Monday Morsel #42

Organized?

With the New Year comes several events that turn our minds toward organization, think resolutions and taxes in particular.  In our family these and a few other things we are involved with have challenged our organization skills.  After having a conversation, in recent weeks, with another family we know, Angie said the following, "I don't think they are organized, but they think they are."  I thought this to be pretty profound as I considered it in the context of my own organizing.  This led me to think about "functional organization", and that this other family, myself, and many others often suffer from a system that lacks true functionality.  So the takeaway as we start a new week is, will my method of organization actually function, or is it merely a collection pool?

Checkup From the Neck Up

Checkup From the Neck Up

The title of this piece is a phrase that I have heard frequently when listening to the work of Zig Ziglar.  If we want to improve our mindset there are few better resources than Mr. Ziglar’s works, and now his son carries on much of the legacy with a podcast based around these works as well.

For most of us getting caught in the riptides of life is a recurring problem.  But why?  Perhaps we are slow learners, or maybe hard-headed, or any number of other reasons.  The keys to getting out of this cycle are to recognize we are in it, address the core issues, and then proceed to implement strategies for change at these basic levels.  This is followed by ongoing evaluation and adjustment.

If only it were that easy.  We have a seemingly innate aversion to self-evaluation and that word, change.  As I have stated before often the biggest changes in our lives come from a series of small changes.

Last week for example in my article titled “Shifting Gears” I indicated that we are more likely to succeed when we don’t attempt to change everything at once, but rather master small changes sequentially, layering them one upon another.  As a part of that I told you I was going to work on my fitness by increasing the number of active minutes per day in my life.

In order to achieve this I made one change that allowed me to increase my activity first thing in the morning, rolling back my alarm clock (Ziglar “opportunity clock)”.  Prior to this past week I typically set my workday alarm at 5:00 a.m.  On Monday I rolled it back to 4:55 and then on Tuesday to 4:50.  This gave me additional time to spend on either my morning walk (weather permitting) or on the exercise bike without disrupting the household flow with my wife and daughter.  The goal I had set in my S-Health app on my phone was 100 active minutes per day, which had been set at 90 minutes per day previously.  Here is a rundown of a few key stats from that experiment:

Past Week Previous Week

Active Mins. Active Mins.

Sunday 90 59

Monday 88 74

Tuesday 100 79

Wednesday 94 73

Thursday 92 74

Friday 71 67

Saturday 113 105

Time Slept Time Slept

Sunday 7:05 7:10

Monday 6:55 6:50

Tuesday 6:30 6:50

Wednesday 6:20 6:45

Thursday 6:20 6:45

Friday 7:40 8:15

Saturday 6:40 7:05

Daily Steps Daily Steps

Sunday 9125 5747

Monday 8876 7146

Tuesday 10,707 7616

Wednesday 9710 7109

Thursday 9110 7224

Friday 6811 6555

Saturday 10,736 10,298

Sunday Morning Weight

January 29 210 pounds  (Obese)

January 22 213 pounds  (Obese)

As you can clearly see I made progress!  The one area that suffered was my sleep time which was on less 6 of the 7 days.  However, the activity levels were up significantly.  I can report that I also had more energy throughout the day on those workdays where this experiment is primarily aimed.  Along with the increased energy levels was a more positive attitude and higher productivity.  The only blip on the radar that looks a little funky is Friday, and that one has to do with sleeping very poorly Thursday night and opting not to exercise that morning though I did still manage to exceed the previous week’s activity levels even without the planned exercise time.  I am going to call it an initial success, now onward and upward to week two and solidifying this as routine.

It is my hope that this recounting of my week did not bore you or turn you off, but rather intrigued you and helped you see what a small change can mean.  No it is not a lifestyle, yet, but I am back headed in a positive direction for my health, and that is most definitely a good thing.  I have work to do, and can make an educated guess that you probably do too.  Let’s take action together for a better level of fitness, so that we can better serve God, our families, our communities and be better students, employees, and friends.

This week move that clock back 5 minutes and use that time to better yourself either in exercise, faith building, or knowledge growth.  You will be better for it, and once you get over the initial mental block you will be glad you did.  Make today GREAT!!! Then improve each day.  This is how I got a “checkup from the neck up” this week, and you can too.

#5minutesclosertosuccess

Midweek Motivation 1/25/17

Midweek

Motivation

1/26/17

Let us endeavor so to live

so that when we come to die

even the undertaker will be sorry.

Mark Twain

Are we living a life that will leave a rich

legacy for those who have shared in it

with us?

