The Craig And Greg Show: Setting Goals, Making Changes

January 25, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.

Goal-setting and change-making are integral parts of a leader’s job. However, it can often feel like actually accomplishing these tasks is one of the hardest parts of the job! In this episode, Greg and I dive into how to successfully set and accomplish goals, and how to strategically create change in a way that doesn’t disenfranchise your team.

  • [0:30] Why aren’t more people successful in their goal-setting? 
  • [1:30] Focusing on too many things can paralyze a leader.
  • [3:48] Leaders—by definition—have a lot of things on their plates. How do we find the areas that are the most strategic for us to change?
  • [5:28] Leaders need to set a place of change that the entire team can stick to.
  • [7:02] Leaders must learn to trust their teammates to get tasks done.
  • [9:01] Changes are vital for us personally and organizationally, but we must choose those changes strategically and carefully.
  • [10:02] Celebrating accomplishments in meeting our goals is very important.
  • [12:08] How do leaders find the speed of change?
  • [13:39] Enlisting and energizing change agents in the organization will extend a leader’s influence.
  • [15:57] Leader’s shouldn’t make key decision when they are exhausted or distracted.
  • [19:12] Greg shares a helpful acrostic for F.O.C.U.S.
  • [21:29] A coach can be invaluable in helping you be successful in all of your change initiatives. This is where we can help you.

Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.

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Making Better Resolutions

January 9, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Is New Year’s Day really the best time to make a resolution? Well, maybe! Here are some thoughts to help you be more successful whenever you resolve to make some healthy changes in your life.

Check out this episode of The Podcast.

If you would like to go a little deeper on this, check out these posts I previously shared:

Here are a bunch of ways to get in touch with me and follow along with other projects on which I am involved

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Saturday In The Psalms—Resolutions

February 17, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

I will… (9x in Psalm 101).

Psalm 101 is only eight verses long, but David makes nine I will resolutions to God. Perhaps you might consider making these resolutions yourself—

(1) I will sing of mercy and justice. These are two sides of the same coin; in fact, it’s only when we know God’s justice that we can appreciate His mercy. Both God’s justice and His mercy need to be celebrated.

(2) I will sing praises. Regardless of our situation or setting, God is worthy to be praised.

(3) I will behave wisely in a perfect way AND (4) I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. A commitment to integrity, living a godly lifestyle, and leaving a godly legacy.

(5) I will set nothing wicked before my eyes AND (6) I will not know wickedness. A commitment to be childlike in regard to wickedness, and watchfulness of anything impure.

(7) I will destroy AND (8) I will not endure AND (9) I will destroy all the wicked. A resolution to cut-off all relationships that are not God-honoring.

Resolutions aren’t just for New Year’s Day. Resolutions can be made any time we sense something in our life isn’t as God-pleasing as it could be.

What resolutions are you willing to make?

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Your Anti-Porn Plan

January 5, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

The Porn CircuitPerhaps a New Year’s resolution you made was to stop viewing pornography. That’s a great first step! I like these tips from CovenantEyes for helping you stick with your no-porn goal.

  1. Develop a game plan. Instead of retreating to porn, have a book to read or another activity planned.
  2. Get outside of yourself. When you focus on your circumstances, the temptation to escape comes calling. Serving others is the best antidote to a self-induced pity party. Ring a bell for the Salvation Army, visit a nursing home or work in a soup kitchen.
  3. Burn off steam and calories. Go for walks. Get some exercise in. Hit the gym with a friend.
  4. Reach out. Call a friend. Be open and honest about your feelings and temptations. (Keeping secrets breeds failure.)
  5. Avoid Facebook and social media. Comparing your life to the façade on Facebook only leads to more stress and loneliness.
  6. Don’t throw in the towel. If you have a setback, get back up and start over!

And I’ll add one more of my own:

7. Learn your triggers. Do you usually feel the urge to look at porn at night? when you’re tired? when you’re lonely? Know when your temptation is at its strongest, and be ready with one of the above strategies before the temptation flares up.

CovenantEyes has some great ebooks and other resources you can check out here. You also might want to add their accountability software to your devices.

YOU CAN DO THIS—YOU CAN BEAT YOUR PORN ADDICTION!

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New Year, New Attitude

December 31, 2015 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

If you’re looking to challenge yourself to be a better person in the New Year, you couldn’t go wrong with this list—

  1. Hate what is evil
  2. Cling to what is good
  3. Love others with real compassion
  4. Honor others above yourselves
  5. Work hard
  6. Keep growing spiritually
  7. Find new ways to serve the Lord
  8. Be joyful in hope
  9. Be patient in hard times
  10. Be faithful in prayer
  11. Share with others who are in need
  12. Practice hospitality
  13. Bless those who persecute you
  14. Laugh with your friends when they’re happy
  15. Cry with your friends when they’re sad
  16. Live in harmony with everyone
  17. Make friends with those others call “nobodies”
  18. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not
  19. Don’t respond to insults with insults, but with love
  20. Try to do what is right in the eyes of everyone
  21. Live at peace with everyone
  22. Don’t take revenge, but let God handle it
  23. Don’t let evil get the best of you, but get the best of evil by doing good

(Hat tip to the apostle Paul for this list taken from Romans 12:9-21)

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The 13th Resolution (book review)

December 31, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

The 13th ResolutionAlthough The 13th Resolution was originally written by Charles Sheldon in 1928, it’s an excellent book to read (or re-read) if you are thinking about making New Year’s resolutions.

