Bring Your Best Today

Colossians 3:23 (NIV) “And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.”

God put a desire in all of us to have fruitful lives. So, it doesn’t matter if you work the line at a factory, you’re a teacher at a school, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company we all should start our days with a goal to bring our very best. I would like to suggest five things that will help you put that goal into practice.

#1  When you get to work, be ready to work.

If you’re playing in the NFL and you’ve got a 1:00pm kick-off you’re not pulling your Escalade into the parking lot at 12:59pm. You’re probably there by 9:00am preparing to give your all on the field of play. Why is it that so many employees come to work minutes before their “kick-off’s” and wonder why they are not being celebrated for their efforts?

Here’s the deal. If you’re supposed to be on your post at 8:00am then be there, ready to go, well before 8:00am. Then, please don’t spend the first hour at work “winding up”, getting your coffee and eating your bagel and then spend the last hour of the day “winding down”. When you’re at work-- work!

Excellent employees don’t wait to get there till they ‘get there’, they come ready to work!

#2 Stay Focused

We live in a world where there seems to be a million distractions. So we need to learn not to chase the shiny things of life. Do you ever find yourself distracted from your main task by a Facebook notice, a Tweet, a text message from a friend, or even an email that is just not that urgent?

One way you can stay focused is having a daily checklist of the things that you want to accomplish. I would recommend setting aside a few minutes of thinking and planning time, at the beginning of each day, to prioritize your day. Then stay focused on it throughout the day and my guess is that you’ll be shocked as to how much you were able to get done.

So hunker down and stay focused on the task at hand.

#3 Be Solution Oriented

It’s easy to be the one at work that points out the problems, but how about becoming the person who comes up with solutions. Problem pointer-outers are plentiful, but solution comer-uppers are few and far between. Just because we’ve done certain things forever doesn’t mean that we need to keep doing them the same way. The incredible advancement of technology has opened up so many opportunities to improve efficiencies both at home and at work, it’s truly amazing.

So, if you want to increase your worth at work, be the one who works on making your company a more efficient operation.

#4  Don’t Hang With The Wrong Crowd

Every company has a group of negatrons. You know who they are. They are the ones who complain about everything. If they got a bonus, instead of being happy they’d find something to criticize about it. You don’t ever want to be associated with that crowd. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV) that “...bad company corrupts good people.”  Your image at work can be tarnished simply because you’re hanging out with Negative Norm or Critical Cathy too much.

So choose your associations wisely.

#5  Go The Extra Mile

With every task we are assigned, we can do just enough or we can choose to do more than enough. It’s what’s called going the extra mile. Don’t be ever be satisfied with just getting by, be the one that rises up above the others because you’re known for doing a little extra. I learned this lesson during my very first job, 36 years ago. My job was to park and fuel private airplanes. But there was typically a lot of waiting around in between tasks. So I took it upon myself to always sweep and clean the hangers. It wasn’t on my job description but I just saw that it needed to be done. Nobody else noticed except the owner. Owners of businesses have a tendency to notice things like that. Well guess who got the promotion to manage the whole department. You guessed it, the one who went the extra mile.

So, today bring your best to what you’re doing. Let the glory of God shine brightly through your work, no matter what it is.


“Father, I thank you for my job. Today I’m choosing to bring my very best because I want to please You with my work. I want to glorify You and bring You glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”