The remainder of this week lets 

examine ourselves in this light.

May we all measure up to this standard!

Monday Morsel #41

At our youth and family devotional tonight the question from the youth minister to our teens was how can we be more inclusive?  A difficult question for most of our youth, and adults alike, as we all have comfort zones and breaking the ice can be intimidating.  In the course of the discussion I was very young proud of something my daughter, Olivia, said,

"it is our differences that make interesting conversation." 

How did she get so smart?  It is definitely something that we all, myself included, can learn from.

Shifting Gears

Shifting Gears

Over the course of time this blogspace has taken several turns and has probably lacked continuity in its line of thought.  Today really continues in that trend.  For the first time in quite a while I am going to focus on health and wellness.

We all are given a body, mind, and spirit as the basic carriers of our lives.  What we do with these makes all the difference.  With the mind and spirit, in particular, we are also given the freedom of choice.  This is a wonderful gift when we begin to understand it, and a very dangerous one when we take it for granted.

With choice comes responsibility, a big word that many in our current society seem to forget is a critical part of our vocabulary.  In a nutshell, we have a responsibility to seek out choices that are positive and protect our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.  That is a BIG responsibility, and when we have spouses and children that depend upon us, it becomes a grave responsibility.

So how do we responsibly utilize the freedom of choice we are given in this life?  That is a great question for each of us to consider.  My first line of thinking goes to Dr. Stephen Covey's huge bestseller "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" where Dr. Covey says, "to begin with the end in mind."  Already this becomes uncomfortable, because most of us don't want to look all the way the the end.  Our earthly, physical death is not a subject that is high on our list of favorite topics.  However, when we take this long view and visualize our end state it begins to clarify the paths we should take in all aspects of our lives

Granted that not everyone has the same physical or mental capacities, the vast majority can do this on some level.  As we know the two endpoints on our life's line, then we can begin to make some decisions.  First, is the endpoint currently envisioned, is it the one that I really want for myself?  If not, then I need to renew my vision to determine a more favorable destination.  Once we have this renewed vision then we can take the bull by the horns and mark out the path that will get us there.

This is where the thought process becomes critical, as this is a reverse engineering of our lives.  What are the guideposts along the path that will tell us we are on track or off?  For each of us these will differ, but we all have them.  

In my life there are three primary guideposts that I am looking for; spiritual growth, physical/mental/emotional health, and financial contentment.  As previously stated today's primary focus is on the guidepost of health.  In previous editions I have shared some aspects of my health, and several of you know me well and have a sense of my struggles.  By way of review I am a middle aged male who once was quite active as a younger man who over the course of time gained approximately 85 pounds from my high school graduation weight until my poor choices led me to the doctor's office in 2012, where over the course of just a few months I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, an underactive thyroid, and high clolesterol.  Life change was in order!

I am thankful to God for putting many supportive people into my life to help me on this then new journey to take control of my health.  Through changes in lifestyle, food choices, medicines and the like I lost almost 40 pounds and have had good glycemic control for 4-1/2 years.  Today there seems to be slippage back into some of my old habits, and some accompanying indicators on un-wellness (if I may coin a new term).  Over the past 15 months or so I have seen my weight creep back upward as a trend, to an almost 10 pound gain.  I register this, pretty much daily, in the S Health app on my phone, and each day that I do and I am 210 pounds or higher it reads in RED the word OBESE.  That word obese, is a killer!  It kills the soul and it kills the body, and today it marks the beginning of a renewed effort on my part to steadily move back first to the overweight status, which is still not good, and then to find out what the next word is on their scale, as obviously I haven't seen it before.

The extra weight I, and many of you, are carrying makes life far more difficult.  Our joints hurt, our backs actsout, and many of our systems struggle leading to diseases such as diabetes, kidney disorders, cardiac and pulmonary issues and many more.  These conditions, chronic in nature, consume billions upon billions of dollars in our healthcare system, not to mention lost productivity in the workplace, difficulty in serving our churches and communities, and lack of energy or ability to perform critical family activities.  It has got to STOP!

I am asking you to join me and begin to fight back.  This week pick one aspect of your life where you can begin to positively impact your health.  You may want or need to do more, but the evidence I have seen leads me to believe there is a far greater success rate when we don't try to do too many things at once.  Start with this one thing, for me it is going to be physical activity.  I am going to get busy again.  My current goal in the S Health app is 90 minutes per day which I don't believe I have been meeting on a regular basis.  This is particularly disheartening when you consider that is all activity, not just the focused activity of exercise.  Today I am going to reset this goal to 100 (still pretty puny) which would be an 11% increase from the current goal, and my intent is to blow it out of the water.

