I hate games where you can get punched for doing something that is natural for you to do. There’s the game where you try to get people to look at a circle you make with your fingers. There is the Door Knob game where you have to touch a door knob immediately after you’ve passed gas or you get pummeled. The worst is when you flinch and get the ‘ol two for flinching.
Flinching is the norm. We get an idea and we wait, and wait, and wait, then we flinch and pass on it and we get punched down the road because we didn’t move when we should have moved.
We will always pay the price for not puling the trigger when we should. What are you flinching on right now in your life or ministry?
- Family vacation
- Leadership development
- Disciplining a Student or Adult Leader
- Launching that program.
- Stopping that program
- Starting a new habit
- Stopping an old habit
- Changing Up Wednesday Night
- Talking To Your Pastor About That Raise
We all deal with something we are flinching on. Reflecting on the past decade I read the 25 Tech Fails of 2010. If you look at the companies that failed the most, they are successful, well established companies, that took risks. Do they care that it didn’t go well? Probably. Did it cost them a ton of money to launch? Yep. Will they be listed in next years top 2010 list? I hope so, because it at least says they are trying. The one’s who didn’t get mentioned are flinching, waiting for the “no fail zone” to widen so they can get away unscathed.
I like this quote by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, he told the BBC. “Remember, we celebrate our failures. This is a company where it’s absolutely okay to try something that’s very hard, have it not be successful, and take the learning from that.”
You are going to get punched, so let it be for trying, failing, and learning rather than for flinching.