Day 74- Self Leadership
📖Daily Reading
Nehemiah 1-7
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Nehemiah 5: 8-11
At the meeting I said to them, “We are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them?” And they had nothing to say in their defense.
Then I pressed further, “What you are doing is not right! Should you not walk in the fear of our God in order to avoid being mocked by enemy nations? I myself as well as my brothers and my workers, have been lending the people money and grain, but now let us stop this business of charging interest. You must restore their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and homes to them this very day. And repay the interest you charged when you lent them money, grains, new wine, and olive oil”
My brain was lit up as I began reading Nehemiah. It got me excited and feeling like it helped me to have a personal breakthrough. Our world right now could use some Nehemiah’s to rise up! I wanted to jump into the story and help build the walls, Nehemiah was so inspiring! He is an example of what great leader looks like. As I meditated on the scriptures God began to speak to me in even more personal way, about what self leadership means. The book of Nehemiah is about rebuilding and fortifying the walls of Jerusalem. The analogy I am going to make is that our thoughts and emotions are our walls. They determine the quality of our life.
Nehemiah was a great leader because he had a clear mission and purpose and then he got other people just as excited an invested in this mission and purpose. They were unified in one mission and purpose. The wall covered a large area - around the whole city. He gave everyone a job on a section of the wall. He was organized, everyone understood their jobs and responsibilities. As problems arose he didn’t deny them, he acknowledged them and then dealt with them. When fear arose, he validated it and equipped people with weapons and also developed a strategy to alert everyone and go to help defend an area under attack when needed. He validated it, but he didn’t allow it to be an excuse to not get the work done or to allow people to give into their fears and quit. He reassured and equipped people and inspired them to have courage and remind them that they were a part of something bigger. When they were hungry, in debt, overwhelmed or discouraged he fought on their behalf and sought justice.
So what does this have to do with self leadership, you ask? In our modern self development world there are many approaches that work and you often hear words like hustle, grit, grind, go big or go home which are all actually pretty good characteristics to have as part of reaching goals. But, they will only work in the long run when used conjunction with acknowledging and doing their opposites; rest, reflect, restore and defend. To reach a goal of fortifying and rebuilding your walls aka your thoughts and emotions, you have to make room for all parts of yourself, acknowledge, appreciate and take care of all parts of yourself other wise you can make one area strong, but other parts of you may get worn out and/or revolt, and then you are not really accomplishing the thing you want to accomplish in the bigger picture. You are undermining your own success. Nehemiah clearly understood this.
In the world of psychology there is an actual theory and school of thought that talks about this; the ‘psychology of the selves’, also referred to as 'parts work' that talks about our interpersonal internal relationship and it’s importance. I am going to let you into my nerdy brain a bit, I am a huge super-hero and action adventure nerd. In the world of DC comics there is a concept woven into the story lines called the multi-verse, where different timelines are being lived out by various versions of our selves. Right now in particular I am watching The Flash, one of the characters Harrison Wells actually has a ‘council of Wells’’ (a council of selves) that they consult when the are stuck and need help or insight on a problem or situation. If you haven’t heard of this example, you might have heard of the pretty recent and very popular Disney movie - Inside Out that also demonstrates this concept. Each thought and emotion was personified and given a voice and was heard which lead to healing and integration(self leadership) for the main character.
It is a concept I am starting to take more seriously and employ and experiment with myself as I try to reach new goals and become integrated. When I find myself not making the kind of progress that I want to make, rather than staying in my default mode of harsh and punitive inner commentary of things like this to myself: ‘you are a loser’, ‘you should be able to do better’ , ‘what’s wrong with you’, ‘why can’t you get this like so and so’, blah blah blah. I am learning to see this as a signal that there is a part of me that needs to be acknowledged, heard, accepted, understood, defended etc. and integrating them into the whole rather than giving them the power to weaken me or take over and derail me. Interestingly enough by ignoring, criticizing, denying, punishing we think we are showing strength - but in reality we are weakening and undermining ourselves.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
How does this resonate with you? How can you utilize this psychology of the selves and to be a better self-leader? You can inspire yourself to reach for the stars and rise and shine, we can do it together!
📖Tomorrows Reading
Nehemiah 8-13
Coaching Opportunity
Let's make 2023 the year of YOU by laying a solid foundational mind set! The world needs what only you have to offer! Give yourself the best gift ever, the best version of you is ready to rise & shine!
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If you have stuck with me this far, then you are not reading this by accident, I believe God has a plan for you and is calling you forward!😉🤩
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