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Ideas Without Actions Aren’t Any Good

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To Build the Business of Your Dreams You Must Take Action

“I AM A PERSON OF ACTION.” “My future is immediate. I will grasp it with both hands and carry it with running feet. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act!” – Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

From the book “The Travelers Gift” by Andy Andrews

For years people have asked me where I came up with the business system and procedures that I use. As I thought about it, I realized that early on my business and life had developed without much intentionality.

I was a dreamer at an early age. I had big ideas and plans for my life. Then there was a portion of my life where I became disillusioned and accepted that my dreams were just that…dreams.

I decided I was just kidding myself the whole time.

Then in 2012 I had “A Life Changing Wakeup Call” and realized that I had gotten sucked into a world of doubt. I had given up and quit dreaming. It can be hard for those of us that are dreamers to turn ideas into action.

After my accident, I began to think about what my life was and what I had expected it to be. I became reenergized about dreaming and about life. It’s great to be excited about life again!

Dreams are just dreams if no action is taken.

Not that my life was terrible before the accident, it just wasn’t what I had envisioned. I had been living without a clear plan, and there was so much more for me to accomplish.

At that point I decided to become more intentional.

I’ve always been a planner but it’s sad that it took a hit in the head for me to realize the importance of intentional action.

When we’re young the tendency is to think that we’ll have all the time we need. There’s no need to think about the future…we’ll get around to that someday. Then one day we wake up and realize life is flying by and we haven’t done those things we wanted to.

You don’t have to wait until you’re smacked in the head to become intentional.

Think of your business as a construction project. It all begins with a dream. You can see the vision of the completed project in your mind. The tricky part is getting that dream out of your head and making it a reality.

Having a plan will let you see if it looks like your dream or not. It’s easier to make changes and corrections during the planning stage, rather than the construction.

After I realized that that my dreams weren’t going to happen without actions, I began to develop business tools and systems needed for building my dream business. It would have been easier if I had some help.

It’s always a good idea to have the help of a professional when drawing out plans and building your dream business. Their experience, knowledge, and skill can save you time and money.

This is why at Solution Building we’re making these tools and systems available to others in the construction industry.

To build your dream business you can’t stop at the planning…there’s more action needed.

Don’t wait to be smacked in the head to get intentional about taking action for building your dream business.

If you would like some help with planning or building the business of your dreams you can schedule a free construction company consultation.

Nothing Can be Built Without Action

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Too Many Times This is Exactly Where Dreams Get Left

Dreams don’t magically build themselves. This includes a dream business.

For years people in the construction industry have asked me where I got the business system and tools that I use in my construction company. After my accident in 2012, I spent a lot of time thinking about this. That was when it became clear to me that my business and life had been on autopilot without much intentionality.

Being hit upside the head caused me to think about my life and business and how they weren’t what I had expected them to be.

Not that things were terrible…just not what I had envisioned.

There was so much more that I wanted to accomplish. I had been going through the motions of living without acting on the plan.

At that point I decided to become intentional and take action. I’ve always been a planner, but it’s sad that it took a hit in the head for me to realize that planning wasn’t going to accomplish my dreams without action.

When we’re young the tendency is to think that we have all the time we need. There’s no hurry…we’ll get around to it someday. Then one day we wake up and realize life has flown by, and we haven’t done all those things we wanted to.

Don’t wait to be smacked in the head to take action.

Think of your life or business as a construction project. It begins with a dream but doesn’t end there. You can see the vision of the completed project in your mind. The tricky part is getting that dream out of your head and making it a reality.

Having the dream drawn out is a step in the right direction, but it’s only the first step. It’s a great time to make changes and corrections, rather than waiting until construction, but the building still isn’t done.

It’s good to have the help of a professional when drawing out your plans for building your dream. Their experience, knowledge, and skill can save you time and money. Done well, it will make the entire process more productive.

But a dream drawn on paper is still not done.

Too many times this is where the dream gets left. It takes time and effort to build, and the cost of building can be scary.

