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Kristen Seidl – Living an Intentional Life

Kristen Seidl – Living an Intentional Life

Tag Archives: Amy Marks

How LIFE Leadership Saved My Life

30 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by Kristen Seidl in Community and Leadership, Friendship, Inspirational, Legacy, LIFE Founders, LIFE Leadership, Relationships

≈ 26 Comments

Tags

Amy Marks, Chris Brady, Dave Chatmon, George Guzzardo, Jill Guzzardo, Laurie Woodward, LIFE Leadership, Orrin Woodward, Terri Brady, Tim Marks

Sometimes a personal testimony is the most powerful form of belief we can offer people. I have been thinking about this topic for quite some time in anticipation to share how incredibly valuable my involvement with LIFE leadership has been over the years. I often get asked by critics that have known me a while why I am still involved with this company; somehow they still seem to think that this is just a business to me. I pray that this post clears up any confusion for those people.

Anyone who has been involved for any length of time (whether it was during company changes and transitions or the launch in 2011) would probably agree that it’s rather challenging to put into words the impact this organization can have on your life over time. In fact, it’s been such a challenge to formulate this piece of writing because the real blessings are so intangible and hard to express in written form.

I wanted to stay away from any sort of financial discussion because one of the misconceptions critics believe is that because LIFE leadership is a business, “money must be all they care about.” That couldn’t be further from the truth. While it is a very lucrative, successful company with hundreds and even thousands of members experiencing incredible financial success due to their influence in the lives of others, making money is certainly not the companies purpose. But, for those members who treat it and build it as a business they will achieve business results. But I digress. All you have to do is read Orrin Woodward’s highly popular blog or best-selling leadership books like The Leadership Train to understand the incredible business formula and system for LIFE leadership.

The idea behind this article was not to talk about a business but to talk about a purpose. I believe the purpose of LIFE Leadership was organically developed years ago when a group of men and women bonded their convictions through years of struggle trying to create a better life for themselves in less-fulfilling projects, eventually realizing that the real meaning of their struggle came from serving others and helping people grow.

Orrin recently tweeted, “A great life is the reward received when you give your life in service to others.”  Now that sounds like a worthy cause and purpose! But even still, I have to wonder if Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady planned to create a company 20 years ago that might otherwise save people’s lives in the future? It’s not like we have the cure for cancer here – our products are books, CD’s, meetings and people! How could that type of commodity actually save lives? And yet, it has.

Let me explain:

LIFE Leadership is built on a foundation of four important categories of development. Without these four components, a member will not experience the full value that someone like myself and many others have been able to experience over the years. Even the absence of one of these components can be detrimental to ones personal journey. Actually, because these are so important I thought that the most effective way to organize my writing would be to break down specifically through these categories how my involvement with LIFE Leadership has actually saved my life.

1) READ

LIFE booksBack in 2006 I picked up a book at a leadership convention titled The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I was young (about 20 years old), naive, a non-believer and very lost. No one had known at the time that I was struggling with an eating disorder, family challenges and other risky behaviors. I had always heard since day one of my involvement that reading was an important habit to develop if I ever wanted to be successful someday. I must admit, I was not a reader. In fact, it took me 2 years after getting involved to read a book from start to finish. This happened to be that book. The title of it caught my attention because at the time I had no sense of purpose. So what better way to discover something that was absent in my life than to gain wisdom from an author who may be able to help me. It did help me. In fact, I didn’t realize at the time that the first book I would ever read on my personal development journey would someday lead to my salvation in Jesus Christ.

Over the years I have read hundreds of books across multiple categories of personal and professional development genres. LIFE Leadership prides itself on delivering some of the best published content in the market so that people like myself can foster the necessary skills to develop internally so we can help other people externally. I could probably write a book just on the impact habitual reading has had on my life. It is one of the most powerful but under-utilized tools to success. In fact, it is so powerful that the information in books can actually save your life. I know it did for me.

