Are you living out the dream?

Recently I got super busy. This is a good thing, but it leaves me feeling down in a way as I don’t feel as close to the Lord. Whenever I get really busy I have to be more intentional about deciding how I’m going to spend my time. Sometimes, that makes me feel bad… like I’m neglecting some things or some people.

At the same time, the exercise of going through my activities is a grounding experience – I learn from it. Like some of the stuff that doesn’t make “The A List” didn’t really belong in my world anyway. While it may have served a purpose for a season, it’s simply not a part of my calling or long-term agenda. I can see those to-do’s more clearly now, particularly when I’m hopping on it.

My writing has taken more of a back seat right now. I’m good with that, having chalked up 4 books in the past 4 years. Intentionally taking a break from writing daily last summer was a good decision, while this time I expect my long-term plan for writing more books will prosper through the experiences that I’m sure I’ll go through on the immediate horizon. I’m ok with all of that. Just a part of living the dream…

Are you living out your dream too? There are some fairly common stumbling blocks to living out the dream… I’m bringing all this up as I want to encourage you to live your passions, and to go forth and prosper. No regrets, remember?

If you have a dream that is super important don’t make excuses about WHY you can’t achieve it – instead, figure out how to get from point A to point B and make it happen. Sure, there may be setbacks along the way, but these obstacles will make achieving your dream all the more savory. There are times we need to stop making excuses and stay focused on the most relevant.

Many of the barriers to achieving your dream are imaginary. They’re excuses that we use to justify not crossing the boundary to the uncomfortable arena of vulnerability, or the land of fear or the possibility of failure. At the same time we miss the impelling opportunity to live out the dream…

Our passion comes alive because our soul is into it. God ignited a flame inside us that shines brightest when we are obedient. (Click To Tweet)

So what’s holding you back?

A vast majority of this illogical reasoning has to do with what other people might think. Should we really care? As one who has battled adversity on many occasions let me assure you the pundits are there for only one reason: jealousy. Pay no attention…

What is your penchant? Maybe you should be chasing that, without delay. Do you charge into Happy Monday? Maybe it’s time to make that change…

Image courtesy of katmary on flickr.com

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The Troubadour. Image courtesy of Gary Minnaert on Wikipedia

Our entitlements… they’re the things we often think of as personal belongings. We’ve worked long and hard for them and consider ownership over them; retirement benefits, a good job that pays well as a result of our completing certain educational requirements, or even the narcissistic belief that we have the right to demand reimbursement from fate. They may even be “given” by virtue of legislation or the principles of our culture today. How did we earn them? We worked hard at school for our education, socking away savings with every paycheck, or otherwise contributed to or served our nation or society.

So we were talking in Disciple Group a while ago about the future. It seemed years ago that people cruised through life banking on retirement. Then what? Interestingly, a leader in the group was also an investment banker. He told stories of people who have planned their whole lives around retirement and what they plan to do THEN. Did they really miss the boat? Many people got there and found out they did. Entitlements from a worldly view are sort of like living for tomorrow – we make huge sacrifices, even working in jobs or careers that are distasteful all for the promises of tomorrow… then everything changes. The economy goes south, our health takes a turn for the worse, or we’re passed over… hey, what about my entitlement?

Our epic entitlement? We have just one…

The tremendous entitlement that we each have is opportunity. Think about it: the power of choice is opportunity. Even writing a blog is an opportunity to serve and help other people. Opportunity is what we make of it. Nothing more, nothing less. Have you ever let a good opportunity pass you by? Sure, we all have. We’ve also all made bad choices that turned out to be more like a stiff jail sentence than the journey down the road to a fairy tale ending.

Our epic entitlement is simply opportunity through freedom of choice. (Click To Tweet) That’s huge. Think of it as the free will to do what’s right.

Say you went to high school and graduated. Yay! You have a diploma, but more importantly you gained knowledge that you can use to help create opportunity. Are you entitled to anything? Not really. From there, you are accepted into a fine university and work hard to complete your formal education. Many consider this milestone to be an entitlement only to be humbled time and again. Your degree creates opportunities for you that you didn’t have before. However, they’re only what you make of them. There are highly educated people, including doctors and lawyers, who can’t hold down a job. Entitlement? Not. Opportunity creates fulfillment when we succeed, by virtue of our abilities and character. (Click To Tweet)

So I got to thinking about The Sad Cafe… The Troubadour. A metaphor in the making, this icon in West Hollywood has a history of opportunity and freedom. Here’s the video of some of the famous faces that have passed through the place. The Troubadour hosted the who’s who of rock and roll.

