Deadline? What Deadline??

So, I spent the entire day yesterday finishing my preparations for a speaking gig I have in a little less than two weeks. I am privileged to be speaking to five or six hundred kids at Kids Aflame Camp in Bradenton, Florida. Sadly, due to my recent two week bout with lung sludge, I was a little late getting all my stuff into the media gurus that make everything flow flawlessly for a solid week of camp. I got it all done, though, and I was even able to make a few sage observations as I was wrapping up my work late last night.

Observation one: I suck at power point.

Observation two: My husband ROCKS at power point and he is my hero.

Observation three: I couldn't get all of my work done, take care of my three kids and write a decent post for today.

Observation four: I could not possibly skip a post and I would rather just let you get a peek into my life, chaotic though it is at times, than not show up at all. That would just be rude.

Observation five: I HATE to be late on a project deadline when other people are counting on me.

No, I don't have issues. Why do you ask?

The thing is, life happens, sometimes you get sick, and you just have to do the best you can with what you have to work with. My wise grandmother used to tell me to "just play your best with the hand you are dealt." Words to live by. What about you? Have you skidded into home plate just in the nick of time on any deadlines lately?

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Come Aside...

I read recently that the Chinese pictograph for "busy" is two different characters: heart and killing.

This is reason enough to take a look at your life and evaluate how you are living it.

Are you doing as Jesus instructed?

And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." -Mark 6:31

Sabbath, or rest, is the womb where His words to us come alive and we are transformed.

And where our hearts come alive.

Is your heart dead or is it alive?

Are you "coming aside" to rest or are you pushing rest aside that you might get more accomplished?

There will be those in your life who choose not to rest and call it a "good work ethic." Do not let their dead, busy lives overshadow your own. Work hard and then come aside.

Come aside for rest and for a heart that lives.

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Making Room For Creativity-Part 4

If you are just tuning in here, we are wrapping up a series of posts on creativity and the importance of creating space in your busy life for those juices to flow. To catch up with where we are, you can click here, here, and here.

Now that you have taken control of your schedule and trimmed away the excess that was crowding your time, what is next? I'm glad you asked. Now you can allow yourself the luxury of moving about in the new "space" you have created in your days and weeks. Obviously you cannot "schedule" creative flow or determine when an inspiration will come, but it is very important to allow regular times of uncluttered freedom to explore the creative recesses of your heart. As a writer, I cannot just wait for a moment of "creative inspiration" to hit me. I have set aside regular times to just write regardless of how I feel. And it has been through this routine of being faithful to exercise my gift that I have found the sweetest inspirations. The regularity of it has proven to be a catalyst for creativity. Then, when an idea for a writing piece hits me at an inopportune moment, it is second nature to just grab that notebook I have with me at all times, and jot down my ideas and thoughts so that I can revisit this place when I have another pocket of time.

I do not have a long list of creative gifts, but many people do, so how does that highly gifted person choose where to devote this time? The answer can be found within your own heart. Where does your heart pause when it wanders through your field of deep desires? What things do you find your thoughts fixating on in moments of unrestricted mental wandering? Erwin McManus says that "When you are passionate about God, you can trust your passions." Don't be afraid to follow your heart. Because He fashioned it, what is in there is often where He wants you to invest your time and energies. In following your passions you may find that God will open doors of opportunity that you never believed possible.

I have a friend, Clay Miller, who is very gifted in video production and God recently opened a door for him to do it full time. Clay made room for that creative gift in his life and then God made a way for him to make it a career. How great to do what you love and get paid for it!

The most important thing is to make room in your life and then don't look back! Do not give guilt an audience in your life. When God is ordering your steps, you can give yourself to creativity with complete abandon and you can know that, in your most creative moments, you are reflecting the very image of the Creator God! Now don't just talk about it, be about it!

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Making Room For Creativity-Part 3

If you are popping in here in the middle of this series of posts on creativity, feel free to go here and here to catch up on parts one and two of making room in your busy life for your creative gifts. Today we are talking about what to do after you have decided to prioritize creative moments and you have made your inventory of what is and is not truly important for you in this season of your life.

Now, take that list of things you do that God never called you to do but you assigned yourself to do anyway, and begin the process of eliminating them from your schedule. Please, pick yourself up off of the floor and breathe into a paper bag if you need to. You are not going to die and neither are the people that you are afraid of disappointing. Instead let this reality sink in...if you are devoting yourself to tasks that God never called you to, you are setting yourself up for burnout and believe me, people, that is not a pretty sight. Creativity aside, streamlining your life is something that every person will benefit from because overcommitting yourself is slow suicide. Wouldn't you rather disappoint a few people than disappoint God by doing it your way rather than His way? Next, pick up the phone, write that letter, or have a sit down with the people you need to meet with to gracefully withdraw from the excess in your life. Go do this now. I will wait. I said GO!!!