This is where having the right tools and systems can help you turn that business you’ve always dreamed of into a reality. It takes intentional action to build anything.

Take intentional action today.

After continually being asked about our business tools and systems at Timber Creek Construction, we knew there was a need. People in the construction industry were looking for help with building their dream businesses.

This is why we put our tools and systems in the Business BUILDing Toolbox. This toolbox gives construction businesses access to the tools that we use at Timber Creek Construction every day.

Normally $297, the Business BUILDing Toolbox is currently being offered at a Holiday price of $147 through Nov. 30th.

You can learn more about the Business BUILDing tools here or you can schedule a free 30-minute consultation to ask about them.

Don’t wait to be smacked in the head to take action because the business of your dreams isn’t going to build itself.

Some content from a previous post on May 26, 2018.

Big Projects Are Made Up of Thousands of Small Pieces

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How Can I Sort Through All of Them and Get Them in the Right Order?

Over the past several weeks we’ve discussed the importance of having a plan when it comes to building anything successfully. This goes for construction projects or businesses. Part of that discussion was focused on having a clear and implementable business operating plan.

We looked at how a standard operating procedure can help you achieve consistent results, reduce costs, increase productivity, and create a higher level of standards. We broke down the things that should be in an SOP. Then we discussed the process of determining the design of your SOP.

It became pretty evident that designing, building, and implementing an SOP is a pretty big project. It’s a lot like building a big construction project, if you don’t start, it will never get built.

The same thing is true for your business…if you don’t start, it will never get built.

I have found myself in several different situations over the past several weeks that have aligned with this whole big overwhelming idea of the SOP. It reminded me of a previous post about being too busy.

Here is an excerpt from that post –

This morning as I was posting in my journal, I started thinking about all of the things that I didn’t get done yesterday. Then I began to think about how many times I have posted this same thing over and over. It sure seems that I spend way too much time feeling overwhelmed and behind. I really want to get more done!

Then I thought about all of the times that I’ve had this conversation with other people. “How is your day going? Man, I am so far behind I don’t think I will ever get caught up. I sure wish there were more hours in the day.” I have heard these or similar comments more times than I can count.

Our lives can feel like a 20,000-piece jigsaw puzzle was dumped out in front of us with no picture of what it is supposed to look like when it’s done.

So how can we get all of these pieces to fit…or can we? This is the big question. It would be nice to know what the finished puzzle is supposed to look like. This puzzle can be tough and frustrating. I think it is especially difficult for those of us who are ‘recovering perfectionists’. We want all the pieces to fit just right. To know ahead of time exactly where each piece is supposed to go. This particular puzzle, called life, doesn’t work like that.

Here are some reasons we struggle with our puzzle and some ideas to help us get our pieces to fit.

  • We pick up too many pieces by over scheduling. There are so many pieces…Start with the corner pieces. Put in the most important pieces first.
  • The puzzle isn’t going together as fast as we want. Sometimes (most times) things just take longer…do as much planning and preparation as we can before we start, but don’t over plan. Spread the pieces out, find the edge pieces and get started.
  • With so many pieces in front of us we lose our focus. After we have put the edge pieces in place…remember that we can only put one piece in at a time. Concentrate on that one. If it doesn’t fit, then pick up a different piece and focus on it.

Life is a puzzle. What really makes this puzzle fun and exciting is that while we are putting our puzzle together other people are doing the same thing and their puzzle connects to ours.

Ideas are great, but if you don’t take action, nothing will get done.

Whatever the project is that you’re working on, find the first next piece, pick it up and put it in place, then repeat. This is the only way you will get the business of your dreams built.

It’s a Lot Easier to Say Something Than It Is to Do It

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

We’ve all heard this phrase, “Actions speak louder than words.” It’s a pretty common saying.

It is believed to have originated during the English Civil War. John Pym, an English parliamentarian, coined the expression in 1628. He said, “A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver, and actions are more precious than words.”

It’s easy to say things but harder to do them. Words can just roll right off our tongues before we take time to think about what we’re saying. This is especially true when we want to do everything for everybody. I call this a servant’s heart. I know because I have one.