This book is short, but Sheldon’s writing quickly endears the Blaisdell family to us. We get to listen in as Mr. Blaisdell is reading his list of resolutions to his family. Some of the resolutions pertain just to him, and some involve the entire family. We then get to see a brief glimpse as these resolutions are put into effect in their first couple of days, but quickly the story jumps to the family gathering on New Year’s Day one year later. We hear the Blaisdells telling what changed over the past year, what resolutions stuck, and what resolutions flopped, but we are left to fill in the details of how that transpired.

You can read this book aloud to your family in less time that it would take to watch a sitcom on TV, and then see what sort of discussion it sparks in your home. Very enjoyable!

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Thursdays With Oswald—The Vices And Virtues Of Vowing

January 3, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

The Vices And Virtues Of Vowing 

     The vices of vowing outweigh the virtues, because vowing is built on a misconception of human nature as it really is. If a man had the power to will pure will it would be different, but he has not. There are certain things a man cannot do, not because he is bad, but because he is not constituted to do them. We make vows which are impossible of fulfillment because no man can remain master of himself always; there comes a time when the human will must yield allegiance to a force greater than itself, it must yield to God or to the devil. 

     Modern ethical teaching bases everything on the power of the will, but we need to recognize also the perils of the will. The man who has achieved a moral victory by the sheer force of his will is less likely to want to become a Christian than the man who has come to the moral frontier of his own need. It is the obstinate man who makes vows, and by the very fulfillment of his vow he may increase his inability to see things from Jesus Christ’s standpoint. …

     It is not our vows before God that tell, but the coming to God exactly as we are, in all our weakness, and being held and kept by Him. Make no vows at this New Year time, but look to God and bank on the Reality of Jesus Christ. 

From God’s Workmanship

When considering your New Year’s resolutions (or vows, as Chambers calls them), remember these sobering words: “It is the obstinate man who makes vows, and by the very fulfillment of his vow he may increase his inability to see things from Jesus Christ’s standpoint.”

Don’t let your resolutions blind you to seeing how Jesus Christ wants to work through your weaknesses.

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Search & Seizure

January 2, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

The beginning of a new year is a time when many people resolve to change things in their lives. They vow to stop smoking, change their diet, exercise, take a class, or do other things that will make them “a better person.”

But my question is: Why wait until January 1 to start something new?

In one of his most intimate psalms, David prayed,

Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24 AMP)

Charles Spurgeon added this thought:

“Every man who is wise in the kingdom of heaven, will cry, Search me, O God, and try me; and he will frequently set apart special seasons for self-examination, to discover whether things are right between God and his soul. The God whom we worship is a great heart-searcher; and of old His servants knew Him as the Lord which searches the heart and tries the reins of the children of men. Let me stir you up in His name to make diligent search and solemn trial of your state, lest you come short of the promised rest. That which every wise man does, that which God Himself does with us all, I exhort you to do with yourself….”

This search and seizure of unhealthy thoughts or unhealthy habits should be done alone with God. There in the quietness of God’s presence we can resolve to live differently. Oswald Chambers wrote:

“Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world.”

Today is as good as any day will ever be to allow God to search you, and to seize those thoughts which are keeping you back from the fullness of life He wants for you. Allow His Spirit to help you today.

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Happy New (School) Year

September 7, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

This is a new year for many people, especially students heading to college, or families with school-aged children. We’re all coming out of the fun-and-sun times of the summer, and it’s time to get back to a more normal routine.

With this return to routine, many people make New (School) Year’s resolutions. If you’re going to make them, you should do your best to keep them, don’t you think? So here are a few quick bullet points from my message on Sunday.

  • Check your motivation—be motivated by something which will last into eternity.
  • Set realistic goals—we often overestimate what we can get done in a day, and underestimate what we can get done in a year.
  • Don’t quit when you slip—there’s always slip-ups with new things, so be prepared for it, and don’t throw in the towel when it happens.
  • Start now—the Bible uses the word today twice as often as tomorrow, and uses now 1000 times more than later. Get the point? Don’t wait!

And two more tips that may help:

Guys—studies show you are more likely to follow through on your resolutions if you set specific goals (like: read one chapter a day, or exercise for 30 minutes three times a week).

Ladies—studies also show you are more like to stick with your resolutions if you tell a friend what you have resolved to do differently, and then ask that friend to follow up with you.

Happy new (school) year!

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