All posts by Keith Thompson

Hitting the rhythm

Career

In life as well as business there are periods where you began to hit the rhythm and things begin to work for you. They only last for a season and sometimes that season is a few months and other times it can last for a few years.

I don’t invest in stocks because I am old school in that I want to know before I open the envelope, that the amount is greater than it was last month. When your holdings are in the stock market you will open the envelope 8 times and the value will be down and 2 times the value is up. You never know when it is going to happen. Many people have told me how foolish I am not to be invested in the stock market. I don’t care. Did you know that the greatest daily gains on Wall Street for the last 105 years happened on 20 days? So there were 38,325 days in the last 105 years and if you were not invested on those 20 days, you missed the greatest gains. There is a rhythm to Wall Street investing that has never interested me.

Take General Motors for example. Their rhythm was during the 60’s and 70’s when they controlled the greatest global automobile market share. They have been largely out of rhythm for last 30 years. Look at Sears, their rhythm began to go downhill 35 years ago and they have never gotten it back.

Rhythm in business is hard to create and even harder to keep going. That is why it usually only lasts for a season. These rhythms last as long as the leaders can see the vision. Let me say that again. The periods of rhythm last as long as the leaders can see the vision. Take any company or any church or any civic organization that you know of and they will grow and success or began to falter based on the leader’s vison and talent to run the company. Once the leaders began to get complacent and satisfied, the company or the organization just crested the hill and is starting its way down.

When you experience a rhythm season in your life, you need to take notice and savor it like gold because it is a special special gift. How many times have we seen people take for granted the favor they are seeing in their life? When something good is happening, I have seen many people layback and think they have made it and don’t need to keep working. These are usually the ones that experience a very short rhythm season. Ha

Rhythms are very scarce and when they happen, be alert and focused and above all, be thankful. KT

Being the biggest is no guarantee of success

Career

Being the biggest should not be the goal in business. If being the biggest was a guarantee of success, we would all be using IBM computers, driving GM cars, shopping at Sears, using Blackberry or Motorola cell phones, buying music CDs at the store, renting videos at Blockbuster, drinking Maxwell House coffee, and eating at Shoney’s.

All of these companies have one thing in common. They lost their market share because they thought they were too big to fail. New competition is something to be reckoned with and every company will face it.

There are some things that should never change like the way you love your children or cut the grass but in business you must always be watching the curve and make sure what you are selling is something the market still wants.

I remember when I started selling hotels and there wasn’t email, texting, cell phones, websites, scanning or many of the communication outlets we have today. When we listed a hotel we literally had to write the book and then print the book. Then you would call the buyer on your office phone and if he was interested you had to mail the printed book to the buyer. You have to go see every hotel because you had to take pictures. There were was no internet and therefore no pictures. You had to take a camera with Kodak film and get on a plane and go see each hotel. When you got back you took your rolls of film to the development place and then went back two days later to get the pictures. Ha. It is amazing how things have changed.

What is my point? The point is that there are areas of our lives that need not change but if you are in business, run a drug store, in sales, work at an airline, pastor a church etc. we need to be ready for change. KT

Finding joy

Life

Finding joy is much harder than you would think it is. It is a choice, not a reaction to events in our life. Have you ever seen someone that seems to have it all but still cannot be happy? Hollywood actors will teach us that money, ease and things do not equal joy in one’s life. It is deeper than that.

As said above, it is a choice to happy and I believe this deeply. The ages are full of people that kept saying that when this or that happens, then I will be happy. It could be job related, house related, children related, money related, relationship related or many other such plateaus or events that people chose to wait for to be happy.

Happiness and joy are two completely separate things. Happiness is event based like “we are going to the beach,” and happiness does not equal joy. If you have joy on the other hand, it gives you an uplifting countenance and most of the time equals happiness. Happiness alone is very elusive and comes and goes with various circumstances in your life.

The bible speaks about the fruits of the spirit. This simply means that these things will grow and will be visible for all to see when you line your life up with Jesus. The fruits listed in Galatians 5:22-23 are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. As you will appreciated, this passage of scripture can and has been talked about and written about for generations. Since we don’t have generations, I want to point out the first three, love, joy and peace. Simply put, I believe these three come in that order and I believe all three are a choice. When you choose to love others (think the best of them and forgive them) you will find an inner joy and from that inner joy you will find peace.