When we do the things that we say we will, we are showing where our hearts really are.

The thing to remember is that we have control over both what we say and what we do.

We can change what we say and do. We don’t have to accept the status quo. We can write our own story.

In China, if they don’t like the way a movie ends…they change it.

In the final scene of the movie Fight Club. the star stands with his girlfriend, as they watch explosives blow up a cluster of skyscrapers — all part of what was presented to the audience as a plan to destroy consumerism by erasing bank and debt records.

That amount of anarchy — and the government’s inability to stop it — doesn’t appear to have passed muster with China’s notoriously strict censorship rules though.

In the version available in China, the entire scene featuring the explosions has been cut out. Instead, it has been replaced with a caption explaining to audiences that the authorities arrived just in time to save the day.

“Through a clue received by the police, they rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding,” the caption reads. “After the trial, Tyler was sent to [a] lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”

We have the power to change how our story ends.

We can decide if our actions or words will speak the loudest. As long as we are still alive, we can write our story.

In Luke 23:33-43, we see an example of rewriting the end of a story. As Jesus hung on the cross there were two criminals hanging there with Him. One of them insulted Him by saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

The other criminal responded harshly to the first, “Don’t you fear God, seeing that you’ve also been sentenced to die? We are rightly condemned, for we are receiving the appropriate sentence for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied, “I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise.”

Both criminals wrote their own stories by the choices they made in that instance.

Jesus’ actions spoke loudly. The criminal’s choices spoke loudly. Our choices speak loudly.

Our actions are more important than what we say. We shouldn’t stop at our words. We can bring our words to life through our actions. We can write the ending to our story.

Choose your words and actions wisely and write the ending to the story that God wants for you.

Goal Achieving is a Better Plan Than Goal Setting

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Too Often Once the Goals Are Planned…We Forget the Achieving Part

This is like having plans to build a building and once you get the blueprint drawn…you stop. You have a picture you can hang on the wall, but the building never gets built.

Having a plan before you start is good, but it’s not enough. If you don’t dig some dirt and drive some nails, nothing is accomplished.

Accomplishing anything requires action and action requires decisions.

This book gives us Seven Decisions shared with David Ponder while on his travels bout how we should live our lives. I review and contemplate these decisions daily.

We’re nearing the end of another year. The closer we get, the more we beat ourselves up because of the things we didn’t get done. It’s easy to get caught up in the things that we didn’t accomplish and overlook the things that we did. We all have visions of what our dream life will look like. This can be frustrating and depressing when things don’t turn out like we planned.

We need to remember that we can’t change the past, only the future. The key is to not give up.

Giving up is like dying while you’re still alive. Don’t give up!

Last week I wrote about how we can use urgency to accomplish more. Urgent things become a higher priority. This moves them up higher on the list. As an example of how this works, let me tell you a story that happened just this morning.

As Katie (my awesome assistant) and I were working on some website things, I realized that I couldn’t log in to the Solution Building site because I had waited too long in setting up my two-factor authentication. This is something that Stacey (my amazing IT person) told me to do a month ago.

This meant that I wasn’t going to be able to publish this week’s solution until I got this taken care of.

As it is with busy people…I kept putting it off to do other things. The level of urgency ramped up though when I couldn’t get into the website. I had to decide what I was going to do. At that point, it became the highest priority.

We all deal with these kinds of choices. The key to accomplishing more is to decide early on what is important and what isn’t. No matter how clear we are on our life and business plans, things are going to happen. Some are within our control, and some aren’t.

The more answers we have to big life question, the easier the smaller questions are to deal with.

Ultimately achieving goals comes down to decisions and deciding is up to us.

As I think about life and decisions, once again, I’m brought back to Andy Andrew’s book, The Traveler’s Gift. I know, I refer to this book a lot. As I was thinking about goals and decisions, I was reminded about the profound impact this book had on my life as I recovered from my concussion.

  • The Responsible Decision

I accept responsibility for my past. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions. I am responsible for my success.

“THE BUCK STOPS HERE.”

