F.A.I.L. No More (Part 3 of 4) -Interpretations

Shawn Sommerkamp • October 15, 2017

Isaiah 11:3

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears

What are interpretations?

Now it’s time to look at the third internal blocker that holds us back. The I in FAIL is Interpretations.

Interpretations come from within our own minds and can often happen so quickly that we think they are only reflexes to some external truth. They are, in fact, only opinions we create about an event or situation or person or experience. We simply believe them to be true.

One of the most well-known and terribly damaging examples of the Interpretation internal blocker is the story of Job. More precisely, the story of how his friends misinterpreted the catastrophic events that befell him. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were their names. One of them is quoted as saying, “I have observed those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.”

Their interpretation was very wrong. They believed God sent trouble upon wicked people only. If you are suffering a calamity, then you must be involved in something wicked. Yes, God disciplines us for our own good and He does so out of love. But they jumped to the wrong conclusion. As a result, they missed an opportunity to express deep love and support to a friend who had lost everything.

We do to our career what Job's friends did to him

We can do the same thing with our own career events. If we are passed-over for a promotion, we are convinced the manager hates us, we are not deserving, this is not the right company for us, the other person getting the promotion did something slimy to get it - and the list goes on.

When we think in this way, it only creates in us negative energy, the fight or flight response. And we know by now, making executive decisions while in a state of negative energy won’t benefit anyone, least of all us.

Psalm 112:7 They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

When an event unfolds, the best way to handle it is to simple remember who you are at the very core. Once again, we come back to our Core Values. It is through Thought Tuning™, the six step internal process that reassess our thinking in terms of our care values, that we will remove this blocker each time it occurs.

We don’t have to look at news as bad or good, it simply is news. How do we choose to respond to it? How do we want to represent ourselves in this new situation? Where do we want to take our career?

Although Interpretations may feel instinctive, they come from what we tell ourselves about what is happening. Make a deliberate choice to turn the event over to God as part of his divine and awesome plan for your life. You could very well make the wrong interpretation and end up hindering growth.

Shawn Sommerkamp is a motivational speaker and Executive Coach with 20+ years of Fortune 100 leadership experience. He founded Motivationeer™ to coach Christian professionals how to use their career to glorify God and support local church growth.

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