Energize Internally

[Importance of Spirituality] [What Faith Offers] [Being; Not Having] [Cultivate Spirituality]

Lee Atwater, President Bush's 1988 campaign manager, found that his perspective changed when facing and early death from brain cancer,

"The '80s were about acquiring-acquiring wealth, power, prestige.  I know.  I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most.  But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty.  What power wouldn't I trade for little more time with my family?  What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends?  It took a deadly illness to put me I do I was sad truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in his ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dying.  I don't know who lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul."

Consider Jeff, a single, 26 year old advertising executive who feels this spiritual vacuum mentioned by Lee Atwater even while enjoying the best of times in his own personal life:

"My life has been terrific the last few years-lots of money, women, friends, all sorts of activities and travel.  My job is good and I'm good at it.  There is even a good future-I will probably be promoted this year and make lots more money and have freedom to do what I want.  But it all seems to lack any significance for me.  Where is my life leading, why am I doing what I'm doing?  I have the feeling that I am being carried along without ever making any real decisions or knowing what my goals are.  It's sort of like getting on the road and driving along fine, but not knowing why he chose that particular road or where it is leading."

These two people illustrate what is probably one of the greatest needs in America and many other parts of the world; a return to this spiritual roots and character centeredness.  These are the true bases for ultimate personal power.  It's for you are entered core, your inner person, your depth of faith, and your spiritual virility-that's the real source of alternate power and satisfaction.

We need to concentrate on the roots of our life, energizing our inner life is the temperate.  I temperate is the main roots of the plant is usually staffers and lateral roots and growing straight downward from the stem.  Without the temperate, the rest of the plant will quickly rocked and die.  All the principles within the maximizers model has significance stand-alone capability.  But the principle of energizing the inner life in its accompanying implications are absolutely necessary to accomplish the overall goals that we have established.  We must have an irrepressible, inner strength that flows from our character and ever deepening spirituality.  Our character is the temperate of our strength, and are spirituality is that which brings life to the roots.  So we can only focus on one principle, this is it.

Solomon again is a good example.  Nearly 3000 years ago, the rain is Israel's wisest and most magnificent king.  According to the Bible, not appear to Solomon early in his career and asked him to name anything he wanted guide to give him.  Solomon requested only the discerning heart, that he might rule the nation with justice.  People came from everywhere the world over to consult this great king.  He had it all, but he departed from his spiritual roots in the net result was an increased number of flaws in the basic fabric of his character.  The ultimate result was a divided kingdom, he lost empire, family destruction, and personal depression, Shane, and grief.

Summing up his life and all that it gave him, Solomon said:  Meaningless!...  Everything is meaningless...  A chasing after the wind."  Solomon implied that only two worthy pursuits exist: "Fear God" (cultivate your spirituality) and "keep his commandments" (obey truth from the heart; cultivate character).

It is furry important to follow these two pursuits.  For justice this once great king left his spiritual roots and paid the consequences, so have many in our culture to date on the same.  The great French statesman, Alexis de Tocqueville, said that America's greatness flowed from the goodness of her people.  He said, directly preceding this quotation, "not until I went into the churches of America, and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secrets of her genius and power."  He saw a "rightness" flowing out of a deep spirituality.

In this chapter will try to address three questions: why is this principle so critical?  What to "character centeredness" in "spirituality" really mean?  And, have you cultivate them.

Why This Principle is So Crucial

[Source of Strength] [Basis for Enduring Societies] [Secret to Satisfaction]

1.  The Source Of Our Strength  

Your life is energized by your character.  Your ultimate success in life flows out of our character, and our character is profoundly influenced by our spiritual depth and maturity.

Books about to character have become outstanding best-sellers.  The Book Of Virtues by Bill Bennett was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 20 weeks.  People are looking for deeper and more profound answers to the growing problems of our daily life.  We have largely abandoned our concentration on the inner person, our character in spirit, to go after the fruits of this life.  But the reason we enjoy so much abundance today is because of the application of this principle in earlier generations.  In essence, we are leaching off the lives of our ancestors and leaving our culture in ruin.

