Three Sticks — Personal Development for Christians

Several weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Dave Ramsey speak. Apparently, I live in hole somewhere rather than Atlanta, because I had not heard of the man until I heard him speak that day.

He spoke primarily about how to create, maintain and increase momentum. He has an equation that serves as the foundation of his message. His equation is simply that focused intensity over time multiplied by God equals momentum or (FI/T)* X G = M. He’s a very dynamic speaker and it was a powerful message.

Dave made some pretty powerful points. The first is that having focused intensity over time without God will yield momentum. However, he contends that you may not like the momentum you create without God. Second, he stated that you need both God and focused intensity over time. One of the best and most familiar examples in the Bible is the story of Noah, Genesis 7:1 - 8:22. Noah was ridiculed by his neighbors for building the Ark, however he and his family maintained both focused intensity over time and faith in God to create the literal life boat for all living things on Earth. Lastly, Dave said that when you have momentum it always appears as though it came out of the blue and it is important to remember that God is what made it possible.

Dave’s ideas about focused intensity over time resonates with the BE-DO-HAVE principle. The BE-DO-HAVE principle states that in order to have what you want you need to

• BE - Obtain the mindset of the kind of person you want to become
• DO - Behave like the person you want to become
• HAVE - If you accomplish the first 2, you will have what you desire.

The BE-DO-HAVE principle is essentially like zooming in on the focused intensity over time component of Dave’s equation. However, the principle alone will not create momentum it works best as presented by Dave when it is combined with a powerful faith in God.

I have experienced both of these concepts in my own life. I have two examples of similar situations where both focused intensity over time and God made the difference between success and setback.

The first is and example of an effort that has suffered a number of setbacks. This is my company’s first product SafetyNet Wireless Firewall. Several years ago, my brother and I realized that with wireless becoming more prominent that cyber-criminals would target wireless networks to steal identity information and that most consumers would lack the technical knowledge to ensure that their wireless network connection was safe. This would be especially true in public places because there were no inexpensive solutions to protect a large and ever changing number of wireless users in a public setting like a coffee shop, airport or hotel. So we spent 2-3 years and $50,000 to build this application that is portable (i.e. works on any network), easy and inexpensive. In the time that it’s been available to the public we’ve had very few subscribers.

The reason for the lack of sales can be attributed to the lack of focused intensity over time and lack of faith in God. Both of these are my failings. Because of other responsibilities (ex. guardianship of my younger brother, full-time job etc) I have not spent the time that I need to spend promoting SafetyNet in order to make it successful. And, although it fulfills my larger purpose of helping others, I recently realized that I have not asked God to make the effort successful. It should be no surprise then that our sales have been flat. I am changing all of that now and I am spending much more time promoting our product and asking God to make the venture successful so that we can help protect as many people as possible.

My experience with Three Sticks contrasts starkly with my experience with SafetyNet. From the outset, I asked God to guide and direct this effort. I have also dedicated a lot of time over the past 5 months learning the trade of blogging. The results have been spectacular, I have received comments and email from many people letting me know that my writings have really helped them through tough days. I’ve also begun making a little money from Google’s AdSense. I am close to making enough per month to pay for the hosting of this site ($9 per month). I’m sure that it will grow as continue to do God’s work and help others overcome their fears.

Persistence (focused intensity over time) and faith in God have made all the difference for me. I suggest that if you are struggling with some area off you life that you forget the big bang and make small incremental improvements over time and give the remainder to God. I’m willing to say that you’ll be a happier, more fulfilled person because of it.

God Bless.

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