Now, don't you feel better? What? You feel guilty? Ignore it...just like big hair and parachute pants in the '80s, it will pass.

Tomorrow is Friday and, as always, I will post my random and occasionally disturbing thoughts. It is a low-cal, fat-free, yet tasty little treat. I will wrap up this series of creativity posts on Monday. I just hope you can contain yourselves until then. And thanks for being here with me. I heart you.

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Making Room For Creativity-Part 2

We have been talking about creativity and finding some room in your life to just be you--the wildly or mildly creative creature that you were made to be. I find that allowing times to create does for my soul what exercise does for my body. Afterward, I feel a sense of peace and calm and I know that I am healthier for it.

Sooooo, where should you start?? The first thing to do is take an inventory of your life and the things to which you are currently devoting your time. Take a good, hard look at the things, people, or activities that are currently earning a spot on your calendar and one by one decide which ones are non negotiable and which ones can be evaluated further. The trick with this type of exercise is allowing yourself to consider the possibility of saying "no" to things that are either unfruitful, or which completely drain you. If you are someone who has a difficult time saying no, then this will be especially difficult for you, but do it anyway. This is not about being selfish, it is about being balanced.

Now, take the list of negotiable activities and decide what can be eliminated from your schedule. When I do this, I take my list and put it before God and I ask Him what He would have me do. One of the most precious commodities we have is our time and it really takes the pressure off to let Him direct our steps in this process. Since He encompasses all of time, He is most certainly able to lead you as you prioritze yours. It is helpful to remind yourself that Jesus was not motivated by human need but by the voice of His Father. During His time on the earth, He did only those things that God directed Him to do and nothing more. Why should our lives be any different? You need to get clear with God about what He is telling you to do and do only those things. Nothing more.

Let's sum up....inventory your current commitments, decide what is non negotiable, get with God and decide what things you have on your plate that God never told you to put there. Now, get back here tomorrow and find out what is next! Are we having fun yet??

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A Leadership Lesson from a Chef

I was recently pondering the importance of rest in the life of, well anyone, but especially those who lead. Whether you run a business or lead a ministry, an essential to longevity is rest. I was searching the internet using the phrase "the importance of rest" and the top results were from the world of cooking. The importance of resting a pork roast. Not exactly what I was looking for. But I did a little reading on the subject and it was surprisingly enlightening. No, really.

The reason it is important to allow any meat to rest after exposure to the heat of the cooking process is to allow for the redistribution of the juices. During exposure to the intense heat, the juices of the meat gravitate to the center of the meat for preservation purposes and it is caused by the tensing of the muscle fibers. But if you remove the meat from the intense heat and allow it to rest, the muscle fibers relax, thus allowing the juices to flow evenly throughout, rendering a more tender and evenly prepared finished product.

If only we humans could grasp this truth. We spend so much time in the intense heat of leadership, be it running a business, leading a ministry, or really any sort of leadership. And so many leaders find it difficult to pull away from the heat and just rest. Some will even applaud your efforts if you constantly work and resist "idle resting when there is more to be done." This is especially true in church leadership. You work for God...how dare you lie down on the job. Well, God did. He took an entire day and rested from His labors and, while we all know that is true (everyone is familiar with the creation story!), few of us choose to live this way.

And that is why so few people are tender and completely even through and through. We become callous and proud of our accomplishments when the whole of our bodies and, more particularly, our souls are crying out for release. To be tough and rigid often indicates the self-preservation that takes place in the heat of life. But to rest is to become tender and even, offering God the opportunity to have His way with us and actually giving us a more pleasing presentation to others. Others who are hungry and needy. And who are learning from the example we are setting.

What example are you setting? When do you truly rest? Do you separate yourself from your work environment and allow time for your mind to be occupied with things that will tenderize you and "even you out"? Make time regularly to escape the heat and the pressure. Just rest.