“If decisions are choices…and our thinking dictates our decisions – then we are where we are because of our thinking.”

President Harry S. Truman

  • The Guided Decision

I will be a servant to others. I will listen to the council of wise men. I will choose my friends with care.

“I WILL SEEK WISDOM.”

“God moves mountains to create the opportunity of His choosing. It is up to you to be ready to move yourself.”

King Solomon

  • The Active Decision

I am courageous. I am a leader. I seize this moment. I choose now.

“I AM A PERSON OF ACTION.”

“My future is immediate. I will grasp it with both hands and carry it with running feet. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act!”

Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

  • The Certain Decision

I will not wait. I am passionate about my vision for the future. My course has been charted. My destiny is assured.

“I HAVE A DECIDED HEART.”

“Truth is truth. If a thousand people believe something foolish, it is still foolish! Truth is never dependent upon consensus of opinion. I have found that is better to be alone and acting upon the truth in my heart than to follow a gaggle of silly geese doomed to mediocrity.”

Christopher Columbus

  • The Joyful Decision

I will greet each day with laughter. I will smile at every person I meet. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit.

“TODAY I WILL CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY.”

“Our very lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make choices. Then our choices make us.”

Anne Frank

  • The Compassionate Decision

I will forgive even those who do not ask for forgiveness. I will forgive those who criticize me unjustly. I will forgive myself.

“I WILL GREET THIS DAY WITH A FORGIVING SPIRIT.”

“Forgiveness is a secret that is hidden in plain sight. It costs nothing and is worth millions. It is available to everyone and used by few. If you harness the power of forgiveness, you will be sought after and regarded highly. And not coincidentally, you will also be forgiven by others!”

Abraham Lincoln

  • The Persistent Decision

I will continue despite exhaustion. I focus on results. I am a person of great faith.

“I WILL PERSIT WITHOUT EXCEPTION.”

“Great leaders – great achievers – are rarely realistic by other people’s standards. Somehow, these successful people, often considered strange, pick their way through life ignoring or not hearing negative expectations and emotions. Consequently, they accomplish one great thing after another, never having heard that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing!”

Archangel Gabriel

Achieving our goals comes down to decisions.

Starting by deciding what our priorities are.

Deciding to be responsible. Deciding to be wise. Deciding to take action. Deciding to believe in ourselves. Deciding to be happy. Deciding to forgive. Deciding to persist.

Faith Is Better Than Magic… Magic Only Goes So Far

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It Requires Action from Us for Faith to Do Its Magic

Faith’s magic is different than magician magic. It’s not a slide of hand, distract you over here while they do the “magic” over there.

There were two boys that were always trying to out prank each other.

One of them stole three candy bars and showed his friend. The friend told him that was no big deal, he could get the store clerk to give him three candy bars.

The first boy didn’t believe him. He had no faith.

The second boy went to the clerk and asked to show him a magic trick. The boy said he would need three candy bars and he would give them back when he was done. The clerk agreed.

The boy took the candy bars. He unwrapped the first one and ate it. The clerk was puzzled. The boy took the second and did the same thing. Now the clerk was getting concerned. The boy now repeated the process again and ate the third one. The concerned clerk says, “Okay, where are the candy bars?”

The boy says, “They’re in my friend’s pocket.”

God’s magic isn’t magician magic. It’s faith.

Faith requires action. In Hebrews 11:1-12 there are examples of people of faith taking action. Noah had faith and built a boat, even though it had never rained. Abraham had faith and went to a country where he had never been that became the promised land. Sarah in her old age believed and had a son.

Faith is like a staircase. You know there’s another floor up there. But if you don’t climb the stairs…you’ll never experience it. Faith without works is dead.

Faith is more than just believing. Faith is where the rubber meets the road. Even the demons believe.

If we don’t act on our faith, it’s useless.

Faith is more than knowledge. To become a musician, it requires more than just learning how to read music or knowing how to play an instrument. It requires practice. This is true for faith too.

