"I'm just a simple person"

I recently heard football coaching legend and ESPN commentator Lou Holtz speak at the “Get Motivated” seminar in Nashville.

His straight forward message was especially relevant for me.

Here’s 3 ideas inspired by Lou that I’m applying in my role as a worship leader/pastor:

1. “Dream. You have to have a dream”

My dream for the church communities I serve is that we would become:

A wholehearted worshiping community.

When we gather for worship … everyone is all in, passionate for Spirit and Truth; worshiping God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.

2. “Are you committed to excellence?”

My values for an excellent wholehearted worshiping community embrace:

Authentic praise more than perfect performance.

Participation more than observation.

Giving God glory more than pleasing people.

3. “It’s wrong to be bitter. We’ve all had injustices”

I think that recovery from significant loss and practicing forgiveness is an on-going process. The deeper the wound, the longer it can take, and the more layers of the onion need to be peeled off. This speech was a great encouragement.

We can speak life with our words. Thanks for the perspective, coach.

Question: What is one idea that has inspired you recently? Would love to see your thoughts in the comments below.

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What follows are my notes transcribed from this message.

Video: Lou Holtz in Nashville.
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I’m a simple person and there’s a lot of things I don’t understand …

One thing I do understand is that we all have problems , we all have difficulties.

Don’t tell people about your problems … 90% don’t care and the other 10% are glad you’ve got them.

I have a simple philosophy. It’s a philosophy I believe in and it works as a father, a husband, a football coaching and as TV analyst.

It’s not complicated and I guarantee you it will change your life for the positive.

There’s only 3 parts to the plan, it isn’t complicated.

1. The first is the attitude you choose. What is it in adversity? When you’re down you’ve got 2 choices, you can stay down or pick yourself up. You can’t count on anybody but yourself. You can succeed when nobody believes in you. You have no chance to succeed if you don’t believe in yourself.
You’re going to get knocked down, but your attitude is how you respond to it.

Have fun with what you do. Have more fun than anybody else.

What’s your attitude when people say negative things? You can not let other people control your attitude.
It’s the most important choice you make single everyday. You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. So attitude is the first part of the plan.

2. Have dreams. The only thing that’s going to change you from where you are today to where you will be 5 years from now are the dreams you dream, the books you read and the people you meet.

Everybody needs four things in life:

  • Something to do
  • Someone to love
  • Someone to believe in
  • Something to hope for – and hope is nothing more than dream

Set goals in 5 categories – family, religiously, financially, career, adventure

Decide what you want to do.

Ask yourself 25 times a day, the word W.I.N. – What’s Important Now?

  • Evaluate the past.
  • Focus on the future
  • It will tell you what’s important for the present.

ML KING – “I have a dream”

One man had a dream and it changed this country for the better. What if he had said “I have a strategic plan”

You’re either growing or you’re dying. It has nothing to do with age. There are no age restrictions on goals.

“I’m so old right now the birthday candles cost more than the cake”

You have to have dreams and goals. that is so critical. Don’t try to maintain. You need something to celebrate. Something to do.

Everything starts with a dream and an attitude.

3. Make good choices. Where ever you are, good or bad, it’s because of choices you’ve made. Chose to do drugs, drop out of school, run with the wrong people and you chose to end up with difficuluties in your life.

How to make good choices? It’s not hard. Ask three questions.

Three questions everybody asks.

1. Can I trust you?
2. Are you committed to excellence? How good to you want to be?
3. Do you care about me?

So to answer these 3 questions  I have these 3 rules.

Rule #1 Do what’s right. Do right. Avoid what’s wrong. If you have any doubt check the bible. I think it’s right to be honest, right to be on time, right to be loyal. I think it’s wrong to practice racism, sexism, or spousal abuse.

I think it’s wrong to find somebodies wallet before they lose it.

I think it’s wrong to be bitter. We’ve all had injustices. Illustration: getting fired from Arkansas … move on, not get bitter.

Just do right

Rule #2 Do everything to the best of your ability. Your obligation as a leader is not to be popular. Your obligation as a leader is to make people the very best they can be. That can only happen when you have standards for people they’re capable of reaching. You encourage them and support them so that they can achieve great things.

All I ask of people to do is the best you can with the time allotted.

Arkansas vs Oklahoma, bowl game illustration: Three best players suspended. Nobody gave us a chance …

We focused on what we could do,  and not on what we lost.
We focused on what we had – not what we lost.

We won because – A group of people looked at what we could do , and stopped worrying about why we could not do something.

That’s what a commitment to excellence is.

Rule #3 – Show people you care. Wife had cancer – we showed it more. People want to know you care about them.

Business; What do people want and how can I help them get it better than anybody else?

Just follow 3 simple rules – do the right thing, do the best you can and show people you care.

That’s all.

You follow those 3 rules and you’ll make good choices.

Ask of people these 3 questions – yes or no.

Can you trust them? Yes or no?
Are they committed to excellence? Yes or no?
Do they care about you and the organization? Yes or no?

The person you admire and respect said yes to all three questions. The person you have a problem with, you pinpointed the problem – you can’t trust them, they aren’t committed, or they don’t care.

Those 3 rules answer those 3 questions. There are standards.

The things I told you are the things I believe.

1. Attitude is critical
2. Everything starts with a dream, you need four things.

3. Make good choices by following 3 rules that answer those 3 questions.

It’s not complicated.

If you want to be happy for a lifetime, make good choices.