If we took a survey of the top 10 things everyone wants in their heart, these three would be on that list.

If you want joy in your life, chose to love first and then you find that ever elusive peace we all long for. KT

Facing a fear

Family, Life

I was involved in something today that was very difficult for me. My oldest daughter and I took the two granddaughters for swimming lessons. Sounds like an easy thing to do, right? Not so.

The first day of swim lessons is always very hard because the children are so upset and you want to just jump in and rescue them and tell them it will be ok. It is incredibly hard to watch while your children are calling for you to come get them. It is especially hard for the children because they are not in control and having to learn something that is frightening to them.

That was this morning and I am still a little shaken up about it. Ha. You know this is one of those lessons that could save their life and also one that they will remember for a lifetime. You want them to be able to enjoy the water and feel safe in it but man, it is so difficult when the lesson is happening.

Today, I thought about us as adults because it is just as hard for us to face a fear and overcome it. It is the same fear when we are out of our element and not in control that grips us and has the potential to frighten us. There are all sorts of examples in our own adult lives of fear and doing something you have never done before. Marriage, job, sales calls, change, moving, going back to school, age, health, life and the list could go on and on.

I think when you are faced with a fear you either decide to conquer the fear or learn how to live with it. There are certain fears we just need to learn how live with such as rock climbing, bungee jumping, skydiving etc. These fears are easy to live it. It is the fear of something that you know you should overcome but choose not to, that I believe peals away a little of your joy, peace, and fulfillment. These type small fears that we allow in our life can grow to other areas of our life if we allow fear to remain.

I cannot tell you which fears you should fight or not because once I learn how to fight my own fears, I will be able to help you. Until then we all have areas in our lives that we have allowed fear to control and I believe if we could hear the voice of God, he would tell us to be bold and try again.

A real important thing to understand is that every fear we as adults face and overcome is a fear that you have experience with when your children face the same thing. In your mind’s eye, think of your children asking you for advice on the very fear you faced and overcame. You have the knowledge and the basis to help them. If your children face a fear that you succumbed to, it is difficult to tell them “do as I say instead of as I do.” KT

Speaking over something or someone

Life

Word are more powerful than you can imagine. This blog post is going to be about Jesus so if you don’t want to hear about it, then you might want to stop reading.

Words come from your heart and the bible says that whatever is in your heart in abundance will come out of your mouth. Putting all religion aside, everyone, and I mean everyone knows this is true. Words can build up or tear down anyone. Voicing a bad mind set in the morning can have a negative effect on the rest of your day. When you say “I will never be good enough,” “I always fail,” ”I won’t get that job or make that sale,” “I going to die young,” “I will never make it,” you set in motion something you don’t want. If these words come out of your mouth you need this blog post today.

There are feelings and then there is what you believe. Don’t trust your feelings. Trust what you believe. Everyone knows this to be true because your feelings will mislead and misguide you. The bible says to call those things that be not as though they were. The word “call” means to use your voice. Literally speak the words out of your mouth. The words “those things that be not” means to speak those things you want to see happen but have not happened yet in the natural. Again do not follow your feelings and in fact when you feel at your lowest is when you really need to speak some uplifting words to your spirit. Things like “ I will make it,” “I am loved and respected,” I am very good at my job,” “I have many friends,“ “I am in good health,” “I will lose that weight,” “people confide in me because they respect my opinion,” “I am a great mother,” “I am a great dad.” You may not “feel” these things but speaking these words out of your mouth and over your life will have an impact on how you feel.

If you wake up in the morning and say “Lord it is going to be a bad day,” you have just set the course for that day as compared to saying “Lord thank you for this day and it is going to be a tremendous day.” Guard you heart like nothing you have ever guarded because when how you feel becomes how you believe, those words of affirmation or of failure will began to slowly come out of your mouth and those words will change the course of your life.

This not some abra cadabra, wave a magic wand thing. This is base line gospel dealing with life and it is as real as the breath in your lungs. Take a week and force yourself when no one is listening or watching to speak uplifting words to your spirit and take a heart inventory at the end of the week and I believe you will have a new revelation about what I am talking about. KT