92. The #1 Reason for Nonprofit Failure

Summary

The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast
Episode 92: The #1 Reason for Nonprofit Failure
Release Date: May 14, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 92 of The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast, hosts Jason Galasinski and Jim Dempsey delve into a critical and often sensitive topic: the number one reason nonprofits fail. This episode stands out as a more serious and introspective discussion compared to their usual light-hearted approach, aiming to uncover the root causes that lead to the downfall of many nonprofit organizations.

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Defining Success and Failure

The conversation begins with the hosts emphasizing the importance of defining failure by understanding success.

• Jason Galasinski (00:25): "Mission drift is completely off from where their founders envisioned. But I think it would be good to define failure by looking at what success is."
• Jim Dempsey (00:34): "Accomplishing your mission, staying on target with your mission, that is what success is."

By framing success as the consistent achievement of an organization's mission, they set the stage for identifying factors that cause deviations from this path.

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Identifying Symptoms of Failure

Jim and Jason list various symptoms that indicate potential failure, such as lack of strategic planning, poor budgeting, ineffective development plans, misaligned or unmotivated staff, and mission drift.

• Jim Dempsey (03:13): "Most of the time, it's because people don't plan. You know, strategic plan no strategic plan when we plan to fail because we failed to plan."

They also discuss common pitfalls like assembling boards based on friendships rather than strategic fit, which often leads to weak governance and inadequate fundraising efforts.

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The Core Issue: Resistance

The crux of the episode revolves around the concept of resistance as the primary reason nonprofits fail. The hosts categorize resistance into two main types:

1. External Resistance: Uncontrollable factors such as economic downturns, natural disasters, or societal opposition.
2. Internal Resistance: Challenges within the organization, including procrastination, lack of focus, and internal conflicts.

• Jason Galasinski (10:20): "We believe that the number one reason why nonprofits fail is because of resistance."

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Understanding Resistance

Jason and Jim break down resistance into more specific forms:

• Procrastination: Delaying important tasks undermines progress.

  • Jim Dempsey (26:48): "Every alternative is running through your head. You know, is this really, does this really matter?"

• Shadow Calling: Settling for less than one's full calling, avoiding the challenges of executing big visions.

  • Jason Galasinski (28:26): "The shadow calling is essentially where you don't embrace your full calling."

• Pleasure Over Fulfillment: Preferring short-term pleasures over long-term goals.

  • Jim Dempsey (29:54): "Focusing on the short term versus the long term."

• Full Sedation: Being overly busy with low-impact tasks, preventing meaningful progress.

  • Jason Galasinski (32:14): "You're so busy working in the business that you don't actually work on the business."

Notable quotes:

• Jim Dempsey (07:06): "Accomplishing your mission, staying on target with your mission, that is what success is."
• Jason Galasinski (25:36): "Sometimes the pathway to get that end result is not easy. It may be filled with potholes."

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Steps to Overcome Resistance

The hosts outline a four-step strategy to combat resistance:

1. Recognize You Are in a War: Understand that leading a nonprofit is akin to engaging in a spiritual and organizational battle.

   • Jason Galasinski (14:39): "Step one is recognizing that you are in a war."

2. Understand the Lies of the Enemy: Identify and debunk the deceptive tactics used by resistance, such as procrastination and settling for mediocrity.

   • Jason Galasinski (25:36): "The enemy is constantly lying to us."

3. Realize Satan Opposes Big Dreams: Acknowledge that significant visions often attract more resistance, but persistence is key.

   • Jim Dempsey (36:05): "Sometimes the dinners with the greatest resistance are the ones that have the greatest success."

4. Overcome Resistance with Intentional Action: Take deliberate and purposeful steps towards achieving organizational goals, relying on faith and strategic planning.

   • Jason Galasinski (37:37): "You can overcome resistance by being intentional, by having intentional action."

Key strategies include:

• Prayer and Spiritual Alignment: Deepening the organization's spiritual foundation to strengthen resolve.

  • Jim Dempsey (45:01): "Take a day off and just pray. Get back to why you do what you do."

• Time Blocking and Strategic Planning: Allocating specific times for high-impact activities to ensure consistent progress.

  • Jason Galasinski (43:31): "Time blocking out his day and saying, I'm gonna take Wednesdays from 8am to noon. I'm gonna do this thing."

• Renewing the Mind: Adopting a mindset aligned with the organization's mission and rejecting limiting beliefs.

  • Jason Galasinski (40:49): "Renew your mind with truth, right? You got to read the word, you got to get into a relationship with the Lord."

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Biblical and Practical Insights

The discussion is deeply rooted in Christian theology, referencing scriptures to underscore their points:

• Ephesians 6:12 (Jim Dempsey, 17:05): "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers..."

• Romans 12:2 (Jason Galasinski, 40:17): "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind."

They emphasize that while failure is not inherently negative, how an organization responds to failure—by learning and persevering rather than succumbing—is crucial for long-term success.

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Conclusion

Jason Galasinski and Jim Dempsey conclude the episode by reiterating that the primary reason nonprofits fail is succumbing to resistance. However, they offer hope by outlining actionable steps to overcome these challenges through intentional planning, spiritual alignment, and strategic execution.

• Jason Galasinski (44:47): "The good news is that you don't have to give into resistance. You can start today to make good choices."

They encourage listeners to engage with their mentorship programs and to share the episode with others who might benefit from the insights shared.

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Key Takeaways

• Resistance is Multifaceted: Understanding both internal and external forms of resistance is essential for organizational resilience.

• Intentional Action is Critical: Strategic planning and deliberate actions help nonprofits stay aligned with their missions.

• Spiritual Foundation Matters: For faith-based organizations, a strong spiritual foundation can fortify leaders and teams against resistance.

• Continuous Self-Assessment: Regularly evaluating organizational practices and personal habits can help identify and mitigate resistance factors.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• 00:25 - Jason Galasinski: "But I think it would be good to define failure by looking at what success is."

