Category: Personal Develoment

Backing Into Goals

If it’s ever said that a team “backed” into a championship, it would mean they didn’t necessarily deserve it in the eyes of some people — it’s kind of knock against them.
But what about #goals? If you back into a goal, how is that different? How can it help you accomplish what it is you’re setting out to do?
In today’s vlog, we’ll discuss that very thing.

Taking Responsibility vs Making Excuses

We all make mistakes. It’s a part of life. But could the end result of our mistakes be different if we took responsibility for our actions instead of giving reason (sometimes excuses) for the mess up?

In this video, I’ll share three steps we can use to not make excuses and discuss why I think taking responsibility allows us to build stronger relationships with those around us, whether it’s a significant other, co-worker or friend.

Looking on the Bright Side

Prior to the arrival of our daughter two weeks ago, I had spent time trying to mentally refresh myself on what to expect with a newborn in the house. Admittedly, one of the selfish concerns I focused on was the lack of sleep I would experience for at least the first few weeks while changing diapers and helping tend to a hungry little human.

While lamenting this idea, though, I was struck by a thought that completely changed my perspective.

Anyone who has had a child will agree that the beginning phase can be exhausting. But I was humbled/embarrassed by the realization that, while I was dreading the impending sleep deprivation, there are people in my own life who would give anything to “have” to wake up and care for a newborn…but they haven’t yet had the opportunity.

So instead of feeling sorry for myself and researching maximum daily caffeine limits, I instead should be grateful for the fact that I get to be a dad at 1:45am and 3:12am and 4:30am and…

As I applied the same mentality to other situations in my life, be it work, progress toward personal goals, etc., the same scenario tends to plays out: I hit a patch that scrambles my norm and I have a choice to make. I can either get down about it or look on the bright side and focus on the ways I’ll grow from the situation once I’ve made it through.

More often than not, I’m beyond blessed to live the life I do, but focusing on the negatives distracts me from that. I’ll end up being a better husband, father, employee, etc. if I can continue to look on the bright side.

What about you? Has there been an instance in your life where you’ve had a similar change in perspective?

Some 2018 Goals

I’m hoping to make the new year my best one yet, so I wanted to share a couple of my top goals for 2018!

1. Live out my “word for the year”
I’ve chosen the word ‘intentional’ to be a guide for my mentality in 2018. With baby #2 having landed(!), I know there has to be a new equilibrium in my day-to-day activities. To get where I want to go in my faith, marriage, family life and professional life, I know I need to be more focused than ever in how I spend my time. Ignoring the urge to scroll social media and being willing to say ‘no’ to some opportunities will be the first step in living an intentional year.

2. PBJ time
No, this is not a dedicated time to eat the same lunch as my toddler (although that’d be awesome, too). I use this as an acronym for Prayer, Bible and Journal time. I’ve been spending 20-30 minutes a day (most days) doing this for the past couple years and have seen lots of fruit from it — so I want to keep it up!

3. Financial goals
Make specific mid and long-term saving buckets. Because, you know, Christmas will be on December 25th this year, so why not be more intentional about putting money aside so our giving doesn’t have to be as constrained come holiday time. Getting in the habit of making these buckets will create an even greater sense of financial freedom as we move through the new year.

4. Publish content weekly
By the end of 2018, I want there to be (at least) 52 new videos on my youtube channel. I love talking about this stuff, so I’m going to talk about this stuff!

Clarify The Why

I spent the last couple weeks of 2017 planning for the new year and doing some goal setting. My initial list of things I wanted to accomplish ended up getting pretty long, at which point I realized I needed to step back and really focus on one important question: why are any of these individual objectives actually important to me?

In thinking about “why”, it helped create more focus on what I should actually try to accomplish but also provided the reminder I would need in the coming months when I (likely) will need a little motivation to keep going.

Two Great Grammy Reminders

In the chunk of time I spent watching the Grammys last night, there were plenty of powerful, poignant messages. Two more subtle statements were made, though, that I wanted to share as a Motivational Monday.

  1. The importance of being able to laugh at ourselves
    John Travolta may never live down his terrible pronunciation of Idina Menzel’s name, but last night he showed the importance of being able to laugh at ourselves when we make mistakes. He cracked multiple jokes in reference to the Oscar fail and even pulled out a written script to make sure he could read his lines. People loved it.It’s easy to get caught up in trying to make ever effort a perfect one, but the odds of that actually happening are slim-to-none. Every once and a while we’ve got to be able to let it roll off our back and learn from the experience.
  2. Success doesn’t happen overnight
    In her acceptance speech for Best Country Solo Performance, Maren Morris talked about how she went to Grammy Camp 10 years ago and was now amazed to find herself on stage. TEN YEARS!I’ll be the first to admit I often want results much faster than they can realistically happen. Hearing Maren’s comment reminded me that, if I want to reach high levels of success, it’s going to take an untold number of hours, and ton of dedication and (probably) a large number of sacrifices to bring it to fruition.