I have to admit that I am a planner. In fact, it is diffcult for me to operate without a plan. One of the things that really makes my marriage to Monica work is the fact that I am a planner and she is not, so our plans never really compete against one another.

I joke when I say she is not a planner — she does plan, but she is not obsessed like I am. In fact, our nine year-old, Jaana, may be more of a planner than both of us. I have turned her into an obsessive planner, which may be deemed child abuse in some circles but I deem it as I have created a girl who is always ready.

All joking aside I do believe planning is very important and I believe it is something we don’t do a good job of, especially when it comes to our life. I am going to do a series of podcasts on planing your life and the importance of balance, so I thought I would give you a taste of what’s to come.

Why should we plan?

1. Planning prepares us for the unexpected. Many people may say that planning takes away spontaneity. I would argue that planning better prepares us for spontaneity. I know the definition of spontaneous is impulse, but I believe if we have a plan for our life then we are better able to be impulsive in a constructive way. There are impulses that can work in our plan…if we have a plan for our marriage, then we can be impulsive about a date night or writing a note to our spouse. Planning can free up the time to be impulsive.

2. Planning can prevent regrets. We have all had regrets. I think it was Elvis who said, “Regrets, I’ve had a few.” There are too many people walking around in a sea of regret. If they had only had a plan for their life, the regret could have been avoided. For example, it took me 14 years to get my undergraduate degree in college. My plan was not to take 14 years to accomplish this. If I simply had a plan I could have avoided this regret. Oh and by the way for those of you saying, “Yeah, but look what you learned and the lessons you were taught during the process” I will speak to you specifically in some upcoming blogs.

3. Planning is already a part of our life. I know some of you may say, “I don’t know how to plan.” I am going to help you in the coming weeks, but understand one thing — you already plan. I mean, most of us plan when to take in our car for service, or how long we will sleep at night. We plan what route we will take to work, what we will do at work…you get the idea. We were created to plan because our Creator planned to create us and the world. We were born to plan.

This is just the beginning of how we will plan together. Over the next few weeks I will help learn how to develop a plan for your life. Once you have a plan the execution is easy and the results are pure awesomeness!!

Are you ready?!?!

As I continue through this blog series on dreams and desires, I have found myself looking farther into the future and thus expanding my dreams. I think it would be appropriate to say here that dreaming without action is just a thought. For a dream to be a dream, it has to be something that we are willing to work toward.

Now I have gone and done it, I have said the four letter word… “work.”

Pursuing our dreams takes work. I remember the first time I watched my son, Paxton, when he was just two years old, sitting at the bottom of the stairs watching his older sister bound up the stairs. I could tell he wanted to go up those stairs so bad — for his little life, this was a big dream. Every time after this first time, after she went up again, he would climb one stair. This one stair took a lot of work but he kept trying and working. Now, at three, he climbs them with no help and he gets faster every time.

His dream took work and our dreams take work.

So I’ve have talked about why dreaming is important and why we don’t dream, so now I want to talk about how we dream big.

1. The first step to dreaming big is to identify what it is you desire. Start with identifying ONE thing you desire over anything else. This is the beginning of a dream. Maybe you desire a better marriage or a new career. Maybe you desire world peace. Whatever it is, you have to identify something. Don’t say “Well, I don’t have desires, my life is full of have to’s.” If you say that then you are not looking deep within yourself. Pick something and dream how awesome it would be to fulfill that desire.

2. Goal it! I know you have probably heard enough about writing out goals and you are sick of hearing it. Well, the odds are that if you are tired are hearing about it it’s because you have not written any goals out! We live in a visual age and most of the learning and doing we participate in is visual. Why do you think your favorite TV show has 15 minutes worth of show, and 15 minutes worth of advertising? They are hoping that if you see it, you will buy it. Goals are no different. If you write it down, the odds greatly increase that you will achieve it. Pick one goal to accomplish toward your dream and watch it happen.

3. Create a Dream Board. This may be a new concept to many of you. I have created a dream board for myself, and I also have my clients go through “life mapping” which is basically the same thing. A dream board is basically listing a starting point for where you are and listing a finishing point of where you want to be, and mapping out all of the steps and details necessary to make this happen. I have had clients use this to map out everything from their mariage to organizing their house. There are steps between where we think we are and where we dream of being. The steps are where the work lies. And therein lies the problem! If you need help mapping things, I am more than happy to help you — but YOU have to do the work.

4. Help others dream. I have never met one person who selflessly helped someone not be blessed themselves. Things happen for us when we do for others. Help others dream in their life and I promise you will begin to dream more in your own.

Start dreaming!!

