In financial management, it is proven that the longer you wait to begin to invest, the less money you will accumulate because you are losing out on the benefit of compound interest.  Every day you wait, you are losing money.

The same is true in business and in life.  The longer you put off a task, the more it will cost you.  The cost could be monetary, emotional, time or even your reputation.    It has been said that true leaders and successful people are those that get things done.   They do the things that the average person won’t do, or at least won’t do right away.

There are many reasons why people procrastinate, among them are:

• Fear
• Lack of interest
• The results of the task are not owned by individual
• Project / Goal is too large or not feasible
• Poor time management
• Overuse of the word “Yes”
• Unorganized
• Laziness*

Read the full article here and get tips for overcoming the reasons for procrastination.

Create a day of productive momentum!

Keep it moving!

Tiffany L. Lymon

February 15, 2012

As I reflect back on the past few days, there are two things that stand out the most.  The first is the sudden passing of Whitney Houston, the second is Valentine’s Day.   These two occurrences are not directly related or even remotely similar, but I have found some one common theme.

Observing conversations, I can see that there is a dichotomy in the views that people have for both of these events.   Regarding Whitney Houston, there are people that are sad and devastated at the loss of an icon, a mom, a daughter, an individual with great talent and also great pain and then there are other people who are indifferent or callous to her passing, feeling as though it was a result of her choices, her sins, and the way she lived her life.    Similarly, for Valentine’s Day there are people who are ecstatic about the day and the celebration of love, and then there are those that would hide under a rock for the day if they could.   I am not standing in judgement or support of either view, in fact, I am here to say that whatever your view, wherever you stand, Jesus Loves You.

What happens often time when there are incidences that cause such strong opposing views, people are left feeling hurt, unaccepted, wrong, or mute – because differences are not always handled with love.   People on either end begin to attack one another, creating an even wider gap between them.   These life challenges remind us of the fickle nature of humanity, but also reinforces the faithfulness of God.    God loves you unconditionally.   When you don’t agree with Him, He loves you.  When you don’t do things His way, He still loves you.  If you don’t know anything else, know that Jesus loves you.   People may not accept you and may not agree with you, but the creator of all heaven and earth loves and accepts and adores you.  Also, when you interact with others, remember that in all their issues and regardless of their views God loves them too!

Rest In His Love!

Pearls In Practice

How do you treat others when their opinion is different than yours?   How are you treated by others when you have differing opinions?   Reflect on how you can allow God’s love to transform how you react in both scenarios.

Prayer Starter

Lord, while it is hard for me to comprehend, I know that you love me beyond measure.   I know that you love me unconditionally and in spite of anything that I do.   There are times when I find myself being subjected to receive or perform actions that do not stem from love, and while those actions will leave me momentarily feeling unloved or not accepted, I know that your for love me is for all eternity.

Empower Your Pursuit

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” ~ Romans 5:8

People have vaccinations, medications, living wills and wills as protective and preventive tools.   But what does a business have? 

Businesses, of all sizes, are independent entities, created by individuals, but then taking on a life of their own.   But what happens more often than not with small businesses is that the life and health of the business is attached to that of its founder.   This is due primarily to lack of continuity planning.   If you are striving to build a business , a brand, that benefits from the potential for immortality, you have to have a plan.    A business continuity plan is similar to a living will for a person.   It is a document with a list of the actions that you want and expect to be carried out in the event that you are unable to conduct ‘business as usual’.   This can be due to something as small as a computer crash and can include: power outages, forces of nature, illness or injury, or even death.

Read the full article for tips for getting your business prepared for the unexpected.

“You are looking for me in my past -  as I used to be, but I don’t live there anymore”

As you walk through your life’s pursuits, you will inevitably grow, evolve, and change.   These changes will affect the way that you view and interact with the environment around you, however, it does not change the environment around you.    In other words,  from the outside, someone may not be able to recognize the extent of your transformation and when this happens they may try to stir up a battle between your present and your past.

In Luke 24, there is an account of what happened when it was first discovered that Jesus was gone from his tomb.   They were looking for Him where they last saw Him but He had risen and was no longer there.   This may be very similar to what you experience in your own life at times.  There are people from your past who knew you before God’s transformation and renewal of your life.   People who are looking for you and expecting you to act as you ‘were’.   What they do not realize is that you are no longer there.

You may feel a bit uncomfortable when your past is exhumed.   You may even begin to feel like you need to become defensive or confrontational.   But there is no need for you to do either.   In fact, this is a great time to rejoice at the reminder of how far you have come, by the grace of God!   Your past has passed.   You do not need to deny it but you are also not defined by it.   Your past is there as a benchmark, a placeholder to represent where you have been but your reality is that you are no longer there.

