The Hope QuotientSample

The success or failure of your life is largely determined by the equipment you use. You wouldn’t try to fight a forest fire with a squirt gun. You wouldn’t fly across the Pacific Ocean with a hang glider. You have to use the right equipment. Fortunately, God has provided the equipment you need to make it in life. The most overlooked essential equipment needed is connected relationships.

One of the world’s leading experts on stress explained that everyone has stress, either healthy stress or destructive stress. Healthy stress requires three elements in equal balance: control, challenge, and support. How those three go together, determines if you are ascending or declining in every relationship you have.

First, everyone needs controls. Without financial controls, schedule controls, discipline, or focus, we end up stressed and in trouble. Second, challenges are essential. Anybody that isn’t being challenged or stretched is probably deteriorating. The third component is support. Support is so crucial to the equation that the expert spent the majority of the next hour talking about how to build a base of support. That hour was a game-changer for me. 

If you’re like me, you are probably making an instant assessment to see if these three areas are in balance in your life. And if you’re like me, you are probably discovering that your number one need is for support. Most people have enough control over jobs, taxes, family, and the government. Most people have enough challenges to last for the next thousand years. 

Most people have far more challenges than they need and way more controls than they want. Our lifelong battle is to develop an adequate amount of support to stay encouraged in life and in leadership. With enough support, the challenges, problems, and roadblocks that come our way don’t bother us as much. 

Think Up:

How do I build enough support in my life to face challenges with energy? 

Getting right down to it, we need to ask, “Am I close to anyone?” (Read on).