1.2.23 | Self. Skills. Social. Service.

Well, hey, everyone. Welcome to Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. This is a podcast I had back in 2020 and that I went away from for 2021, 2022. I made a commitment to myself to do Made for Mondays each and every week for an entire year. And we did so. And so now I'm bringing Made for Mondays back, and I'm doing it with a different spin, a different like. And instead of explaining all that to you, you'll see it as it comes. A lot of things have changed in my life since 2020, and now we're in 2023, a lot of things have changed. My location has changed. My life has completely changed. We started this podcast. I was living in an apartment. This is now I'm living in a totally different place of life in terms of homeownership, all of that. So there's a lot of things that have gone on in my life in terms of just lifing it. One thing that's been consistent is the grace of God, the learning of leadership, the desire to continue to learn, and the desire to help other people be their absolute best selves. And so I'm grateful you guys stuck with me in terms of Made for Mondays, and excited to embark on this journey again, as we do Made for Mondays a little bit different. So whether you're new to the podcast, whether you were an old listener that grabbed a hold of our new iteration of Made for Mondays, welcome. Welcome to us. Welcome back to us, whatever that is for you. I'm excited to bloom and blossom and to invite you on my journey. My journey has been wrought with mountains and valleys, good moments, bad moments, successes and failures. Things that I made good decisions in, in places I've made poor decisions. And all in all, I've always seen the hand of God, seeing that your biggest failure opens up great moments of success, and that when you know and understand who you are, you go on a journey and. And the journey will bring you to where God needs you to be. And so I pray that as we go in this together, you join with me and go from there. So today we're going to dive into it, and I look forward to engaging in Made for Mondays with you once again. So welcome those of you to Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're alive. Let's have some fun learning a little bit. Well, hey, Made for Monday's listeners. Justin here. I'm on here to give a shameless plug about, well, modern book. I wrote a book called Necessary Endings. And this book is simply a book detailing. It's called Some Things need to Die for your To Live. It details four different funerals that I believe you need to have to go on a journey of mental well being and mental success. I pray that you take a moment to go ahead and grab it. You can grab it on my website@jrlester.com or on Amazon. It's a book that addresses mental health, faith journeys, relationships, friendships, everything in between. Prayerfully, it'll help you be all that you need to be, everything God's called you to be. So go ahead, take a copy of Necessary Endings. Some Things need to Die for you to Live. Available on Amazon or jrlester.com thank you. Hey everyone, welcome back to Made for Monday. So let's jump into it. Today I want to give you four things I think that really can concentrate on in terms of being ready for yourself. What it means to dive into this week if you're going to be made for Mondays and made for your work week. What it means. And so today I want to look at four core areas, I believe of our lives that I think if done well, can really accelerate a lot of areas of our lives. First, that the four things are yourself, your social, your skills and your service. These four things mastered allow you the opportunity to take a another depth, another dive deeper into yourself. I get all this from this. I often look at take going up a staircase. And if you go up a staircase, when you go up staircase, you don't just take one step, you take second step, third step, four step, fifth step, six step. I think oftentimes in our lives we take the first step and then think we're done. The first step of acquiring some property or starting a business or engaging in something, it's your first step. It's not the final step, it's the first step. I think too often we take the first step and we don't complete the the journey by going in the second, third and fourth step. My hope and prayer is that this podcast allows you to take those second, third and fourth steps. So let's look at the four core areas. Our self, our social, our skills and our service. Let's start with ourself. It's one thing to know yourself, but I want you to get to a point where you imagine yourself. I want you to consider this. I want you to think about who you are and you desire to be your absolute best self. If everything in your life were to go the way that you wanted it to go, if everything your life were to go absolutely perfect, where would you be in 10 years? What are you doing? I want you to imagine your absolute best self. Close your eyes wherever you are, unless you're driving. And once you think about your absolute best self, you were to say, 10 years from now, my absolute best self is doing XYZ. Whether that's I am excelling in a piece of selling at a job, I'm wearing certain clothing. I am moved to a certain part of the country. I am have these sort of friends. I don't have these sort of friends in my life. What does your absolute best self look like in 10 years? Here's I want to challenge you to think about that person were to come knocking at your door. They came to your door, they knocked on the door and said, let's have a cup of coffee. I want you to ask you these questions. What is. What is that person wearing? What is that person thinking about? How does a person talk about themselves? What do they invite you to have coffee? What car are they driving? Who are they calling? Who's going to interrupt the conversation and call them? You see that you're saying, if nothing else were to change in my life, I can accomplish all of that. That is your absolute best self. You are not in competition with other people. You are in competition with yourself to become that person. Who is and what is your absolute best self? I want you to work to be that person. I want you to strive to be that person. So I don't want you just to know yourself. I want you to imagine yourself. Imagine your future self. Imagine fully. Imagine who you are, who you're becoming, all that God's called you to be. I want you to know yourself and then imagine yourself. It gets you from introspection to intention. Are you going to be intentional to be the person you know you can be? That's the self. Secondly, it's your skills. Who is the person in your field that is doing your work at a level you don't think is possible? Who is the person working? Whether it's at your job or you see on a podcast or you see elsewhere? What are the books they're reading? Who are the people they're surrounded with? Right. Right. I want you to consider your skills, your skill set. What are you deepening? It's one thing I want you to move. Watch this. I want you to move from being a generalist to a specialist. You know, certain jobs you get to and you get to it and they, they tell you you have to do everything. You have to be in the Know it all and the do it all. Well, the know it all and the do it all stays at the same place. Because Monday you're the chief marketing officer, Tuesday you're the chief people officer, Wednesday you're the chief executive officer, Thursday you're the chief communications officer, and