Live confident in the truth that you are ‘a new creature and old things have passed away’.   When those past distractions try to interrupt your present destiny simply ‘Return to Sender’ because the person they are looking for no longer lives here.

Pearls In Practice

What is your normal reaction to the residue of your past?   Do you allow it to take you back?   Does it wrap itself around you keeping you stuck?   Read Romans 6: 1- 14 and reflect on what that means for your life.

Prayer Starter

Lord, today I stand humble before you as I look at the road that I have traveled with you.  I know that there is no way that I can renew my own life, but I do know that you are able.   I thank you wholeheartedly for loving me enough to create a destiny for me and then to intimately mold me towards that destiny.  I stand in confidence against all distractions that try to tempt me to return to my past.   For, it is in you that I live and breathe and have my being.

Empower Your Pursuit

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ~ Romans 6: 1- 4

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

What is that dreaded conversation that you have been avoiding?  Is it a client that has been breaching their agreement, or maybe it is a contractor or an employee that is just not quite meeting your expectations.   You know that everyone has their bad days and you are empathetic but somethings gotta give – this is causing you money.

The time has come for you to express your position, but is there a right way to do it?

Read the full article to learn how you, as a woman entrepreneur, can express yourself with confidence.

Create a day with progressive momentum!

Keep It Moving,

February 7, 2011

In the aftermath of the Superbowl, there are many opinions about what happened, how it happened, how it could have happened, etc.   With regards to the game itself, there is, inevitably, a winner and a loser.   However, the way that each team/player perceives this fate is relative.

For example, if you are on the team that lost you could perceive this as a total failure or you can focus on all the of the victories, good decisions, support,and teamwork that enabled you to make it this far.   It would be a shame for this one loss to overshadow what had to be a tremendous season to even make it this far.    This is how many people live their lives -allowing their victories to live in the shadow of their defeats.   But that is not the way that we are meant to live.

The Bible tells us in Phil 4:8, o focus our thinking on things that are good and positive and that when we do this our outlook on our lives will change.   This is not saying that just having a positive thought will change everything around you, but it is saying that if you think on the things that are good, then change how you are around everything.

Today, right where you stand, in the midst of whatever you might be going through, you can change your circumstances.   If you want a life that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy train your mind and your senses to focus on these things.

Pearls In Practice

Take an inventory of your thoughts and how your thoughts affect your outlook on your current circumstances.   Do you find that each of the elements of the scripture are present in your life?   If not, how can you refocus your thoughts in a way that causes a shift in what you experience in your life?

Prayer Starter

Lord, you have given me the ability to choose how  I allow the things I can not control to affect my life.   I can choose to focus on the gifts and the fruits and the elements that you have placed before me, or I can choose to focus on what is lacking, what I can not control, and what is wrong in my life.   My prayers to you are to live a life of abundance and you have illustrated through scripture that I can begin that life with a thought life of abundance, now please help me to direct my focus to those things that will bring me the delight in life that you have provided for me.

Empower Your Pursuit

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ~ Philippians 4:8

February 1, 2012
Happy Belated New Year!  Glad to be back!  Since the start of the New Year, I have found myself in an ‘uncomfortable’ season.   It was a season of ‘stillness’ and separation.

In the Bible, there are many verses that instruct us that it is imperative to be consecrated or ‘set apart’.

• Romans 12: 1- 2
• 1 Peter 2:9
• John 18:36

In these references, we are instructed to live among others and within the world, but to remain separate from it.

We also see countless examples when Jesus physically separated Himself from others to reconnect with God.   These were times of stillness and times when He was in a lonely place ( Luke 5:16), spending quiet time (Mark 1:35), and completely separated from people and desires (Matt 26:36) often including separation from food and drink.
In the past month, I experienced what true consecration should feel like.   I was physically here, but my mind, emotions, and interests were totally disconnected.   After releasing the temptation to believe there was something physically wrong, I just accepted it.   Resisting the guilt, resisting the temptation to think I was being punished, and resisting the need to control the season – I just flowed with it.   Then after about a month, just as suddenly as the disconnect came, it left.   But in its residue, it left clarity, rejuvenation, energy, optimism, strength and courage.

This is what it means to Be Still and Know.   I was still and now things that I once thought and believed have been upgraded to things I confidently know.   When you are placed in your consecrated season – will you Be Still and Know or will you Be Still but think, and fight and resist.   The choice is yours and so are the results.

