America’s Leadership Expert : Know The Truth
Clay: This is Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert with Tulsa Business Leadership podcast number 28. Today we’re going to be talking about what I call the Truth wall, with a capital T. So many times traveling across the country and working with clients as Tulsa Business Leadership, I get the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs with leaders in business and what I found so often is that the leaders are limited by their own perception of themselves. Leaders get so limited by their own fears, by their own anxieties. They have this view or they have this picture of themselves being small and all of a sudden the responsibilities that they have taken on have become much bigger than them.
If you were to look at this as concentric circles, there would be a smaller circle, which would be them and their capacity. But a bigger circle that is going around that circle that is their responsibility. America’s Leadership Expert Their responsibilities have gotten bigger than them. And as a result what will happen is that person that sees themselves in the smaller circle will want to reduce their responsibility. They will long for the day, they will long for the weekend when they can no longer feel the responsibility and they will constantly be saying and complaining, “Oh, I just need things to slow down. If we could just get to a point where things weren’t so busy, it would be so much better.”
But what is actually going on is I get to coach and as I get to inspire and motivate these leaders through Tulsa Business Leadership, I get to encourage people that the whole goal here is not for the bigger circle to get small. It’s for the smaller circle, which is their capacity to get bigger.
You may have been in a place before where you say, “Ah, my plate is full.” And just the idea there with the plate is full is that you have so much stuff on your plate, so many responsibilities. You’ve probably even gotten to the point where these responsibilities are beginning to pile up. So what we do as leaders, what we do as humans, is we think, okay, what I need to do is manage this plate better. If I can just get this thing off of my plate then I’ll have a little bit more space. If I could just create a little bit more space on my plate, then I could fit something else in. So I need to complete this thing, I need to get this thing, I need to delegate that, bada bing, bada boom, to create space on this plate so I can do more things.
The problem is, and I’ve found this over and over as Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership, I’ve found that people never get to that place where they have space on their plate. Things always get filled in.
I want you to know as a business leader, I want you to know that you have been designed not to manage your plate but the whole purpose, the whole design for the pressure, is for you to get a bigger plate. And this is where my Truth wall comes in. The way to expand your plate is to begin to see yourself in a bigger and bigger and bigger capacity.
But again, because of so many issues, because of so much crud that may have gone on in your life up to this point, chances are very good that the picture that you have of yourself under pressure is a picture of failure. It’s a picture of overwhelm. It’s a picture of this is too much. It’s a picture of I’m the victim. It’s a picture of I need help. It’s a picture of that’s not fair.
And so in the midst of pressure, this is where we go emotionally. We go to these places of this is too much, that’s not fair. I can’t do this. What happens if I fail? Because the picture that we have, America’s Leadership Expert the picture that we carry around inside of our head, it’s that picture that determines what you believe.
So what I call the Truth wall is helping business owners expand their capacity to begin to lead in confidence because they’re changing their pictures. Their pictures begin to align with the capital T, Truth, about who they are rather than with the smaller case t, which I call the truth of their circumstances.
Yes, there is a lot going on. Yes, you do have too much on your plate. Yes, your front tire of your car did just go out. But, that does not mean that you are a loser, that you are a failure. That it is your fault and that you’re not going to be able to do it.
I remember being in this place where my car would break down and I would take it incredibly personal. “It’s because I’m a loser, because I can’t do X, Y, and Z, because I don’t have enough money and I don’t have enough money to fix the car. And the reason why I don’t have enough money is because I’m a loser because I’m never going to have enough money.” So I’ve taken that smaller case t, the truth of my circumstances, and I have allowed that smaller case t to dictate my destiny. And I wanted to let you know that if you continue to allow the smaller case t, the truth of your circumstances to dictate your destiny, you will always see opportunity through the lens of your capacity. And you will never be enough, you will never have enough. You will never be able to handle enough to get where you want to get. You will want it, you will desire it. But it will always be beyond your reach.