Next week I will report back and give an update on my progress.  I know many of you will be supportive and some will provide encouraging words, for this I am thankful.  The greatest encouragement would be to hear from you, and to know that you too are joining me on this journey.  Think about it, make a decision, and get started.  Mental assent does not get results, it takes action.  Lets all get busy with the business of improving our lives.  The results of holding to a course of bad choices, inactivity, and apathy are tragic, and I see them everyday all around me, and I DO NOT want to end up in those conditions, nor do I want that for you either.

Make today GREAT!!!  Choose wisely, and move forward.

One Day in America

Today is the day.  The day that has made America different for well over 200 years, Inauguration Day.

Our Founders instituted this Republic to have free speech, free exercise of religion, and a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."  A big part of that was to allow for an open opposition, not the oppression of the minority viewpoint.  With its quirks and peculiarities the system continues to work well despite the efforts of many to circumvent it's power.

It is on Inauguration Days like this that we see the peaceful transition of power in our great nation.  A day that should be celebrated despite our differing views.  Eight years ago our office essentially shutdown around the noon hour to witness the swearing in of President Obama.  Despite my deeply held differences with his policies it was still a sight to behold.  I did not know how our nation would survive his presidency, but we did.

Today that same transition occurs as President Trump takes office with a new viewpoint and new policy objectives.  It is unfortunate that many elected leaders have chosen not to attend the festivities today, but it is their right under the same Constitution which defines the electoral process.  Once the activity of the day bleeds over into the business of governmental operations it is my prayer that the Holy God, Jehovah, would intervene in the hearts and minds of all who lead, and bring back a vision of a nation that seeks Him, and the greater good.

Our land will only find healing in God, not government of any stripe.  See 2 Chronicles 7:14.  For those in power my request is that you prayerfully and respectfully exercise that power and uphold the top priority of government, the common defense.  For those in the minority party do a bit of self examination regarding the extremity of your viewpoints relative to "mainstream America", then get busy just as the current majority has done in recent years seeking to find the very heart of America.

If both ends of the political spectrum would end the name calling and politics of destruction or character assassination, then perhaps they could begin to hear what one another has to say.  This is where mutually beneficial solutions will be found.

May God bless America!

Midweek Motivation

Midweek Motivation

Are we there yet?  If you have children then you have heard this question many times.  As we begin the new year the temptation for us is to begin asking this question relative to our goals or resolutions.  The answer is most definitely NO.  Stay on track, enjoy the journey and make a concerted effort to be better today than yesterday, and if you slip up, then it is much like getting back on the bicycle or horse.  Get back on and move forward having learned a little more about your weaknesses.  

Monday Morsel #40

Seek truth, and do right things.

Positive Reinforcement

We all NEED positive reinforcement.  Life is difficult enough when we walk together, and it can be downright unbearable if we walk alone.

I have spent the weekend with a group of kids and adult chaperones on a church trip with several other similar groups.  No our kids are not perfect, they are flawed, and no our adult chaperones are not perfect either, but we are striving for more.  The bottom line is we all benefit from positive reinforcement and encouragement. 

How do we get through difficult times?  Together!  Together we are stronger, together we are smarter, together we are more accountable, together we laugh and we cry.  This is the design of the church, and it is a model that can work well across all walks of life. 

It is unfortunate that we often get wrapped up in ourselves, and miss the blessings that come with unity and a unified mission.  Even in the good times I have witnessed exclusion, solitude, and unnecessary drama which lead to hurt feelings, resentment, and distance.  This is not something we should be willing to accept.

As the old song says we need to "accentuate the positive".  That being said we still must address the negatives, correct them and move forward toward a better future.  Today look at your life, assess your true connections, not those tenuous links of social media, but those with meat to them, and figure out how to improve them and grow them in number and quality.  If you will do this, then I would assert that you will feel more secure, confident, and aware.  This is a sure path to a more fulfilling life.

Make Today GREAT!  Grow with the positive reinforcement you receive, and grow more by sharing it with others anywhere you can.

Midweek Motivation: It's Possible - Motivational Video Never Give up

Excellent video to get your mindset going to possibilities for your life. Too often we all lose our ability to dream. One book I recently read said that is when we truly begin to die. Kids grow and learn because they have dreams. As adults we tend to dry up and get stuck in the security of routine.