David, the second King of Israel, is looking back over his life and expressing so many various emotions. As he reviews his leadership with its challenges and temptations and successes too, he is so aware of the truth and fact that Almighty God gives strength.In this most structured piece of writing in the second book of Samuel and you can read all the detail at Chapter 22, even while he is praising God, David goes on to make so many personal references, and why shouldn’t he?He knew this amazing truth that there can be times when God stoops down to minister to us, and to bless us, and of course, we see Him doing this supremely in Jesus.There is that wonderful picture which is so practical, when David describes how God guarded him and kept him, especially when you consider some of the narrow paths of the Judean hillside. Check out the detail and observe how specific this leader is and how secure he was under the most arduous conditions.God is alive. David knew the reality of that only too well, and God speaks and acts and moves and heals and transforms people.Verses 47 to 50 in our passage are all about praise, and this is being uttered 3,000 years ago, and as David draws near the end of his life.David never forgot he was a sinner who had been saved and rescued by the grace of God which was available to him at that time. This leader knew how sin could bring down a king.David’s success was ultimately God’s doing. His rise was totally of God, from the beginning, and his anointing was of God, and his being rescued was of God, and David needed a whole series of rescuings.He even makes personal references here through all these words of praise. He cannot keep his own experiences out of it, and why should he?This is a shepherd boy taken from looking after the flock to this highest of positions in the world.God is so generous when He gives to His servants.David is a very specially chosen vessel.When God rescues, He can also show wrath upon His enemies, and when God is our refuge, there is no need to fear!What a theme for us today, when we look back, and dare to look forward, having moved into a New Year, but this theme is relevant and apposite at any time in the life of a leader.Verse 51 speaks about God saving His anointed one. Sometimes we need saving and rescuing over and over again, because we cam ka e such a mess of things.We read of the greatness of salvation, and its source is God, and only comes from God, through Jesus Christ, and it lasts.God will never change His mind saying – I have made a mistake saving that man – or saving that woman – or showing that person mercy and love and forgiving his sins.God never changes His mind regarding these vital matters!Leaders could benefit so greatly and so immensely and so profoundly by taking time to read and study and contemplate these enlightening words from a man who experienced the hazards and rewards of leadership.Sandy Shaw
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7 Habits That Can Enrich Your Lifestyle
When it comes to habits that can enrich our lifestyle, we often come short of willpower after a time or find out that we have a tough time keeping up with some of them. What most of us do not realize is that the initial source of the problem comes from within us. Yet, with effort, it can be redesigned.Do you dwell on things? Do you believe you are not good enough, smart enough, or strong enough? If you could just choose one, two or more habits to redesign your lifestyle in the next few months, what would they be? Would they be habits that will have the most impact on your life?Before anything else, the fact that you must realize is that willpower is more powerful than any I.Q. Your willpower can overtake any thoughts or obstacles you believe are in your way. But to enrich your lifestyle, you have to create habits that allow you acceptance about every part of yourself, which is not always easy.Since childhood, you hear comments, remarks, laughs and expectations from relatives, acquaintances, peers, colleagues, and people around you, which have often more negative connotation than a constructive meaning.As a result, you have a low self-esteem which can be at a conscious or unconscious level. But if you could find a way to enrich your lifestyle or life altogether, it would push you to realize that you can do anything you put your mind to doing. You could learn new habits, new skills and live a more satisfying life.May I remind you that what relatives or anyone else says or think are not the facts, but just opinions formed by others! To begin making a difference and enriching your lifestyle, you need to accept yourself as who you are and that you can be different if required.7 Habits to Enrich Your Lifestyle
Now let’s go over seven of the most valuable habits to ameliorate and create a more satisfying you.1. Self-Image to Form a Better You
At first, to enrich your lifestyle, you have to understand and realize that you, as a person, matter. Setting goals are an excellent way to create a better you and develop all areas of your life, which in turn will change your lifestyle tremendously.You have to understand that setting goals have an enormous impact if you want to enhance your life. They are not an instant cure but a component for upgrading your lifestyle. The next step is that you have to take action and begin to make the changes by learning to appreciate and love yourself.For that reason, you have to stop your inward criticism. Avoid letting your mind take over, or anyone else criticize you. You are somebody and are worthy. To enrich your lifestyle, prevent the negative self- talk. You have to replace the negative statements with positive ones.2. Self-Focus to Create Good Habits
