LESSON 3 :: The Lurch

Dealing with the challenges that face you in the early days of your journey in the second business phase.

Limp to the Finish Line

Welcome back! I’m glad you are continuing on this journey of integrating your spirituality with your business life as we explore the cycle phase of The Lurch in this lesson.

The Lurch

Every spiritreneur goes through it. It’s the business phase in which you are sure you have made grave mistakes in deciding to pursue your dreams, to authentically live the life you have been called to live. What seemed like a good idea now seems like a horrid nightmare. Your resources are scarce, people are looking at you funny, you feel a little crazy at times, and supporters seem to be few.

This section is designed to encourage you and to let you know that if you persevere, you will survive, even flourish.

Our culture is obsessed with appearances and especially drawn to the appearance of success. We are besieged with sentiments like “What would the neighbors think?” or “Failure is not an option,” or “Do it right or don’t do it at all.” But spiritreneurs know that sometimes our enterprise doesn’t look good enough for the neighbors, and yet we are compelled to press forward even when our “image” is messy, muddy, or marred.

There are several pitfalls that the spiritreneur needs to take into consideration. These bumps in the road can cause us to turn an ankle or stub a toe, which leads to the limp. Some of them to watch for are:

• Those who are jealous of your impending success
• Those who are hanging on to you because of impending success
• Losing your balance amidst the detail and demands
• Insults from those who would rather stay where they are
• Uncovering recurring obstacles from unresolved issues

It’s OK to limp to the finish line. As a spiritreneur, you know in your deepest soul it is better to get to the finish line with one foot dragging than to never get there at all.

Because as a spiritreneur you are often wrestling with forces greater than yourself, you can’t always control the outcome. And the outcome you find may not, at the time, look like success to the rest of the world. But a spiritreneur plays to a different audience and keeps an eye on the long view, the often-unseen by-products of doing good.

The pressing question is this: What are you focusing on as the goal of your enterprise? Do you want to look good all of the time, or do you want to get the job done that you have been called and have set out to do? Are you externally or internally motivated?

Wisdom comes from experience — and experience is just a fancy name for failure.

• X-Ray Vision According to Webster’s Dictionary, discernment means: “The faculty of showing good judgment and understanding; discrimination; acuteness of judgment and understanding.” To me, the word “discernment” is another description for spiritual x-ray vision: the ability to stay focused as you get to the heart of an issue with the persistent question, “What are we really trying to accomplish, and why?” Jesus had this ability, and so can you.

Look Up on the Roof

When faced with a shortage in resources of any kind, ask yourself, “Where haven’t I looked yet?” Our answers come from the most unusual places at times — if you don’t believe me, read pages 85-86 of Jesus, Inc. to learn the inspiration for the title of this page!

Just when it looks like the financing has run dry, a heretofore-unknown source appears. When a key player in the business decides to quit, leaving you with a gaping hole in personnel, your network introduces you to someone you’ve never met before, but is more suited to the position than the one who left. As you are running on fumes from exhaustion, a soothing and invigorating phone call comes from someone you love, boosting your spirits and giving you the strength you need to go on or the advise.

Remember, one of the keys learned in Lesson 2 is to surrender. Sometimes that surrender takes on the form of sitting back in your chair and sighing, “I just don’t know where the next payroll is coming from.” Admitting we don’t know opens the doors for the true partnership we have with God to come into dynamic play.

If you can keep an expectant heart and an open mind during this phase, you will indeed be rewarded with many things, but most of all with the renewed assurance that you are indeed in collaboration with your loving Creator. Remember that an often-untapped survival strategy is the sheer creative perseverance that spiritreneurs use in The Lurch.

• Don’t Let the Winds Drive You Crazy Every spiritreneur needs a sheltering place to help them keep their balance amidst the forces and pressures and demands of their work. Learn to delegate, take a class that is just for fun, and make a list of things that really don’t have to be done by you, and then enlist your resources to help you establish a sheltering place. Consider establishing time in your day when all of your electronic conveniences are turned off and you enjoy quiet reflective time.

A Business Plan Won’t Save You

Have a Vision

In the midst of The Lurch, spiritreneurs may want to find some comfort in the standard business tools that seem to work for everyone else. A business plan is one such tool. Now I’m not opposed to business plans. I have a wonderful collection of them myself, but I don’t believe that plans in themselves make for success. It is only people passionately following their visions that make things successful.

