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What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started inve
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It's a pumpkin pancake kinda morning...
a.k.a. tell your day where to go!!

Did you ever wake up and upon opening your eyes get hit in the face with a ton of problems to solve?  Well that's exactly what happened to me yesterday.  I hate when that happens.

I opened my first e-mail and wanted to scream.  But everybody else in my house was asleep so I didn't.   

Curve balls.  I hate them.  I still loathe them even after 25 years in the ministry.  Do you ever get used to them?  I wanted to shut my eyes and go back to sleep. I don't live in a world where curve balls can be dodged, only skillfully dealt with.  Some days I do better than others.

I'm not sure what today holds yet but if yesterday is any indication it might be a challenging day or even week of dealing with the unanticipated.  So last night I made arrangements to assure myself a good morning before anything had the chance to happen.  People don't usually call me before 8 or 9 am unless someone dies or something.  So I felt pretty safe to go ahead an make an early plan.  I called Hector and Sandy and asked if they'd join me in the well fields this morning before the sun came up.  They said they were already planning on going and would be delighted to have me tag along.

I programmed the coffee maker to go off first thing upon waking up.  Then I charged up my camera battery and packed my best zoom lens in the backpack to get some stellar pictures.  Packed my water.  Then I set about making some homemade pumpkin pancakes (my favorite) and wrapped them and put them in the fridge to microwave this morning and have with my coffee. 

So that's what I'm waking up to today.  I'm telling my day where to go!

I began this morning by riding 10 miles through the well fields, watching the sunrise, and seeing the amazing wild life, taking photos, slowly sipping my coffee and eating my pumpkin pancakes, and oh yes, talking to Jesus.  

There comes a time when you can't just let life happen to you...you have to happen to life.  

I'm not willing to have another morning like yesterday morning.  Although I can't control everything that happens to me today, I can make a plan to produce a better outcome, or at least a better outset. 

With the well fields and the pumpkin pancakes behind me,  I have a full day of work ahead of me.  I'm not sure what challenges may exist for me to solve but I will be in a better frame of mind to handle them partially because I started the day with pancakes and biking in the well fields with friends and Jesus, but also partially because I didn't read my e-mail before I left.  :) 

What can you do to tell your day where to go?  To happen to life instead of just letting it happen to you? 

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