What comes first

So there has been a change for how I do business - it's definitely a change in how I do things, and it causes sometimes a bit of angst as I make the change, but I've changed my mornings. Inspections generally get the afternoon, so my morning is about working not on my present business, but on my future.

My default for that would be to just do stuff that furthers my business: fiddle with the web site, record something, edit something, do a little strategic planning, make phone calls, check emails - you know, the stuff you expect to do when you're in business. But I'm trying to not do that.

Now, for about an hour a day (a large chunk of the morning) I work on my core. Exercise and scripture reading, and writing here. It doesn't get any business done, but it does cement who I am. And my expectation is that with guidance from the other side, I can get more done in minutes than I might have done in hours. With guidance, I can make the right business decisions, have guidance as to marketing (came up with "don't text and next" yesterday out of the blue - I think it's pretty good) and generally be pointed in the right direction. I am just choosing to do it this way and hope that the Lord makes the path straighter.

I was reading in Helaman today. Found a new place. It's interesting because I was reading the same chapter a month ago. Helaman 4. There's a lot of Book of Mormon to read, and here I am back again. But I picked up a new gem that applies to the whole "right direction" concept.

So in this chapter, the Nephites get prideful and things start to go sour again on them. What does their leader Moronihah do? They've lost a lot of land. I love his way of measuring when it's time to go get it back. Spoiler alert: it's not about when he has gathered sufficient armies and training, or when adequate numbers of weapons have been obtained. He waits until he sees the people repenting.

"16 For when Moronihah saw that they did repent he did venture to lead them forth from place to place, and from city to city, even until they had regained the one half of their property..."

I guess if you choose evil, sometimes you don't get it all back when you're good, or perhaps only half the people were good. Who knows. It doesn't say. But that's a different point. The point was that he was concerned about the people's spiritual readiness before he considered them war ready. I suspect most generals would die laughing, but that would be only to their own loss. It's our own center that matters most. Not just in war, but in business, in relationships, in whatever. If our center is right we are probably going to succeed. The only exception to that may be if the Lord's will might be that we go another direction, but even that is probably not an exception. If success in life is doing what the Lord wants us to do, then I'm going to say that it happens every time.

So. How does fighting wars apply to what I do in my man-cave basement doing business? It applies. I just have to see it.