Common Sense & Discernment

I was curious kid and regularly got into trouble! 

A favorite story Mother told about me was “The Truck Story”: It seems one particular truck just could not keep its wheels on.

Mother would look at me and say, “Carolyn Sue, what did you do?”.  My response was, “I boke it, I fix it”.

Common sense told me just reverse the action.

Sometimes we simply lack “common sense”. 

There is an old proverb which says, “Don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment.  Hang on to them for they will refresh your soul.” 

Frequently, my soul needs refreshing!

Just out of curiosity (you know that kid in me) I looked up common sense and discernment. Mariam Webster defines common sense as “the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions” while discernment is “the ability to judge well.”

Put them together and you’ve got: the ability to think, behave, and judge well. 

That’s my definition of a team leader. 

Leaders  need time to think, learn how to respond reasonably, consistently make good decisions and moderate discussions well.

Leading is work. It is a moment by moment, day after day, planning your week, building on the prior month; analyzing quarterly, while projecting and implementing all those new and progressive annual plans.

None of this is easy.  Simple yes, easy no!  There are books to study, videos to watch, lectures to attend, hours spent in both individual and group forecasting sessions.  Simply stated it is a lot of  consistent constant work to build a business.

It reminds me of that relentless acronym:  CANI   For those of you who may not know what CANI stands for it’s Constant And Never-ending Improvement.

That’s what today’s world is all about.  It doesn’t matter if you are talking about business, family, health, finances, friends, or even how you serve others; it takes common sense, discernment and CANI --- with the formula you will get there.