The Best Teacher

It is amazing really...I'm here seeking God and asking about so many things in my life. Listening... Thinking... Journalling... Reading... And as I pick up book after book, I find the themes intersect so well!

Granted, I CHOSE the books and brought them along, based on things I'm struggling with and wanting to learn. And I have asked God to lead and guide. The overlap between the "spiritual" and "business/practical" is wonderful. There really is not much difference. We are spiritual beings having physical and mortal experiences.

I still struggle to prioritize--to do the important and skip the other stuff. When it comes to delegating, I can get way too involved in all the details of the work of others, making it hard to focus on what I should be doing. Do I "micro-manage"? Oh, NO! I don't want to. But...how do you delegate and prioritize and manage in a way that works? What is stopping me and the team I lead from getting there? During this time, this is one area in which I am reading and seeking.

Here's how the learning happens:

I'm reading The 4-Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss. It mentions his blog, and from there I stumble on this one: "The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen". Wow, a lot of great things in there. His discription of what happens with our attention...yes, I get this! Still, Ferriss has set up quite a few processes to prevent letting the REAL BIG bad things from happening (see his list at the end of "The Holy Grail: How to Outsource the Inbox and Never Check Email Again"). What are the processes I need to set up for this? (Apparently The E-myth Revisited will help me with this too--got that one along, but haven't read much yet.)

Then, in what I thought was a completely different part of my life and learning, I've been thinking about fear.  What do I fear? What are the fears at the root of some of my reactions and responses? What do I fear in relationships? In work? With God? Leading with a Limp got me thinking about natural and ineffective responses to different kinds of leadership crises. Control and rigidity are ones I think I easily revert to, and I wonder why--what am I afraid will happen? Why am I afraid of things being out of control? Where is the line between good planning, and making good choices to prepare for things within your control, and then obsessive over-planning and over-reacting when myself or others have not pre-planned? In Surrender to Love, Benner talks about fear and love, and leads to an exploring of how we can fear love even, but only perfect love casts out fear...and so I am pondering these themes in my life, asking God to reveal and root me in His love.

What do you know, Ferriss, in The 4-Hour Work Week, talks about fear as well--fear of what? What holds us back from pursuiing our dreams? What are my fear-responses when I work with my team?

It is all very interesting. However, as yet there is no tidy conclusion. These are the musing and wonderings of my mind and heart. I sense God is leading my thoughts through the readings and in my spirit as I spend time with Him and keep turning to Him. But as all good teachers know, the impact of the learning is in the searching and discovering. Should He tell me straight out what I am missing and what I need to learn--I might miss it, OR I might not truly realize its significance.
So I continue to ponder, to read, to ask, and to listen.

The LORD is my Shepherd, and my Teacher
He leads me in His paths, in His ways
And I will follow, I will learn to follow
And He is good