Roadblocks

Often times I feel as though there are more obstacles than there is open road. As Shawna and I have worked to build our little farm, and similarly in building the church plant, roadblocks seem to pop up everywhere. The question is when does this require evasive maneuvers or a complete course correction.

Resiliency, persistence, and flexibility are attributes that an entrepreneur must have. Resiliency is the ability to recovery quickly, or rebound. This is necessary as it can be easy to give up when adversity hits. If I quit every time something didn't work out perfectly, I would have quit after our first chicken died, or when the first person said they didn't like my sermon.

Persistence allows us to keep working at finding solutions and moving toward our goal, despite the odds seemingly being against us. I remember in November 2019, we had a dog attack that killed 21 of our hens. At the time this was 40% of our flock. We considered going back to just having a small personal flock, but that would have meant going back and starting over on our dream. So, we persisted, and began building our flock back up.

Flexibility is that incredible gift, similar to adaptability, that lets us make assessments and then corrections with the goal still in mind. Sometimes the plan does not work, this is where all three attributes come together. We see the problem, resiliency helps us bounce back, persistence keeps us pushing forward, and flexibility helps us to make corrections so we do not repeat the same problems.

Sometimes these roadblocks are more than a swerve to the right or left. Sometimes the roadblock means a closed road. Here is the issue. Does this mean we should give up on the dream, cut our losses, and find something else to do? Or should we be resilient, and persistent, and keep our eyes on the dream, but consider completely new avenues as a means to reach our goal.

The question really comes down to the dream or goal. For one individual a small obstacle could means giving up, yet for another a huge roadblock might simply be a chance to reconsider the path toward the goal. Each of us has to make that assessment for ourselves, however, if we are ever going to achieve the dream in our heart we are going to have to learn persistence, resilience, and flexibility.

What dream are you pursuing, and what are some of your roadblock and obstacles?