Bad news – “Twenty percent of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business.” 89% of the Fortune 500 companies that existed in 1955 are gone today. Fifty percent of the S&P 500 companies will be gone in the next ten years. All those companies represent personal dreams – that failed!

Good news – A balancing fact is that of those startups that succeed, two-thirds report drastically changing their plans along the way. Midcourse corrections must be built into our lives, our heart plans, and our businesses. Just like your Heart Plan, your business plan will be adjusted as you go. Wisdom is having the flexibility and a plan to engage outside inputs and incorporate the best ideas. Flexibility, transparency, and friends are keys that unlock your heart, your life, and your business.

A Welcome Change – I’m sure you’ve heard similar statistics. One of the advantages of the Online Heart Plan is that exploring the desires of your heart puts you in a posture to welcome change. If I’m inviting change to come into my life, I’m also proactively exploring my options ahead of the change. We can’t predict the circumstances of our future; the present reality is that you and I will make a major change every seven years. That means what we’re doing now will grow the first three years and decline the next three (unless we have a plan to pivot). Our minds usually perceive change as failure when it’s really a course correction toward promotion. When we look back on it, our passions, purpose, and design didn’t change, but our assignment did. It felt like death, but only our minds changed; what is written in our hearts now has an even bigger stage.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7

“Why wouldn’t I Pivot and adapt to change?” – It’s uncomfortable, and it threatens our identity. A form of arrogance sets in on all of us that is a mask for insecurity. It says, “I’ll never have to change.” We have all experienced the paralysis of the spirit of fear and the shame of setbacks. If I choose not to change and make midcourse corrections, I just bought a ticket on the Titanic because the sea of life is full of icebergs. “Don’t blame the iceberg.” Titans do sink; regularly in fact! Believers with a plan in their hearts, resurrect! If their ship sinks, they grab a plank and swim to shore.

Not welcome? – Change isn’t just an iceberg. Circumstances are like inanimate objects we must dodge. What if my earth-shaking change comes in the form of a person who represents conflict and pain? Guess what? We can’t change other people; they are just like icebergs. We own the responsibility (freedom) to work around people problems just like circumstances. Neither can define us or steal our future. We make a plan that not only solves the problem but adds new value to our lives and others. We are never victims. If we receive curses instead of welcome, we just shake the dust off and move onto to those who do receive us. (PS: don’t be surprised!)

You meant it for evil, But God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20).

Why have a Heart Plan? – You’ll fail if you don’t! I like this TED Talk by Nadya Zhexembayeva  on How to Kill Your Own Company.  We have a saying, “If it’s not in writing, it’s not yours.”

The first four modules/videos of the online course are free. You’ll know if it’s a fit after you watch them. Login here and check it out. If you know John and you are already convinced, enroll here.

Suggestions:                                                                                                                                              

• Online Heart Plan: https://john-garfield.mykajabi.com
• Seers and Doers, Sons Bringing Heaven to Earth
• Releasing Kings for Ministry in the Marketplace
• From Desire to Destiny, Seven Keys to Your Marketplace Ministry

If you’re one of those young lions hungry to birth a reformation in the Netherlands, contact Marcel van den Berg http://opzoeknaarhetkoninkrijk.nl/

• Podcast#1 and Podcast #2 – fun interviews with Steve Reiter and John Ramstead
• Podcast #3and #4 Micro-church– The most recent interviews with Shae Bynes
  • Heart Plan in Europe – eu

For those of you who own a Business, join Larry Nault and me at Building A Kingdom Company.

If you’re in education, please get acquainted with David Nycz at http://www.educationviaheart.com/

Releasing Kings is available in French “Libération des Rois pour le ministère dans le monde du travail” ISBN:  978-90-78643-08-1