We wanted the fruits of life but we are unwilling to concentrate on the roots.  As John Updike writes, "The fact that ... we still live well cannot ease the pain of feeling that we no longer live nobly."

Bill Bennett illustrates this problem,

"I recently had a conversation with a D.C. cab driver who is doing graduate work at American University.  He told me that once he receives his master's degree he is going back to Africa.  His reason?  His children.  He doesn't think they are safe in Washington.  He told me that he didn't want them to grow up in a country where young men will call his daughter expect her to be an easy target, and where his son might be a different kind of target-the target of violence from the hands of other young males.  "It is more civilized for icon from," said this man from Africa."

Bennett concludes, "I submit to you that the real crisis of our time is spiritual."

"Specifically, our problem is what the ancient called acedia [which] is an aversion to an indication of spiritual things.  Acedia is ... and absence of his zeal for divine things.  And it brings with it, according to the ancients, "a sadness, a sorrow of the world."  It eventually leads to a hatred of the good altogether.  And with a hatred comes more rejection, more ill temper, sadness, and sorrow."

Bennett's research centered on the writings of two literary giants with completely different backgrounds whose few on the rise of this condition or amazingly coincidental.  The first literary giants, the late novelist Walter Percy, when asked what concerned and most about the future of America, answered,

"probably the fear of seeing America, with all its great strength and beauty and freedom gradually subside into decay through default in the defeated, not by the Communist movement ... but to buy within by weariness, boredom, cynicism, greed and in the end helplessness before its great problems."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Bennett's other profound influence, spoke at his 1978 Harvard commencement address of the West's "spiritual exhaustion."  The great Russian writer said, 

"in the United States in the difficulties are not a Minotaur or a dragon-not the imprisonment, hard labor, death, government harassment, or censorship-but to keep a tea, boredom, sloppiness, indifference.  Not the acts of a mighty, all pervasive, repressive government but the failure of a listless public to make use of the freedom that is its birthright."

Bennett concludes,

"There is a disturbing reluctance and our time to talk seriously about matters spiritual and religious.  Why?  Perhaps it has to do with modern sensibilities profound discomfort with the language and the commandments of God. ... whatever your faith-or even if you have none all-it is a fact that when millions of people stop believing in God, or when their belief is so attenuated as to be belief in name only, enormous public consequences follow.  And when this is accompanied by an aversion to spiritual language by the political and intellectual class, the public consequences are even greater."

As Dostoyevsky wrote in The Brothers Karamazov, "if God does not exist, everything is permissible."  Where analyses this "everything."

2.  The Basis For Enduring Societies

Are significant decline as a country can be directly attributed to our increasing abandonment of our spiritual roots.  It is important to remember where we have come from.  The late 18th-century America's population of only 3 million produced such brilliant leaders as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, James Munro, James Madison, along with a host of others.  It is difficult to think of any names today among our population of 250 million, that can match those in the list above.  In attempting to address this issue, Zig Ziglar, the popular sales trainer, asked the question, 

“could it be that what those early Americans were talk to have a direct bearing on their performance and accomplishments?  For example, according to the Thomas Jefferson research Institute, in the 1770's over 90 percent of our educational thrust was aimed at teaching moral values.  At that time most of the education was handled in the home, church, were in church supported schools.  By 1926 the percentage of moral training had been reduced to 6 percent, and by 1951 the percentage was so low you could not even measured it."

George Washington in his first inaugural address pledged, 

"That the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and the mutable principles of private morality."  He then went on to say, "There is no truth more thoroughly established today and that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness."

Abraham Lincoln noted, "the only assurance our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion."

