“A modest man is usually admired – if people ever hear of him.”
Edgar Watson Howe
Category: Working Matters
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Quote to Consider: Renown for Modesty?
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Let’s Have a Failure Party!
Have you celebrated your latest failure yet?Yes, you heard me correctly. Have you celebrated your latest failure yet?
We celebrate failure because failure is a potent form of learning. Those of you who have worked with me know how we go about reframing our negative failure experiences into positive learning events.
This week’s Economist has an interesting article on the value of failing early and often. (You can read it here: “Fail Often, Fail Well”)They point out not only that failure is a good teacher, but also a sign of creativity and the ability to adjust and persevere.
There are even companies that throw “failure parties”!
What about you? Does failure knock you out of the game or provide valuable information about how to move forward differently?
In the one case failure feels like an enemy, from another perspective failure can be quite the friend.
Check out the article. Then throw yourself a failure party!
On your side,
– Karl Edwards
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Karl Shares Six Words… #22
Substituting musical chairs for dismissal… again.
Karl Edwards
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Listen In -> Bridging the Work-Faith Divide #2: All Work as a Legitimate Calling
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being warned at church about the dangers my work poses to my faith.
Sure some dangers exist, (e.g. greed, exploitation, workaholism, and various obsessions with power, status and money), but the focus on these dangers to the exclusion of the gifts and opportunities that my work holds for me is the greater danger by an exponential magnitude.
In this week’s podcast discussion, Claudia and I focus on these gifts and opportunities: to make a difference, to apply yourself meaningfully, to mature in your skills and capacities, to belong to a working community, etc.
The biblical concept that describes finding work that fits you beautifully is “calling.”
I define “calling” as the intersection of God’s values, our personal make-up, and our life context.
Sadly, the word has been so closely associated with going into the clergy or taking up cross-cultural missionary work that those of us in secular professions often feel our work is less blessed by God or less relevant to his kingdom.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Whether it’s your profession, your field, your role or your daily responsibilities, nothing is more life-enhancing or worth waking up for in the morning than when you find a good fit.
Have you been looking down on your profession because it isn’t an explicit form of religious ministry? Do you feel guilty for being as deeply invested in your work as you are?
Listen in.
Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.
Interested in how we can resource your church or organization? Get more information here. -
Loving Monday: What Matters? Your Choice
There’s a lot on your plate.There usually is.
Of all that is clambering for your attention, what matters today?
What matters in general, sure, but more pertinently, what matters enough to get you to put everything else down?
It comes down to choices. It’s nice to identify many things as important. It’s nice to have deep convictions, core values, and clear priorities.But when all is said and done (or, said and said again, more commonly), a choice needs to be made.
The choice to apply my efforts to something in particular and to do it now.
Questions of convictions, values and priorities are only meaningful and helpful to the extent that they help us make choices.
In fact, the question might better be asked the other way around: “What have you chosen to do today?” The answer to that question points to what your true convictions, values and priorities are.
If today matters, (and I am assuming that it does), then we need to start making choices before the day slips through our fingers.
What does your current choice tell you about what matters to you? If not consistent with your convictions, values and priorities, what adjustment might you make?
Think about it maybe a little, but more importantly make your next choice. Today matters.
On your side,
– Karl Edwards
Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.
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Quote to Consider: A Hat Tip to Self-Respect
“Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.”Bertrand Russell
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Karl Shares Six Words… #21
Who’s going to miss a ruler?
Karl Edwards
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Listen In -> Bridging the Work-Faith Divide #1: Becoming Whole Again
So much of life is compartmentalized into purportedly unrelated spheres. Work, family, religion, politics, hobbies, entertainment, etc.Until now, a common divide many of us experience is the one between our work and our faiths.
Until now.Until now, we have assumed there is no overlap between the matters of the hands (work) and the matters of the heart (faith).
We have also assumed that neither should there be any overlap. Because faith is personal, it should therefore remain private.
Some persons of faith have tackled the question of whether we should take our faith to work with us. They have raised faith issues such as: evangelism, ethics, morality, and integrity.
In other words, they have asked how to take the topics and vocabulary of the religious realm and apply them in the working realm.
This week, Claudia and I begin a new series of discussions entitled, “Bridging the Work-Faith Divide,” but…
BUT!
Our premise is that the question is more useful if asked the other way around.
How do we think about the issues of the workplace in the vocabulary of the workplace in a manner that is informed by our faiths? Workplace issues such as: achieving results, working with people, making difficult decisions, improving methods, conducting meetings, and collaborating across disciplines, to name a few.
Bridging the Work-Faith Divide
Week #1: Becoming Whole Again
Week #2: All Work as a Legitimate Calling
Week #3: Character Formation and Lifelong Learning
Week #4: Collaboration, Empowerment and Accountability
Week #5: Becoming a Person of Influence and ImpactJust now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.
Interested in how we can resource your church or organization? Get more information here.Listen in.
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Quote to Consider: Remembering to Plug Back In
“All wise people say the same thing; that you are deserving of love, and that it’s all here now, everything you need. When you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that’s always in progress.”Anne Lamott
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Karl Shares Six Words… #20
Lost promotion hiding behind his ideas.
Karl Edwards