Puke, Coffee, Little Hands, Roller Coaster and Why!
Let's talk about the roller coaster.
Some of you love roller coasters. Some of you hate roller coasters, some of you used to love them and now hate them. That's the category that I fall in. And I first discovered this a couple of years ago, when we were at a local county fair. And you know how they have those rides that you sit in, and it spins you around horizontally. You just kind of sit in a cart, and it's like a wagon wheel, and you're on the end of the spoke, and you're spinning, and it goes up, and it goes down. So you're spinning around, and you're going up, and you're going down. But it stays basically on a horizontal or flat plane.
I was in there with my little guy who was probably two or three at the time. And we're going around, and I started getting queasy. And I started getting really queasy. And it was bad. And I was, I was almost ready to, like start to yell or something because I didn't want to, I didn't want to puke on my son. And I'll never forget, I was so relieved. And so full of joy when that ride started to slow down. Like seriously, you would have thought that I won the lottery or something I felt like I was in torture, and trapped and in excruciating pain. And so when the ride started to slow down, I was so relieved. I'm like, Oh my gosh, thank you, Lord. This thing's over. And then finally, the ride stopped. And as I was getting ready to get out, and so relieved and so filled with gratitude, then things started to go in reverse. And I'm telling you, I went from joy to fear in an instant. And then it went in reverse.
And because it was in the other direction, the feeling of nausea started to decrease a little bit. So I was able to grit my teeth and hold on because I didn't want to, I didn't want to tap out in front of my wife my two sons, and my daughter. And you know, be seen as the wimp. But I'll never forget that when I got off, and I walked over. My wife looked at me, and she said, Are you alright? And she said, you actually look a little green. I hadn't told her anything. You know, I'm trying to be a strong man. And I had to admit, I'm like, yeah, that ride just about took me out. So I had to sit down for a little while. And it was horrible. Right? Well, that's exactly a roller coaster, but I realized that there are things that I don't enjoy doing, can't do today, that I used to be able to do.
And I did a little research, and it turns out that the fluid in our inner ears becomes less as we get older. So it becomes a little bit slower to adjust and a little bit thicker. So maybe you used to like roller coasters, or maybe you still like them, I go on and once in a while if they're not too crazy because my kids enjoy it.
But business and entrepreneurship can feel like a roller coaster can feel like a ride that you signed up for that you thought would be fun and surprised that it isn't very fun anymore. After a little while, entrepreneurship is not for the weak. Entrepreneurship is not for the wimpy. And, you know, you have to make a decision, whether this is your first business or your 10th business, or whether you're pivoting businesses or starting a new business or trying to scale your current business. Like that's the first sort of business you guys decide to do, because if it is, you got to commit, you got to have a steel backbone, you got to have a militant attitude.
Just like Paul said, you know this one thing I do, man and if you read the book of Acts, that guy was a rock star, he got beat and stoned to death and then he got back up, and he went right back to the same city and continue to preach. Like Peter, those guys were taken in front of the Sanhedrin and beaten and threatened with death if they preached the word again. They were locked up in jail, and then they were released the next day, and guess what they did, they went right back and preached the word in the same spot. And that's kind of the attitude you got to have with this.
You got to be like, you know what, this is gonna work period. And, so that's a really important decision point, like, do you want to take on that risk? Do you want to take on that level of commitment, because, for some people, jobs are just a better fit, they're easier, they’re more secure?
The decision of the entrepreneur is one of riding that roller coaster. And sure, over time, you'll build up your wealth your assets, and your security. But if you're not there yet, then, you know, it can be a little bit turbulent.
The good news is you can get through it. And God has given us some really practical tools to help us with that. And so what I want to talk with you about next is coffee and little hands. One of my jobs in my marriage is to make coffee in the morning that I can share with my wife. When I do that, she feels loved. When I don't do that, she doesn't. So I make it a point to do coffee. For a while, I was doing it on my own. And then my wife started drinking and enjoying coffee. And so that's something I'll do.
And when I was making coffee this morning, my son, who's five, well, one of my sons, I have two, my five-year-old son, he likes to come alongside me and help me make coffee. So he's got his little job, he'll pour the water into the coffeemaker and, you know, help me with some of the different parts of that, and this morning, he did something different as I was scooping out the coffee grinds into the coffee maker.
He came in, he reached his hand, and he just literally put his hand on top of my hand. And so he was helping me do it. I was the one doing it. But he was coming alongside me and modeling me to do it. And he felt like he was participating. Well, the cool thing is, is the Holy Spirit the definition of that is one who comes alongside to help. So I can't encourage you enough to allow the Holy Spirit to coach you train you to mentor, make crooked places straight, equip you to empower you, correct you build you up because that is something that you have access to that the world doesn't. And if we're operating in that properly, that's a game-changing advantage seriously. And but we have to allow him to we have to ask receive, open ourselves up, and then learn how to yield to that.