The point is obvious.  Character flowing from spiritual roots is the ultimate source of our power individually, institutionally, and societally.  This principle must be woven into the fiber of our lives.  Our spiritual roots will empower the growth of our character through the establishment of moral bearings, the daily internal reformation, heightened perspective, and control of our basic impulses.  Unless we can accept this premise, we will overlook the very temperature of our life and never experienced alternate power.  William Faulkner in his 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech said, “I decline to accept the end of man."  The Faulkner believed that mankind will not merely indoor but will prevail because we alone among creatures have "a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."

3.  The Secret To Our Satisfaction

Character is not only the source of our real strength but it is also the key to a life of satisfaction.  David Myers addressed what makes people happy in his book, The Pursuit Of Happiness.  This becomes clear in the subtitle of his book, "Discovering the pathway to fulfillment, well-being, and enduring personal joy."

Dr. Myers takes a scientific research approach to measuring happiness, and concludes that happiness and fulfillment our byproducts of certain attitudes and perspectives, and not significantly affected by our external environment.  Dr. Myers then tries to elaborate extensively on how and where these certain attitudes and perspectives are developed.  He begins by a discussion on the decline in materialistic values citing Ronald Inglehart’s worldwide studies of shifting values,

"We see this most clearly in the demise of secular Marxism in Eastern Europe.  But in the West too, a new generation is maturing with decreasing concern for economic growth and social order ... and with increasing concern for political freedom, personal relationships, and integrity of nature.  This emerging "post materialism" provides fertile soil for a new consciousness that questions prosperity without purpose, money without meaning.  After two decades of rising concern for "becoming well-off financially," the percentage of American collegiates retained this a very important life goal finally began to taper off during 1989 and 1990. ... a renewed concern for spiritual values" is beginning.

A hunger for spiritual values can be seen across the world today ranging from the growth of Islam worldwide, to the resurgence of the church in America and many Eastern European countries, to the explosive growth of eastern mystic religions.

We need to be careful to seriously consider our attitude toward religious and spiritual values today.  As Dr. Myers verifies, "Survey after survey across North America and Europe reveal that religious people more often than nonreligious people report feeling happy and satisfied with a life."

What Faith Offers

[Sense of Community] [Sense of Purpose] [Contentment]

Why do so many researchers find such positive links among faith, mental health, and happiness?  Because faith and spirituality provide a place to belong (community), a sense of purpose (commitment), and a perspective on life (contentment).  Let us discuss each of these briefly.

1. A Place To Belong, Or A Sense Of Community

All of us at one time or another have experienced a sense of community-weather at camp, on a longer bus ride, were in fraternity or sorority house, on a football team, or perhaps even at a high school reunion.  But somehow, as we get older and society celebrates more and more the individual rather than the group, and more and more of us work out of our homes rather than in office, we slowly lose our connectedness.

Interestingly, Dr. Myers observes that all around the world today, "the most common communal setting for finding such social identity and support is a local religious community."  In America, a local religious community is generally within walking distance of almost every body.  And yet it is within these groups of people that one can find the supportive social ties that provide a stability to life.  And yet amazingly, as a culture where only growing more and more disconnected.

One of the most phenomenal movements of today is a group called Promise Keepers.  This is a multidenominational, multicultural network of man that began gathering in 1991.  It grew from 1200 and 1990, to 55,000 in 1993, to more than 400,000 in 1994.  The purpose of this movement is to encourage man to "make and keep their promises.”  This group encourages hundreds of thousands of man to come together for an intensive weekend simply because they want to keep and make their promises.  These men want to be man of integrity; they want to be spiritual and moral servant leaders in their homes, businesses, communities, and all other spheres of influence.

One of the major results of these meetings has been the establishment of support and accountability groups for man who share the seven common commitments of this organization; honoring God; pursuing vital relationships with a few other men; practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity; building strong marriages and families; supporting the church; building unity by reaching beyond racial and denominational barriers; and positively influencing the world.

