Dec 4, 2014

Seven Attributes Of Vocational Success

Common Sense Commentary: Every human being has some inborn talent or talents which were placed there by God who created us. I am not now speaking of the Christian spiritual gifts listed in the Bible, but natural human inborn talents and inborn inclinations to certain abilities not given to every other human. Those gifts, and there are a wide variety of them, were assigned to each person according the the will of God for that persons life and benefit and the benefit of those around him.
A great orchestra may be composed of all sorts of non-spiritual people. Some people have several inborn talents. Often, all of those talents are not cultivated or used by the possessor of them. Having founded three Christian Schools, I often saw young people who had some extraordinary talent, but because of a lack of confidence, motivation, or laziness, never practiced or used it as God intended. Others who had less talent, tried and persisted in cultivating a talent they had little ability to do, but succeeded in using the little natural ability they had to great advantage. Too often, highly talented people who use their talents and become very successful in a vocation ... or sport, are so vainly proud of themselves that they can't resist boasting of their ability ... which God gave them at birth. As usual, God has a word for those who brag and exalt themselves because of their success. "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?  1 Cor.4:7.


Here are seven internal factors of vocational success,  Some of them are primarily due to a God given gift or talent, while others are more due to the individual's spiritual content as a result of fulfilling God's admonition to "Study to shew thyself approved unto God...." (2 Tim.2:15) or maybe their personal drive to do well "..... be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man ......" 1 Kings 2:2. 

You may assign these as you will as to what part is God given or to the individual's motivational initiative.

1. SEMP Balance - (Spiritual, Emotional, Mental, Physical Balance). This means, in the Spiritual realm, don't go off on tangents, extremes, over doing, majoring on minors or blowing things out of proportion. Some do this with the doctrines of grace vs. works or works vs. grace, predestination vs. foreknowledge, denominationalism etc. In the Emotional arena, it would be love and hate, prejudices, selfishness, generosity, mourning, jealousy, handling money, hoarding or spending etc. Mentally, there is superiority complex vs. Inferiority complex, wholesome thoughts vs. sinful thoughts, solving hard problems, keeping negative thoughts under control, mental hangups, political opinions and sports fanaticism.   Under Physical, be balanced in exercise vs rest, food intake, hygiene, grooming and appearance etc. But in all these things maintain logical balance with reality, right and decency. All of the above may overlap or be included in more than one area but all can be extremism of one sort or another. Cultivate a balanced life. Avoid extremism. Embrace total commitment to God, truth and things worthwhile.

2. Mental Vision - I'm not sure whether this is inborn, learned or a combination of both. I do know it is a powerful attribute to vocational success. I mean by this, the ability to perceive trends of change, trends of new, different and futuristic developments. Knowing things are going to come about before the fact. In a sense, looking over the horizon at what will be, based on a series of clues, facts, logic and perception. I am not speaking of spiritual vision or super-human vision but a human, mental gift of arriving at preconceived mental understanding of what will  be... in all likelihood. I think this ability is quite rare but enormously helpful.


3. Analytics - This is also a unique gift which can be improved upon by practice. The ability to accurately analyze or dissect a problem or fact or situation into its specific parts. To see its composition or infrastructure, and therefore understand what it is and what its effects upon things or people might be. How it can be utilized to benefit or damage. How it might be improved and made to function according to your own imaginative exploration of possibilities. A scientist, inventor, or architect  must be analytical.


4. Innovation - Innovation is another attribute which is most likely inborn (a gift) which improves with use and experience. It is the ability to mentally see possibilities which are not obvious. The innovative mind can look at a problem or broken object and see, in his/her mind, what repair or part is needed to solve or fix the thing. He can then transfer that image as a transparent template over other things he already possesses to find something he can substitute or make to fit as a replacement for the broken part or to solve the problem.


5. Philaborous  - This is a made-up word to fit an attribute for which I could not find a single word. It means "Love of labor". Few people ever arrive at true, vocational success who do not love to work. Laziness or avoidance of work is pretty much a sure route to failure to produce success in any vocation. It was the second only to spiritual content in my hiring or rejecting an applicant's desire to be a part of our ministries in Tallahassee, Fla. A motivated, committed, hard worker with a lower IQ is always preferable to a lazy genius with many talents. Criminals, drug pushers and even many couch potatoes are too lazy to hold a salary paying job but will steal, lie, cheat, extort and even murder to keep from working an honest job. That they all eventually get caught and rot away in jail doesn't seem to register on their brains. I truly believe that spiritual people are never lazy.  I read of no lazy Prophets or Apostles. Tiredness is not laziness. Tiredness is temporary; laziness is habitual.


6. Leadership - Leadership takes many forms. A good leader must first be a good follower.
So, many leaders are still in follower positions ... working their way up. In fact, all true Leaders are also, at the same time, followers of a higher leader or a board of directors or a voting public. or, at least, God. It is also possible for a person with great leadership ability to never reach the top job. It is not uncommon for that person to not even realize they have leadership ability ... until they arise to a leadership position. Whether you have leadership ability or not, being a greatly motivated, producing follower of the person in charge, is still a sure route to vocational success ... if your boss has any intelligence and fairness at all, which they sometimes do not.


7. Endurance - This is a determining quality in any vocational success. Winners don't quit and quitters don't win. Don't be in too big a rush to climb the success ladder. Build a firm, faithful foundation upon which to launch your career. My method of promoting people in our ministry of 150 employees, in various ministries, was to elevate the best possible person for the job, whether I liked them or they liked me or not. I can live with a bad personality in a job he/she does better than anyone else available. I cannot live with an effervescent  personality who can't or won't do the job they hold. I have fired people I liked and hired people I didn't much care for ... if they did their job and were not disloyal. A leader must expect occasional minor criticism and negative idle talk about himself, if it is not habitual. But real disloyalty was never tolerated, by me, for longer than the next years contract. If your employer does not see your qualities or leadership ability, ask for a promotion. If he/she still doesn't recognize your worth, look for a job where they will, but don't quit the one you have until you have another one. In either case, don't give up on yourself, but allow for the possibility that the boss's opinion is right. A most difficult quality in judging one's self is being objective and honest about your own abilities. Almost everyone is subjective about themselves.


Use your brain. Almost anything is possible.... RB

Three Innovative ways to load your stuff..                                                                                              


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