Faith is not about information…it’s about transformation. God tells us in Jeremiah, that His plans are for us to prosper. He has plans for our hope and future. To0 much of life is spent doubting beliefs and believing doubts.

When a trapeze artist lets go of the trapeze and reaches out for the catcher, they must believe that they will be caught. The flyer simply stretches out their arms and trusts that the catcher will catch them. This is faith. We need to stretch out our arms to God and trust that He will catch us.

We all experience faith daily in varying degrees. The more we believe, practice and climb the stronger it becomes.

Faith is a better guide than reason. Reason can only go so far…faith has no limits. I will expect miracles in my life because faith produces them every day. I will believe in the future that I do not see. That is faith. The reward of this faith is to see the future that I believed.

Andy Andrews, Seventh Decision

Are You Standing in God’s Way or Standing in God’s Will?

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You Better Get Out of the Way Before You Get Run Over

Most people fall in one of two groups…rule keepers or rule breakers. You know which you are.

Either of these taken too far can result in standing in God’s way.

Rules can be misinterpreted and misunderstood. For example –

When a mother returned from the grocery store, her small son pulled out the box of animal crackers he had asked for. He opened the box and began spreading the animal-shaped crackers out on the kitchen counter. “What are you doing?” his mom asked.

“The box says you shouldn’t eat them if the seal is broken,” the boy explained.

“I’m looking to see if there are any broken seals.”

In Acts 11:1-18 some of the Jewish followers began arguing with Peter about his staying in the homes of uncircumcised Gentiles and eating with them. This was forbidden by Jewish rules.

Peter shared a vision he had while praying.

He saw heaven open and something like a huge sheet held by its four corners came down. When he looked in it, he saw animals, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds. He heard a voice saying, “Peter, get up! Kill these and eat them.”But I said, “Lord, I can’t do that! I’ve never taken a bite of anything that is unclean and not fit to eat.”

The voice from heaven spoke again, “When God says that something can be used for food, don’t say it isn’t fit to eat.”This happened three times before it was all taken back into heaven.

“God gave those Gentiles the same gift that he gave us when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So how could I have gone against God?”

When they heard what Peter told them they stopped arguing and praised God.

Too many times in the Bible the Jewish leaders are rule followers and get in God’s way.

This doesn’t mean that rules aren’t important. Sometimes we go too far the other way and don’t want to adhere to any rules. Or we pick and choose the rules we follow. We think rules can be restrictive and suppressing.

Ignoring the rules doesn’t work very well either.

God has given us our instructions of how we are to live. It’s called the Bible. Like any instructions, if you don’t read, learn and implement them, you won’t get the outcome God wants for you.

God loves us and wants what’s best for us. It’s up to us to read His instructions and put them into action.

Action causes movement, movement causes momentum and if you get in the way of momentum, you’re likely to get run over.

Being a person of action is good. You’re less likely to get run over.

If you read, learn and implement God’s instructions you can inspire others. To lead, you must move forward. People move out of the way of a person on the run; or they’re caught up in his wake.

An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep!

Be a lion for God.

A person who moves neither left nor right is destined to get in the way. Many people say they are waiting for God. But in most cases, God is waiting for us!

Read God’s instructions so that you will know His will. Because if you’re not standing in His will, you’re standing in His way…and that’s a good way to get run over.

Some content taken from Andy Andrews’ Active Decision

Compassion Takes More Than Just Words…It Takes Action

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It’s Up to You to Determine What Those Actions Will Be

This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. Motherhood involves both compassion and action.

One mother shared her recipe for iced coffee.

  1. Have kids
  2. Make coffee
  3. Forget you made the coffee
  4. Warm the coffee in the microwave
  5. Forget you warmed the coffee
  6. Drink it cold

This humorous story is a good example of how busy life can get. We need to remember to enjoy the coffee…iced or hot.

A lady slipped on the ice as she walked across a parking lot. A driver stopped and asked if she was hurt. The lady responded that she was alright. The driver then asked, “Can I have your parking space?

Compassion is something that requires more than just saying, it takes doing.

Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” It is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help.