Have you ever made this statement, “I want a better marriage”? I believe all couples have the ability to have a Big Marriage. Having a Big Marriage can lead us to having a Big Life.

This weekly podcast is designed to help you and me look at ways in which we can have a Big Marriage.

Click this link to listen to the podcast: A Big Marriage

This is the second of a three-part series on the importance of Dreaming Big. Last week I posted why dreaming is important. This week I want to post some reason and the repercussions for why we don’t dream big. I am sure these are not all of them, so I would love to hear some reasons why you have found yourself unable to dream big. So let’s jump right into it.

1. We see what can’t happen over what can happen. This ties in a little to our lost hope for ourselves and the world. We don’t dream big because we fail to see that things can improve. We are mostly negative by nature. This negativity dwarfs our thinking. I can remember for me not too long ago, I did not think my life would amount to much. I was uneducated, jobless, wifeless and destitute. I sat in this for a while and it caused me to see things were not as they could be. Once I started dreaming, I started believing. And once I started believing, I started doing. And once I started doing, things began to happen. I saw a future beyond the here and now… oh and I found Jesus as well. That helped a lot!

2. We failed in the past, so we stop dreaming. Listen we have all failed. The greats have failed multiple times. The important thing is what we do with failure. When we sit in the failure, guess what we define ourselves as? A failure. When we fail, we have the tendency to fall backwards and sit there kicking and screaming until someone comes along to help us up. Have you ever tried to get up when you are on your back? It’s a lot of work. The key to failing is to fail forward. (tweet that) I like the visual of falling forward on your face before the Almighty. When you are face first, He is ready to jump in with you. It’s easier to push yourself up when you are on your face. Fail forward and get back up and keep dreaming.

3. We live in a ring box. You know a box a ring comes in, usually it is a small box. (Except for the ring I bought for Monica it actually came in a crate! Kidding.) My point is we have all heard the saying “get out of the box” when you think. I like that but I think our boxes are so small we have NO vision for our life. When there is no vision there is no dreaming. We should get out of our boxes and expand our thinking and vision. Or better yet DEVELOP one. Open your eyes, think creatively, write it down, share it and GO!! That’s vision. You are anointed by God. If not, you better get some anointing, because you can’t have a vision and dream without it!! I’ll say it for you: Preach!

See where you can be, push yourself up and cast a vision for yourself!!

If you need some guidance or help I am happy to help you. Please don’t feel alone.

Next week…How Do We Dream Big?

Greg

Have you ever made this statement, “I want a better life”? An element of having a better life has to involve passion. I am a passionate person. I believe passion is a primary driver in our life. Passion propel us forward toward our purpose.

This weekly podcast is designed to help you and me look at ways in which passion can lead us to having the biggest year ever!

Click this link to listen  to the podcast: The Big Year – Passion

I have recently started using a sound machine to help me sleep. I use the sound of the ocean, because I love the beach and I always seem to sleep so much better on vacations at the beach.

As a result of me sleeping better, I have noticed that I am dreaming more in my sleep. Now I can’t tell you what these dreams are because they are gone as soon as I wake up, but they are happening.

This is significant because I was just telling Monica a few months ago that I can’t remember the last time I had a dream.

Have you ever found yourself in this place? When is the last ime you had a dream? I don’t mean a sleep dream but a dream for your life. I believe dreams are the missing ingredient in many people experiencing a Big Life. I think it is so important, that I’m going to use the next few weeks blogging about dreams and desires.

So let’s begin this week with answering why dreams are important:

1. Dreaming leads to hope. I believe one of the best speeches ever given was the speech Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered in Washington, D.C. Not only was it well communicated, but it was a dream — and the dream he had lead to hope for him and others. Now there were many who doubted it could ever happen, but that did not stop him from dreaming. Dreaming brings hope, transformation and vision to us and others.

2. Dreams help us to see things we miss in life. Dreaming allows us to see beyond the here and now and gets our creative juices flowing. I believe creativity should be an important piece of our life. When we dream, it causes our mind and heart to go places it otherwise would not.This opens up untapped possibilites.

3. Dreams require us to expect the unexpected. I remember when we bought our first house. After our first year of ownership, I went to the mailbox, and found a check from our mortgage company. I was for overpaying into our escrow account for the year. This was totally unexpected. It led me to expect that check every year! It doesn’t come every year, but nevertheless, it was a lesson. Dreams allow us to recieve unexpected blessings. The more we dream the more expected these unexpected blessings will become. Wouldn’t life be awesome if life was full of realized expectations?

Next week I will write about the reasons I believe we don’t dream big.