• 03:13 - Jim Dempsey: "Most of the time, it's because people don't plan. You know, strategic plan no strategic plan when we plan to fail because we failed to plan."

• 14:39 - Jason Galasinski: "Step one is recognizing that you are in a war."

• 25:36 - Jason Galasinski: "The enemy is constantly lying to us."

• 40:49 - Jason Galasinski: "Renew your mind with truth, right? You got to read the word, you got to get into a relationship with the Lord."

• 44:47 - Jason Galasinski: "The good news is that you don't have to give into resistance. You can start today to make good choices."

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This episode provides nonprofit leaders with both theological and practical frameworks to identify and combat the resistance that threatens organizational success. By integrating strategic planning with spiritual resilience, The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast equips its listeners to lead their organizations towards sustained impact and mission fulfillment.

Transcript

[Jason Galasinski]

You're listening to the number one podcast for nonprofit leaders getting your nonprofit fully funded. This is the Fundraising Masterminds podcast. How many organizations started 100 years ago with a certain goal, right? And then, you know, next thing you know, they've got Mission Drift. They're like, completely off from where their founders envisioned. But I think it would be good to define failure by looking at what success is.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right. To me, accomplishing your mission, staying on target with your mission, that is what success is.

[Jason Galasinski]

Welcome back to another episode here at the Fundraising Masterminds Podcast. My name is Jason Galasinski, and with me, my co host, Jim Dempsey.

[Jim Dempsey]

Hey, Jason.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, how are you doing today, Jim?

[Jim Dempsey]

No, I'm good. This is, it's a good time of the year. I, I may is really one of my favorite months, to be honest with you. I just, you know, it's June starts to hit into summer, but I almost feel like you're, you're starting to get to beginning of the end of, of summer in a way. But now Spring Main is a great month, so I love it.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, we're off to the races with the perfect vision in our mentors. We got a ton of people signed up and we're two weeks in, just hitting the ground running. So super excited about what's going on.

[Jim Dempsey]

Eyeballing the fall already, which is just amazing to think. But the, the beauty is that we're getting a good start. That's always so important.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. Well, today we're going to be talking about something a little bit serious and I'm just going to warn our listeners ahead of time, this episode is going to be a little bit too close to home. You know, it's going to be a little heavy hitting.

[Jim Dempsey]

It's more serious than we, we typically talk about. We, we light in because, you know, we sometimes we take nonprofit leadership and development too seriously. And I think we need to be a little bit more light hearted. But this is a, this is more of a, a serious topic.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. We're going to be talking about the number one reason why nonprofits fail.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But before we get into it, if you wouldn't mind subscribing or hitting that like, button, and we would love to know what you think. So write some comments in, in as you're listening to this and let us know, um, if you agree or disagree or, or just. And you know, let us know if you agree or disagree and what you think and, and let's have a conversation. You know, this is, this isn't us saying, you know, we know what's best. But we have seen a lot of nonprofits fail.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And we're trying to. In this episode, we're trying to kind of pinpoint, like, the root cause. Like what? Actually.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. There's a lot of symptoms.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

There's everything from a strategic plan to, I mean, a number of things, but we're getting to the root. And because this is so controversial, this topic, I be sure to comment in the comments section because we'd love to hear your opinion. You may just say, man, you guys are just way off on this one. But I'd love to hear, especially if you agree with what we're saying.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So buckle up your seatbelts, because we might be pushing some buttons that might trigger some things in you. I don't know.

[Jim Dempsey]

I know for me, right.

[Jason Galasinski]

As I was going through this, I was like, oh, man. Oh, wow.

[Jim Dempsey]

It's home. It's too close to home.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. I'd just love to ask you right off the bat, like, just throw out some things. What are. What are reasons why nonprofits fail?

[Jim Dempsey]

I mean, there's just a myriad of reasons. Most of the time, it's because people don't plan. You know, we strategic plan no strategic plan when we plan to fail because we failed to plan. And, you know, not having a budget, not having a good development plan, not hiring the right staff, not having a good mission or singular focus. I mean, it's just a myriad of reasons. And in this case, I'll say symptoms to a root problem. And that's what we're going to address today. Another one is a real root problem.

[Jason Galasinski]

Maybe the board. Oh, is there another reason why getting.

[Jim Dempsey]

The wrong board members.

[Jason Galasinski]

How many people just get their friends on the board when they're starting?

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely. And. Or they just want to get people on the board so they don't mention anything about fundraising, and so that. That's part of their responsibility. And so. Yeah, I mean, there's. Yeah, there are so many different.

[Jason Galasinski]

I mean, fundraising, you know, is.

[Jim Dempsey]

Is. Is a big issue.

[Jason Galasinski]

A big issue. Right. We talk about fundraising a lot.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, leadership issues.

[Jim Dempsey]

Oh, yeah, Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Absolutely. Dealing with staff. Opinionated staff.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

What are other reasons why, you know, failure tends to happen?

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, I mean, it just a lack of focus and not being able to truly understand how to achieve your goal. We. We forget so much that the bottom line is always about our. Those lives. You know, you and I always talk about the. So that what's the impact that can be made? And sometimes we can get so caught up in the day to day activities and doing things we forget what the. So that, I mean, this is why we exist. And you know, I mean, the fact that the phones didn't work today, Internet was shut off for some reason. You know, our receptionist was sick today. We can get so caught up in those small things that overall are insignificant.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

They're important in the moment, but have no impact on our mission. Yeah. We can get caught up in those.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, I think it would be. Some of you might be listening and saying, well, what do you mean by fail? Like, what do you mean? Like, how do you know if you've failed? You know, Exactly. Because some of the things that you're describing, you know, like Internet going out and things getting caught up in the day to day, well, that's just kind of normal life, you know, that doesn't mean I fail.

[Jim Dempsey]

But people make such a big deal about those things when they're going on.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

And we lose, lose sight of things. You know, the old analogy, you lose, you. You lose sight because of the trees.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

It's easy to have mission creep. You know, how many organizations started 100 years ago with a certain goal?

