Sounds Like a Plan

Please, Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to that of Your servants who delight to revere Your name.  Give Your servant success today, and have compassion on him in the presence of this man. [At the time,] I was the king's cupbearer. - Nehemiah 1:11

Who is responsible for the success or failure of your plans?

Is it you?  Well, you certainly need to do your best and work with all your heart for success. Is it others, like those in authority over you or coworkers or forces beyond your control? Again, I would say yes, you need to be free to work to the best of your ability without interference and enjoy the fruits of your labors.

The honest truth is that often when we succeed, we are quick to claim the responsibility, but when we fail we are quicker still to search for someone else to blame. We most often fail because we refuse to take responsibility for our own actions. True leaders accept responsibility, live with the choices they have been given, and make the best of it all realizing that the absence of a plan (and whining about failure) is no plan at all.

Nehemiah faced a difficult task; therefore, he made sure his heart was right with God, put together a plan, submitted it to the Lord, accepted the need to make adjustments, and pressed forward (realizing the risks).

Now that sounds like a plan!.

Being busy does not always mean real work.  The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. - Thomas A. Edison