To enrich your way of life, you have to focus on one goal, on one task at a time which is much more efficient. You also need to focus on one habit at a time before getting another one in the picture. While it might seem very difficult, focusing on one habit is the best way of creating healthy habitsAs soon as you try to create many habits at once, you are scattering your focus and energy all over the place. Choose one habit to focus on first. Break it into a goal you can accomplish in the next three months. Pick an action you can do today and begin. Keep doing this until the habit becomes second nature.When one habit feels like a complete part of you, focus on the next pattern. As you desire to enrich your lifestyle, some goals of yours may also be external ones. Well, in those cases, turn them into habits. Focus entirely on turning your goal into a habit, until the habit is deep-rooted. Then concentrate on the next one.3. Self-Value to Enrich Your Lifestyle
In today’s world, we tend to value people by what they have rather than by who they are. So, to enhance your lifestyle, you have to learn to understand that real value is not material things but rather the value you have about yourself.Do not get me wrong, material things are great but are not the most important. If you lose everything, what is left? You still have YOU! Therefore, remind yourself that you are a unique, worthy, and brilliant person who matters in this world. You are a miracle of life!You may like it or not; your ultimate reality is created by what you believe, what you think and how you talk about yourself. So, to enrich your lifestyle, you have to value yourself. You are as good as anyone else out there. And yes, it can be rather challenging to accept as true, but it is always possible.4. Self-Education to Make You A Fortune”Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim RohnDo whatever it takes to educate yourself. Read more than usual, at least 1 hour a day. Read about everything and anything that floats your boat. All successful people read books. It can be audio, but the best is a book where you can highlight important parts you can use or go back to when needed.Learn and acquire new skills because the more you learn, the more you earn. Reflect and meditate also on what you have read each day for at least fifteen minutes or more. The reason being is that it has amazing benefits for your health but also for your mental and physical capacities.5. Self-Trust to Build Self Confidence
When you want to enrich your lifestyle, you have to trust your feelings and your gut instincts. You must rely a lot more on your gut feelings when the need comes to make a decision or take action. Avoid letting others make decisions for you.Therefore, begin by making decisions for yourself instead of following a map set by others for you to follow. The people who do have trust in themselves are the ones that take charge of their own lives, letting no one intrudes on their choices.You should believe more in yourself, and the best way to enrich your lifestyle is to spend time with people that have self-confidence. Their positive attitude will rub on you. You could even ask them to mentor you.6. Self-Resilience to Reach a Better Outcome
You always have a choice between reacting or acting firmly to a situation at hand. When you look at resilient people, you can see that they have a strong emotional mindset that gets them through life’s challenges without falling apart.Being self-resilient is not being a cold person who has no feelings but rather being very optimistic and real. And it is a powerful habit and asset you can have when you want to enrich your lifestyle.To be resilient, you have to focus on what you need to do to change the circumstances. Realize that if you desire to enrich your existence, resilience and persistence will help you reach a better outcome.7. Self-Respect to Enrich Your Way of Living
Regrettably, too many people make choices based on the desires of their relatives, spouse, friends, and even the media. Self-respect comes from make your own decisions and recognizing your worth as a human being.When it comes to choosing things such as what to learn, what to read, what to study, what job to choose, where to live, when to get married and how many children to have, you should learn to respect what you desire.Stop being scared of standing up for yourself. Respect and value your desires. Value yourself for all you are worth, and it will grandly enrich your lifestyle.One More Thing to Enhance Your Existence
Focus on changing the habits you dislike about you because to make an upgrade in your life; you must stick with wanting to do what is necessary and follow through. It is not an overnight change; it takes time to replace harmful habits and stop putting yourself after everyone else.You have to quit eradicating yourself from the equation. Instead, start to make the changes that you need, because you are looking to enrich your lifestyle and get a more satisfying journey.A Few Tips to Enrich Your Lifestyle
Look in the mirror and realize that the only competition you have is you.