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And then, you know, next thing you know, they've got mission drift and they're, you know, way off in left field and they don't even. They're like completely off from where their founders envisioned. Yeah. But I think it would be good to define failure by looking at what success is.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So maybe what we should do is just start with success.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so Jim, I think, and tell me if you agree, but success in an organization looks like having a really good solid idea of where you want to go in the next three to five years.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Having the funds to be able to accomplish those things, having alignment with the board, where the board is all in agreement, they're all on board, they're all.

[Jim Dempsey]

In the same direction.

[Jason Galasinski]

In the same direction. I've heard someone say once that, you know, organizations move at the speed of trust.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right. So, like, I like that.

[Jason Galasinski]

If you don't trust people.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You're not going anywhere, you know, and how much, how often, you know, are we. We're just afraid of things.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and we're looking over our shoulder and saying, oh, is he really, you know, on my page or, you know. Yeah, we don't, you know, so if we can, if we can all trust each other and we're all moving in the same way, you know, then, then we're going to move quick.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. I was on a board in the early 2000s, that was just accomplishing great things. And I think it's because the board was so aligned. In fact, we, I, I can't remember a vote that we had that was not unanimous. And that's pretty rare for a, you know, six person board. But that's the way it was and I think that's why we accomplished so much. To me, accomplishing your mission, staying on target with your mission, that is what success is. Yeah, it really is.

[Jason Galasinski]

So if you don't have a clear, specific goal or vision of what you're trying to do in the next three to five years, you don't have the funding to do it and you don't have the board alignment and you don't have your team working towards that. And you're like laser focused on like we're accomplishing this. And every day you're going in and making progress and everyone's excited. Usually people get excited about, I mean, just look at all the stuff that Elon is doing with SpaceX. And every time there's a rocket launch, you know, they show the, the, you know, the staff in the lobby and everyone's like jumping and like, yeah, you know, we sent another rocket.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And they're just, they're excited because they, they want, they enjoy accomplishing something hard, you know, and it builds team. So like, if we're, if we're really solving world hunger or, you know, bringing the gospel into all the schools and, you know, like, why wouldn't we just be the most excited people, you know? So if we're, if we're not having these things, and I would say you're stagnant. And if you're stagnant, you're probably on the way to failure.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so that's, that's kind of how I would define failure.

[Jim Dempsey]

But you know, it's funny, Jason, because we hear now of all the successes of SpaceX, but what we forget is those failures. In the beginning, Elon had failure after failure after failure. In fact, they were almost right at the brink of bankruptcy when they finally hit it and have been on an upward trajectory ever since. No punishment, pun intended. But they, you know, it's, it, it really took those failures to get to success. So failure is not a bad thing.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

But we, it's how we respond to failure and how we deal with it. And if we can turn that failure into a success, it's when we have that prolonged failure that we have troubles.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, and that's so true with all entrepreneurs. Like when you look at what Steve Jobs went through.

[Jim Dempsey]

Sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

When you look at.

[Jim Dempsey]

He was fired from his own company.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And there's just a lot, there's a lot of. There's a lot of stuff that entrepreneurs have to go through to, you know, break through.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And I, I think in many ways nonprofit leaders have an entrepreneurial spirit to them because in many ways you're trying to solve a problem and you're trying to bring a solution to a community or two people, and that requires you to have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. And just because of that nature, you're going to face failure, you're going to face opposition position. So, Jim, as you and I were talking about all these different things we were trying to. We kind of lined them all up and we were like, what do all these things kind of have in common?

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, because it seems like there's kind of a common thread here.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And kind of what we came up with is. It's almost like the common word that we kind of came up with was like, resistance. Absolutely.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So it's like, it's like, like, you know, it. There could be like external resistance, there could be internal resistance, there could be, you know, like, you're bored not agreeing with you. It's like it's some kind of form of resisting.

[Jim Dempsey]

Resistance takes a lot of different forms.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. So we believe that the number one reason why non profits fail is because of resistance. Yeah, Resistance. And this. I hang with me. You might, you might be thinking, oh, boy, what is this? You know, it seems like he's talking about. It seems like an abstract concept. We're going to unpack this a little bit. So we're going to go through what we mean by resistance and what. And how you come across resistance on a daily basis.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so, and if you, if you think about it. Right. I'm just going to give a silly example, but how many of us, you know, hit the snooze button when we know we're trying to get up at 6am in the morning. Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

Or that we should. And that, you know, it means getting up to. Yeah. Go to work or whatever it is. Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

This is a simple example. It also happens with work. Like, I know that I should be more active and I'll be honest, I hate working out. I know I should work out, but I just, I. Every time that the thought comes into my head about going to the gym or whatever, I'm just like, oh, man, I just don't want to do that, you know, like.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so my Point is, is that I, I like the, the alarm analogy because we can all relate to, you.

[Jim Dempsey]

Know, hitting that snooze button.

[Jason Galasinski]

That snooze button. But the point is, is that you make a plan at night.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right?

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. You at, you're at 9 o' clock at night, you're like, okay, I'm gonna get up at 5am yeah, I'm going to go work out. I'm gonna go, yeah, I'm gonna read my Bible, I'm gonna spend time in prayer. And then that alarm goes off and you have like a two second like little thought where it's like, I know what I should do.

[Jim Dempsey]

Every, every alternative is running through your head. You know, is this really, does this really matter? The weather isn't nice outside, it's cold, it's rainy, whatever it is, my car.

[Jason Galasinski]

Or just like you just don't feel like it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, you just, you wake up and you're just like, oh, I just feel so tired. And you just, you just, you have a moment there though. That's the, that's what we're trying to get at. There's a, there's a moment where you can choose.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. There's a moment where you can say, I feel tired. Oh, but, but, but, but I'm gonna get up anyways.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, or I feel tired, but I just gonna hit that snooze.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right. And you know, you gotta believe the snooze button was created by. Because of resistance. Because, you know, at some point someone.

[Jason Galasinski]

Resistance?

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. At some point someone said the pushing the stop button is not enough. Let's delay that a little bit. And that's resistance.