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A Little Something Practical

I have always been a big fan of simplicity. Less is more. It works for me and, honestly, I think it would work for anyone who would make the effort to streamline areas of their life. Once the initial streamlining is done then it is easy to live simply. Case in point... your inbox. Even if you are not willing to admit it, clutter is stress-inducing and the clutter in your inbox can become a big stressor. First of all, if you are going to maintain an e-mail address then you should be prompt with your responses to others. Very unprofessional to drag your feet with correspondence. The times when I have been horribly slow responding to others is when my inbox is out of control. Tim Sanders recommends (here) having your own inbox handicap and keeping the number of e-mails in it at or below that number. My handicap is 20 and when it gets over that, I take a few minutes to answer, delete or file what is in there. Very simple, really. Give it a try and see if it doesn't destress an area of your life.

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Beat the Clock

So, my inbox has over 250 emails in it, most of them unread, my fingernails and toenails are hideously neglected, my eyebrows look like azaleas, I don't remember when I last read a page in the book beside my bed and I even posted a video of a dancing dog on my blog yesterday since 

I have precious little time to write this week.  This is major.  Yes, I am in the throws of packing my entire home in a week as we prepare for our upcoming move and I have to say that I do not really enjoy this part of "the big adventure."  I am not one for playing the whole beat the clock thing...I like to have time to work my plan and preferably not at Christmas when I usually have my tree up the day after Thanksgiving. But all things considered, life is really good and His blessings overwhelm me.  So maybe, just maybe before I ring in the New Year, I will be able to properly groom myself, read a few pages in a book and see lights twinkling on my Christmas tree.

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The Beauty of Margins

One of my favorite leadership talks to give is that of self-leadership.  You cannot effectively lead others until you are successfully managing yourself.  Of great importance in this arena is building margin into your life.  Margin is the extra time that you may need as you live this gloriously unpredictable life.

Case in point would be my life yesterday morning.  I was gathering my family together so that I could drive my husband to the airport to catch a flight.  We left plenty of margin within our schedule and it was a good thing as our battery was dead-graveyard dead-when my husband tried to start the van.  Time for plan B.  Because of the margin we had built into our schedule, we had plenty of time to go get another battery, install it and still get to the airport, after having a quick lunch, with time to spare.  This is the beauty of margin.  

I was taught early in life by my grandmother that tardiness is the highest form of selfishness because it communicates to others that your time is more important than theirs.  She always told me to allow more time than I thought I would need so as to NEVER keep others waiting.  And this lesson has served me well in life.  The slow traffic, dead batteries and coffee spilled in your lap as you pull out of your driveway can all be handled without costing others if you build margin into your schedules.  Try it this week.  It will bring you great freedom, cost you little, and speak volumes to others.  And if the unexpected doesn't happen, you will have a little extra time to create something beautiful in the margin of your life.

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Chasing Your Tail

Do you find yourself struggling with productivity? Do you chase your tail in circles with no end in sight? Here are just a few helps to get you out of that rut.

-Limit your time with your inbox. Rather than checking e-mail throughout the day and never feeling that job is done, set aside 30 minutes a day in your schedule to read and answer e-mail.
Remember, if you are going to maintain an e-mail address, do others the courtesy of responding to e-mails in a timely manner. To do otherwise is rude and unprofessional.

-Say no. You cannot do it all so choose what is important and say no to everything else. To never say no is to half-do everything. You will never realize true success if you settle for mediocrity.

-Voice mail is your friend. Don't drop the people in front of you to attend to the unknown at the end of the phone. Set aside time slots throughout your day to return missed calls. That person you are having lunch with didn't set aside time in their day to watch you answer your cell phone.

-Leave it at work. Whatever remains undone should be put in line for your attention first thing on the following day. Don't take it home with you. Working constantly doesn't equal efficiency so give your brain some rest at night.

-If you have tried and failed repeatedly at organizing your time, get some outside help. Attend a workshop on time management, find a mentor, read some books on the topic. Don't settle for less than excellence...keep working on being a better you so that you can multiply value in the lives of those in your sphere of influence.

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Simple

Today I was reading a Tim Sanders blog about the amount of paper we waste in America. Sanders has become very earth-conscious and, while I am sure I should be too, I'm just not right now. I am more preoccupied with things like what my three sons are doing with our power tools in the front yard and why one of them is running in to get the camera. I digress. Sanders discussed the extra junk (ads, coupons, legal notices) that is found on the pages we are printing from websites, causing us to waste unnecessary amounts of paper and thus our natural resources. Please forgive me as I wax philosophical for a moment, but I couldn't help thinking of our lives which, like those pages, are so often crowded with extra stuff that means little to us and wastes our personal resources (time, energy, money, did I mention time?). Maybe we should work on shaping our lives into the more "printer-friendly" version, streamlined and focused and clutter-free. I am really trying to do this so that I can live big yet focused, significant yet simple that I might be free from busyness and, ultimately, regret.

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