By Dynamis Ministries | April 15, 2021
In Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness’ book, Peak Performance, the authors draw upon several best practices in the field of psychology and provide readers with guidance on how to increase their capacities, avoid burnout, and experience growth. Using the example of professionals and athletes, Peak Performance speaks of “just manageable challenges” that lie just beyond the fringes of our comfort level. This is the sweet spot where we experience the most growth by being tested, but not to the brink of causing anxiety. Just manageable challenges are a way that we can grow in our generosity as we challenge ourselves to go beyond our current comfort zone.
Growing in generosity is similar to growth in other parts of life. Not only do we need to practice it to increase our impact but also we need to be stretched beyond our current ability. Using the framework outlined in Peak Performance, if we want to grow in generosity by just manageable challenges, this is what we can do:
1. Consider our current ability to be generous. It is difficult to know where we are headed without first knowing where we are. As we think our current level of generosity or lack thereof, we can reflect upon our attitudes as well as our actions of generosity and rate ourselves on how we think we are doing. We need to be honest with ourselves.
2. Begin to move in the direction of needed growth. After we have a sense of our current ways of being generous, we can begin to move in the direction we want to grow by actively seeking out challenges that just barely exceed our current level. For some of us, an appropriate challenge may be as simple as donating to a ministry or local charity for the first time. For others this may look like slightly increasing our regular giving amount. Still for others it could be practicing new and creative ways to give such as through non-cash assets or legacy giving.
3. Add more difficulty to our growth challenges. As we adapt and grow to that initial movement in our generosity, it is time to do another challenge that is a little harder. By creating new challenges, we can avoid the complacency that is often experienced with giving and keep it exciting and growing. This could entail increasing our standard of giving with gains in our standard of living. It could also be setting a generosity goal that only could be accomplished with God’s help. Further, this might involve meeting people’s needs in our circle of life in addition to our structured giving.
4. Make necessary adjustments along the way. If we feel anxious or overly stressed with our giving challenges, it is okay to dial things back and be gracious with ourselves. There may be times when we have to adjust our giving practices. Family emergencies, unforeseen medical expenses, or job loss can create burdens which may require us to re-channel our resources. That is okay, we simply need to tweak our challenges and get back to growing at a more reasonable pace.
Generosity is a practice that should increase as we move through life. The best givers that are always thinking about how they can do more. Just as we desire to grow our capacities in our work or other hobbies, we should desire to grow in our giving as well. We should stretch ourselves in this area however we can.
Special Invitation: We invite everyone to consider doing a Generosity Plan with Dynamis Ministries, which is our core competency as we help people develop their God-given potential for generosity. Reach out to our Generosity Coach, Ben Berg, to schedule this opportunity or find out more about it. Ben can be reached at ben@dynamisministries.org.
Reference
Stulberg, Brad, and Steve Magness. 2017. Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, And Thrive With The New Science of Success. New York: Rodale Inc.