2. A Sense Of Purpose, Or A Commitment Worth Dying For

The search for meaning in life motivates us at one time or another.  Indeed, is difficult to live as an adult fervor a long without making a few forays into the meaning of life questions.  Clinical research Seligman states that finding meaning demands, 

"an attachment to something larger than the lovely self.  To the extent that young people now find it hard to take seriously their relationship with God, to care about their relationship with the country were to be part of a large and abiding family, you'll find it very difficult to find meaning in life.  To put it another way, the self it's a very poor site for finding meaning"

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl came to a similar conclusion after he observed lower apathy and death rates among fellow concentration camp inmates who retained a sense of meaning-a purpose for which to live, were even to die.  Many of these were developed cheese whose faith provided a deeply internalized purpose that gave them a reason for living and for resisting their oppressors.

Princeton University sociologist Robert Wuthnow found that. 

"spirituality begins to move people toward being compassionate only when a threshold of involvement in some kind of collective religious activity has been reached."

3. Perspective On Life, Or Contentment

As people of faith growing in their spiritual depth, their sense of all of God gives them a healthy perspective of themselves.  They develop a greater capacity for identifying their weak areas in dealing with them.  Dr. Myers tells of a moving story of the power of faith demonstrated works of incredible selflessness,

"With Nazi submarines sinking ship's faster than he allied forces could replace them, the troopship SS Dorchester steamed out of New York harbor with 904 made headed for Greenland.  Among those leading anxious families behind or four chaplains, Methodist preacher George Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Catholic priest John Washington, and Reformed Church Minister Clark Poling.  Some 150 miles from their destination, U-456 caught the Dorchester in its crosshairs.  Within moments of a torpedoes impact .... Stunned men were pouring out from their bulks as the ship began listing. ... on board, chaos reigns as panicky men came up from the whole without life jackets and leaped into overcrowded lifeboats.

The four chaplains ... distributed life jackets, and coaxed the men over the side. ... the chaplains handed out the last life jacket, and then, with ultimate selflessness, gave away their own.  As one of the crewmen slipped into the watchers he saw the chaplains standing-bear arms linked-praying and Latin, Hebrew, and English.  Other men, now serene, joined them in a total as the Dorchester slid into the sea."

Spiritual depth does make a difference.  It motivates us to a higher purpose in life and stimulates us to feeding the roots of authentic success that is not measured in financial gain but rather in those things vastly more important.

Energizing the inner life involves at least two specific needs; your need to concentrate on being, and your need to cultivate spirituality.

Concentrate On Being - Not Having

We are a nation of people wanting to have things.  Not only do we wish to have material possessions, but we also want knowledge and information as well.  Additionally, we want to have the intangibles of love, inspiration, and happiness.  Ownership and possession seemed to be the king of virtues, no matter what the commodity.  And still, even though we are the most prosperous of people, we are a society of notoriously unhappy people; lonely, anxious, depressed, and independent.  It seems as though the more we have the less happy we are.

If we are going to concentrate on "being," we need to begin with internal values; character.  Instead of being so preoccupied with how we appear in public, but we need instead to focus on our inner character.  Otherwise, we will have a lack of internal motivation and power to live and behave the way that we should.

Taking clues from the great philosophers, religious statesman, and successful leaders, we can discern these desirable character traits to a focus on the concept of authenticity.  Authenticity is at the heart of the maximizers concept.  To be authentically successful, we must be the same inside as we are on the outside.  This means being a person of integrity; being aligned with our inner private life and outer public life.  Recently, our country has had the unfortunate opportunity to view the incongruous behaviors of some of our leaders in Washington D.C. as they attempt to convince us that their private lives are unimportant and should not have any bearing upon their performance at work.  Such could not be further from the truth.

These individuals are our leaders, and so become role models for our children.  We need to all be very concerned regarding the private lives of our leaders; as our leaders, they construct by example.  Our public servants have been given a responsibility in their leadership positions to model a certain lifestyle and behavior.  To separate the two sides of life, the public and private, is what Socrates called "do listen."  It is unhealthy because life needs to be integrated.

