From Spoke to Center

In 1978 two significant things happened to me. One certainly more significant in eternal value but both caused a major change in my life. The first I prayed the sinner's prayer and gave my life to Jesus Christ and became a born-again Believer, more on that later. The second is I met Zig Ziglar through his book "See You at the Top". Several years later I went to work for The Zig Ziglar Corporation and remained there for over five years.

One on the many things I learned from Zig was the whole concept of "life balance". At that point, I was in my second marriage and perusing the brass ring. It was all about work and getting to the next level. Zig helped me understand the importance of balancing faith, family, health, finances as well as career.

We even had an exercise called the wheel of life that looked like an old-time wagon wheel, you've probably seen in old westerns. Imagine if you will, five spokes on this wheel each with a different label at the end of the spoke. The five spokes where Faith, Family/Relationship, Health/Fitness, Finances & Career/Business. We would instruct each participant to put their name at the center of the hub. During the exercise, they would rate each area of their life (spoke) on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the outer part of the wheel. Once they scored the 5 areas they would connect the ranking to form their wheel of life. The question was asked if this is your wheel, how's the ride in your life?

Up until recently, I used this model to teach goal setting to my clients. The message was to lead a balanced life by keeping all five areas as close to a perfect circle as possible and improve low scores by concentrated effort or a goal.

Zig's wheel, it put God or faith as one of the spokes or just another area of your life to keep track of! Based on this God is equal to the other four areas, really? Isn't that what we do with God? We put him in a box and only take Him out on Sunday. At best, we give Him equal status with all the other stuff in our lives.

As I have matured as a follower of Jesus Christ I have come to the realization that I had it all wrong. No disrespect to Zig, but so did he. If our faith is just a spoke, Christ can never be the center of our lives.

I now teach this differently. Put Christ at the center of the wheel (hub) and everything now flows from Him. This may seem simple but it's a major paradigm shift.

If everything in our lives is first centered in Christ, we now see things with new possibilities. The most important of which is pursuing His will and not our own! Christ is the true power in the wheel of our lives. He will guide you and strengthen you in your goals and desires.

As I now look at my goals in the five key areas, I recognize I have the power of The Holy Spirit to guide and direct me every day. It truly transforms everything I do! My primary focus in no longer on me and my life, but on Christ living through me to do His will. An additional bonus is when you are in the in the center of God's will it changes your entire outlook. The joy and peace are unbelievable.

Goals are still important to me and I set them regularly but not first without consulting God's word and praying God's will for every aspect of my life. It's like goal setting on steroids when you have the living God by your side!

Take some time today to write your goals with God at the center of your wheel. Allow the Spirit to speak to your heart and direct your steps. There is power in the name of Jesus!

Carlos Rosales, PDM, CPLC is a business coach and Convene Board Chairman.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachcarlos/







By Carlos Rosales


Article Source:  From Spoke to Center