Category Archives: Family

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April 22, 2014

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Christian Life, Family, National Missions, Pastoring

3 Realities About Overcoming Depression

By Carl Nichols

A year ago it got very real for me as I shared my story with hundreds of people about a time in my life when I battled depression.

3 realities about overcoming depression

I am 100% sure that there are more depressed people in our community today than would actually admit, or even realize. In America, use of medication to treat depression has increased over 400% since 1988, making the people of the USA the wealthiest and most depressed people on the planet. Here are a few things that a friend and mentor helped me recognize in my own life:

4 Things that contributed to my depression

  1. An Unrealistic Pace – You can only run at full throttle for so long before you hit a wall
  2. An Unrealistic Expectation of Others – People will let you down so quit pretending that they won’t
  3. An Unrealistic View on Life – I was at one of the best places in my life financially as well as in my career, yet was growing unhappier and unhealthier by the day
  4. An Unrealistic Desire for Approval – Almost all of us struggle with this!

3 Realities about overcoming depression

  1. Denial doesn’t help, it only hurts – The first step in any recovery is to recognize the problem
  2. You cannot do life alone – God’s design for all of us is relational in nature so it is important to have others who share our faith walking with us in this journey called life.
  3. The solution begins by addressing the brokenness inside of you – Unless we realize our fallenness and brokenness, it is impossible for us to be authentic enough to recover and have faith in someone greater.

Remember…

Only God can use your pain for your progress!

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March 21, 2014

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Family, Leadership, National Missions

What Can You Expect Out of Life?

By Carl Nichols

Every month I gather with about 40 high capacity leaders for training and leadership development. As we began discussing one of our core values, “intentional everything”, I made the following statement…

“You can’t expect what you don’t inspect.”

We are currently in the process of dissecting every area of our church with this in mind, and I believe it will have great value for us as an organization. However, I believe this is true in all areas of our life. Here are just a few:

  • You can’t expect to have a good marriage if you don’t inspect how much face time you are giving to your spouse
  • You can’t expect your kid’s grades to improve if you aren’t inspecting their priorities
  • You can’t expect to have money left at the end of the month if you aren’t inspecting your spending habits
  • You can’t expect to retire early or wealthy if you aren’t inspecting your savings habits
  • You can’t expect to get a raise on the job if you aren’t inspecting the quality of work you are putting out
  • You can’t expect your spouse to understand how you feel unless you inspect your communication habits
  • You can’t expect your business to thrive if you don’t inspect the value it brings to the market you are in
  • You can’t expect your employees or staff to live up to your expectations if you aren’t inspecting their habits and giving them constructive feedback
  • You can’t expect your team’s morale to remain high if you don’t inspect the attitudes of those involved
  • You can’t expect to win in life if you never inspect your losses

I have tried to apply these principles to my life and family. I have found that it is very easy to drift off course, but inspection allows us to correct the problems before they get out of hand.

So what can you expect out of life? You can expect what you inspect!

What areas of your life do you need to inspect more often?