So as you manage The Lurch, it is highly important to keep your vision at the forefront of your day. A good vision is compelling; it has the clarity and reality that keeps you moving forward to accomplish it even when the going gets rough. Your vision should be written down, full of descriptive sensory details, and stated in the present tense as if it has already been accomplished. It covers many phases and activities of your day — even days that are not designated for “work.”

Picture This

If you were to envision a year from now on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., your vision statement might read like this:

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of my favorite jazz station on the clock radio. Ever since I got my new treadmill, I love getting out of bed to spend 45 minutes to an hour on it first thing in the morning. It gives me a chance to gather my thoughts for the day and think through the meeting I’ll have with Joe at 10:30 and the lunch appointment I’ll have with a new potential investor. After showering and putting on my jeans and turtleneck (my favorite work “uniform”) I walk into my office, flip on the computer, put the coffee on to brew, and pop in a new CD. As I sip the hot coffee, I look over my notes for my freelance assignment due at the end of the week, stop to read over Joe’s proposal for a new line, and catch up on the details of my lunch date’s favorite charities.

As you can see, the vision writer sees a home office setting, comfortable clothes, colleagues who are creative, a balanced life, and a business worthy of having some new investors. As the vision unfolds, it will encompass every day, including Saturday and Sunday, and will address work and leisure activities and relationships. The vision statement is a very powerful tool for the spiritreneur.

Business Vision vs. Business Plan

Think carefully about the nature of a business plan. Now thoroughly consider the essence of a business vision. How are they different? How are they the same? Which would serve you better in a time of growing in your integration of spirituality and business? Jesus did not live each day according to a calendar planner. His vision shaped each day’s activities — what he chose to do and what he chose not to do.

This powerful tool of a vision can help you know you are on track in the rocky times. Even if it looks like your “plans” are failing, if you know in your soul that your vision is being accomplished and your choices are sound, you can sleep more peacefully at night, even if the wind is howling outside your window.

Know Where the Bull Is

One of the most powerful strategies in this phase is to always know where the bull is. I invite you to refer to pages 121-124 in Jesus, Inc. to get the full picture of what the bull is in each of our lives. In short, the bull is anything you would set up as a “god” in your life that takes your focus off of the true God who has blessed you to be where you are, doing what you are doing.

Knowing where your bull is will give you a business edge like no other. The business day is filled with many distractions. And when we are besieged with distractions, it is easy to lose focus. When we lose our true focus, the steps are few to finding lesser opportunities and priorities to fill our time. In not guarding the right treasure, it’s a short trip to setting up and worshipping the wrong treasure — the bull.

You may worship your calendar, thinking your appointments and meetings are what make you important and your business successful. You may worship your human resources, believing they are the foundational lifeblood of your enterprise. You may worship money, power, fame, social success, and a good reputation, mistaking any of them for the key to your ultimate peace and prosperity.

Now God has nothing against any of these bulls, as long we don’t make them our gods and as long as we don’t let them make a mess of our soul — which was created to ultimately bask in the warmth of God’s love.

So take some time to consider what drives you that may also be stealing your peace of mind and clarity of purpose. Make a plan to pen and tame the bull. It is a powerful force that can be used to your advantage, when it is harnessed and under control.

Moving Forward

In this lesson we looked at four strategies that will help you get through The Lurch phase in your business cycle. These are:

1. Remember that everything does not have to appear perfect all of the time
2. Stay open to the bounty of God that is beyond your resources
3. Never substitute details for vision
4. Know where you are prone to let externals and false treasure take over your focus

In our next lesson, we will explore The Lessons phase. In this portion of your business cycle, the flush of The Launch has dimmed, the scariness of The Lurch has been tamed, and now you enter into the seemingly endless stretch of desert where things are neither exciting nor frightening — they may be downright dull. We will learn how to capitalize on this stage to make your business growth solid and lasting.

As you continue to engage in the reading and in the discussions on the Message Board, you may be encountering new ideas and perspectives about your business you have never seen before. Share those insights with everyone so that all our participants can gain from your emerging wisdom. It’s no mistake that you have signed up for this course! I look forward to having you join us for the next lesson.

Assignment: Pondering the Lurch

Read Section Two of Jesus, Inc. Go to the Message Board with questions and insights from the reading.

Consider and answer to following questions as you ponder The Lurch:

1. Where are you trying too hard to look good, rather than be good?
2. Do you see opportunities everywhere, or do you give up at the first hint of rejection?
3. Are you counting on a business plan to be a substitute for your vision?
4. Why is it important to recognize your own personal “bull?”