Leading Yourself Well: A Check-In for Busy Lives

Before You Lead Others: How Well Do You Manage Yourself?

Before you lead others, you are already leading someone—yourself! In the rush of busy lives, self-management is often the first thing to slip, quietly replaced by urgency, expectations, and endless demands. Yet the way we manage our time, energy, emotions, and priorities shapes everything else we do.

Jesus taught a kingdom economy based on faithfulness, stewardship, and generosity—not anxiety or striving. Responsibilities, relationships, opportunities, and limitations all sit in our hands at once. God invites us to steward them wisely, not perfectly! Stewardship isn’t about adding more to your life; it’s about learning how to carry what is already there well.

We cannot lead others if we are unable to lead ourselves first!

Stewardship begins with a simple question: What has God placed in my hands right now—and how am I carrying it?

Busyness is often a signal—not of importance, but of misalignment.

How Well Do You Manage Your Heart and Mind?

Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37).

This is a call for deep, wholehearted commitment, where faith is visible and tangible in every aspect of life. Out of love, everything else flows—from our inner thoughts to our outward actions. Managing ourselves leads to effective management in every area of our lives:

• Heart: Your inner self, emotions, desires, will, and core identity

• Soul: Your life force and entire being

• Mind: Your intellect, understanding, reasoning, and decisions

• Strength: Your energy, wholeheartedness, abilities, and resources used in service

Leading yourself well isn’t about perfection or productivity hacks. It’s about intentional stewardship; pausing long enough to notice what’s draining you, what’s guiding your decisions, and whether your life is aligned with what truly matters. When self-leadership is neglected, and your heart, soul, mind and strength are out of sync, even the best intentions eventually lead to exhaustion and frustration.

How Well Do You Steward Your Resources and Opportunities?

The foundation of stewardship is recognising that everything belongs to God. We do not own anything. Your bed, your outfit of the day, and the food in your lunchbox, refrigerator, or store cupboard, this day you are involved in, and the skills you have - they all belong to Him.

Stewardship is not "doing more" but carrying life responsibly.

Everything you have belongs to God.

When you understand that everything belongs to Him, you steward and respond to resources and opportunities differently.

Your payslip is not your provider.

Your talents are not your platform.

Everything in your hands is a gift! We are invited to partner with God with all that he has entrusted to us.

"...For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you" (1 Chronicles 29:14).

I often wonder how many opportunities I have missed with misplaced priorities and misdirected focus. When I realise I have plenty of opportunities each day, I become more aware and responsive. I have a daily responsibility to choose wisely and well. The most sustainable leadership begins in my unseen choices.

Before Influence Comes Stewardship

The Bible emphasises that we will eventually give an account for how we used what was given to us. Faithfulness and accountability are proven in our choices, priorities, and actions.

"Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful"

(1 Corinthians 4:2).

Everything entrusted to us—our time, talents, opportunities, and resources—comes with responsibility. Our goal is not merely to possess, but to manage faithfully, offering all we have in service to God and others. How we invest what He has given us matters, for faithfulness honours the Giver and extends His work in the world.

You don’t drift into healthy leadership; you choose it daily!

Redirected Provision

Stewardship reaches beyond finances into the everyday choices we make - your grocery list, your giving list, your open doors to respond as a blessing.

The provision you are praying for may be intended for another need or purpose.

Throughout our marriage, God has unexpectedly blessed us numerous times with clear instructions to share with others, even amidst our own needs. We have learned not to assume that timely answers are intended for our own benefit; they are often meant for redirection or to be shared elsewhere. Each time we have obeyed, we have experienced an increase—not always financially, but sometimes in influence, expansion, open doors, or long-awaited breakthroughs.

How Well Are You Managing Your Time and Energy?

Wise management and diligence are partners for faithfulness. Stewardship requires active planning and avoiding waste.

Our lives are a gift given, not to be wasted. We must choose what we are spending them on!

We often squander our time, energy, and resources on misplaced priorities. If you spend 2 hours a day on social media or watching videos or reels, you are consuming roughly one and a half months of your conscious life every year. Imagine redirecting those 730 hours:

• Reading: In that time, you could read 30 to 50 books a year, or even the entire Bible!

• Skill Building: You could develop new skills, gain a qualification, or start a part-time home business that can bless, teach, encourage, or equip others.

  
  

• Service: You could volunteer for 14 hours every week of the year and impact others for a greater purpose!

When to Say No!

Energy stewardship requires an honest awareness of our limits and a willingness to honour them. God did not design us to live in constant exhaustion, pouring ourselves out without renewal. Our energy is meant to be spent wisely rather than depleted recklessly.

When we steward our energy well, we learn to discern when to act, when to rest, and when to say no without feeling guilty.

The way you manage yourself shapes the way you lead everyone else.

Choosing rhythms of rest, reflection, and restoration is not a sign of weakness, but an act of faith, acknowledging that our strength is sustained by God, not by relentless striving.

Learning to listen when the Holy Spirit says no is key to stewarding the impact we carry.

The Stewardship of Influence

Faithful stewardship isn't just about saving or management, it's about using our whole selves to expand and invest in God's Kingdom and honour Him.

"Command those who are rich... to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share" (1 Timothy 6:17-18).

Leading yourself well is an act of humility long before it becomes an act of influence.

You may not be rich in cash or material wealth, but we can all be rich in good deeds. This is the work and effort we invest (seen and unseen!)

Willingness to share and generosity are not only the overflow of physical resources; they spring from a generous heart that recognises that the impact we have on others is not something we own, but something we are entrusted with. Our words, attitudes, choices, and presence quietly shape the spaces we occupy and the people we encounter, often more than we realise.

My daughter was elected as school Vice President just three months after becoming a new student, not due to her popularity, but because others noticed how she picked up garbage around the campus and how she speaks to people with compassion and attentiveness. She has a remarkable ability to make everyone feel important and valued. Her influence stems not from positional power, but from her love for God, as demonstrated in her passion for His people.

“Stewardship is the act of organising your life so that God can spend you.” Lynn A. Miller

Influence is not measured by visibility or authority, but by faithfulness: choosing humility over control, truth over convenience, and love over self-interest. When we steward influence well, we reflect God’s character in everyday interactions, using what we’ve been given to encourage, guide, and serve others humbly rather than to elevate ourselves.

This check-in is an invitation to slow down, reflect honestly, and reset. Because before influence, before responsibility, before leadership over others—there is the quiet, daily work of leading yourself well. It starts with you!

🌿 Reflection Questions

1. What feels like it’s in your hands right now—responsibilities, relationships, or decisions—and how does it feel to carry them?

   
   

2. How are you stewarding your energy and personal life, not just your tasks and responsibilities?

   
   

3. Where might God be inviting you to tend something with care rather than rush, control, or abandon it?

   
   

4. What would faithful stewardship look like for you this week—simple, honest, and sustainable?

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