A recent study of the chief executive officers from Fortune 500 companies indicates that the most critical factor considered upon hiring or promoting top managers and engaging in their potentials for ultimate success is integrity.  Ironically, traits that were ranked as least important or appearance, likeability, and conformity.  Interestingly, traits and characteristics that most adolescents consider most important are the least likely to lead to genuine in during success.

To investigate this concept for yourself, consider those people you knew from high school.  Generally, those students who were the most likable and conformist our least likely to have in during success as an adult.  Alternatively, those students who may have been least successful in their high school social careers yet had authentic integrity have frequently becalm the most successful leaders in their adult career choice.

We must make a commitment to be consistent, inside and out.  The focus of this consistency must be based upon our internal value system.  Everyone has some kind of value system, whether it is determined thoughtfully or thoughtlessly, and we live out our chosen value system be there intensely with determination, or haphazardly with no attention at all.

Cultivate Spirituality

[Prayer] [Meditate] [Express]

 I am here making a difference between having some kind of "religion" and having another concept entirely called "spirituality."  When I think of spirituality, I think of our internal lives, and when I think of religiosity, I think of the externals.

When I think of spirituality I think of relationships, our personal and private relationships with God and our relationships with other in light of that.  When I think of religiosity, I think of rules, external obedience to rules.

When I think of spirituality, I think of progressing, growing, and developing in a personal relationship with God.  However, one I think of religiosity, I think of people trying to be perfect by following rules and regulations and never quite making it.

When I think of spirituality, I think of transparency, openness, and honesty.  What one sees on the outside is a reflection of what his own inside.  When I think of religiosity, I think of the façade; people trying to hide things because of their weakness.  When I think of spirituality, I think of being attractive and compelling; with religiosity, I think of pushy people insisting that I followed their rules or else.

When I consider the spirit, I mean the spiritual side of the inner man.  Many thinkers say that there are three parts to human beings; bodies, soul, and spirit, the body represents the outer man, and concerns the physical aspects of life.  The soul deals more with the mental, emotional, and volitional aspects of life and is represented by the mind.  The spirit deals with that intangible relationship that we are seeking with supernatural.  It is a part of us that will live on forever after our physical death.  All three parts of human beings need to be cultivated and integrated for life to be healthy and authentically successful.  Without the full development of these three aspects of ourselves, we are handicapped.

The soul is that part of our body where character is developed.  There is a relationship between the spirit and the soul that gives perspective and power.  As we need and grow our spiritual life, we gain the perspective that we need to nourish our principles.  Remember Solomon's wisdom at the end of his life, "Fear God and keep his Commandments."  He had a clear-cut order; first, you have your war room fear God.  That gives you the perspective and urgency to keep the Commandments or to apply universal principles to our lives.  Socrates, one of the most moral educators in history, demonstrated the hollowness of character without spirit when he said, "All the wisdom of this world is but a tiny craft upon which we must sail when we leave the earth.  If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps a divine word."

Cultivating our spiritual life will also give us that power and strength we need to carry out these universal principles.  Prayer, faith, hope, and believe is a transcendent source have always been mainstays in helping people achieve the greater, and even the more mundane, experiences in life.

Napoleon on his deathbed reflected on the ultimate power of the sword and compared it to the ultimate power of spirit to win he said,

“I die before my time and my body shall be given back to the earth and devoured by wars.  What an abysmal gulf between my deep miseries and the eternal kingdom of Christ.  I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself and Alexander and of Caesar should have banished into thin air, a Judean peasant, Jesus, should be able to stretch his hands across the centuries, and control the destinies of men and nations."

Buddha left behind the life of attaining in search of the spiritual power and elimination.  Understanding the inevitability of aging and death, he sought a way to transcend this human reality.  The Jewish leader Moses and the Christian apostle Paul sought to this power and their respective deserts.  Today, men and women of all background continue to seek power and perspective in the spiritual arena.

