The helicopter view of a leader’s life – Part 7

The 5 P’s of the helicopter view:

5. People. In his book, Talent is never enough; John C. Maxwell highlighted five types of people you are likely to encounter:

• Refreshers: they inspire your dream and energize your talents.
• Refiners: they sharpen your ideas and clarify your vision.
• Reflectors: they mirror your energy, neither adding nor subtracting from it.
• Reducers: they try to reduce your vision and efforts to their comfort level.
• Rejecters: they deny your talent, hinder your efforts, and impede your vision.

Getting a helicopter view of your life entails examining the influential people in your life and ascertaining which category they fall into.  This should determine how you would continue relating with them. Remember the popular saying – “you cannot fly with the eagles if you scratch with the chickens.” Some of us need to change the people in our inner circle; others need to refresh their pool of friends; and a few of us may just need to change our church if we are not growing there. You should also evaluate your relationship with your spouse to identify areas where you need to make profitable adjustments.

Above all, you should evaluate your person. If your friends were to place you in any of these 5 categories, where would you fall? In addition, you should never forget that as a believer, you have the power that raised Christ from the dead dwelling in you and you can do all things. However, the person that is most powerful to hinder your progress is you.  What are the internal changes you require to help you advance towards your purpose? D. L Moody once said, “I have never met a man who has given me much trouble as myself.” If you would look deep inside you, I believe you will also see many troubles you are giving yourself and I trust God to assist you in addressing them.

Die high!

Dearly beloved, a believer is expected to attain peak performance before death. We should all ‘die high’. Proverbs 4:18 (MSG) says “The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine”. If you are not experiencing continuous brightness in every area of your life, you are walking against the default setting of a leader in Christ and you should be getting a helicopter view of your life right now. Also, to ensure you are always on track in the bright lane of excellence and eternal significance, you should spend time regularly to get a helicopter view of your life.

Whenever you are on holidays, the first thing that should come to your mind should be “helicopter view”. It’s sad that some will prefer their companies to give them cash in place of their leave. If only they knew that they were monetizing their destiny, I’m sure they wouldn’t do so. Some of us who are able to get out of the field of play spend all the time gallivanting. This should not be the case.

Please don’t just get swept away with the tide of life. Let us make it a habit to regularly stand back from the field of play, and with a heart full of prayer and thanksgiving, evaluate the 5 P’s of the helicopter view. When you are done, you should have a master plan from the throne of grace that will help you achieve your God-given purpose. “It is not enough to run, one must also arrive” (German proverb).