So why would you want to put yourself through this rollercoaster of entrepreneurship? Well, it's important that you have a clear and definite and thought out and articulated. Why? Because throughout your journey, you must stay in touch with that feeling. That's your fuel that will keep you on track when you feel like giving up.
If you simply stay the course and persevere, you'll win, period. When you do what others won't you have what others don't. But the fuel is the why. Why don't you want to make a lot of money? And you have to ask that question like 510 times, and you have different pathways you have heaven in hell. Why? Because I don't want to worry about money. Why? Because I hate feeling insecure about money. Why? Because I don't like the fear. I don't like the worry. I don't like the concern. I don't like the confusion. I don't like the arguments. I don't like debt. That's the hell Why? Because I want to earn my forever freedom. Because I want to be able to wake up and do what I want when I want. Why because I want to be able to travel I want to be free. I want to give back to the kingdom, so into ministries. Why? Because I want a new Jeep. Why because I want to be able to get a massage every day. Why? Because I want a nice home. Why? Because I want to be debt-free. That's heaven.
So you've got to spend some quality, focus time, and articulate this. And then you've got to write it down. Cast your vision on a tablet, and then you've got to look at it every day. And you got to spend a few minutes visualizing that. Operating in your faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen. God framed the world with the words frame of the picture frame. You've got to have a picture of your faith, your hope your dream, you've got to cast it on the tablets so you can run it don't omit that from your process.
You have got to do that.
Our imagination is so powerful, and you've got to write upon your imagination deliberately, and intentionally. Otherwise, the world is going to be writing on your imagination, our feelings and emotions flow from what we're thinking about.
So if you're not feeling equipped, empowered, encouraged if you don't have the eye of the tiger, we got to trace that back, and it's your thoughts. And so when you have those feelings, those emotions, lock into your why, have that be an indicator to be grateful, have to celebrate gratitude, practice gratitude, and then boom, think about your why because the Bible says think about things that are good, pure, lovely, praiseworthy, and if your why is from God, man, there's nothing better than that to be thinking about, and you should only be thinking about that what you want.
You must have a “Why”, a powerful driving deep God-given Why, and then you need to articulate the practical component of the why. What is the money per month that you want to be generating? Now, short term, medium-term, long-term What's your minimum? budget? It’s nice to have a budget and what's your dream budget, and you should build out budgets for all those categories. It'll help you articulate your why and think through it accurately. Don't forget to include taxes.
You know, if your business produces 50 grand a month of revenue, profit, you know your revenue, you got to reduce the expenses that leave you with your profit. Well, don't forget taxes, taxes are a big component of that depending on your income business model. So, incorporate that into your budget because after that is what you can, what you have to leverage right you should be sowing some you should be saving some. Obviously, you need to live on some you should be using some to convert to assets that produce long-term, recurring revenue, and cash flow for you.
But take a moment and define your why emotionally, and then you should log how you're going to feel when you accomplish that “Why?”. I feel happy. I feel excited. I feel secure. I feel recharged. I want this because it would make me happy, positive, calm, and secure. Fit on one page or less. And then you look at that every day. you visualize it. And you visualize it from the standpoint of possession.
You call those things which are not as if they were. So when you're visualizing your goals, you don't visualize them in your brain is and someday I'll have that. No, you visualize them in your imagination in their mind now, because that's how faith works, right? The substance of things hoped for. We don't have it yet. If we had it, it wouldn't be in the faith. Therefore, by default, these dreams, these goals, because we don't have them yet.
We believe in them. Because we're believers, therefore, we need to, we need to see them as if they're ours today, and they are from a spiritual standpoint, if you believe and if you receive and if you do your part and work.
The next thing I want to share with you is something that I read in Proverbs this morning that I thought was very powerful. It's proverbs 18:4, and it says, the Spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.
Okay, let me break that down, and I'm going to read to you from Andrew Wommack’s Bible Commentary. And this is powerful guys.
The word sustain was translated from the Hebrew word cool, K-U-W-L, and it means "properly", "to keep in", it means the dictionary defines sustain as "to keep an existence or effect of maintaining", "to supply with necessities or nourishment". "To keep from falling or sinking", "to support the spirits or resolution of", "to endure or withstand sustaining hardships", "to experience", "to affirm the validity or justice of", "to prove or corroborate or confirm". That's the word sustain.
The Spirit of a man will do all those things. The Spirit of the man will supply keep from falling support withstand, endure, affirm, prove, corroborate, and confirm. That's powerful.