2) Listen

CDs

Having always struggled with self-worth and control issues, I realized that the thoughts I constructed in my own mind were the most lethal form of self-destruction on my personal success journey. I knew that I would never become successful in anything if it was left up to my own thinking. I needed to change my thought process dramatically (not with the use of medication therapy, but through CD therapy). I became an audio-aholic listening to several CD’s a day just to keep myself out of my own head. Over the years that habit has created a hunger in me to want to share this information with everyone I meet. When people see stacks of audios in my front and back seats and in bins scattered everywhere throughout my car I am no longer embarrassed but proud of these resources. It is because of listening to these audios that I am still here today. In fact, my own bad thinking almost cost me my life; and listening was a direct path to saving it.

3) Associate

associateWhen I first got involved with the community building industry that has now become LIFE leadership, I completely fell in love with the people. There is just something different about hanging around with people who have a passion to grow personally and who want to make a difference. As hard as it is to believe, there are a lot of people in the world who don’t care about these things. I learned very early that who I hung around with would directly reflect the results I would have someday. I have always wanted to become like the people I respect so I have made it a priority in my life to surround myself with people like that. Even today, the association is my favorite part of all four of these components. Why? Because it’s about relationships. It’s about bonding. It’s about developing lifelong friendships. It’s about community.

Throughout this (already) two-year brain tumor battle if I didn’t have the LIFE leadership community I know for certain I would not be here today. Even through the most painful and challenging days I have looked forward to my Tuesday night meetings, monthly LIFE live seminars and quarterly leadership conventions. I believe having hope is about having something to look forward to even amidst the most difficult days of our lives. Not only do I have eternal hope in a life with Jesus someday but I have hope here on earth every time I get to associate with this incredible community of people. I always have something to look forward to. The relationships I have been able to foster among this organization has led me down paths medically I would have never had the opportunity to navigate. For those reasons alone, LIFE leadership has saved my life. However, all medical aside, the association has also allowed me to discover a purpose that I never knew existed – offering people hope (in a Savior) while pursuing real lasting friendships with other believers as we all journey toward Heaven together someday. To think, this crazy community and association of leaders is influencing people for Jesus – and saving lives for eternity!

4) Mentor

The final component and I could argue the most important! Since I was a freshman in high school (15 yrs old) I have been blessed to have a mentor – someone who has been able to guide me not only in basketball (at the time) but also in life. His name is Dave Chatmon and he is the direct reason I am involved with LIFE leadership today. He somehow convinced a very stubborn, shy but competitive girl to get involved in this industry at 18 years old that I would have never joined in a million years if it wasn’t for the trust I had in him. Today, I get to call him a business partner, a mentor and a friend.

baptismThe wonderful mentors I have been fortunate enough to work with over the years in this company are a true blessing from God – specifically speaking in regards to Dave Chatmon, George and Jill Guzzardo and Orrin and Laurie Woodward. There is absolutely no way I would still be here today if it wasn’t for these men and women and their servant hearts. Mentors help behind the scenes in ways that friends are not even qualified to do – they take on some of the heaviest loads of pressure in our lives but offer love, support and constructive direction towards better decision making in all aspects of our life. If you have a mentor, never ever take them for granted. Your mentors are some of the most selfless, loving and wise people you will ever meet. These mentors that I have mentioned above have directly, in their own specific way, saved my life and I am forever grateful for them every day of my life.

So there you have it. LIFE leadership may not the cure for cancer but it certainly is the cure for hopelessness. This is not just a business to me, this is my purpose – to lead people to truth and hope. It’s why I still do it. It’s why I will never quit until God calls me Home! It’s saved my life a countless number of times and I pray that it saves millions of lives (for Jesus) as we continue to share the message of leadership and truth across the world.

How has LIFE leadership affected your life? Feel free to share in the comments section below.

“It’s not just a business with a purpose, it’s a purpose… with a business.” Orrin Woodward

God Bless,

Kristen

 

Inner Beauty = True Beauty

28 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Kristen Seidl in Faith, Friendship, Inspirational, Relationships

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Amy Marks, Becoming God's True Woman, Jackie Lewis, Jill Guzzardo, Lana Hamilton, Laurie Woodward, Lisa Hawkins, Terri Brady, the-life-business, true beauty

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

You may have heard it said that one of the differences between a man and a woman is that when a man looks at himself in the mirror he admires the one physical feature about himself that’s attractive while a woman only sees the features she considers unattractive. Whether this is true or not can’t be verified but for women especially our eyes always see the imperfections. The statistics are alarming when we see that in an average year American woman spend a half billion dollars on shape-enhancing garments. Women from every culture are turning to extreme measures to change or enhance their physical features with the top five being liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, facelift and tummy tuck – and there seems to be no end in sight.