In Acts 9:36-43 we find out about Tabitha, she was compassionate. Many widows of the time struggled. Tabitha helped them by making clothes for them. She showed her compassion by doing.

In the same way when Tabitha died the widows sent for Peter. Peter went to Tabitha and told her to get up…and she did. Peter was also a doer.

Dr. Martha Myers is a good example of compassion with action.

Called as a little girl to missions, she served in Yemen for 25 years as a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology. As such, she delivered hundreds of babies, but she was even better known for her love for the Yemeni people, her late-night village visits, her unending pursuit to love and care for the people. This endeared her to many, but also made her a target of Al-Qaeda extremists.

One woman went home and told her husband that she had never been treated with such love and compassion. This man was so angered that he burst into the Jibla hospital and gunned down Martha and two colleagues in hopes of keeping Christianity out of his country. Instead, her grave stands today as a testimony to the love of Christ for the Yemeni people.

Former IMB President Jerry Rankin said, “Martha’s colleagues said the gunmen did not take her life.

She lost her life to Jesus Christ years ago when she trusted Him. Martha was not living for herself, but to serve others.”

Too much of the time we’re scared so we don’t do. We tell ourselves; I don’t have the skills for that. Someone else will do it. We’re too busy, we don’t have time. And the excuses go on.

This doesn’t mean that we all have to be a missionary doctor in Yemen. It means we need to minister with our God given talent and gifts to those around us wherever we are.

Compassion is often dismissed as a touchy-feely or irrational emotion. Not so…

It takes courage to care.

The world will be better if we lose our lives to Christ and show compassion through action.

Love Is Not Something You Feel, But Something You Do

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There’s No Hope for the World Without Love

What is love?

According to Merriam-Webster, love is a strong affection for another rising out of kinship or personal ties; attraction based on sexual desires; affection based on admiration, benevolence or common interests.

But there’s more to love than just this.

John Piper says, “Love in the Bible, as in our everyday usage, can be directed from person to person or from a person to things. But there is another aspect of interpersonal love that is very important in the Bible. There is the aspect of love for persons who are not attractive or virtuous or productive. In this case, love is not a delight in what a person is, but a deeply felt commitment to helping him be what he ought to be.

Ultimately, love requires action.

This action isn’t necessarily easy. Sometimes it’s downright hard.

In Luke 6:27-38 Jesus tells us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. Living this out is not easy.

We’re all familiar with the abundance of internet scams out there. But I had no idea it is as bad as it is. In 2020 Americans lost 4.2 billion dollars…that’s BILLION with a B!

We’ve all received emails or social media messages where someone is in line to get an inheritance or court settlement, but first they need to pay some small fees up front. If we will help them pay these fees, they will split the large sum of money with us.

This was the case for Ben in Utah. He got just such a message from a man named Joel in Liberia and recognized it as a scam.

“He decided to play along just for fun. Ben has his own YouTube channel, and he thought it would be a good idea to record his interactions with Joel so he could teach his viewers how to spot Internet scams.

This is where the story gets good. Ben decided to turn the scam around. He claimed that he ran a photography business and would pay Joel to take some photos of African sunsets. To his surprise, Joel came through with some pretty decent photos. So, Ben did a very strange thing: he bought Joel Willie, the scammer from Liberia, a new camera. He sent him the camera and asked for more photos. And the pictures Joel sent were definitely better quality this time around. Joel also sent an enthusiastic message saying that he was committing himself to their new photography partnership.

Now Ben had a situation on his hands. He had told Joel he would pay him for good photos. And Joel trusted him. So, if Ben didn’t come through, he would be guilty of running a scam himself. What should he do? Ben decided to print Joel’s photos in a small booklet and advertise it for sale on his YouTube channel. He titled the booklet after a phrase Joel used in his emails: By D Grace of God. He only charged $8 per booklet. Within a short time, he had sold $1,000 worth of booklets.

And this is where the story gets even better. Ben sent all the money to Joel on one condition: that he donate half of it to a local Liberian charity. Joel gladly did exactly that.