In his fascinating book, Hymns to an Unknown God, Sam Keen attempts to answer the following penetrating questions,

"What does the concept of spirit to mean to us today?  The most of us even have a sense of it anymore?  And of those of us who still believe in a place for the spirit, a place called soul, a guide, how many have a daily experience of it?  Is it possible in this chaotic day and age to have a sense of the sacred in everyday life, or do we have to check our spirits and our God at the workplace door?”

We yearn for something that will give a sense of meaning and purpose to our daily lives, something more engaging than passing lip service to the idea of God or attending worship on the weekend."

An artist in his early '60s confided to the following to Sam Keen,

"After weathering several midlife crises, I am finally comfortable with myself, have a good marriage, and have gotten my children launched an out of the nest.  In the last years I have become moderately famous and financially successful beyond my wildest expectations, I have bought everything I ever wanted-an elegant house, a divine car, adventurous vacations and exotic places of the world.  I have given to the charities of my choice and been generous to any slipped any my family and friends.  As far as I can tell, I don't have any unmet needs or unfulfilled desires.  But I yearn for some kind of fulfillment of I can't even a mansion or name, except to call it spiritual." 

Keen responded,

"Perhaps your success or failure in love or work has left you with an urgent need to find some greater meaning or purpose in your life.  Perhaps a near encounter with disease or death has eaten away at your old certainties and fills you with doubts.  Perhaps your desire to add to the madness of modernity has created a hunger for hope, a need for a new vision of the sacred."

The hunger for the "sacred" is dramatically growing internationally and what in the United States.  The November 28, 1994 cover of Newsweek expressed its well: "the search for the sacred, America's quest for spiritual meaning."

The article states that start or its suddenly okay, even check, to use the passwords-Seoul, sacred, spiritual, seen."  In its own poll, Newsweek states that 58 percent of Americans say they feel the need to experience spiritual growth and that a third of all adults report having a mystical or religious experience.

One of the most fascinating discoveries concerns the vital nature of spirituality and the lives of high achievers as well as the culture at-large.  The role of spirituality is often overlooked and not mentioned.  Perhaps people think that it is a private and personal concept and therefore not appropriate to be discussed in public.  But this lack of attention tends to cause an unhealthy separation between the spiritual and secular, one that was never meant to be, and one that stifles ultimate authentic success.

Consider quotations from the following luminaries concerning the spiritual life,

“I caution you ... to set your sights beyond what you can see.  There is true majesty in the concept of an unseen power which can either be measured nor Wade."  Ted Koppel, ABC News.

“Any journalist worth his or her salt knows the real story today is to define what is the means to be spiritual.  This is the biggest story ... of the century."  Bill Moyers.

“I know that God is everywhere and in all things.  There is nowhere did guide is not, even in me."  Robert Fulgham, best-selling author and speaker.

“I believe each person is made in the image of God.  For those of us who have received the gift of leadership from the people we leave, disbelief has enormous implications." Max DePree, Chairman of Herman Miller.

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience."  Walter Dyer, the best-selling author

“You can't count give God.  His resources are fully reliable, abundance, and freely offered on your behalf."  Mary Kay Ash, for business executive.

“What keeps our faith cheerful is everywhere in daily lives, assigned that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and Smalltalk, three storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, with three sports, music, and books, raising kids-although the places where the gravy soaks and grace shines through."  Garrison Keillor, a prairie home companion.

“I started praying, asking guide to give me compassion, understanding, and a spirit of helpfulness.  Even as I prayed, my heart was touched, and I experienced a newfound piece." Zig Ziglar, best-selling author and sales trainer.

"The capacity to become enthused is a spiritual quality generated from within; it doesn't need pep talks or perks. ... and I am a valuable because God created me with inner value and worth."  Dennis Waitley, author and speaker.

“There is no greater area for putting your faith on the line than running a business, regardless of the size.  We recognize that God is really the owner of all we have."  Carl Lindner III, partner in American Financial Corporation.

“My religious faith ... satisfies ... the most fundamental human need of all.  That is the need to know ... that our lives ... count is something more than just a momentary blip in the universe."  Harold Kushner, best-selling author.