[Jason Galasinski]

And, and really, when you really think about this, there's external resistance and there's internal resistance. You know, I would define external resistance as things that we can't control.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. You know, voices outside.

[Jason Galasinski]

A hurricane goes through your city and wipes out your building.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, you couldn't control that. You know, certain things happening with, oh.

[Jim Dempsey]

The economy, you know, inflation, whatever it is.

[Jason Galasinski]

So you can't control certain things, but you can control how you react to it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Correct.

[Jason Galasinski]

You can control how you handle it.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. But I, I think what we're going to focus on in this episode is more internal resistance. And that's why I said this is going to hit more closer to home.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so a lot of what's really happening on a day to day basis is internal. You know, it's, it's, there's things happening inside of us and inside of other people that are resisting.

[Jim Dempsey]

But aren't they almost the same? Jason, because you said that external, how we. It's how we deal with it. But internally, it's how we deal with it as well, too. I mean, they really, it really comes down to us. And you know, the old, the old adage that when you're pointing at someone, you've got three fingers or three fingers pointing back at you, it. When there's problems, it may not be the other person, it may be you.

[Jason Galasinski]

As we were talking through this before the episode, we really kind of thought through four steps that you can take to overcome resistance. So, Jim, the first step in overcoming resistance, I believe, is recognizing that you are in a war.

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

So much of life is just understanding the context of where you are. Right. Like, if you think about your childhood, you know, growing up.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, you just woke up and the whole purpose of life was just to have fun and eat.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

It was like, what are we having for dinner? And when do I get to play with my Legos?

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

When do I get to play with my friends?

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and at some point in time we kind of start to realize, like, oh, we're part of this world and there's other things going on and.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, I mean, first of all, I mean, there's just pure survival. We need to get a job to be able to survive.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

But when we move into the non profit world, it's a little bit different. Certainly there are people, people who look at ministry as a job. And if I have to go to work, I might as well go to work for a good cause. And those people exist. But so many in ministry are there because they realize that there's a battle going on, that there's a war, and it's a war against a number of different enemies. And we're going to talk about those enemies in just a minute.

[Jason Galasinski]

And if you're trying to stop world hunger, or you're trying to start a Christian school, or you're trying to create.

[Jim Dempsey]

A camp, obliterate abortion, whatever it is.

[Jason Galasinski]

I mean, if you're trying to do those things.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

There's always going to be people who are going to resist you.

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

You're going to be coming up against resistance. I mean, even just the idea, like just, just tell your family as out of the blue, you know, I think I'm gonna start, you know, I think I'm gonna start a Christian school.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

They're gonna say, what are you nuts?

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, like just right off the bat.

[Jim Dempsey]

There's a million Christian schools out there. Why don't you just send your kids?

[Jason Galasinski]

Why don't you just get a job?

[Jim Dempsey]

Why do you, to start it, like.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and, and I've had people tell me that many times, like, why don't you just get a job? Why, why are you, you know, always trying to start businesses and doing all stuff. You're strugg, you know, clearly, you know, it's hard. You know, just do what we all.

[Jim Dempsey]

Do or why do you have to solve a problem in Zambia? You know, why start reaching the heart of Zambia.

[Jason Galasinski]

So just, just the idea of saying, I think God is calling me to this.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You're automatically going to have people coming in saying, why?

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, that's, that's stupid, you know.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And I, I think from a Christian perspective, you know, we're coming at it from a spiritual perspective of any time that we try to take ground away from the enemy, which in, in our case we're talking about, you know, a spiritual battle, the enemy's gonna fight back.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So we're automatically gonna have resistance there.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yep.

[Jason Galasinski]

So you gotta kind of go into your day thinking like, I'm in war and we're trying to take ground and the enemy doesn't want us to take ground. And you can't lose that focus. You know, as soon as you get complacent, then you start to have problems.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, I love Ephesians 6:12. I mean, I think it says it all. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the four of the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. I think that says it all. I mean, we, that's, that's our opposition, that's our resistance.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yep. But sometimes, you know, people kind of over spiritualize things.

[Jim Dempsey]

I feel like, oh, sure, yeah, we can almost.

[Jason Galasinski]

Satan is not omnipresent, if you didn't know that already. Sometimes we act like he is.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so like Satan can't be, you know, in Chicago, you know, causing so and so to stumble and then be in Tennessee at the same time. Now he might have lots of minions that are out there, you know, doing stuff. And I think the Screwtape letters is a good, good kind of analogy of that. But sometimes I feel like we over spiritualize things.

[Jim Dempsey]

Satan's around every corner.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, I've, I'm sure you've heard, you know, the whole thing of like the world, the flesh and the devil.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Are kind of like our three main kind of oppositions.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so let's. Let's break that down a little bit. So, like, the world is basically just, you know, a scripture verse. There would be, like, First John 2:15, which says, do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So obviously, he's not talking about, like, the planet.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

He's talking about the things of the world. Materialism.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, he's talking about, you know, getting caught up in the world, just falling in love with the pleasures of the world. And so how can the world kind of pull us away from our calling, Jim?

[Jim Dempsey]

A lot of distractions. There's. There's just a myriad of different distractions in the world. Everything from. From food to, you know, that new car that's out there to homes to keeping up with the Joneses. Making sure that.

