Momentum for Life: Sustaining Personal Health, Integrity, and Strategic Focus as a Leader

You can't lead others until you lead yourself. If you can't lead yourself, you won't be effective at leading others. Self leadership precedes strategic leadership.

Our culture constantly shows how leaders have failed-from Bill Clinton's indiscretion to Martha Stewart's deception, from the business collapse at Enron to the military meltdown at Abu Ghraib prison. Many church problems likewise can be traced back to a failure of leadership. Such problems are nothing new. Stories of leadership failures are chronicled throughout the Bible.

"If you can't lead yourself, you won't be effective at leading others. Self leadership precedes strategic leadership." With this perspective, Michael Slaughter, lead pastor and chief visionary at Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church (www.ginghamsburg.org), explains his model for daily living, which he has adapted from the Psalms of Ascent. His five life practices for balance and self-leadership together form the acronym D-R-I-V-E: Devotion to God, Readiness for lifelong learning, Investing in key relationships, Visioning for the future, and Eating and Exercise for life. Taken together, they shape life as an upward momentum. They remind you that leadership is not about entitlement, but example.

Every follower of Christ needs to find the self-management practices that create momentum for life and guard against the temptation to downsize God's dream. "God can't steer a parked car," Slaughter says. "God is looking for people who will take their lives out of park and shift them into drive." These leadership tools will inspire and show you how to sustain personal health, integrity, and strategic focus as a leader.

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