Pearls In Practice

Looking at your daily life…do you live in connection with God or with the world and your affairs within it.   How would you rate your ‘time apart’ with God?  What can you to improve it?

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” ~ Psalm 46:10

~  Submitted By Tiffany Lymon, Speaker | Coach, | Optimal Living Strategist and CEO of  Pearls In Pursuit, LLC.   The Daily Pursuit is provided to give readers  support in their personal and professional pursuits.   All scripture  quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New  International Version ®. Copyright© 2011 by Pearls In Pursuit Coaching,  LLC.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.

December 20, 2011

As we come towards the end of the year, there may be some things that you realize have gone undone.   With so little time left, you may be wondering – why even bother – What’s the point?

The point is that you have started it.  So what its harder than you thought or it is taking longer than you anticipated.  Dig deep and push through it.   Think about all of the dreams and visions that God is cultivating in you, and His promise and faithfulness to continue that work.   What would happen if God decided to give up on you because you are moving too slow or are shrinking in fear or going in the totally opposite direction?    Will God just leave you undone?

As you observe your environment and the evidence of God’s handiwork you will not notice anything undone, there are no loose ends to tie up no half-way created things.   “But it’s not going to be perfect” – maybe that is your excuse.   That may be your opinion, but the truth is that you are not perfect either; none of us are.   But God….God can use anything, anyone in any state.    Don’t live at a standstill because you can’t move forward in perfection.   Just move forward towards completion…Completion in the best way that you can achieve it.  That is your responsibility.

Right now, do not focus on your resolutions for 2012, go back through your 2011 and make sure that everything has been resolved.  Follow-up, Follow-through, delegate, complete anything that has not been done.  Focus on working to completion on everything that you have the capacity to do, while God brings you to completion by providing everything you can’t do.

Pearls In Practice

Reflect back through your to-do list.  For everything that is not done make a decision – Complete it;  Delegate it; or Create the plan for progression.   Even if you decide not to move forward with the task be sure to leave it in a state of completion not just abandonment.

Prayer

Lord, as I go through this life, I realize that it is as hard for me to complete things as it is for me to start them.   It is when I am here, in the middle of a task, that I realize just how much I need your help and your strength.   Following your example, I know that the course for me to take is towards completion and as hard as that may be, I also know that you are waiting for me on that course.   I ask you to please reveal to me any areas of my life where I have not completed something and give me the courage, strength, and help that I need to complete it in a way that is worthy of your name.  AMEN.

Empower Your Pursuit

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  ~ Phil 1:6

December 8, 2011

Last week I had the pleasure of training at Gallaudet University, a school for the hearing impaired.   Upon arriving at the University, I quickly realized that I was in the minority.   In fact, I think I was the only person that could not communicate using sign language.   This made me the impaired person.   I was disabled, as I was unable to communicate without the interpreter.   Although, I had prepared for the workshop, I felt completely inadequate.   I felt like Moses when he said, “I do not know what to say”, except, “I did not know how to say it”.

Has this happened to you before?   You find yourself at a place or in a position where you feel somewhat inadequate.  You are asking God and/or yourself Why?  How? Or maybe more specifically – Why me? Or How me?  As you look around you see that you are different from everyone around you.   You don’t speak like them.  You don’t know what they know.  You don’t understand what they are talking about.   You just don’t quite feel like you fit in.  Yet, you have been sent there.   Sent to a place where you know you should be, but are not quite sure how you will fare in that place.

It is not a comfortable place to be.   Maybe you want to give away the responsibility to someone else or just suggest to God that it no longer needs to be done.   Yet, you can’t run away from the call.   What do you do?

Here is what I did.   I got really quiet and still before the meeting and asked God to speak through me through my words and presence.   When I did this my confidence returned and not only did I make it through the training, but we connected so much I was asked to return.

God says, “Just say what I command you”.   Whatever you are worrying about, doubting or second-guessing today, give it to God and then just say it, do it , or go the way that He commands you!

Prayer In Practice

How do you deal with things when you feel inadequate to do what God commands?   Do you embrace your inadequacy or His greatness?   What is God saying to you in response to your doubts?

Prayer

Lord, although I pray for you to position and promote to newer levels, when I find myself there and my humanity and my weaknesses begin to show, I feel inadequate and begin to doubt whether or not I belong there.  I thank you for moving me out of my comfort zone and into the places where you have created for me, and I ask you to please understand that when I am in the places that I know my natural strength did not earn and cannot sustain I get a little anxious.   Please continue to speak to me, through me, over me and into me so that I can be obedient to serve where I am planted.

Empower Your Pursuit

Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”   The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”  ~ Exodus 4: 10 -12