[Jason Galasinski]

I mean, from a nonprofit leader perspective, though, it might be like, I'm not getting paid enough, you know, like. Or I'm not.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, I mean, honestly, keeping up with the Joneses is. Can happen in the nonprofit. I can't tell you how many organizations I've felt like were resentful of crew because we have. We have this many staff and that we have this large of a budget and that we're able. Able to have an impact around the world. But on the flip side, I see our own staff saying, gee, I look at XYZ ministry, and they're able to do these things because they're not so big. They're more nimble. You know, you look at organizations like Focus on Family or alliance for Defending Freedom or Passion, you know, that we. We had. For years, we had a winter conference for our college students, students in Atlanta, and all of a sudden, the Passion conference came up and just greatly overshadowed that. And there were people that looked at that with some resentment to say, oh, man, they came in our space, they took our people, they took our kids, whatever. Oh, come on. Really? You know, I mean, if. If God is moving, we gotta. We gotta embrace God moving. But we all can do that. Yeah. Even in the nonprofit world, comparison is. Is terrible.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. The flesh, right. So Romans 7:18 says, For I know that there's nothing good in me. That is my flesh. The desire to do what is right is there, but the ability to carry it out is not. So the flesh is something that we all struggle with. And, you know, from a biblical perspective, we know that we are all born into sin. Right. We all Struggle with sin. We all struggle with doing this. There's this internal battle, and it's not even like Satan, you know, it's just that we. We have fallen. We have a fallen nature.

[Jim Dempsey]

We do.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. So the. The scriptures talk about the old man and the new man.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So we know in John 3, Jesus was having this conversation with Nicodemus and. And Nicodemus was recognizing that Jesus was from God.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and Jesus kind of flipped the tables and said, you know, you won't be able to see the kingdom unless you're born again.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And Nick, Nicodemus said, well, what do you mean by being. Obviously he thought, born again, going back into your mother's womb. How is that possible? And Jes. You have to be born of water.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And of spirit.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so. So that's. So because of that, we know that Jesus was basically saying, you know, when we're born, we're born of water. We're born physically, but we're born spiritually dead.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And then we have to be, you know, born again, you know, to be alive in the spirit, trusting in Christ. But just after, you know, when we become born again, it doesn't mean that we don't struggle.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

We still have the old man. So Paul talks a lot about this in Ro. Romans, where he says, you know, the old man wants to go this way.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

The new man wants to go this way.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so we got the. We got these two natures.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. Opposing views. Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And in a sense, you know, even within our own body.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

Even within our own souls.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

We have these two opposing natures.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And they're constantly hitting each other.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so when. When we are called into ministry. Right. And. And the Lord says, I want you to start that mission in Zambia.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, there's. There's that desire to do what God wants us to do, and we're like. We're fired up about it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But then our flesh takes over and is like, oh, man, it's gonna be a lot of work.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Oh, man, I gotta do fundraising. Oh, man, I gotta. I. I'm gonna have to, like, fly over there and I'm gonna have to get shots and I'm gonna have to, you know, do all this work. And.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, it's just easier, you know, so it's. We have to recognize that we are our natural nature. The old man is always going to want to gravitate towards pleasure. It's always want to gravitate towards what's easy, doesn't want to get into arguments with people. But then at the same time, if we're called to do hard things, then we have to overcome that flesh at some point. So.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

That's a form of resistance. So, like, even inside of us, we have internal resistance between the old man and the new man, constantly resisting. So, like, understanding just that that exists is important. Right. So we've got things of the world resisting us. We've got our internal flesh resisting us. And then, you know, the devil, you know, it says in 1st Peter 5.

[Jim Dempsey]

8, says that be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roari lion seeking someone to devour.

[Jason Galasinski]

Clearly, Scripture says that, you know, Satan is out there.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

And he is, you know, looking to destroy us.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, absolutely. He's seeking us out. We don't need to just stumble into him, unfortunately, he's. He's looking for ways to make us stumble.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. So we gotta understand this perspective that we're in a. We're in a war. Right. Where we're warring against the culture.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

We're warring against ourselves, and we're warring against the devil.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And. And, like, quite honestly, you know, a lot of the problems that we struggle with are just ourselves.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, like the way we deal with things.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yep.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so that leads me to step two, Jason.

[Jim Dempsey]

This makes me want to just hit that snooze button right now and go back to bed because, man, I don't want to get up and have to battle every day. Yeah, but actually, we do.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. Well, I mean, the. The goal of this episode is to help you, you know, overcome failure. Right. So.

[Jim Dempsey]

But first you have to identify the problem.

[Jason Galasinski]

Identify the problem.

[Jim Dempsey]

And the problem is us. In this case, a lot of cases.

[Jason Galasinski]

A lot of cases us, you know, And. And that's kind of where we're getting at. It's always easier. If you notice in politics, like, nobody ever says, you know what? I screwed up. I shouldn't have done that.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

I'm sorry.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Very rare. Forgive me.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Very rarely. When do you ever see a politician do that?

[Jim Dempsey]

Nobody wants to admit they're always pointing.

[Jason Galasinski]

The finger at someone else. Right. And. And we do that, too.

[Jim Dempsey]

Sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

I mean, absolutely. You know, going into your church and thinking, you know, worship leader didn't pick the best songs, or pastor could have said that better, or. So I want to get to step two. So, first step is, you know, understanding you're in a war. Second step is understanding the lies of the enemy.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

So if we're In a war, we have an enemy.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And that enemy is constantly lying to us.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

And well, he's the master of deception. He just, he wants to, he, he uses kernels of truth, Jason, that things that start so true, but a majority of it is just lies.

[Jason Galasinski]

So first we want to like start to recognize the lies.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So actually a really good takeaway, I didn't say this in step one, but a really good takeaway with kind of understanding and learning about your enemy is anytime that you feel that temptation to resist, but then you get you, you kind of cave in, you give in, like. Right, right. Write it down. Down, yeah, write down when you did that. Write down what it was, what the circumstances were and you're going to start to notice a trend. A trend. And like, well, gee, every morning when I try to get out of bed, I think I'll just sleep for five more minutes. But then I actually sleep for three more hours and I miss my flight or my. Miss getting to work or instead of.

[Jim Dempsey]

Going to bed at 10 o' clock, I stay up till 10:30, 11, start to get hunger pains and start to snack, go into the refrigerator greater and yeah, then I wonder why I'm packing on, you know, 10 or 15 or 20 pounds.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

More.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So, so just writing, taking steps to write it down is really helpful because it helps you to have it helps you to actually see it. Right. So. But it's the same thing with number two. Now this isn't like a comprehensive list, but we wrote down some things here. Like the lies of procrastination.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so just the idea of knowing what you should do, but someone's telling you, you know, well, you can do it tomorrow.

