How to Fail Without Giving Up

This is about creating a conversation about transformation that I want to see. I want to see. This is the spiritual thing. This is about getting the world changed with the healing power of the Holy Spirit. This is what I believe in.

It’s so important to me that I created a place where we could have a conversation. The thing is that I want this transformation of the Holy Spirit to happen within a particular culture. And it’s the culture that I love and the culture that I’m active in. And the best way for me to call it would be call it indie music culture, which is kind of a broad statement, there’s all kinds of things in there, but if you know what I’m talking about, then you’re in the right place and we get to have this conversation. And this talk is going to be about, as you can see here, how to fail without giving up.

And this is something that’s been on my mind, the issue of failure, the issue of giving up and the issue, the things that come with that. There’s actually a lot of truth that comes with that when you start talking candidly about failure and giving up. And this talk can be, it’s not intended to be a long talk and you are invited to ask questions. That’s always fun. That’s what it’s about, about having the conversation and oh man, I’ve been talking and I don’t even remember if you opened a prayer.

I want to open it in prayer. And so I’m just going to begin by praying and saying, thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to talk about the principles of your kingdom and to bring before you a desire to see you come and change culture and transform lives. Please bless this time together in the name of Yeshua. Amen. So let’s talk for a second about failure first because not saying how to fail without giving up, let’s talk about that.

What am I talking about? And to use an illustration, I will bring what Seth Godin calls the Dip. He has a whole book about it called The Dip. And it’s about when you get to a certain place where you don’t know if you should continue or not. And you can see here in this image, it has to do with results and it has to do with effort.

If you find that you’re giving effort and you’re seeing increasing results, that’s kind of an ideal situation. It’s a virtuous cycle. It’s like if I put an effort and I see more results, all is well. But what can happen is that you put in more effort and you see diminishing results and many times you see no results at all and you begin asking yourself what’s the point is. It the time to give up.

And I don’t know what that looks like for you, but that is why I’m beginning the conversation, because I like to talk about the idea that we’re all artists, that we all have creative power that we can use to make a positive change in the world. And that might be painting a painting and it might be raising a family, it might be a customer service representative, but we have this creative power as we are in God’s image and we have power and we can put effort with the intention that we will see results. So what happens when we put effort in these things that we love, including really good ministry things and helping the poor and worship in God, and we see little to no results from what we’re doing? This is what the conversation is about today. And it says God and he presents us and he says to you, well, Mike, maybe it’s time to put it and maybe it’s time to push through the dip.

So today I’m talking about pushing through the dip. How do you know if it’s something that it’s worth pushing through? How do you know that this thing is you’re doing? It’s worth not quitting. Sometimes quitting is the answer, but that is not what we’re talking about today.

Torah we’re not talking about quitting. Maybe we talk about this all the time, but this is about the things that you shouldn’t quit. And how do you know you shouldn’t quit? Well, let me just bring a little bit of a background by this quote saying you can’t fail if you don’t quit. And that is attributed to a lot of people.

But the winner today is Michael Hyatt. Google likes him and he’s the one who I got a quote from, but I’ve heard from others as well. But the idea is that if you found something that’s worth your effort and you’re going to pull through, then there really is no such thing as failure. And to drive that home, we’re going to talk about the first of three concepts the importance of vision. I’m bringing in the idea that we have to start with vision as our first line of defense against failure.

So I wrote a little quote from son two, the Art of War. I love this quote. I just love it. And it says, strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

The idea is in this talk right now, is for you to replace that word strategy or couple that word strategy with the word vision. Having an overall idea, overall vision of the transformation that you want to see something that you can communicate that if you have that. But you might not have the tactics, you might not have all the tools and all the help and all the things needed to achieve the goal. It takes a long time. It’s the slowest for all the victory.

But if you have all kinds of nice tools and even people and all kinds of things, but you don’t have a vision, it’s the noise before defeat. And I have seen both things happen and I love it. I love it when people have strategy without tactics because you see a process of how they try everything till they see what works. And you see people going from having little knowledge and how to get their vision to come forth, to being experts and how to get their vision to come forth because they simply had a vision.

And I want to bring the word of God into this conversation because we’re talking about vision and anytime we want to talk, anytime we want to talk about a positive transformation in the world when we come together in these talks, I want to bring the word of God. And so I’m bringing Proverbs 20 918 where it says where there is no revelation. And this can also be translated as vision, translated from the Hebrew as vision. The people cast off the strength. And if we don’t have something that we believe in, something that we believe is worth our time and worth our effort, then it’s very hard to get ourselves in line, to restrain ourselves even.

It’s very hard to, you know, in all kinds of ways of restraining, restraining from negative behaviors, restraining from sleeping too much, from eating too much, from spending too much money, all kinds of bad behaviors, backbiting gossiping, laziness.

It’s really easy. Not really easy. Excuse me. But mentally things sort of click when you have a vision that you’re aligned with. That’s where we get the sports film analogy where some of the rocky montage where somebody says, hey, I’m going to be the champ and that is going to motivate me to get up in the morning.

