It may be obvious I've been leading up to this: Being a good steward is  if I may use the term for purposes of illustration  a game of recovery. Sound Mind Investing understands this (and exists to help Christians in this process). We designed our Four Levels" framework to help investors set biblical financial and giving priorities and stay focused on doing first things first. And our primary investing approach, Fund Upgrading, is an ongoing recovery strategy where we have specific guidelines in place that tell us when a fund is losing too much ground and needs to be replaced. In other words, we're constantly alert to recovering our performance edge.

I certainly made my share of mistakes in earlier years, and am eager to share what I've learned so that you don't repeat them. I got up and kept going; so can you. You might even want to take a few tips from the athletes who have learned how to recover from setbacks. If you listen to their interviews, there's a common thread that goes through their description of how they overcame their poor starts.

1. Let go of the past. They have a long-practiced and rather remarkable ability to put their failures behind themblock them outand concentrate on the task immediately at hand.

2. Play the next play. The most important thing is to focus on what they can do now. They know they can't make up for their past mistakes all at once, but they can begin to regain ground bit by bit  with a birdie on this hole, a basket on this trip down the floor, a single into center to keep the rally alive.

3. Follow their training. They had received training over the years as to how to execute the task at hand, and they knew it was essential that they stay faithful to that training. This was no time for untested strategies or spontaneous innovations. They just needed to concentrate on doing simple things well, performing as they'd been taught.

4. Persevere. Essentially, this means repeating the first three steps over and over. It's not easy. It requires "a long obedience in the same direction." It's called being faithful.

If we invite the Holy Spirit to help us follow this pattern, we'll have a lot in common with the apostle Paul (who knew a thing or two about recovering from a bad start): "I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven" (Philippians 3:13-14 NLV).

© Sound Mind Investing

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