Write down your achievements and keep note. Read through it out loud to enrich your lifestyle.
When you get a compliment, look at the person and say “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
Tell yourself each day that you matter and are worthy.
Write five things about yourself that you appreciate.
Ask your friends what they admire the most about you.
Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
Enjoy who you are and keep making the necessary changes to grow.
Get rid of people and situations which are sources of conflict or low self-esteem.
Think more about yourself and stop trying to please everybody all of the time.
Reflect and meditate each day.
Enriching your lifestyle is all about taking the time to replace habits, taking action and making you happy. What do matter is how you feel about yourself and your life. So if at this moment, you are not what or where you want to be, remember, you always have the ability to change the next moment.
Business Finance – Strategic Planning
Whether you are starting up your business or expanding it you will need finance in order to do so. This is especially relevant to new businesses that are just starting up. There are numerous avenues that you can approach in order to gain this start up finance and there are many different forms of it open to you; choosing the right finance that will benefit your business most is the important thing.There is a saying that states ‘it takes money to make money,’ this applies so much to new business ventures. For your business to become a success you will need a large amount of money to start off with that can be used to get your business set up. This money will be used to buy equipment, pay the rent on your business property, employ your staff and ensure that you have enough stock to get your business going as well as being used to pay the first few months of all your bills.Two of the main reasons why many new businesses fail to get anywhere beyond the starting point are due to inadequate business capital and poor management skills, which is why raising money is so important in the early start-up stages of business.Some ways in which people choose to fund their business idea is by using savings, but realistically not many of us have that sort of cash tucked away, which is why we require outside help. You could opt to borrow money from friends or family if they have the financial resources to help you or you could take out a credit card for the specific use of funding your business. All of the financial options that are open to you can be split into two sections, either debt finance or equity finance. Debt finance is classified as being money that is borrowed from varies different aspects. This is finance that is required to be paid back.Some examples of debt finance include:o Bank loanso Credit cardso Overdraftso Leasingo Asset financingAll of these are the borrowing of money in one form or another and they will require monthly repayments that will have added interest. Most people however use their bank as the first call of gaining start up finance regardless of the fact they are going to end up paying more money back.There are disadvantages and advantages of using a bank loan to fund a new business idea. However the disadvantages of having a bank loan to fund your business start up far out-weigh the advantages. The benefit of using a bank loan for business finance include being able to organise a repayment holiday meaning you only have to pay interest for a certain amount of time and you don’t have to turn over a share of your profit. The disadvantages however are that bank loans have strict terms and conditions and can cause cash flow problems if you are unable to keep up with your monthly repayments. Also bank loans are often secured against assets and you may be charged if you decide you want to repay your loan before the end of your loan term.
The other form of finance; equity finance, is often more overlooked than it should be when in fact equity finance could be just the answer that your business is looking for. The main forms of equity finance come from business angels and venture capitalists. Equity finance is money that is invested into your business in return for a share of the business. With equity finance the advantages out-weight the disadvantages and equity finance is a lot more helpful to small businesses than bank loans are.Some of the advantages of equity finance include your investor being committed to your business and intended projects, they can bring valuable skills, contracts and experience to your business and they can assist you with strategy and decision making as well as often being prepared to follow up funding as your business grows. Two disadvantages of equity funding are your business may suffer as you are spending time securing your investor deal and the investor will own a share of your business.The one thing that you must do when choosing your business start up finance is to use a finance option that is most suited to your business needs.