Getting Started

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I mentioned in my last post that I am sick of trying to perfect something before I publish it or before I get started on that project. I like to think that I am a fairly strategic thinker and this leads me to trying to figure out all the aspects of a project before I will undertake it. I will anticipate all of the obstacles that need to be overcome, objections from others that need to be handled, how I will respond when the idea succeeds, and what I will do if the project does not meet my expectations. To some extent this is a strength of mine. I like to think about the possibilities and I love feeling like I can anticipate the problems. The problem is that when this is my way of life then there is actually very little that will be accomplished. We accomplish things by doing. We succeed by acting. No great product, cause, or revolution has succeeded simply by way of a think tank. They all need people who will step out and take action with purpose and passion.

A year and a half ago I realized that I had gained more weight than I wanted to. I was feeling lethargic, noticed my self confidence was down, and generally was not very happy with the daily grind of life. I made a choice one day to just start eating a different way. I told myself that I would make all of my meals at home and not eat out, I stayed away from any processed food, and I focused on eating proteins instead of carbs. In addition to this I walked every day. The results were drastic. I lost 25 pounds in less than three months. I felt better and was much more confident in myself again.

Why am I sharing this story with you? Simply because one day I chose to just take action. I did not over think my plan or the decision. I did not try to come up with the best way of doing this. I just started. Today I still follow this diet for the most part. I am not as strict about it but I still follow the principles that following this diet has instilled in me.

About two months ago I started to get a little restless in another area of my life. I was realizing that I was wasting a lot of my time consuming media that was not really adding any value to my life. I was not executing on ideas that I wanted to be moving forward. It was around this time that I heard multiple different people through multiple sources (podcasts, blogs, a book, and newspapers) talk about the value of getting an early start to your day. I was hearing about how successful people are early risers and I was remembering how my favorite mornings were ones where I was up early and had time to myself. So I again made another spur of the moment decision in life that I feel will be lasting.

I decided that I would start to wake up between 5 and 5:30 am every day. This means even Saturday and Sundays and holidays. Now I do leave some room for exceptions because I think there is great value in getting a proper nights sleep so on those nights where I am out with friends or I have to work late I will wake a little later. The basic premise is still to be up at 5:30 every morning getting a jump start on my day. I then decided that I would listen to a leadership podcast while getting ready each morning to learn some valuable lessons, to motivate myself, and to remind myself to lead in all areas of my life. I read a couple of chapters from a few different books each morning, plan my day, and write a few thoughts in my journal. Now because I am so focused on learning, adding value to others, sharing, and being purposeful with my day I no longer even have a desire to consume media like I used to. I hardly ever have the tv on now. I once was a news junkie and now I find myself being a little bit clueless to the goings on around in the news world. This one change to waking up early has affected many areas of my life.

I share these two stories to illustrate how change can begin to happen in one’s life and the positive effects these changes can make. These small changes are a constant reminder to myself when I am trying to plan something perfectly that sometimes it is better to just get going. Starting acting on your plans and adjust as you go. You can always adjust your plans and in fact the action you take will be informing your future plans so you will have more data points to consider. The point being that I never would have lost 25 pounds and felt as good about myself as I do now if I would not have just started. I would not be leading as purposeful of a life as I am now if I would not have simply decided to get up early every morning.

Put your pen down. Quit brainstorming on your computer. Now get started and you will make far more progress in life.

Loving Kids When They Fail

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This youth worker’s story really resonates with me. The focus of this video is on adolescents and teens but I think it is true of so many people. When we make mistakes we want to run and hide but this does not solve our problems. I know I need to be reminded about the grace God has for me in the situations when I screw up. What is our response as the church, as role models, as mentors to young people when they screw up? Do we say “I told you so?” or maybe “What did you think would happen?” I think the much more appropriate and much more useful for students to have people in their life who pursued them and reminded them about God’s love, truth, and grace in their life.

I am making it my resolution to respond to my students in these ways that provide more of an example of Christ’s love. I hope that in the process of responding to my students in this way that I will also be reminded of these truths of God in my life as well.

Superman of the Danube

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This story about a man in Belgrade, Serbia has been making the rounds on the internet and in newspapers. I first saw the story in the Star Tribune while having a cup of coffee. I found this article to be a little more in depth and informative however.

What strikes me about the story is the first time the man saved someone it was purely by chance but since then it has taken more focused effort. He is now aware that people may want to jump from this particular bridge and so he is constantly watching for people trying to commit suicide while still going about his daily life. He does what he can by being aware and responding to situations when they arise. He asks for nothing in return and just wishes to give people a second chance at life.

How similar is this to those of us in the helping professions? We often get started in our field by simply being present for some situation and then we become aware of similar situations all around us. We start to become acquainted with what to look for and the next thing you know we are trying to gather as much information about people in these situations as we possibly can. We become finely attuned to the warning signs and then hopefully we act. I say hopefully because I know not all situations smack us in the way that hearing someone scream and thrash about in a cold river might compel us to act. I know that I need to keep my eyes on the landscapes around me so I am more aware and ready to act the next time I am faced with an opportunity to help someone.

My encouragement to be ever more vigilant is also tempered with the reality that we cannot be present or available at every moment someone might need. This man in Belgrade could only save about half the people who had jumped. We cannot beat ourselves up over the ones we could not help but only celebrate with the ones we can help. Only we need to make sure we don’t expect or need to be thanked for our efforts. We can simply take joy in knowing we have done what we can to the best of our abilities and in light of the opportunities presented to us.

