One of my Dreams has been to develop a vineyard. One day two years ago I realized if not now then when? The journey began and then challenges came but I pushed forward after delays and now we have a vineyard!!!
The biggest part of the dream for me is having my whole family work on a business together. Something that takes a lot of work that we can all do together for rewards that don't come easy and take time. There is nothing better for a family then farming together. The lessons are priceless, the moments last a lifetime like putting stakes in the ground with my daughter Kelsey and praying together as we did it.
We prepped the land, put in the trellis system, and are almost done planting the vines. Of course this is a simplified way to explain all we've done but the bottom line is it's happening!!!
The whole family is working hard to build something together.
My son Austin rarely wants to do physical labor and he turned around. During planting my three older kids worked hard for 7 hours straight. My 5 and 8 year old actually planting vines, watering, staking and loving it!!
It was one of our best days as a Tolpin family ever!!
I took 
everyone out to eat and gave much praise to them for their hard work and great attitudes. We were exhausted from building a dream together. There is no better feeling and we all felt it. It was magical...
Of course it's just the beginning of this journey together. There is much work ahead but with work and challenge comes triumph, learning and bonding
10.15.2008
The Vineyard Journey is Alive!!!!
10.09.2008
The Seasons of Growth
I recently gave a message at our national manager conference and wanted to post one of the concepts I think invaluable to achieving what we want in life.
There is an age old concept that we attract more success to our life through becoming more as a person first and foremost. The process though is far greater then simply reading, listening to audio files... That is vital to stimulate our brains to create more action towards what we want but an understanding of the process that highly successful people go through is vital. We must understand what's happening so growth happens through the actions we take vs just what we know.
We all have times we have "Fresh Enthusiasm" about accomplishing something in our lives and work. Almost immediately upon pursuing what we are enthusiastic about increased challenge comes our way... I look at this as the "Testing Period". Most in life never make it through this period and recede back to what's comfortable in their lives. So many people live a pretty normal life with slow progress. I believe this ends with a life of serious regret. It also ends with people not achieving the best possible path God had for them.
In fact what can even happen during the "Testing Period" is people can misunderstand what God is trying to do. People can mistakenly call challenges during the testing period God closing a door to that path. From my own experiences I usually see this as the exact opposite. I see these challenges as tests that I must pass by persevering and growing. Tests that God actually wants me to push through and overcome.
Also during the testing period many that are closest to us will say things like "Maybe this isn't meant to be". In most cases if it's a worthy endeavor I would say they are wrong. People closest to us don't like seeing us go through challenging times but it's absolutely necessary for us to grow and become more.
If there are no "Testing periods" then there is no real growth in us. God made our brains to work best with constant growth happening. Perhaps this is why we get depressed if we aren't stimulating our brains with new ideas and new actions. Our brains are almost unending, in fact as we learn and implement new ideas new connections actual form in our brains. There is a physical transformation happening!!!
I recently read that our brains can make new neorological connections in the amount of 1 with 6 million zeros after it. How many do you have?
The people that understand the testing period get excited about passing the tests, are willing to grow to do it which calls for us to break out of our comfort zones. because they understand the secret.
The real secret is that when we pass the tests by taking action we "Grow". When we grow through the tests we get blessed with "Favor" in our lives.
I've seen this so many times in my life and the lives of others...over and over and over again.
Now that you have "Favor" you go back to the top of the cycle with "Fresh Enthusiasm" for new and bigger things to achieve and become. Now we can handle even larger challenges in the "Testing Period" because we have grown. We pass these tests and grow even more and then get new favor in our lives. The "Testing Period" is our capacity training.
The more we go through the cycle the more abundance we attract because real growth is happening to us at a faster rate.
So when you get tested upon taking action on something our response is the key. I love passing tests, I think God wants us to pass tests in life. He wants to strengthen us by forcing us to rely on Him and push through these times. Fight and persevere to get through them as fast as you can so you can get onto bigger things.
This is how leaders develop capacity. The ability to take on more and be able to handle it. It's how people are able to handle larger families, larger businesses, more service to others... I believe It's one aspect of how people stay on the best path God has for their lives.
We are meant to constantly be growing and developing as people. The more capacity we have the more God can use us for his purposes!!!
