Prayers Of Thanks
January 28, 2011
My stepfather had surgery a week ago Tuesday so last week my son was praying for his grandfather’s safety and then for his speedy recovery. We stop and pray together every morning, at least on weekdays, before heading out the door. I’ve been encouraging him to think of what he wants to include in prayer and to say it out loud to help him learn he doesn’t need me voicing his prayers. I hope this becomes a lifelong pattern of him praying on his own and with other people.
His prayers are usually petitions, asking for things. They might include simple things like peace and cooperation in his classroom when the kids return from a break, or more selfless notions like comfort for people in times of disaster or aid to those who are suffering. But usually he’s asking for something, even if it’s “Please keep my grandpa safe and help him heal quickly.” But I noticed a shift at the end of last week.
His grandpa came through surgery very well and was ahead of schedule on his progress. My son was very relieved and he added thankfulness to his prayers. We were thankful for the skill of the surgical staff, thankful for the technology that allowed them to do their work, thankful for the hospital taking good care of him, and thankful that surgery to repair his condition had been discovered.
In addition to being deeply pleased my son was remembering to include thankfulness in his prayers, I realized part of my own practice of gratitude shows up in prayer. That’s not to say I’m good, or even consistent, at prayers of thanks. I’m a lot more consistent at those Psalms kinds of prayers: Why are you letting this happen? and When will you smite my enemies?
But I do include occasional thanks in my prayers. Sometimes I include them in time I plan for praying – which isn’t really very often – but usually they show up in a few reflective moments when I notice something good happening, look up and smile, and then close my eyes and say “Thank you.”
This is definitely something worth cultivating, so I intend to look for more opportunities to do it.
Verisimilitude of Sincerity
January 19, 2011
Within the past 48 hours I have seen one online marketing expert – with a big list and established name – exhorting people to use his “template for authentic marketing,” and another one telling people how to use marketing to distinguish their businesses when there is really nothing unique or remarkable about them.
Just mentioning this in case some of you don’t know why a lot of self-employed people recoil from marketing, thinking it’s a bunch of hype and manipulation. I’m using these road-kill vignettes to drive home the point.
Speaking of hype and manipulation, have you gotten a copy of my Demystifying Marketing: Teaser Sampler yet? It’s a give-away for signing up for my newsletter. Click here to be manipulated and hyped into giving me your e-mail address and I’ll send you the short e-book and subscribe you to the Twisting Road Traveler.
Wings and Feet
January 14, 2011
In a post by Jeff Walker called Let’s Go Negative the product launch wizard unpacks the problem of constant optimism in business planning. Although optimism is important to sustain you through the challenges of starting a business or launching a new product or service, he tells us, relentless optimism interferes with a key component to success.
In the post he lays out a process for taking an idea that has you excited and then brainstorming all the obstacles to implementing it. This meshes with a framework I use for talking about business ideas. They need wings, to take them into the future and to higher potential results. But they also need feet, so they can land in the real world.
That means they need to be practical, and to be practical you need to invite the skeptic to evaluate them. Small business owners need both capacities – visionary dreaming and proactive, practical, operational planning.
That skeptic guy may not be the life of the party, but he’s key to the life of the business. Offer to buy him a drink. Don’t worry; he’ll probably just have a glass of water.
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