’s be kind to one another!