The Troubadour is no blip on the radar screen. Local hero’s are way cool but don’t get the wrong impression in the youthful penchant for trendy hipsters that there is something magnetic other than momentum. Show up, take the stage and be a rock star at The Troubadour back in the day and you were IT. Then, you’ve seized and fulfilled the opportunity. As the Eagles song goes, some of their dreams came true and some just passed away; some of them stayed behind inside the sad cafe. The song beckons our emotion to remember a time filled with hope and opportunity. I dig that. Pretty hip, and way cool.

“Look for the good in others, speak only words of kindness, and for poise walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” Audrey Hepburn

Indeed, we can still find goodness even in places which seem very distant from the Lord. We’re all entitled to the opportunity that Jesus provides. Like Andy Stanley says, “everyone’s invited, everyone gets in the same way, everyone meets the requirement.”

Moving forward… whenever you hear the word entitlement think opportunity. That’s it, nothing more or less. It’s good enough for me! 🙂

What entitlements or expectations do you have for the future? What opportunities do you see as most important for your future?

The post Our Epic Entitlement first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post Our Epic Entitlement appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

I remember back in the day… (jk) – Photo Courtesy of Wheaton College

I’m writing today as a contributor to the Christian Writers Blog Chain. Our theme for this month is Opportunity. Christianwriters.com is an excellent place to network if you’re a Christian writer or author.

Time for “The HA!!” – This is my mini-series on life lessons I’ve gained through my humbling sports endeavors… I LOVE sports but genuinely suck at most of them, and, therefore, I’m a “HA = Humbled Athlete.” Please check out the other posts in this series at THE HA!! page.

Having influence could come with a certain amount of responsibility… why didn’t God make it that way? Maybe He did, and we changed everything and decided to do things our way. Here’s a new opportunity…

A cornerstone of influence in our culture comes to a pinnacle on one day in the dead of winter… one day we all tune in to watch the arena, our heroes and the hoopla that makes the Super Bowl the icon it has become in our culture today.

This draw of our attention is nothing new… organized sports and its’ heroes date back to Ancient Egyptian times, and the 12 Olympian gods or heroes, including Zeus, Apollo and Hermes. If you see the statues of these barely clothed athletic studs you’ll find the origin of our connective attraction of athleticism with heroism… and part of the reason we idolize these figures. It’s all deeply rooted in history.

Fast forward to this past week and the Super Bowl and we’ll visit with the modern romance to chiseled athletes, adding a layer of cutting edge media and provocative commercialism that we’ve enamored in the most recent past, and take a glimpse to what the future may look like…

Seth Godin describes the marriage between the “epic muddy battle” and TV perfectly:

“… football, more than any other sport, is made for television. It’s better on TV than it is live. The combination of the play clock, the angles, the repetition and the opportunity for analysis all make it perfect to watch on TV. And perfect to run commercials on. TV and football grew up together, side by side. Instant replay and the thirty-second commercial, supporting each other. 

It’s not an accident that the commercials are as much a part of the Super Bowl as the game. The commercials represent both the cash component of football as well as the cultural souvenirs that go with our consumption of the game.”

As media changes from TV to Twitter, how we move forward is changing. Maybe think of this transition as a season of opportunity…

I don’t think this shift is a chasm from building corporate wealth so much as hopefully redefining corporate culture. A Chick-Fil-A has a whole lot of potential to generate positive influence in our world today for the glory of God. Indeed, capitalism works because of our ability to choose right from wrong. In its purest form, capitalism aligns very well with Christianity (I am making a bold assumption that you align with both of these thoughts also. If not, please hear me out…). Now, since I’ve mentioned “eat more chicken” let me enlighten you to my image of this entity we know as The Chicken Sandwich: They’re appearing to be good Christians as well as successful at marketing their product broadly in a competitive market (btw, you’re completely missing the message here if you don’t click the link and head over to see Dan Cathy doing football with Shane L. Windmeyer).

Then along comes our hero. I personally have many sports heroes. Check out my Pinterest page and you will find a special place for them. I chose this chapter of The HA!! to highlight football because it’s unique in popularity in American culture, and I never played this sport competitively. Yep, I’m a spectator when it comes to football.

As a Florida Gator, I participated in the college-level extravaganza on many occasions. It started as a student and continued as an alumni. My second employer after graduating from UF was a Gainesville-based firm that invested heavily in college football. Our marketing agenda included dozens of season tickets that were allotted to clients attending pre and post-game gatherings, used to develop close relationships with the key people from both public and private entities throughout the southeastern U.S.

Somewhere in the mix of College Game Day, team spirit, and heroic moments our hearts warm up to the image and feeling of a hero. We let them in like they’re well-known… but in reality we often learn that they were complete strangers living in our own home. The whole spectacle is upsetting to us when we find out the truth about our hero… that sometimes he just wasn’t quite the person that we thought he was. Please don’t take me wrong, I’m not knocking the system here. Athletic scholarships are made possible by the investment of marketing dollars by major corporations. For the most part, the system works and we can and should enjoy our heroes. Moreover, an education is provided to many that never would have the opportunity.