[Jim Dempsey]

Like how I'm deal with that later, Jason.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, yeah. And you know, a lot of times, you know, we have a big vision to accomplish something but yet one of the hardest things of starting something new is actually starting right. You know, like how I can't tell you how often this has happened to me and I'm sure it happens with you do, but you're like, oh man, I'm going to start this YouTube channel or man, I'm going to start this podcast or, or I think we're going.

[Jim Dempsey]

To start a new program, a new program post abortion counseling program or something.

[Jason Galasinski]

And, and then we're just, you know, we know what we need to do to get started but we just think.

[Jim Dempsey]

Trying to get traction.

[Jason Galasinski]

I'll just check my email. Yeah, you know, that's right. I'll do it tomorrow. Let me grab a cup of coffee. I. I don't really.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. You know, I get to deal with that power failure or. Or that WI fi is out. And. Yeah, we just, we always find a million excuses why we don't have to do something.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So understanding that, you know, the resistance is kind of lying to you and saying, just do it tomorrow.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and so being able to push through that and say, no, I'm going to do it now. So another one of the lies of the enemy is what we refer to as the shadow calling. Now, the shadow calling is essentially where you don't embrace your full calling.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, you, you kind of know what God is calling you to do, but you do kind of a different version of that.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, you take the path of less resistance. It's easier to do this than do the hard thing or do the thing that you're called to do. So we can settle for less. And it's still in a way, kind of the calling because it's part of your mission, but it's the less. Less difficult, the easier version.

[Jason Galasinski]

A good example of that is like, you know, maybe you feel like God is calling you to start a Christian camp.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, but you're just like, you have a heart for kids. You love working with kids, and you're in children's ministry, you know, every day at your church, and you're working with kids. And so you're, you're, you're getting a piece of that, but you don't feel like that's exactly what God has called you to. You feel like God's called you to do this big thing because it's harder.

[Jim Dempsey]

To start a game camp.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

Than it is to just serve in your Sunday school.

[Jason Galasinski]

It takes risk.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

To actually step out in faith.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And do something. And so because it's scary and because it's unknown and because we don't know what the result is, it's easier to just say, well, I'll just keep. You know, I'm, I'm really serving the Lord here. And so we can kind of justify kind of staying in our shadow for the easier.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so that's the idea is just that the enemy will always try to keep us in the easier path.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

He doesn't want us to step out in faith, and he doesn't want us to take risks.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

The other thing that we wrote down is pleasure over fulfillment.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, so the main thing here is, like, focusing on the short term versus the long term.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and so how does that play out in ministry?

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, sometimes we talk about you win the battle but you lose the war and essentially you are instead of, of looking at the end result and the pathway to get there. Sometimes the pathway to get that end result is not easy. It may be filled with potholes, it may be filled with speed bumps and you don't want to have to go through all that it takes. So you go with something less and you go with something that's short term because it, it, you know, essentially means less, less pressure and less.

[Jason Galasinski]

And we see this all the time with development. Right. So people, it's easier to do a fundraiser than it is to focus on building relationships.

[Jim Dempsey]

Development. Yeah, because development's a long term. Right plan, a long term process. And the results come at a longer time, but they're more solid. You're building a solid foundation. It's. Yeah, sure, it's easy to, to do a car wash and to, you know, it, you get in there, you get out and, and, and you're not spending months preparing for that.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So you, you might know that, you know, the long term, the best thing is to build relationships to, you know, to do, to have a development plan to, you know, write letters, to take people out for lunch, you know, to build those friendships. But it's easier to just do a car wash. It's easier. Let's get a bunch of people together and, and sell cookies, you know, it'll be fun. We'll bake cookies and we'll just, you will go out and we'll sell them or let's do a baby bottle campaign, you know.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, I knew this organization in Canada recently that instead of doing a dinner, they decided to go ahead and just do a Facebook post at your end and said we would, we're going to save you the guilt of being invited to an event and instead we're just going to ask you to give it your end. Well, you can imagine the results they got. That was easier for sure on the, on the staff, on the leader. But they ended up raising significant less.

[Jason Galasinski]

Another one of the enemy's tricks up his sleeve in a sense is full sedation.

[Jim Dempsey]

I mean, you think about being sedated. That is, that's essentially a pain medication. You know, you are, you're taking something that's going to suppress the pain. And that's what we do in our lives. I mean we, we look for those things that are going to suppress the pain.

[Jason Galasinski]

And how many of us like pain? No, I know, you know, things on Instagram, where it's like people are jumping into ice water.

[Jim Dempsey]

Sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

And they're like, yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'm never gonna do that. You're crazy.

[Jim Dempsey]

And Jason, we, but, but think about in our lives. I know in my life, and you probably too. Where did the real growth in your life come? It came from pain. And so, no, none of us want to, we want to avoid it. We want to, we want to settle into the more comfortable, you know, pathway of doing things.

[Jason Galasinski]

So what does this look like with nonprofit.

[Jim Dempsey]

We can talk ourselves into keeping busy. We can say, oh, I'm just so busy with the day to day operations. I can't get into doing something big. I can't start a new program. I can't hire these staff because I'm so busy right now. We actually can convince ourselves that that is the rational decision and the right thing to do because you're, you're so busy. So we can talk ourselves out of making the important, the needed decisions because of all the things that we're doing. It's essentially justifying those things.

[Jason Galasinski]

I read a book one time called the E. Myth. It's actually really, really good book about entrepreneur. It's called the Entrepreneurial Myth.

[Jim Dempsey]

Oh, wow.

[Jason Galasinski]

It was a number one bestseller like years ago. One of the main points in that book is that you're so busy working in the business that you don't actually work on the business. And as a business owner, or in your case, as a nonprofit leader, right. Your job is not to work in the business. Your job is not to be answering phones and doing emails and, you know, all the busy work. Right. You should be focused on where are we going, how do we get there? And you're like the strategic general that's like strategizing and kind of helping everyone move in a direction, which means that you have to trust other people to do the job. And so much of entrepreneurs, they're perfectionists. And we want to do everything ourselves. We want to be in control of everything. And it's faster to do it ourselves and it's cheaper to do it ourselves. But yet if we don't have a leader who's kind of steering the ship in a certain direction, then you're not going to get there. You know, so well, I think about.

