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4 Destructive Personal Effectiveness Myths

I recently read the ‘Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By‘ from the Harvard Business Review. Each of them challenges how I operate in different ways. Below are the 4 myths (in bold) and their relevance for me.

  • Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand. Multitasking is stupid. It’s taken me a while to admit it. I regularly try to juggle 5 things at once.
  • Myth #2: A little bit of anxiety helps us perform better. Here’s a brief blogpost I wrote 4 years ago: ‘The Dead-Line Driven Life‘. I haven’t changed. I need to “for the sake of my family, for others who rely on me; and for godly discipline.”
  • Myth #3: Creativity is genetically inherited, and it’s impossible to teach. My application of this one is slightly different to the the article. I’m fairly creative, but often I don’t trust that others can also be creative! So I become a bottle neck, either by having to do the creative work or making sure the creative work is up to my standard.
  • Myth #4: The best way to get more work done is to work longer hours. Guilty. Longer hours doesn’t lead to more effectiveness. Repeat.

Confession over.

Read the full blog post for more detail on each one.

Any of them resonate with you? I’d be interested to hear of any strategies you have for bringing about change.

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Facing Persecution With Unrelenting Joy!

Next week is International Day of Prayer (IDOP). It’s more than just one day of prayer but a week (6th – 13th November 2011) of Christians around the world committing to praying for Persecuted Christians. You can find out more on the IDOP website or on Thirteen Three’s website. We’ve got a report form Open Doors at church this Sunday night and I’m planning on having a spot on Friday night at Soulies for thoughtful prayer and reflection. We’ll also have a blog series on Soulies.net for the week. If you haven’t already, have a think about how you can commit to praying this week at home and in Christian gatherings.

One of the things I’m surprised by as I read of the first persecuted Christians in the Bible and then read of contemporary persecuted Christians (through books like Radical and the VOM newsletter) is that so often persecution is faced with unrelenting joy!

His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42)

The Apostles keep getting told to shut up about Jesus, they don’t. They get beaten up and told to stop, they don’t! Instead they rejoice that they were considered worthy to suffer for Jesus and then keep telling people about Jesus!!

I recently read of Pastor Wong (in the latest Voice of the Martyrs newsletter). He’s from China. Check out this quote:

Continue reading “Facing Persecution With Unrelenting Joy!”