I encourage you to listen to my weekly podcast –The Big Life — where I am providing ways for you to have the biggest year ever.

Have you ever made this statement, “I want a better life”? An element of having a better life has to involve commitment. Commitment is the ability to carry into action deliberately, WOW!! Don’t you think we all could use some more deliberate action? I think we have all asked this at one point in our life. Our deliberate action begins with our commitments.  This weekly podcast is designed to help you and me look at ways in which commitment can lead us to having the biggest year ever!

Click this link to listen  to the podcast: The Big Year – Commitment 

Enjoy and here is to YOUR Big Year!

I have been accused (mainly by my wife) of viewing people and the way they are wired through the lens in which God made me. I hear this all the time, “they are not like you.” In my haste to require everyone to be like me (which would be a disaster for them by the way), I may require too much of others.

But here is what I would say — my only desire is to see some passion flow out of people! I am a passionate person. I believe passion is a primary driver in our life. The following are a few elements of passion that I believe help us achieve greatness in life:

1. Passions Produces Change. Maybe I like the word “transform” better than change. If you want something different out of life, become passionate about it. I think passions and desires walk hand-in-hand. Your desire to see your life transformed should cause you to become passionate about it. I mean working so hard that you are focused on this one thing. If you are not passionate about then, just stay where you are because it won’t matter.

2. Passion Fuels Us Forward. When I was a college and young adult pastor at a previous church, our group may not have been 1,000 in numbers, but I was very passionate about the ones we had. I was so passionate about this group and creating an environment where they felt important, that I would arrive hours before our young adult service and set up the chairs, video, slides, etc. I knew that the church would never be as passionate as it should be, but my passion for them would fuel this group forward. Part of our fruit is to see how many from this group met in the group, married and now have kids. I’m very passionate abut that!

3. Our Passion Communicates a Message. The things we are passionate comunicate a message about us to others. Years ago, I developed a life mission statement. This statement communicates a message. It says, “As a partner with Christ I desire to encourage others to realize their value by equipping them to pursue their dreams.” I am passionate about the message this statement communicates. Passion is what pushes this forward for me and becomes the meesage I hope my life communicates.

So how do we do it, this passion thing? Let me offer some quick application steps:

1. One Thing. Find one thing to become passionate about. Write it down and make it your thing for one year. Pour your heart and soul into it.

2. Stack Chairs. Not literally, but this is what I used to do in order to make our group feel important. This boils down to work. Be involved in every detail (though not always fun) — it will stir passion as you begin to see results.

3. Get a Life Sentence. We all need something to shoot for that is general enough to cover every area of our life, but specific enough to write goals off of it. This is an important process and takes more time then an hour. It took me an entire weekend. If you desire a statement for your life, LET ME HELP YOU.

I hope this helps. Follow these steps and who knows, you might become more like me!! That would save me a lot of trouble!! Ha ha.

Have you ever made this statement, “I want a better life”? I think we have all asked this at one point in our life. Can I say that I like the word Big better than better. Can I say it that way? No matter how we say it I think we all desire a Big Life! But an entire life can be overwhelming to think about so let’s start with a year. This weekly podcast is designed to help you and me look at ways in which we can have the biggest year ever!

Click this link to listen  to the podcast: The Big Year – Responsibility. I welcome your feedback and I would appreciate if you would rate podcast.

Enjoy and here is to YOUR Big Year

One particular story that has really stood out to me is the story of King Saul. I have read it and learned it, but seeing it played out has made an even greater impression. It has opened my eyes up to the power of true power.

Here is what I’ve learned:

1. Power does not equal leadership. Leadership is not found in the power we have, but is found in the humility we have within the power. The best leaders are sometimes those who don’t realize the amount of power they have, but do realize the amount of influence they have. I have a mentor in my life who has power but I always recognize his influence over his power.

2. Abuse of power always leads to destruction. If you think about when a leader abuses the power or authority they have been given, destruction is not far behind. Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin are all examples of leaders who have fallen as a result of abuse. If you are abusing the power you have been given…. HEADS UP!!

3. Power is meant for transformation. A transformational leader is someone has been given the ability to bring about significant change. Power allows leaders to lead change in a family or an organization’s vision, strategy and culture. The power to change is based on personal values, beliefs and the qualities of a leader.

4. Others depend on your power. My son loves for me to hold him. In fact, he actually says, “I want to hold you” when he wants me to hold him. He actually depends on the physical power I have to lift him and hold him without dropping him. You have power because people depend on you. Are you letting those down who depend on you? Their security may be dependent on you.

Don’t abuse the power you have because others are dependent on you not losing it.