We will look at how to grow your business with these four areas of commitment. These four areas will help you create a plan and give you the tools necessary to stay committed to the business God has called you to do. We are multi-faceted individuals, so our plan needs to be multi-faceted.
The FOUR areas of commitment to Grow your business:
- God. What actions are essential to growing in HIM.
- Others. What it means to serve others through your business from a place of generosity.
- Focus. How to build focus through personal development.
- Routine. Creating a lifestyle where you prioritize and only do what God calls you to do.
Planning around these four areas is the start to having a more substantial commitment to your business to help you succeed.
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Commitment to God
To grow your business with these four areas of commitment, we put God first.
Putting God first means taking time each day to meet with God. If you have been a believer for any time, you know this, but do you put this into practice? Doing ‘inside‘ work such as the three items below will make your time with God the most productive:
- Please make an appointment each day (and keep it)
- Have something to study from the Word
- Keep a prayer journal
Look at your calendar and add a time with God for each day.
Your time with God can be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 60 minutes. Don’t over-estimate what you can do each day. Don’t set yourself up for an attack from the enemy when you don’t meet your expectations.
Your time with God does not have to be at the same time each day, but I suggest you set it for the same amount of time each day.
Daily Practice
Start right now and commit to meeting with God daily. Then, every time you work on your tasks for the next day or the week, put your daily time with God on the list.
Now that you have carved out time, you need to know what you will do. Let’s be specific. It’s easy to say Bible reading, study, and prayer, but what will you study? I recommend studying a book of the Bible.
I use an inductive method to study the Bible. It is based around: reading the text, evaluating what it says, and applying what the Word says to your life. I have an outline that can help you get started. I call it the REAP method of Bible study.
Pray With A Journal
The last part of the REAP method, the P, is prayer. My recommendation is to pray with a journal in hand. I keep my journal chronological, so everything is in one place: my praises, worship, gratitude, prayer requests, and even business ideas.
However, this is your journal, and it can look any way you want. For example, I am a doodler and drawer with lots of colors. I am also a wordsmith with lots of lists, bubble letters, thoughts, etc. You can write out your journal in a more traditional way or whatever works best for you.
Using a journal is a great way to record pouring your heart out to God, seeing what He is revealing to you, and thanking Him for the changes and progress you are making.
Remember, He wants to transform you into the image of His Son, and He is using your business to do that. So please keep track of it. You will be amazed!
Starting with this commitment to God each day sets you up for commitment in all areas of your life.
Commitment to Others
The second part of the PLAN is others. How do other people relate to your inside work? It is about your response to others, whether they are your clients, your potential clients, business partners, or team members.
The overarching word I used was generosity. The definition of generosity is the ‘willingness to give or to share.‘ I have found seven forms of generosity: giving or sharing your thoughts, words, money, time, things, influence, and attention.
In your business, you are generous on many of these levels. You have a business because you want to give your knowledge, share your solutions, and genuinely help others.
Fruits of the Spirit
Growing in generosity reminds me of the Fruits of the Spirit. Looking at the list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, I can see how generosity puts action to showing patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness to others.
When you show others any of these traits, you give something unique to that person. Growing in these areas (done through growing in God) motivates you to stay committed to your business and grow your business.
Show Wisdom in Challenges
We are learning to respond instead of reacting shows wisdom.
God gives you the opportunity each day to display these fruits.
When faced with challenges in our businesses, there is a choice in how we respond.
For example-
- At the moment anger rises up, you can still have the patience not to answer someone quickly.
- If frustration sets in, you can still approach others with kindness.
- When overwhelm keeps your head spinning, you can remain faithful to the work God has called you to do.
Our secret weapon? The Holy Spirit is inside us, helping us respond and not react. AND, as you practice these things, it does get easier and easier.
I promise.
Commitment to Personal Development
The next part of the plan I want to discuss is your focus. Remember, we are talking about the inside job you are doing to grow your business.
Focus here means personal development. As an entrepreneur, you must be committed to personal development. Growth must happen personally to grow your business. Let’s face it. You just don’t know everything about everything to run your business.
Admitting that you need help or need to learn something is the first step to growing you and ultimately growing your business. After that, focus on doing work to the best of your ability, serving clients with your God-given gifts, talents, and skills, and improving your service.
God is busy building your character. You need to be busy building those other parts of you that are important to your commitment to grow your business. How do you do that? By strengthening your self-control.
Fruit of the Spirit – Self-Control
Running a business means you must be disciplined and have self-control. You must do some tasks must be done each day. There are appointments to keep, more things to learn, and decisions to be made.
What does a typical day look like for you? Be honest as you answer these questions:
Do you have a calendar where you can write down the day’s tasks? Electronic or analog.
Do you have a method for accomplishing essential business activities each day? Income-producing activities, business maintenance, relationship building, and self-care? That way, you can know you have gotten enough done to ‘turn off’ at the end of the day.
Do you have habits in place that make your life run seamlessly? Have you created your modus operandi, the way you operate, making many of your everyday activities as easy as possible because you don’t have to think about them?
Focusing on creating systems that work for you gives you self-control. You also have the time and headspace to keep learning and be more creative in your business. Knowing what to expect each day and working on it keeps you committed and lets you know the activities you are doing are making a difference in your success.
Commitment to Routine
The last part of the plan is the routine. I’ve heard women say over and over to me that they want better work/life balance. But, for me, that just means they are doing too much.
When you create a routine for yourself, you prioritize what you want to do and what God is asking you to do. However, to create the lifestyle you want does not mean you do everything that is asked of you by everyone else.
Doing too much means allowing the enemy to rob your joy and peace. These are things God is growing in you. Stop sabotaging it. Yes, I know. As a Christian woman, you think you must jump at every opportunity presented to you: church, community, school, whatever.
Imagine being able to say NO. Just because someone says, “you know, I thought of you for this job,” and feeling special that they ‘picked’ you, does not mean you must say YES. Take some time to step back and discern if this activity is REALLY for you.
B.U.S.Y
BUSY is not a badge of honor. It is a distraction from the enemy. I heard BUSY used as an acronym: Busy, Under, Satan’s, Yoke. WOW.
It’s not that you are doing anything wrong or that the activities keeping you busy are not good. Instead, you have substituted impact in one area for many little splashes in different areas. Your choices are all good ones, but we need to choose between good, better and best.
Simplify Your Day
So, where do you begin by creating the proper routine for you? With a little exercise, I call Simplify Your Day. This exercise will help you brainstorm through all the activities you are doing now and categorize them into your requirements, the most significant return on your investment, and what is a personal reward. Then, if they don’t fit, start getting them off your plate.
When your day, week, and month are under control, you are under control. You have joy and peace. As a result, you can stay more committed to God’s calling and grow your business.
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