I’m Home

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Well I haven’t updated this since I got home. I was quite tired and have been busy since then. My last night in Vancouver was nice. I had some time alone at the house before the family came home for dinner. I joined them for the end of their dinner to talk and they invited me to stay for a prayer ceremony that concluded the Sabbath and launched them into the week of Rosh Hoshana. It was an interesting experience taking part in something that I had no idea what was going on because everything was in Hebrew. They then headed out to Synagogue to celebrate the start of the week. I stayed behind, watched a little bit of The Fugitive and went to bed. I woke up at 4:10 am and slowly got up, grabbed my bags and headed out the door. From the time I left the home I walked to the train, bought a ticket, went across the street to get a coffee, jumped on the train, got through Canadian security, then through US Customs, bought breakfast at Tim Horton’s, and then sat down at my gate. The elapsed time for ALL of that was about 55 minutes. That was incredible and I was very grateful there were no delays. The flights were both a little rocky with turbulence but it wasn’t too bad. The first flight I had my whole row to myself which was very nice. The second flight the seat next to me was open. In the Denver airport I met this gal who is from Iran. She started conversing with me but doesn’t speak english yet so it was interesting and challenging. I definitely enjoyed it though as I needed someone to talk to at that point. She was probably about 21 or 22 and moved to San Diego to go to school. She was coming to Minneapolis to visit family. I’m glad we ended up talking at the Denver airport because at the Minneapolis airport she didn’t know where to get picked up and didn’t know where she was so she couldn’t tell her aunt where to come. I was able to get on the phone and help them out. Samantha came and picked me up and I was home quickly. I was so happy to be home and relax and see the animals. The house was in immaculate shape which I quickly changed by throwing my stuff all over the place. Dad also did some grocery shopping for me so I had food for the next couple days which was nice, thanks dad. I immediately went to the shoe store to get my Keen’s replaced. They were helpful but in the end I walked out without new shoes. They only had one color in my size in the metro area and I didn’t like it. Now I have to go through Keen to get these replaced. Oh well, it’s getting cool out so I guess I don’t need them right now. I then went to the church to check on my mail and office. Yes I was anxious to do stuff. I found out some news I had been expecting, just not quite yet. My pastor will be moving to a new church come June because his term will be up. Now we go into a time of uncertainty but I’m praying things will work out well. Change is always hard but some good can definitely come from it both for our church and wherever he is sent to next. I’ve had a really hard time getting my body readjusted to the time difference for some reason. I was exhausted on Sunday and went to bed at 9:30 pm which is 7:30 Vancouver time. I didn’t wake till 6:30 am and felt pretty good. Since then though I’ve had trouble getting up before 8 which I just need to set an alarm and get up early to fix I think. I don’t like that because I’ve been pretty used to just waking up at the right time the last number of months. Oh well. I’ll post some top ten lists and some other favorites from the trip in the coming weeks. I’ll also sort through my pictures and create an album of the best ones. Once I have that together I’ll post it online somewhere for you to look through if you’d like. That’s all for now. Peace.

My Last Night

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Well this is my last night. I am certainly excited to head home and towards all of the things I have missed so much. I am also sad I am leaving because of all of the fun things I’ve done and seen. Now that I’ve seen all of this I wish I could actually spend some time in each place I’ve been to and relax and just chill out at each one. I guess this trip was a good overview and maybe a starter. I am most looking forward to: my own bed, playing with Holly, a place to call home, people, not spending money, and working. Yes I said working. I like my job and don’t feel as if I “go to work” on most days because it is rewarding for me. Plus, I hate being idle and not contributing to something. Today I thought would be less moving around and walking. I had intended that to be the case but there were two neighborhoods I wanted to visit and David, my host, suggested some places to stop and told me a good way to walk to them. I’m also unfortunately breaking my shoes in which isn’t the most pleasant experience. I visited Granville Island again this morning for the farmers market and grabbed breakfast there. Then I headed along the ocean seawall and went to Kitsilano Beach, or Kits Beach as they calll it here. It was quite beautiful. I didn’t take too many pictures though as I have some from across the harbour that were similar and I am kinda getting photo fatigue. Along the way they had Kits Beach for Dogs. That’s right, an off-leash dog park on the beach with a share of the ocean just for dogs. It was sooo cool. I so wished I had Holly with me so she could play along the beach. There was this one little white dog that decided it was big enough to play catch with this other huge dog. It was super cute. She would have fit right in. Then I hung out in the Kitsilano neighborhood area. There are two main roads and the shops along each of them runs for quite a ways. I had brunch at The Naam, a fruit crepe that was huge. I did some browsing of the shops before heading to the Commercial Drive neighborhood. This is an area with lots of art but also lots of Italian food. David told me that during soccer matches, World Cup in particular, the street can be crazy with people cheering. I had dinner at a pizza place he suggested there and it was really cheap. Then I went back to the Main Street neighborhood as I hadn’t seen that as much as I wanted. That are is also very artsy so I just browsed around. Now I’m going to go pack and relax one last time. I have a couple ideas to update this for a couple days once I’m back. You’ll have to check back for what those might be. I’m up early and on the train by 5 am to make sure I get through security in time for my 7 am flight. Peace.

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