Friday you're trying to fill in the gap for what you actually need for the business so that you can have it easier for you on Monday when you're back to. And in so doing, you've not gotten great at anything. You get really good. That's what Jim Collins talked about in his work. From good to great. We get really good. But the enemy of good. The enemy of great is good. So where in the areas can you move from a generalist to a specialist where you specialize in something where you're taking, you're taking specialized interests. That's all PhDs are, PhDs. If you were to look at it, you take a big circle and one little bump in that circle is the research and the necessary for a PhD. Move from being a generalist to a specialist. Master your skill set. What are the three skills this year? Here's I want you to do. I want you to be consistent with it and calendar it. Consistent it and calendar it. The three skills you want to learn this year, to dive into this year, to perfect this year. For a lot of us, it's not a matter of learning something new. It's a matter of perfecting what we already have. Thirdly is your social. You only go as far as your circle. Your circle is going to help you. And here's what I want to challenge you to have in your circle. Number one. I want you to have a champion in your circle. There's a difference between a mentor and a champion. A mentor is someone who's going to be around you, who's going to tell you, this is how they did it. This is what they did to get to where they are. This is how perfect their things are. This is perfect. How perfect their thinking, feeling and doing is. A champion wants to enhance yours. A mentor says, this is what I did. A champion said, this is what you can do. A champion wants to see you win. A champion wants to see you more successful. Forget mentors. Get a champion. So, one, in your circle, where's your champion? Number two, in your circle, who are the people who are covering your weak edges? My pastors. I speak about grace a lot. Who are the people in your circle who know all of you and are covering your weak edges that hold you accountable, that will tell you not just like it is. Be honest with you about successes and failures and be there with you in both and treat you exactly the same in both areas. Who are the people you know that if you were to have a terrible moment? Like if I remember last year in 2022, my mother passed away and it was there I found out who my real friends were. I had people that I've talked to, preached with and taught and did websites for and changed a lot of things for their own culture. But when it came time for me to need colleagues and friends, I had two to my funeral. Who are the people in your circle that will hold you accountable and be friends with you in your best and your worst moments? And then lastly, who are the individuals that you have fun with? Consider this. There are individuals where you need to access the other side of yourself that work doesn't get. And who are the people that you're social with? Because here's what that does. It challenges and grows your mood. You set the atmosphere for what you would desire to receive in conversations. So who are the people around you that are engendering that fun, carefree person that all of us have? The reason that we have it is because we all used to play in the sandbox. We all used to play on jungle gyms. We all used to play video games or some sort of board game. We all desired to make music and to find sounds. We all desired it. And even if you don't remember it, you desired it as a child to learn and understand yourself. That's your social, the self, your skills, your social, and lastly, your service. What is the future going to say about you? You don't leave a legacy when you die. You leave a legacy while you're still alive. So what is your service to the world? What is it that the world is going to say about you when you pass away? I'm not talking about statues, I'm not talking about life insurance, I'm not talking about health insurance, things like that. I'm simply talking what is the legacy you're going to leave that your children's children's children's children will remember you for? Are they going to remember you for your failures because that's the legacy you left? Are they going to remember you for your pain because that's the legacy you left. Are they going to remember you for the person you really know? You are the dreamer, the doer, the change agent, the innovator, the father, the mother, the grandparent. What legacy will you leave in the world? That's your service your yourself, your social, your skills and your service. And combined mastering those things this year get you to a place where you think in the future. You see yourself in the future by seeing yourself in the future. Here's what I want to challenge you to do this year. I don't want you just to literally like in this, in this absent way, see the future, but I want you to see yourself in 2033. I want you to see yourself in 2030. I want you to consider what can you do this year to make that person come alive. That's seeing yourself in the future. You see yourself with yourself, your skills, your social and your service. Thank you. Are you a pastor tuned into this podcast? Are you a church leader tuned into this podcast? Are you a gamer? Tune into this podcast. Well, if you are, you're just like me. And that's what I decided to do is take my time writing my doctorate to write some work on gamification in the local church. After I wrote it, I said let's make it a book for the lay leader. And it's a book called let's Play Church. Let's Play Church is an intentional look at gamifying theology really saying how can we gamify church? Revitalization and Practical Theology Gamifying Church Revitalization for Sustainable Success I've been pastoring now for almost seven years and in my pastoring time frame has been pastoring in black churches and on staff at other churches. I've noticed that we have different paradigms and models that people have constantly given to grow past 200 members. And in this time frame I decided to take a look at church a little differently. That is looking at church like I look at Madden. And in so doing I began to see the gamification I believe is a sustainable way to sustain and grow churches. So take a look and take a read of our book let's Play Gamifying Church for Sustainable Success. You can get your copy today@jrlester.com or online at Amazon. Simply search let's Play Church. I look forward to hearing from you and engaging with you about the work we did on let's Play Church. Have a great day. Well, thank you for joining us for Made for Mondays, Justin, and I'm so grateful that you guys did so today. If you want to get in contact with me, please feel free to go to my website www.jrlester.com. you can find me on Facebook @justinrlester and our public page and simply like or message us on there. And also on our website jrlester.com you can see a copy of the books that we've written, the notes that we've given out as well, and the work that we're doing, and the videos we've recorded and places we've spoken. I hope that something you say or do helps you be all that God has called you to be. That's all I'm here for. I want you to and I want you to thrive and I want you to be all that God's called you to be. Listen, would you say our mantra with us, with me today? Simply repeat after me. Say I am me, I can be me, and no one will stop me from being me. Have an amazing day. You are amazing.