Are You Working By Grind?
Grinding is such a prevalent way of doing business that you may not even be aware when you’re relying solely upon your own strength. At times it’s obvious, but other times it’s wearing a mask easily mistaken for something else. At times the grinding is physical exertion, and other times it is mental (or what I call “grinding in your head”). Let’s explore some of the signs that you may be working by grind.
- Financial Anxiety: Considering that the survival of a business is connected with the ability to eventually create, sustain, and grow revenues and profitability, a healthy focus on the numbers is important and a principle of good stewardship. However, you’re experiencing financial anxiety if you’re feeling desperate about money, or your thoughts are constantly consumed by how much money you are making (or not making) in your business.
- Prayerlessness : Complete prayerlessness is unlikely, but you may not be communing with God (the Ultimate CEO and business partner who is the source of your success) regularly. Your prayers are infrequent or rushed, and you’re missing an essential fuel for your faith.
- Lack of Sleep : Included in the Kingdom-driven entrepreneurship journey is the occasional all-nighter, but habitual sleeplessness is a sign of working by grind. A more obvious sign is lack of sleep due to stress, but a less obvious sign is when you’re not sleeping because you’re excited about the work that you do and simply won’t stop working or you’re constantly dissatisfied with the amount of time you have available to work.
- Analysis Paralysis : You may feel confused, overwhelmed, and unable to move forward in your business due to frequent over-thinking and continuous analyzing. You may feel like you received direction from Holy Spirit, but fear of failure leads to immobility and asking God for endless confirmations.
- No Boundaries : You make yourself available to your clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and keep your smartphone close at all times. You may even have fears that your ability to be successful in business is threatened by the time you need to spend with your loved ones.
- No Joy or Peace : You’re tired, worn-out, agitated, and carrying the stress of the everyday ups and downs of your business.
Those are the more recognizable signs, but here are some that are sneakier and perhaps may even surprise you. For example:
- You’re motivated by proving your haters and naysayers wrong
- You’re motivated by the idea of sustaining yourself because “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me!”
- You’re constantly attending networking events and conferences and/or looking for new ones to attend
- You are running two or more businesses and looking to add more for multiple streams of income even though none of your existing ones are generating a profit
- You change the customer focus God initially gave you to exclusively serve high-end clients
- You’re launching new products and services that are not in alignment with the mission or vision of your business
Good news for you (if you choose to believe it). You don’t have to strive endlessly to make things happen with the dream God placed on your heart for your business. You simply need God’s empowering presence, and everything else is going to flow from there.
Grace is that empowerment. It enables you to successfully do what God has called you to do and to do what you could never do on your own. It’s by God’s grace that you are able to do extraordinary things, have supernatural results, and eternal impact through your business.
Rhythm & Rest
#1 Make Plans But be flexible
Proverbs 16:1-3 says, “The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits. Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.”
What the scripture is saying is that you have freedom of thought and free will to make plans, but the answer (the reply and the success) lies in God’s response to those plans. He can and often does guide, change, and redirect them, so it’s important to have an ear to hear and be flexible.
#2 Be Diligent with a Spirit of Expectancy
Working in God’s rest does not mean sitting around doing nothing. As James 2:17 indicates, your faith without any corresponding action is useless.
Ask and expect to receive divine downloads, strategic direction, and godly wisdom. When you’re working in His rest, everything that flows from your business is a result of Christ working in you.
If you’ve had an idea resting in your heart for a while and it begins to show up in your thoughts again or in your dreams at night, get engaged!
#3 Think About What You’re Thinking About
It’s important to renew your mind daily, and one of the ways to do that is think about what you’re thinking about and align your thoughts with God’s word. A great way of doing this is to use Philippians 4:8-9 as a filter. The scripture says whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.
Take your thoughts through the filter. Does it pass? Is it true? Do your thoughts reflect God’s thoughts? Sometimes you’ll know the answer by getting in the scriptures and allowing Holy Spirit to illuminate the word in your heart. Other times Holy Spirit will bring the word to you.
If the thought doesn’t pass the filters, don’t go off running full steam ahead with that thought; bring it captive. Make it a prisoner and turn it over to God, asking Him to replace it with His thoughts.
#4 Embrace Sweet Sleep
Team No Sleep is not the team that you want to play on if you desire to experience God’s best in your business. Instead, you want to enjoy His presence and His blessing of wisdom at night as you sleep.
Believe and expect that God will impart divine strategies, solutions, creative ideas, and prophetic dreams while you’re being refreshed and restored through sleep. Expect to receive divine counsel from Holy Spirit.
This is the heart of your Ultimate CEO and business partner concerning you. Ask, and you will receive.
#5 Wholly reject anxiety
Anxiety is not a fruit of the spirit and is not your portion. In order to stay working in the flow of the Spirit, when anxiety comes regarding something that is happening (or perhaps not happening) in your business, stop what you’re doing. Your remedy for that moment is found in Psalm 46:10 where it says “Be still and know that I am God.”
In the Passion Translation it says:
Surrender your anxiety! Be silent and stop your striving and you will see that I am God. I am the God above all the nations, and I will be exalted throughout the whole earth.
Isn’t that good? It says to be silent and stop your striving, and then you will see that I am God.