How Spiritual Entrepreneurs Leverage Difficulty For Growth

It's in crisis where leaders are born.

The challenges that you face along the way are what God uses to mold you and sharpen you into your highest self. However, many people don’t know the best way to handle a crisis.?

The bigger the company you run the more challenges you’re going to face. If every time one comes your way it knocks you down, closes you up, and moves you into scarcity, eventually there’ll be nothing left of you.

However, if you take it as an opportunity to learn and grow, eventually you’ll be able to dance through any challenge.?

Let’s take a look at some techniques that a spiritual entrepreneurs use to come out of a crisis stronger than they go in.

Preparing for Battle

Having the proper mindset going into a crisis is the most vital part of leading in the spirit. Remember: God brings you into crisis to shape your character and competency.

Any challenge you face will make you a stronger, smarter, more spirit-filled leader if you allow it to.?

When a problem arises or you’re taken off guard by the world, the first thing you should do is take a deep breath.

You will likely be experiencing a lot of negative energy, stress, and fear. You need to let go of that energy and surrender to the fact that you have been brought into this challenge for a reason.?

Being too emotionally tangled in a crisis and having negative energy will not solve the problem at hand. You must find a way to be grounded and clear before you can move forward. Maybe that means lighting a candle, taking a bath, or meditating.?

Whatever brings you calm, make sure you infuse it with prayer and petition. Where God guides, He provides. He knows why you are facing this crisis and he will be able to help you get through it and reach the highest good.?

Make sure you sleep on a problem before reacting to it. Usually, you have more time than you think to deal with a crisis.

Take time to rest and know that returning to the issue tomorrow will help more than it will hurt. You want to come at it from a place of action rather than reaction.?

However, taking this time to prepare should not be an opportunity for you to hide from your problem or “self-medicate”.

Anything you run from will chase you. It’s been said that King David was a warrior during the day and a mystic at night. Take the time you need to recharge, listen to music, and prepare, but don’t forget that when the day returns you have work to do.?

Fighting the Good Fight

Our first instinct when crisis comes is to play defense, and it’s an important instinct. However, you need to shift as quickly as you can to offense. Use the energy that you would be putting towards stress and put it into something positive.?

For example, if you don’t bring in as many customers as you would have liked, you’ll have a lot of negative emotions swirling around. You can use those feelings as motivation to contact more people, have better conversations, or be a better listener.

Whatever that positive outcome is, you need to be actively working towards it instead of getting tangled up in the problem.?

A strong leader will usually operate with 20% defense and 80% offense. Remind yourself that most of the time, good outcomes are equally as probable as bad ones. Focusing your energy on moving toward the positive is a sure way to improve those odds.

Make sure that you don’t get sucked into gossip, lies, or speculation. What are the facts? What can you do right now to move forward? Ensure that you aren’t falling prey to the temptation of badmouthing your opponents or lying about them. Especially if they are speaking badly about you.?

Your sense of justice may kick in and make you want to retaliate for any lies they’re spreading, but remember that the energy we send out comes back to us tenfold. They are sowing evil and will reap in kind.??

Tactical Advantages

The bigger the crisis, the smarter you need to be to lead your team through it. Sometimes you’ll find yourself going through lots of challenges in a short period of time. This could be God preparing you for an even bigger challenge down the road. That’s why it’s so important that you are smart about how you get through them.?

Get to the root and the branches will follow. If you are too focused on the symptoms of the crisis, you will find yourself spending energy, time, and money to fix something that isn’t the problem. Make sure you focus on the truth and don’t get distracted.?

When something comes up that isn’t part of the plan, our egos will get involved and try to lure us toward a destructive course of action. Make sure that whatever you do, you are not going to make the situation worse. Sometimes the best course of action is lying in wait.?

Don’t fight with someone who is on a different playing field than you. If you’re being baited into an argument with a person who doesn't operate with the same levels of value and integrity as you, you will have to lower your standards in order to fight them. Don’t fall into this trap.?

The enemy has designed different traps to take you away from your mission. A crisis is a perfect time for these traps to rear their heads because you will be distracted. Remember your real goals and values on this earth, and don’t get sidetracked.?

A great way to stay on track is to ask yourself these questions:?

What am I supposed to learn from the problem I’m facing? - If you become defensive, you will not be in the state of mind to learn from the crisis you’re facing. Asking this can reconfigure your focus.?

How can I get in front of the damage about to be done? - You need to be proactive in dealing with the issues that can come during a crisis. Let your team know what is happening and keep your eyes on the horizon?

Who do I need to communicate to? - You need to tell the important people in your life that you’re going through a challenging time.

They will be able to tell that something is off even if you don’t bring them into the conversation, and if you neglect to tell them why they will believe that you are mad at them or don’t love them. This will only lead to more challenges. Telling them also allows them to pray for you, and where two people pray there is power.?

What is my responsibility in this problem? - You have to know how to take responsibility for your part in any problem before you can solve it. This can be a direct responsibility or an indirect one.

?Even if the crisis was caused by your team or someone outside of your sphere, there is always something you could have done. Maybe you could have been a better leader, chosen a better team, or planned ahead more extensively. In any case, taking responsibility will signal to your team that they need to take responsibility for their part in a crisis as well.??

Who can I ask to help in this time? - It can be nerve-wracking to ask for help. However, when you ask someone to help you you are giving them a gift. The principles of reaping and sowing, tell us that you get 10 times what you give, so if you allow someone to bless you you are starting a blessing cycle for them.?

The Aftermath

Winston Churchill famously said that we should never let a good crisis go to waste. If you don’t play back the tape and review your decisions, you’ll never improve your crisis response.?

You must wait to do this introspection until the crisis has passed. During a war you can not sit down and think about how you got there, you need to fight. Once the dust settles though, it is important to evaluate what led to the conflict so that you can prevent it from happening again.?

What did your most recent crisis teach you about your ego? Your fear? How about your discernment, emotions, insecurity, or risk tolerance??

Like all shadow work, you need to have grace for yourself as you ask these questions. It’s important to assess the response you had to challenges because it will refine your decision-making process. Next time you might realize the right course of action before things get out of hand.?

Fight Another Day

As much as we try, we’ll never handle crises perfectly. If you get it right even 70% of the time you’re doing great. Since these challenges are meant to test our decision-making skills, chances are you’ll need to go back and correct some decisions.?

If you need to, make sure that you are quick to apologize for any missteps. This too will help you grow. Every falter is an opportunity to get back on track so that next time you handle problems even better.?

The fact of the matter is, some days are growth days. The sun will rise again once the crisis has passed and you will be able to see the world as full of possibility once again.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading! My goal with this article is to share with you the tools and strategies that we teach to the leaders and entrepreneurs within my community.

If you're an entrepreneur that embraces your spiritual nature and you're devoted to making an impact, learn more about my community where we support you in accelerating the growth of your impact-driven business - visit www.altercall.com