Let's talk about the word spirit. So what does this for us? Well, it's the Spirit. So, what does the Bible mean when it says the Spirit? Well, the Spirit, the word spirit here, can be taken two ways. Spirit can refer to a part of us as in Spirit, soul, and body.
So in the New Testament, the Greek word for spirit Numa also means mental disposition according to Strong's Concordance. So it's true both ways, are born-again spirits will certainly sustain us in sickness, for it is in our spirits that we now have the resurrection life of Christ. If we believe the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, also quickens and makes alive our mortal bodies. according to Romans 11, it's also true that the very important factor in our health is our mental disposition that's what we've been talking about part of our mental disposition is our y in our backbone in our attitude, our ferocity, in ferociousness of it, of attacking our goals.
Proverbs 23:7 says that the way we think is how we are, right? For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. There have been many cases when a person who should have lived died because they lost their will to live. Conversely, there have been many cases where a person has given up to die, but they lived because of their strong mental disposition. The verse shows us that what's in our hearts, minds, emotions, imagination, and the subconscious is more important than what's in our bodies. What I mean by that is, that the mental attitude of a man will sustain, keep in effect, maintain supply, keep from failing, falling, or sinking, will support to endure, withstand, sustain, to affirm the validity, to prove or corroborate or confirm. And that's what we need, my friend.
When we're building our businesses, that's what we need. So make sure that you're operating and applying these principles to your daily activities, your daily businesses, your daily marriage, parenting, relationships, and health.
Last but not least: Proverbs 18:9 says. He that is slothful in his work is a brother to him that is a great destroyer. Out of King James, he that a slothfulness work is a brother to him that is a great waster of the New Living Translation a lazy person is as bad as somebody who destroys things. Out of the Amplified, he is careless in his work as a brother to him who destroys out of the Amplified classic he who is loose and slack in his work his brother to him who is a destroyer, and he who does not use his endeavors to heal himself, his brother to him who commits suicide.
Holy smokes! Those who are lazy in their work, our brothers, two thugs, the common English Bible, the passion translation, the one who is too lazy to look for work is the same one who wastes his life away from the message. Slack habits and sloppy work are as bad as vandalism.
Now, I want you to apply this to what we just talked about. The verse that we just talked about, relates to the Spirit of the man sustains him. How diligently are you applying that? Your work ethic to maintaining your mental attitude? How diligently are you working? To maintain your mental attitude, your mind. I have the tiger, your singleness of purpose, your boldness as a lion, your clarity of thought, your focus on your why your discipline to visualize that every day, and use your God-given imagination to write upon the tablets of your heart. Don't be slothful in that my friend because your mindset is number one, which activates and opens up your pipeline to The creator of the universe.
If you've got a good mindset, you'll be able to be led better, have better thoughts, have better disposition, and have better results. If you have a bad mindset, you're going to close that pipeline off. It's like a valve on a faucet. God's there. He's always broadcasting. He's always sending out signals. It's like a station in your vehicle, right? The station is always broadcasting, and it's us that need to tune the channel, into the station. And so we do that through our brains. We do that through our minds. We do that through our thoughts. We do that through the practice of slowing down, quieting ourselves so we can hear, and then we do.
So, I challenge you today. Don't be slothful in your mindset. Go through some of these scriptures. Pray about it, get clarity, and then take massive action.
Work your mindset daily. Work your business daily, work your business plan daily, and I promise you, you'll crush it.
When we get these things moving in the right direction, the sky is the limit.
There are three critical things that I've learned over my twenty-plus years, evaluating over one hundred and fifty different business models as a Christian entrepreneur.
I've put together my observations and these three keys (I learned the hard way) into a Christian Entrepreneur Manifesto, along with some step-by-step walk-throughs and demonstrations.
There is no opt-in required.
It walks through my favorite model, the Finders model.
It might be interesting for a Christian looking to start something new or for the first time to escape the "business running them vs. them running their business" or the nine to five and not to have to work for themselves or someone else until the age of eighty.
Check it out here:
https://christianentrepreneurinc.com/go-video
I hope it helps!
Blessings,
Paul
PS: God is a big God.
He gives us above and beyond what we can ask or think.
We must ask big.
We must think big.
And if we don't, it's not His fault if we live limited.
Work hard, pray harder, and never ever ever ever quit.
You've got this!
PPS: Whenever You’re Ready... Here's How I Can Help You Generate An Additional $5 to $10k Per Month Or More:
- Check Out Our Christian Entrepreneurship Manifesto
Learn why some "make it" and others don't - Access More Articles Like This
Sharpen your Mindset, Model, and get Mentored - Watch Our Christian Business Incubator Training
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