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The What’s Best Next Study Guide is Out Today!

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There is now a study guide for What’s Best Next, and it is out today! Zondervan has done an excellent job with it and I commend it to you in two ways.

First, it can be helpful for individual review and study. If you’ve read What’s Best Next and would like to review the concepts or go deeper, this is a great way to do it.

Second, the study guide now makes it much easier to go through the book in groups. Group study and discussion is one of the best ways to understand the concepts and get them to stick. Now this study guide can help you do that.

The study guide can be used simply in conjunction with the book itself. But here is some more good news: it can be also used in conjunction with the new video series from Zondervan. Either way, the study guide is a helpful resource.

So if you have benefited from What’s Best Next or are interested in checking it out, I commend the study guide to you.

And if you know of someone who has been helped by What’s Best Next, would you consider letting them know that this resource is now available? Thank you!

Invest in Yourself or Others in 2020

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At some point we all need help getting from point A to point B. We make resolutions to change and we go after them with intense focus for a few weeks. You know what happens next. 

You miss a day, cheat the plan, or run into opposition—and you start to lose focus and the desire to get back to your noble pursuit. Imagine if things could be different.

I’m convinced that one of the main reasons we fail in our desires to change is because we’re so accustomed to working on our own. But we’re not meant to journey alone. We were meant to do it with other people. 

That’s why we’re advocates for coaching at What’s Best Next. Some of you have personally experienced the benefit of having a WBN coach help you grow in gospel-driven productivity—an approach to life that understands God has a lot to say about how we spend our days. 

Do you know someone in your life that would benefit from productivity coaching? Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s a new team member, maybe it’s a friend moving to a new role outside their comfort zone. What’s Best Next would love to be a partner on the journey. 

Send them our way or contact us today if you’re ready!

 

 

Coming Next Week: The What’s Best Next Video Study (and Study Guide)

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I cannot believe that What’s Best Next has been out for more than 5 years now. The book continues to sell and I am constantly hearing from people about the impact it has had on them — as well as from people who have just picked it up and are reading it for the first time.

I have exciting news for those who would like to go deeper with the book or go through it as a group experience: we have created a video study and study guide, and they release next Tuesday.

The Video Study

I went to the Zondervan headquarters to record the video sessions last November. I taught through the entire book, doing each chapter as one session. This is one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy writing (usually after it is done), but most of all I enjoy doing speaking events and being able to present on the book through keynotes or workshops.

The video study allowed me to do that in a format that is now accessible for anyone. For each session, I teach on the most importance concepts in the chapter while introducing some new insights as well. These sessions are good to watch as part of a Bible study or church group, or individually.

You can get them as a DVD through Amazon. Since less and less people have DVD players these days, you can also watch them online by taking the What’s Best Next online course at the Zondervan website (releasing next week). If you like, the course also has a couple assignments as part of it, in addition to the videos.

The Study Guide

The study guide is an excellent companion to the videos or just for going deeper with the book itself. Beth Graybill developed the questions and content for each chapter, based on the video sessions and the book. She did an amazing job. I myself have found the study guide to be a helpful review of the book and to provide excellent questions that get me to think more deeply.

So I highly recommend picking up the study guide, whether for yourself or to take a group through in your church, small group, ministry, or workplace!

 

Gratitude and Productivity

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What does gratitude have to do with productivity?

In a very real sense, gratitude is the completion of our productivity.

If we work and produce, but never appreciate the fruit of our labors, we never really benefit from them. We are always just on to the next thing. And then, what’s the point?

But even better than finding satisfaction in the work we have done is recognizing the source of our ability to achieve and the source of any success we have accomplished. And that is the grace of God. This is true in our spiritual and economic endeavors. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Without gratitude, we are not truly being productive because we are not ultimately being honest. We are overlooking God, who deserves the credit and recognition for all of the good things in our lives — including the things that have come about through our efforts in productivity.

So be truly productive this week by enjoying a break, feeling a deep sense of gratitude to God, and giving him thanks.

Five Questions on Motivation with Daniel Pink

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Daniel Pink is one of the leading business thinkers of our era. One of his best books is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. In it, he presents the case for managing people from intrinsic motivation rather than chiefly extrinsic motivation. It is a life-changing paradigm.

I remember learning about the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation way back in middle school, so I still find it astonishing that so many companies do not manage this way. As Pink points out, much business practice has not caught up with what science has known for decades. But there are many businesses that do understand these things, and as a result they are thriving.

In a recent interview, Pink talks more about what factors that lead to motivation in our work. Here is a short description:

In the years since publishing Drive, a handful of forward-thinking companies have built cultures that hinge on intrinsic motivation. And, spoiler alert, those companies tend to thrive. But why is this approach not yet the norm? Sarah Goff-Dupont of Atlassian sat down with Mr. Pink to learn more about the role intrinsic motivation plays in our own success and in the future of work.

Read the whole thing.