[Jim Dempsey]

The great wise advice that Moses father in law Jethro gave him in the book of Exodus, when Moses had all the leadership on his shoulders, Jethro had to come along and say, you're not going to survive this until you start to redistribute the responsibilities and essentially have other people do some of these duties.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. So some of the lies of the enemy are, you know, the lies of procrastination, not embracing your full calling, you know, falling into the trap of your shadow calling, accepting pleasure over, over fulfillment and then just being fully sedated in the sense that you're just so busy.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

That you're just not accomplishing and you're doing a lot, but you're not actually doing.

[Jim Dempsey]

Accomplishing anything. Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so we want to understand these things and really like analyze am I doing these things, how where in this am I getting caught up? And you know, it's different for each one of us, but again, it's like you want to write it down and you want to understand your enemy. You want to know that you're in a battle. And then the third thing is that you want to realize that Satan opposes big dreams. A lot of how you can know and understand if you are like, if your dream is actually valid is by how much resistance you're getting.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right. Well, one of the things is, you know, our perfect vision dinner strategy is a great example of that. I tend to say so many times to people when they keep telling me I did a name storming session and I can't get any of my people to call to ask people to be a table host. I can't find my speaker, I can't get the right printer, whatever it is, I will say to them, you know, the last thing Satan wants you to do is to succeed in this event. And there may be a reason why this may be one the of. Of the best things that you've ever done. Satan knows that and he wants to resist that. And sometimes the, the dinners with the, the greatest resistance are the ones that have a greatest success.

[Jason Galasinski]

In our vision dinner course, we're trying to believe God for big things. And so we're, we're trying to take ground.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's the whole point. Right, right.

[Jason Galasinski]

We want you to, to take a major leap forward.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, part of it, part of our course is getting people to dream big and to, to look for those, those accelerators and, and get a strategic plan.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. And, and we see a lot of resistance.

[Jim Dempsey]

Very much.

[Jason Galasinski]

See, you know, I would say, you know, maybe a third of the class usually, you know, kind of hits a wall and we have to get on calls. We have to, you know, coach people through it and just be like, sometimes.

[Jim Dempsey]

It'S internal resistance, sometimes it's board resistance, sometimes it's resistance from Satan on, on Those kinds of things. So it's. It's all over.

[Jason Galasinski]

So that leads to step four. How do you overcome resistance? We believe that you can overcome resistance by being intentional, by having intentional action.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And relying on the Lord for that intentional action.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So there is a certain amount of intentionality that you have to have. And one of the worst things we can do is be idle. Right, right. But, you know, there's a lot of things in here we could talk about. You know, there's circular motion versus forward motion.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right. So circular means you're just running yourself around in circles. You're chasing your tail forward, is continuing to look towards the. The finish line, towards the prize.

[Jason Galasinski]

My dad is a sailor, and he loves sailboats and stuff, and he actually wrote a book about how sailing is like an analogy to life. Wow. But one of the. One of. Kind of the analogies that I like to think about is. Is, you know, if you are in an ocean and you just think about all the waves, you know, moving around, and you're in the sailboat, but you don't have your sail up. Right. You know, you're just. The sails down.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

The boat's not going anywhere.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

It's going to get tossed around by the waves. It's just going to be thrown around. You're going to throw up because you're going to get sick. But as soon as you put that sail up.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Boom. And the wind fills it. Now the boat is cutting through all those waves, and you're just moving in a direction, Right?

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so he makes this analogy of, like, the sail is your dependence on God, and the wind is like the Holy Spirit hitting. You know, so you're putting up that sail and you're saying, I'm depending on you. And this Holy Spirit's hitting that and pushing you forward, driving you. And then the boat is. Is, you know, your. You moving through waves. You know, you're. You're. And he uses all kinds of analogies, like the rudder and all the different things, but it's just that idea of if you're not. If your sale isn't up, up, you're just going to get tossed around.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so you need your sail up. You need to be depending on the Lord, and you need to be intentional.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. Yeah. One of the. One of the great things that Bill Bright put into the four spiritual laws when he wrote it was this battle back and forth between emotion and logic that we can. Our faith in Christ and our walking in the Spirit can get caught up in that emotional Thought of things and emotions ebb and flow and they peak. But the logical side of things, if we allow logic, will be very steady. It's the same way in this emotions can play a big part in these things. And if we allow our emotions to control us, then, or we don't have our emotions under control, then we can, we can get off target. And this resistance existence we are, we're essentially opening the door to all these other things, these factors, and if we can stay more logical in the, in our direction and where we're going, it's better.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, a lot of this does kind of boil down to just like how we react to things and how we handle things. And one of my favorite scriptures is Romans 12:2, which says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the, the renewal of your mind. Yes, Right. So God wants us to be transformed, but it happens through renewing our mind and, you know, a new way of thinking. Right? And, and we're not saying. And I hope people aren't taking this away because it would be very easy to kind of hear this and say, well, I'm just going to try harder.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

I'm just going to do better, right? I'm just going to not allow myself. I'm just going to beat my body in submission. But, but that's not what we're saying here. We're saying, you know, we need to, to start by renewing our mind with recognizing that we're in a war, recognizing that the enemy is out to get us. And, and not just kind of putting off, you know, like, well, I'm gonna stop doing this. But the scriptures talk about putting on a new man, right? So you have to renew your mind with truth, right? You got to read the word, you got to get into a relationship with the Lord and allow the Lord to speak into your life like who you are as a person, right? So so much of what we struggle with is just identity, right? You know, like who we are and, you know, we believe lies. Like, you know, I'm a failure. I can never. I always screw up. But yet God sees us as a child of God and he loves us, you know, and so, so much of it is, you have to renew your mind. And I used to work for a ministry called the Biblical Counseling center, and they had this worksheet sheet called the Biblical Model of Change. And it was kind of that idea of like, you know, the biblical model of change is that, you know, it's the process of sanctification. You know, God saved you, but he wants to change you, right? And so they had this, you know, thing on the one side where you say, you know, write down, you know, all the areas that the old man is, is telling you it wants to do, right? And write down what the, write down what the Bible says, you know, what the scriptures are saying. You know, the new man is like the.