"My job is to do right.  The rest is in God's hands."  Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist.

"Our first objective (to honor died in all we do) is not simply an expression of some religious or denomination disbelief-be it Jewish, Protestant, or Catholic....  Rather, it is an affirmation statement that this source of our way of doing business begins with God.  We reject the notion that ... man's reason is the final authority." C. William Pollard, CEO/Chairman, Service Master, Inc.

In these leaders do not all express their sense of spirituality in the same way, and they do not all have the same faith.  But they do have faith in a being greater than themselves, and did they wish to cultivate this faith and integrated into their personal and private lives.  I believe that in order to be authentically successful in your life, you need to cultivate the same sense of spirituality as well.

1. Pray

We need to learn how to be able to calm into intimate communion with God, to be able to visually touch died and to experience that he is a caring, compassionate, and personnel friend.  We need to acknowledge his presence in the universe as we go throughout the day.

You talk to God through prayer.  I don't mean the formal kind of prayer that is written in a prayer book necessarily.  Rather, I mean open-end, honest communication on a personal level that tells him our personnel needs, desires, once, Joyce, sorrows and frustrations.  Many people who are leaders in airfield spanned from 15 minutes to two hours in daily solitude, reflection, and prayer.

As one year said, "I have so much to do that I must spend one hour in meditation and prayer if I am going to get it all done."  The point is that the time spent in prayer and reflection gives us the perspective, power, and piece to do things right the first time, as well as to be able to do the right things.

One corporation leader tells of his routine whereby he goes through the previous day's schedule to determine whether he might have been offensive, inappropriate, Rudy, or unloving to somebody during the course of his day.  If he had, then he would seek forgiveness from guide and if necessary, from the other person as well.  He believed that such times of reflection gave him the clarity he needs slick needs needed to function effectively both at home and at work.

Others do not have a formal period of time during the day when they calm into communion with God.  Rather, they simply offer up words of thankfulness, concerns, and struggles consistently throughout the entire day.  They're consistent assessment is that these times of active dependence upon a supernatural source are the keys for overall success in their lives and in the lives of any who incorporate prayer into their daily living habits.

2. Meditate on Great Principles

There is a lot of discussion today in about to the topic of meditation.  Most of this discussion centers around and eastern religious form of meditation called transcendental meditation.  To transcendental meditation is based on the assumption that God is all around us and that man is basically good.  Guide is within man; and if we emptied our minds, the god within us will bring us to full fruition.

I believe that Christianity has a different form of meditation aniseed it believes that man is not basically good, but the natural man has basically evil tendencies.  The type of meditation that is helpful to us, so from Hebraic thought.  Ancient Jewish writers speak about meditating on the law, or principles, and day and night.  The assumption is that we need to fill our mind with right thoughts that will positively influence our lifestyle, rather than simply trying to empty our minds.  The key is to meditate on great thoughts and truths that will help us grow, develop, and bills character into our lives.

We need to meditate frequently, and generally in order to do this we must allow ourselves time to focus on planning, and perhaps some time to consider the deeper truths that have enriched mankind.

3. Express Your Faith

We also need to cultivate spirituality by expressing our faith.  The faith is believing that positive things can calm down to love wherever we are in life.  However, faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed.  We need to think long and hard about this source of our faith by asking such questions as ,

Is this faith historically credible?

Do I see evidence of changed lives because of this faith?

Does this faith adequately address the court issues in life such as mean, forgiveness, power, direction, and values?

The effectiveness of our faith is directly proportional to our sense of the reality of a living God.  I faith is like a muscle, the more we use faith the stronger it will becalm.

Professionals and many fields acknowledge the need for spiritual growth in human beings.  It is through this spiritual growth that we can build a relationship with God, the way that he might develop a relationship with any personal friend.  This relationship can be meaningful and significant, and it can be hours.

If we want to develop spiritually, and have a relationship with God then it is important that we be energized internally.  As we develop this relationship with God, then we will become known more and more as a person of success and significance.

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