Something I use quite often with my speaking engagements as I travel across the country as Clay Staires, America’s Leadership Expert Tulsa Business Leadership, is a phrase that I say or a word, an acronym that I call tebar, t-e-b-a-r. What this stands for is your thoughts will always dictate your emotions and your emotions will always build. If you allow your thoughts and emotions to grow on one another, they will always develop into your belief. And your belief is pretty much your conclusion, the picture that you have of yourself under pressure. And your beliefs will always lead to your actions. And your actions will always lead to your results.
So many times when I’m talking to leaders and entrepreneurs, they are acting in a way that is … They are acting in accordance to their belief.
You’ve been in this place before where you said, why do I keep on doing that? I know better than that? Well you might know better than that but you don’t believe better than that. The picture that you get of yourself under pressure is so important.
So, what is this capital T? How do I exchange the smaller case t of circumstances for this greater, capital T, which is the T of my destiny. It’s the capital T of Truth.
Well first of all we have to determine where do you go for your capital T, Truth. Have you been going to past experiences? That won’t work very well. Have you been … Is your capital T, Truth that you cling to everyday, is that determined by what people think about you or what people feel about you, or what people say about you? Yeah, how’s that working of are you?
You have got to find this ultimate source of capital T, Truth, that even though circumstances are difficult, even though you’re under pressure, even though you may have failed. What is the Truth, the capital T, Truth, about you?
At Tulsa Business Leadership, America’s Leadership Expert I tend to consistently coach my clients. The place where I go personally for this capital T, Truth, is a place that I call the scriptures. I go to the Bible because it is the creator. My belief is that God has created me and because God has created me, he has created me with a destiny. And if I’m able to look through the lens … If I’m able to look at my circumstances through the lens of capital T, Truth, I will always be able to see my destiny and not just my capacity. So the first thing that I do to find truth, is I got to scripture.
The second thing that I do to discover truth is through dreams and vision. There is biblical precedent throughout the entire old and new testament where people had a dream or had a vision and that dream of vision was about the Truth, the capital T, Truth, that was either for their life of somebody else’s life.
Number three place where you can go for this capital T, Truth is the prophetic voice. Your church may or may not embrace the prophetic voice but it is real, it is one of the apostolic gifts that is given. It’s one of the spiritual gifts that is given in Corinthians as well as in Galatians. But to listen to the prophetic voice.
And then finally, America’s Leadership Expert the fourth place to go for truth is actually the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Holy Spirit, that voice that you hear inside directing you. Now it’s very important that dreams and visions, the prophetic voice, and the voice of the Holy Spirit, all align with scripture. That’s very important. But this is where we go to discover the capital T, Truth. So no matter what is going on in my life, no matter what circumstances are happening in my life. Whether I’m driving a beat up car, whether I’m living in a van down by the river, whether I’m living in the place that I want. Whether I’m struggling as a 20 year old, trying to make ends meet, there is a capital T, Truth. There is a destiny. There is a purpose. There is a promise for you and your job, your duty is to discover what that capital T, Truth, is.
And once you’ve discovered that capital T, Truth, it is your job to use that truth as a means to overcome circumstantial difficulty because that truth will become two things. It will become a wall become a wall of perspective for you that even though difficult things are going on, you have a different perspective. You have a perspective of destiny rather than the perspective of capacity.
And number two, it will be a wall of protection for you. America’s Leadership Expert It will protect you when people come against you and say, “You will not amount to anything. You would never be able to do that. Yeah, I hear you want to do that but you can’t do that. Nobody can do that. People try. Yeah, Jimmy tried that and he couldn’t do that either. You’re not going to be able to do it.”
It will protect you from those words from other people but it will also protect you from the words inside your own head. A Truth wall based on your destiny, the promise. It is truth that comes from your creator, truth that comes from scripture.
It will create a wall that does two things for you, it gives you perspective and it gives you protection.
So this is Clay Staires America’s Leadership Expert with Tulsa Business Leadership with podcast number 28, talking about the Truth wall.