[Jim Dempsey]

This, right?

[Jason Galasinski]

And then, and then at the bottom it says, you choose, you know, and it's like at the end of the day, it's like we have a choice to make. You know, you can choose to be the old man or you can choose to be the new man. And I think that's kind of like at the end of the day that's, that's kind of the point that we're trying to make here with this is that we are really in control to a certain degree. I mean, to some degree we're not in control of some external things. But, but in a lot of it boils down to we can choose how we respond to things. We can choose to get out of bed at 5am, we can choose to go to bed on time. We can choose to do the hard thing. We can choose to start that program. We can choose to sit down and write that vision statement. So a lot of it just boils down to saying, I'm not gonna check my email all day long or I'm not gonna just get caught up in this. One thing that really helped me was like time blocking. I think we were talking to one of our students in the Perfect Vision There program. I think it was Brian from Isow. And he said one of the things that really helps him to keep focused is by time blocking out his day and saying, I'm gonna take Wednesdays from 8am to noon. I'm gonna do this thing.

[Jim Dempsey]

Thing.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, you know, and nothing's gonna stop me, you know, and, and you just block out time. Yeah, and that really helped him. You know, there's, there's a lot of little tricks we can play, but at the end of the day, you can time block. You can do all the things, but if you don't actually choose to do it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes, that's right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, that's right. So I think that's, that's. Yeah, that's really what it boils down to.

[Jim Dempsey]

One of the things I think we need to realize, Jason, is that this is not our home. We are here for a short period of time. Time. And our home is with Jesus. And that this in a lot of ways is a proving ground for us. God is using this time on earth for preparation, to prepare us to come home. And these struggles, these. These challenges that we face are all ways that God is refining us and. And buffing down the rough edges in our lives. And I think we need to realize that, fortunately, God has a bigger plan for us and that he wants us to be more conformed to Christ. And all these kinds of things are part of our way of being conformed to the image of Christ.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So the number one reason why nonprofits fail is because we give into resistance.

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

But the good news is that you don't have to give into resistance. You can start today.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

To make good choices.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And it starts with prayer. You know, it starts with getting alone with the Lord.

[Jim Dempsey]

You know, getting on your knees.

[Jason Galasinski]

Take a day off and just pray.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, get. Get back to why you do what you do. What is it that got you into this in the first place?

[Jim Dempsey]

And I'd recommend a regular time. Don't just do it once or when you're. When you're having trouble, do it when. Do it on a regular basis that you can kind of.

[Jason Galasinski]

It.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And get yourself back in touch with the Lord. Get yourself rooted, Make a plan, you know, and then make, you know, take steps to block off time and do the plan.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so much of it is just recognizing that, you know, there is going to be things that come at you, so not allowing yourself to be thrown off.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, but that's part of it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And then, you know, being gracious with yourself and knowing that you're going to fail.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

We're not.

[Jim Dempsey]

Not.

[Jason Galasinski]

We're not perfect. We're going to make mistakes. So stay humble, you know, apologize, you know, when you need to say you're wrong. I wish there were more people in this world that just said, I was wrong. I messed up. I'm sorry. Forgive me.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right, right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, but. But that's. I believe how you, you know, keep yourself from failing. You know, have a strategic plan, know where you're going, and take take actionable steps, specific actionable steps to get there.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And we're here to help you. You know, the Perfect Vision dinner is a great way to take action and.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

Make something happen and continue moving forward.

[Jim Dempsey]

You know, trust God.

[Jason Galasinski]

And we often say, you know, I. One of the reasons why I love your program so much is because, you know, we're holding their hand. We're holding them accountable. We're taking them through a process, and we're not. We're not allowing them to Hit that resistance. We're like, we're gonna do this. We're gonna make. Make you do it, you know, so if you're looking for a program that wants to help you, you know, like, really push through, you know, check out the perfect vision that our mentorship program will put a QR code on the screen. But, Jim, I don't know. I enjoyed this topic.

[Jim Dempsey]

Oh, I do too. It's a. Yeah, tough topic. But it's important to identify, as we talked about earlier, identify the enemy and identify those things that are causing resistance in our lives. Lives. And you know, sadly, in some cases, it's our. Ourselves, but it just, it's all part of that, that transformation that God intends in our lives.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. Well, if you enjoyed this episode, let us know in the comments below. Let us know if you do agree or disagree or like, if there's other things in there that we could have added or removed or whatever. Just let's have a conversation. You know, we'd love to hear your opinion. Hit that subscribe subscribe button because we would love to have you join us on the next episode. We got a lot of great content coming your way, and if you're a non profit leader and you're looking for some advice on how to, you know, accomplish your goals with your nonprofit, we would love for you to check out the fundraising masterminds in the future. So hit that subscribe button and also just share this episode. You know, if you're thinking about a friend during this episode, you know, one of the, one of the best ways to help someone is just to say, you know, not calling out, you know, hey, I think you're like this. But by saying like, hey, you might be interested in something like this.

[Jim Dempsey]

If you're a board member and you've got an executive director that's struggling with these things, share that with them.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, and, you know, that's one of the great things about this podcast is it's easy for people to listen to a conversation, you know, very much rather than just having someone saying, you're the problem.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can put it on your car. Driving to work. We were talking to one of our graduates the other day and he said he listens to our podcast when he works out. We're okay. That's okay with us. We're good with being your workout partner.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Fundraising Masterminds. We will see you next time.

[Jim Dempsey]

Take care.

[Jason Galasinski]

Sa.