Church culture

"In a church culture, it's OK to talk about what you struggled with and overcame.  It's not OK to talk about what you're struggling with and are overcoming."

#truth



Listening to Mental Mastery Mondays | Life Purpose, Productivity, and Self-Discipline (Let's Get Naked So We Can Get Better - Ep. 159): http://gocoastalmedia.libsyn.com/lets-get-naked-so-we-can-get-better-ep-159

When we're emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically naked, we're forced to be honest and real with ourselves. When this happens, we can't hide behind something we may normally use to cover them up. 

Four Ways to Cover Up

Oftentimes we employ various strategies or justifications for keeping ourselves "covered-up" so we don't have to deal with the truth of our nakedness.  I've diluted these down to 4 general areas:

  • Making excuses for our imperfections
  • Blaming others for our shortcomings
  • Feeling Threatened by other's victories
  • Overstating our own victories

Each one of these is focused on the external which is outside of control.  That makes it really easy to ignore the issue and continue on as we have previously. But, this leaves us short of our best. 

We can only improve ourselves when we're honest about what needs to be improved and we can only be honest when we strip ourselves of everything we're using to cover up.  We must get naked to know what's really going on. 

Finding Our Real Support Team

When we're naked and honest about ourselves we find out who our real partners are in life. We discover who's going to be there to help us move forward.  This doesn't mean we rely on others to take us there, but instead, use their support to help us move there on our own. 

Don't Fall Into Complacency

One big stumbling point we can fall into when we're honest about ourselves is complacency. By that I mean, we are honest about our flaws, but we're not challenged to deal with them.  We must find that balance between being honest and being complacent.

Getting naked and honest about ourselves isn't about championing our flaws either.  Be careful you're not saying "well, that's who I am. Love it or leave it." That will not lead to improvement either.

I hope this episode helps you get honest and naked with yourself so you can humble yourself enough to seek the assistance you need to overcome the areas that need help.  There is no real gain is projecting a false success.

Listen to this episode and give me your feedback on how you've not been honest in the past and what you're going to do to change the situation.




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