Jerry Robertson is a real estate agent, motorcycle rider, and a cool guy. But let me tell you how everyone knows him. He leads the coffee ministry at 12Stone Church®. Jerry wears a nametag that says "Chaplain of Caffeine."
Thousands of people get their caffeine fix at church and they love Jerry for it! He recently lost a lot of weight and I asked him how he did it.

I leaned in and asked him in such a way that might suggest his answer would reveal a secret. A secret that was powerful and well guarded, in fact, known only to Tibetan monks and a select few others. Can you guess what he said? "Well, I started eating less and exercising more, and I've been doing that for a long time." I almost felt like he was holding out on me! But there is no secret to weight loss. It's always the same, burn more calories than you consume, and you will lose weight – get up the next day, press repeat.

Jesus formed His leaders personally. He called them first to be “with Him.”

He appointed twelve - designating them apostles - that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. {bible}Mark 3:14-15{/bible}

Leaders build leaders, and Jesus took personal responsibility for each of the leaders He built. He did not delegate this to a “leadership development department” within His ministry. 

Heavenly Father, I bow in worship and praise before you.

I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as my protection. I surrender myself completely and unreservedly in every area of my life to You.

I take a stand against all the workings of Satan, that would hinder me in my prayer life.

I address myself only to the True and Living God and refuse any involvement of Satan in my prayer.

Satan, I command you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave my presence with all your demons.

I bring the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ between us. It surrounds me like a mighty wall that you cannot penetrate.

Heavenly Father, I worship You and give You praise. I recognize that You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise. I renew my allegiance to You and pray that the blessed Holy Spirit would enable me in this time of prayer.

You find all of Dr. John C. Maxwell teaching under the menu "Leadership"

What are you afraid of as a leader?  On the top of many people's list is failure.  Is it on your list too?

J.M. Barrie said, "We are all failures--at least, all the best of us are."  In my 30-plus years of leadership experience, I've come to the conclusion that one of the most valuable but underestimated abilities that leaders can posses is the ability to do what I call "failing forward."  It's more than having a good attitude about your mistakes, and it's a step beyond simply taking risks.  Failing forward is the ability to get back up after you've been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move
forward in a better direction.

You see, everybody makes mistakes.  But the real difference between average people and achieving people is their PERCEPTION OF and RESPONSE TO failure.  Nothing else has the same kind of impact on people's ability to accomplish their dreams.

What do you dream of accomplishing?  Unfortunately, no matter how gifted or knowledgeable you are, you will make mistakes along the way to your dream.  Failure is the price you must pay on the road to success.  That's just how it works.  But the good news is that the better you are at failing forward, the sooner you can accomplish your dreams.

Before you put away your list of resolutions for the new year, look at the following misconceptions about failure.  Take an honest inventory to determine if your perception of failure is what it should be.  If you share any of these misconceptions, add to your list the resolution to change the way you think about failure.

1.  PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS AVOIDABLE.  IT'S NOT.

You've probably heard the saying, "To err is human, to forgive divine."  That was written by Alexander Pope more than 250 years ago.  And he was only paraphrasing a saying that was common 2,000
years ago, during the time of the Romans.  Things today are the same as they were then:  People make mistakes.