And this is the best part of the story. In 2018, Ben traveled to Liberia to meet his new business partner, Joel. The two men took more photos and published a second book detailing the strange and wonderful story of their business partnership. Their two books have raised $90,000. Some of the money has gone to Joel for all his hard work. But the rest has gone to do good works in Liberia. It has been used to buy food for the hungry, to purchase Christmas care packages for children, and to save a local school.

Isn’t that a great ending or maybe we can think of it as a beginning? It’s a story with a happy ending for Ben, Joel, and all the people whose lives have been impacted by the charitable giving from their photo booklets. So, I think the title of their first book is so appropriate By D Grace of God, (link to book) this story didn’t have to turn out this way. It became a story of generosity, hope and new beginnings, by D Grace of God.”

We need more love and openness to generosity. It’s not easy, but no one ever said it was. This has never more needed than now. We are living in a world of division. This is what Satan wants. Hate divides…generosity unites.

Love is the engine that runs generosity, but love requires us starting that engine and pressing the accelerator!

So Now We’ve Determined It’s More About the Action Than the Question

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It’s Time to Do the ONE THING that is the Most Important

Doing the “One Thing” sounds great, but how do we do it?

This would be so much easier if somebody else would just tell us what to do. Not to mention, it would give us someone to blame if it was the wrong thing. The problem with letting someone else tells you what you should do is that it will be more about fulfilling their dreams…not yours.

We make determining the “One Thing” more difficult than it needs to be.

Making things more difficult is something I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. What if I do the wrong thing, was a question that I asked a lot. This would keep me from doing anything.

We need to do something…even if it’s not the perfect thing.

I will explain this with something I heard Dave Ramsey say referring to the Debt Snowball process. People often are scared about making paying small payments to debtors, but may be necessary to get out of debt. To put it in perspective he said, “What’s the worst thing that can happen…because they can’t kill you.” (This is assuming you don’t owe money to the mob)

The same thing is true for making a wrong decision when trying to determine what to do first.

Doing something is better than doing nothing!

I’ve referred to the book, The One Thing, over the past several weeks as I’ve been implementing its suggestions into my life plan. The main point of this book is that you can only do one thing at a time. So, it becomes imperative that you get clear on what’s most important for you to accomplish and take actions that will move you toward that.

I’ve determined that my one thing is –

Build God’s Kingdom by helping people find solutions for building their dreams through better business systems, quality construction projects and life lessons.

I do this by having core values that align with this purpose. Next, I need to make sure that the different areas of my life and my big someday dreams support it. Lastly, I need to decide…

Which one of the millions of bricks that it’s going to take to build this Kingdom I’m going to lay now?

Last week I shared my big long-term dreams and told you that this week we would go deeper.

To do this let’s take one of my big someday dreams and use it as an example.

Big someday dream (6-year goal – 2027) –

  • Remodel and renovate our existing home that was built my Great grandfather in 1916 and has been our family through three generations. This project will consist of a two-story addition with a basement added to the existing home and remodeling the existing home to the level of new, giving us more space to live and entertain while honoring and building a family legacy.

One year goal (end of 2022) –

  • Have preliminary floor plan and design agreed upon including rough sketched drawings and preliminary budget

Monthly goal (end of February) –

  • Have two preliminary lists of things to be included in the project, one from me and one from Debby

Weekly goal (by Sat. 2/5/22) –

  • Have lists started

Daily goal (1/29/22) –

  • Explain to Debby what is needed from her list and give her a deadline
  • Start my list

Right now –

  • Make a note on my to do list so that I don’t forget

Now go through this process for all your big someday dreams. In my case this is seventeen dreams. Some of the dreams will be a higher priority as they relate to your “one thing” or your present situation.

Once all my dreams have gone through this process, I can look at the RIGHT NOWs for each one and decide which is the highest priority RIGHT NOW and do that thing RIGHT NOW.

After that thing is done, I do the next most important one…always determined by what is most important RIGHT NOW to accomplish my ONE THING.

None of your dreams will ever be fulfilled if you don’t make a DECISION and take ACTION.