It’s going to motivate me to run all the miles that he ran and to eat the special diet and to do all these things. And honestly, we all want that, I think when I say we all want that. I’m going to give a really quick overview, really, really quick coming glean from the teachings of the psychologist Victor Frankel who wrote the book Man’s Search for Meaning. And this is just so just touching on it. I’m not pretending to be an expert or anything to what he’s talking about, but I’m just kind of gleaning really quick and talking about the importance of meaning to have a meaningful project in progress with a meaningful goal.

This is an expansion of this idea of vision. If you have these things, you have a place for your effort, you have a reason to restrain yourself. This is all going to help us when we hit the dip and we want to quit. If there’s meaning in what we’re pursuing, then it’s a great motivator not to quit. And of course, if there’s progress, what if there’s no progress?

What if there’s not results? That’s what we’ll talk about more today. So how do you get your vision? Maybe you don’t have a vision. That happens as well.

Sometimes we’re just empty and we have no vision. And one thing and it’s funny I’ll have seasons in my life where I have lots of vision and I’ll have seasons where I feel empty bereft of vision. And what I like to ask myself is where are the games? Where are the things it reflects in my life where there was a lot of results. We talked about effort of results where there were results.

Let’s go back, let’s look there and let’s see if that’s a good place to continue from. And I just want to give some quick stories from my life really quick. Excuse me.

These are guitar pedals here. I remember the first time I discovered electric guitar. I was learning how to play guitar at around the age of 13 and I was playing on a classical guitar, not a long string kind of guitar that you buy at a normal store.

I was learning chords, just trying to get my hand around, get my head around really playing guitar. And I had this friend down the street who had an electric guitar. I knew that I liked electric guitar because I liked rock music but I’d never had the chance to play an electric guitar. And I went over his house and I got to play an electric guitar. But there was this button, just like the button that’s on these guitar pedals there’s this button that creates what we call distortion.

And distortion is that crunchy sound that gives beef to the guitar sound. And when I pressed that button and when I got the guitar solution going I came alive that I could not go back to playing classical guitar. I had to have electric guitar. In fact, I came home and I just craved electric guitar. I had to go back to my friend’s house and play more electric guitar.

I came alive to me that it was an incredible game that you could press one button and you would have boom that power in your sound. This might be very different from other people but this is just a moment where I knew and this is something I wanted to pursue in life the power of just putting things together and making powerful music. Another example is this is just a work board of some collage art I was working on not too long ago. I just noticed in this collage art there’s a background image of Factory. And I took a clipping of a person from a physical training manual from the 1900 and like 1910 or something and I just put it on that background and just that connection between two different things like bringing a person into that image felt like this incredible game maybe, you know, this is art.

You just put two things together as a collage artist if you put two things together or as a painter if you add one special accent, color or a designer, you boom. There’s a gain, there’s power here and it’s something that you want to pursue. And this is the final product of the collage that I was working on. Another example. You could even be business examples that are awesome examples of gain.

This is just a piece of comic book artwork that I won as a preteen in a raffle. And I held onto it for 20 years, pretty much, give or take 20 years. Excuse me? Give or take 30 years. I held onto it for over 20 years and I found a key moment to sell it and ended up making thousands of dollars off the sale.

It was a huge win. There was a lot of gain. It all went to six family car. It was a miracle. But that really got me thinking of how you can pursue games in that way by maybe selling artwork, maybe collectibles.

But it really got me interested in that different examples of game. And the question is, what are the games in your life? What can you just take a moment to look? There are other ones as well. What were moments in your life where you kind of came alive and you had these big wins?

How can you pursue those wins again? How can you set up your license? You can pursue those wins again. Maybe you’re being told that this is something you need to pursue. This is going to help you whenever you want to quit.

And so the second thing I want to talk about is what are you good at? If you’re going to put effort into something, it would make more sense to put effort into something that you’re good at. So you can create results, you can create gains and something it’s not. And I’m going to use a little matrix. This is also taken from Michael Hyatt.

This from his book free of focus. And there’s like a matrix of what you’re passionate about and what you’re proficient in, what you’re good at and what you love to do. And there’s different places on this matrix. And we’re not interested in anything but the first number one here in this matrix, because you might be passionate about something but not proficient at it. And they go high.

It’s all about the distractions there are and there might be things that you love to do you’re not good at. I love to skateboard, but I don’t really have that kind of level that I could really make something out of it. I just love to do it.

Maybe you’re not passionate lit proficient about something, and that is what you call the disinterest zone. And it might be something in life that you’re going to be great at doing. For example, I used to translate books. I was good at that, but I did not I would translate the book to them. You know, what would happen to people.

The books would not get published in the end. I have translated books that just shot on people’s computers and never got published, and that does not make me come alive. It’s not something I really want to pursue with my time. And that’s what my polite would call the disinterest zone. And then there’s things that you’re not passionate about and you’re not proficient at, and that’s what he would call the drudgery zone, things that you really have to either cut them out of your life or delegate them to other people.