distorted imageThis obsession dates several hundreds of years back where women would use a potentially deadly combination of vinegar in search of porcelain skin, drops of antimony sulfide to make their eyes glitter (leading to blindness) and tight lace corsets (cutting off oxygen and displacing organs) in order to achieve an eighteen inch waist. Today, the media glamorizes ‘true beauty’ by promoting to women that perfect shape, weight, height, hair and skin will lead to true happiness – you know the false promises that the prettiest women get the best jobs, the most attractive men and are the most successful. My good friend and LIFE leading lady Terri Brady posted a blog titled, ‘The Stranger’s Sketch’ which I believe is a perfect example of how critical we are of our ourselves compared to how others really see us.

In an earlier post I shared my journey of battling an eating disorder – which unfortunately (today) is another very common and unhealthy method of ‘trying’ to reach physical perfection. When I taught in a high school it seemed that the girls cared more about how they looked than their dignity, their character or their work ethic. Since chopping my hair off (and losing some of it) I can’t count how many times I have been mistaken for a guy. The battle is never ending if our eyes are fixed on our outward appearance. I’m sure every one of us remembers a time when we compared, judged or idolized someone else with what seemed to be ‘better’ physical beauty than us. It’s hard to escape the sinful nature of our hearts; focusing on outward appearance rather than inward beauty and acting on cultural standards rather than biblical standards.

But here is a woman who I believe displays the best ‘true beauty’ of anyone. Her story has gone viral but not so much for being labeled ‘the ugliest woman on the internet,’ but because she has inspired millions of people to focus on their inner beauty and not their outward appearance (worth watching in its entirety):

So what is God’s definition of beauty? Nowhere in the bible are women instructed to wish for, ask for or strive for physical beauty. However, there is a kind of beauty that we are to pursue, see 1 Peter 3:4-5. In the LIFE AGO book, Becoming God’s True Woman, DeMoss shares stark comparisons between our culture’s definition of beauty and God’s definition of beauty:

  • Our culture puts forth a standard of beauty that is unattainable by most. God puts forth a standard of beauty to which we can all attain if we just respond to His work of grace in our lives.
  • Our culture defines beauty by how we look on the outside. God defines beauty by what we are like on the inside.
  • Our culture encourages women to cultivate a beauty that is skin deep. God tells us to pursue an inner beauty of great worth.
  • Our culture encourages women to cultivate a beauty that will only last for a brief time. God encourages women to cultivate a beauty that will never fade and that will only grow more attractive with the passing of time.
  • Our culture calls us to cultivate a beauty that impresses others. God summons us to cultivate a beauty that is first and foremost for His eyes.
  • Our culture entices us to aspire to the beauty of the latest glamourous model or most popular actress. God bids us to aspire to the beauty of the holy women in the past who put their hope in God.

Becoming God's True womanDeMoss goes on to say, “when a physically attractive woman walks by we notice – men particularly. But that’s the end of it. Her beauty makes a fleeting, momentary impression. But a woman who cultivates inner beauty, who fears God and lives to serve others, makes a difference in people’s lives. Her beauty makes a lasting impact on the lives she touches. Godly, inner beauty makes an indeliable mark on the lives of others and glorifies God.”

It is true that a woman’s physical appearance is enhanced by her inner beauty. But this does not mean that we neglect our outward appearance just because we are beautiful on the inside. Pure devotion to God will produce an appropriate concern for physical appearance and in turn our outward appearance should always attract others to our inner beauty and our character.  

Laurie Woodward, Jill Guzzardo and all of the LIFE leading ladies are true models of inner beauty. They are all beautiful on the outside but their true beauty radiates from the inside. Robert Murray McCheyne said it best, “we should take 10 looks at Christ for every look at ourselves” and I believe these amazing women do that. Every time we are tempted to be discouraged by our own lack of perfection, we must look to our Savior, whose perfection has been credited to us. We are all made perfect in His image and to set our hearts and minds on the things above will allow us to accept that our inner beauty is where true beauty rests.

God Bless,

Kristen

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