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?