And that’s a journey in itself. But then there’s the things that you’re passionate about and proficient at. He’s called it your desires own. And so where can you review your life and see, what do I love to do and what is creating gains in my life? So those past examples of gains in my life, I have to figure out where that actually meets things that I’m passionate about.

And truly, I am passionate about making art and music.

And if you think that that’s not you, then you have nothing that you’re proficient in or nothing will your proficiency in your passion meet. I just love this verse. Psalm 193 Psalm One 3914 I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I love the Hebrew translation of it in Hebrew: “nifle’ot nifleti”. And it’s kind of like saying, I am wonderfully made out of wonders.

It’s just so amazing.

Disney princesses and superheroes have nothing on us.

God made us fearful and wonderful. If you think it right now, man, there’s just nothing in me. There’s nothing that I’m good at, and there’s nothing I’m passionate about. Just remember, you’re fearfully and wonderfully made. Maybe you can just meditate on that truth.

You’re amazing, and it’s just the truth.

And the third and final concept that I want to talk about today is what’s at stake if you don’t get a vision, get clear about what you’re good at, and push through.

Another verse from the book of Esther. Mordechai is telling Esther, who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Who is standing for the things that you are standing for right now? And by the way, if you’re on this call with me right now, or if you’re watching this, you’re invited to stand with me for the transformation of indie music culture by the healing power of the Holy Spirit. And who else is standing for this?

Ulysses as Grant, famous American general who led the northern armies and union armies of the civil war to victory.

This guy interests me. We’re of a similar age, and I just thought it was interesting how he had a time that was right for him. He had a previous military career that just didn’t go well. He didn’t make it in the army, and he was poor. He was a family man with children, and he was four.

Some friend of us once saw him sitting by the side of the road selling wood for kindling, wood for firewood, and he said, what are you doing? What are you doing here? He’s selling firewood. And he said, I’m solving the problem of poverty. He was really humbled as an adult, and things just escalated around him with the rumblings of the Civil War.

He was called upon as a military person to be present for something and having him be that military person that was available. It caused a chain of events where he was catapulted, really meteorically to the status of a military leader, ultimately general, and later on, President of the United States. The thing is that he was ready for his time. There was a time it took a long time to get there.

And recently I came across this goal from Winston sure show that I’m throwing in here mainly to encourage myself to every man that comes in his lifetime, that special moment when he is figurative to be tap on the shoulder and offer a chance to do a very special thing unique to him and fit it to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for that, which would be his finest hour. So I’m bringing this up because I believe God calls us to understand that we have special abilities, and he calls us to craft the vision around those abilities. And I do not know when our time will come. I don’t know whether such a time as this will come for all of us, but there is just no way that we can make use of it if we’re not ready.

What a tragedy if we’re not ready.

Once you’re there, once you have your vision, once you’re clear on what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about and by, these things can change in different stages in life. You can have different visions throughout your life, but I’m talking to you in your season of life. You have a moral obligation to share that, to share that vision. It doesn’t work in a vacuum. It doesn’t work where you get the vision and you’re all alone.

You got an obligation to talk about that transformation you want to see. I’m here because I like to make music. And today is not about saying, hey, listen to my music. I have a music project that’s called Har Adonai. It’s Hebrew from mountain of the Lord.

And I can be all about like, hey, check out my next single, check out my song. But it occurred to me that the whole reason I’m doing it, beyond the fact that I just want to express myself and get my music out, is to see indie music culture transformed by the healing power of the Holy Spirit. That’s my vision. And here it is. You can see it on my website haradonai.net.

Net. I’m inviting you to partner with me and join the conversation about bringing the healing power of the Holy Spirit into music culture. So I’m giving you an example. It’s not going to be my example, but of getting a vision getting clear about what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about, and positioning yourself for such a time as this. So now imagine yourself, you’re armed with a vision, you’re armed with a gift from your talents, and you hit the dip.

If you didn’t have that vision, if it wasn’t the thing that you’re passionate about and proficient about, go ahead and quit. Go ahead and quit and use your efforts for something else. But if you’re giving your efforts in the service of those things, you have every reason not to quit. And that way you can’t fail.

So that is it for today. That’s what I had to share. And I am inviting you to partner with me to see the Holy Spirit transform into music, culture. And you can go to my website. You can listen to some past teachings where I go in depth about what that looks like, about cultivating a culture holiness and anticipation.

You’re invited to visit this link, haradonai.net/donate and give towards the expenses, towards what I need so that I don’t quit, so I can push through the dip. It’s your responsibility not to quit. And as we continue, I just want to say right now, before we really bring it to a close, do you have any questions? Things work well with questions.

Things are fun with questions. It’s my favorite part of the top. So if you have any questions, please put them in the chat, and if not, that’s okay.

Give about ten more seconds for questions.

All right, so thanks for joining me.

There will be a replay of this we post on the website. And this is an encouragement to have a vision. Get clear about what you’re passionate about and you’re proficient in, and these will arm you when you ever hit the dead and you think you want to put and the world needs you. The world needs you to act on that vision. Thank you.

God bless you. And I’ll see you next time you talk.