The only real problem that I see with our fascination with the athletes is this:

• We don’t really know them,
• They’re people just like you and me, and therefore, we can expect that they’re not perfect,
• We tend to get upset when we find out they make mistakes and that they’re real people as well.

People who appear in the public eye are typically there for a relatively short period of time. Some of them show up by virtue of a specific talent or gift, while others may arrive with an opportunity. Sports heroes come and go. The truly great leaders and heroes stand the test of time and become icons. Our culture feeds off this entire process. Therefore, we define the process, or opportunity, to invite our heroes to perform on the stage of life. In many ways we define their egos. This is all a matter of perspective. Since we made them the heroes they are, aren’t we “driving the Bronco…“, so to speak, when we follow… love… and promote the system that produces “The Juice”?? While this football season has ended you can be certain that a new one is just beginning. Somewhere, it’s happening. That’s all cool, I just don’t want to hop behind the wheel when OJ pulls up and asks me to do him a favor. (Remember, OJ was acquitted, now didn’t that feel just like a puntrooskie?)

So instead of getting upset with the fallen heroes next time take the opportunity to help shift the paradigm to one that is realistic. That would entail justly accepting responsibility for our own attraction to the TV commercials and athletes, changing our perspective from saying there’s something wrong with culture in general to taking the opportunity to focus inward to our heart, and to God. An inward focus toward change will have more outward influence than you can possibly imagine. (Click To Tweet)

The Q: What opportunity do you see to test-drive a new approach toward having a lasting influence on our culture today?

Christian Writers Blog Chain

The post The HA!! : The Season Of Muddy Battle And Opportunity first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post The HA!! : The Season Of Muddy Battle And Opportunity appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

Oomph… share pizzazz with those around you!

The power of Oomph… what’s that?

Maybe it’s the ability to have influence beyond our concerns… yep, that’s a Covey thing. It’s having a positive impact on the people who are around me. This creative energy creates behavioral influence… and pizzazz!

Whole heartedly using our spiritual gifts to connect our current opportunities to the next and to everlasting.

Our message at Access Church yesterday echoed something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately… how our opportunities, the past and future, are all connected. We’re in the midst of a 6-part series on God’s Will, it’s called Game Plan. You can watch yesterday’s sermon by clicking here. This is the power of Oomph at work in my life… sort of spooky sometimes because Andy Stanley’s message yesterday fit like a piece of a puzzle perfectly in place with the other pieces that I was trying to connect… crisp and firm… with zip!

Andy says this is one the most important actions we can take today:

– Be excited about and pursue with all your heart what you have on your plate today, the opportunities that are right in front of you.

This will bring about the right, new opportunities that God has in store for you. I have a story to share… you may know that I took a job working at the local Planet Fitness a while back. I still work there, one day a week… through that job I have been blessed in oh so many ways… I’ve made some lifelong friends… the HB and G.A….met thousands of people from nearly every walk of life who became members and live in my community… it’s been a crazy, superiffic experience that has opened doors that I otherwise would not have ever seen! How did all that happen? Just like Andy said…

– Be excited about and pursue with all your heart what you have on your plate today, the opportunities that are right in front of you.

Through that one experience God delivered in so many ways.

Here’s the passage out of Colossians that moves me with the power of Oomph…

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly lived, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:12-17

This speaks to my soul. For whatever reason, it seems to pick me up and gets me moving in the right direction. Moreover, it ties the power of Oomph in with Peace, Love and Unity. How?

It’s simply this: sing… dream… and love… I guess that’s peaceful Oomph 🙂

How does Monday usually take you? Is there a Bible verse that is speaking to you with Oomph today?

The post The Power of Oomph! first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

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smoldering smoke... this too shall pass 🙂

Current Conditions: mostly stifling

temperatures… hot hotter and hottest

wind… nonexistent

humidity… yes

heat index… off the charts

UV index…don’t ask

chance of rain…fat chance!

visibility… smoky haze

That’s the way it’s been here in Jacksonville recently. It’s been going on for quite a while now. There is rain in the forecast, so maybe some relief coming.

I love the outdoors but am not a huge fan of the heat, and add smoldering smoke to the equation and it makes me want to avoid the activities that I usually enjoy the most.

This leaves me out of balance… so I feel the need to think outside the box and readjust in a positive way…

I need to view this time in an opportunistic way…

Exercise is the most challenging for me when the weather prohibits outdoor activity. I like to run outside… but for now will settle for a treadmill.

Loading up on the fun indoor activities, like watching movies, spending more time connecting with the family, or even tackling a home improvement project.

How do you adjust when changes to the weather create an opportunity to mix up ?

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