Romans 14:1  Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.

This arguing thing is hard for me. I like to be right. I like to make sure others know I’m right. But this last week I’ve been trying my hardest not to argue about anything. Ohh man it’s not easy! But I’m working on it. The thing that I’ve found about arguing is that most arguments are about opinion or perspective. Neither of witch is a good reason to argue. Of course every one has an opinion, regardless of right or wrong, arguing seldom changes things. I believe in debate, there are two side to every coin, there is room for sharing your point of view. But if it escalates to arguing, chances are, you’ve already lost.

p.thad

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In my quest to become a better guitar player I learned some new chord shapes. It’s amazing many different place you can play a “C” chord on the guitar. I’m finding how much better I can sound in a band setting just by playing the same chord in a different position. I’ve also found that it opens the creative process even more for song writing. As for application, I’m incorporating these new chords shapes into everything I play. Here is an example…

I made this scratch track of a song we’re writing, but it uses alternative chord shapes threw out to give the song a different flavor.

So what have you learned this week?

p.thad

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p.thad

Later

p.thad

1. Don’t look back – While running if you look back it messes with your stride and you lose focus. You have to run your race and not worry about how someone else is running.

2. Set a goal and run to it – When you start the finish line is no where to be found, so you break the race down into smaller goals and run to them. Then the next, and the next, before long you covered an amazing amount of distance.

3. Just don’t stop – I found it was so much easier to just keep running then to stop and walk. You lose all momentum when you walk, and it kills your time.

4. Don’t judge by looks – this one made me laugh. The day of the race I’m standing at the start line looking at the other runners thinking OK I’m faster than him, I’ll easily beat her, He’s old there’s no competition here. then the race started and somewhere between mile 2 and mile 3 this little old grandma had to be in her 60′s goes fling by me like I’m not even there. That wasn’t the best moment in the race!

5. It’s not how you start that counts – I didn’t know the course very well and in the first mile there was a down hill segment that a lot of runners did very fast. I held back and kept my pace, and ended up finishing before many of the ones that took off so fast.

I not going to go into the biblical principal that go with these because I’m going to use this as my message for 3PY this week. So if you want to hear the message either come Wednesday night @ 6:45 or I may post the audio on here next week. Anyway I had fun running and learned alot, a true win-win.

Later

p.thad

All that aside I think the reason I’m not stressing about this stuff is the way we handled each situation as it came up. Here are the 3 keys I think made this processes seamless and smooth.

1. Don’t make decisions in an emotional state.

When the biggies hit, it’s far to often we fly off the handle and react in the heat of the moment. No one wins in this scenario people just get hurt.

2. Talk through the problem.

The Bible says there’s wisdom in the counsel of many. Quick decisions made on a whim are rarely the right ones. When you slow down and talk through a situation you gain perspective. I recently needed to make a discipline decision but didn’t have anyone handy to talk through it with, but I didn’t skip this important step. I talked through it with my self. I stated the problem, in this case a bad behavior, and talked “under my breath” through the best way to handle the problem. By allowing my self the time to “talk my self through it” I was able to come up with an optimal solution that was a win-win for all involved.

3. Make a plan of action.

No problem is ever solved until you correct the wrong. This last step is the sum total of the previous two steps. The thing to keep in mind when making a plan of action is the steps need to be clear, with a clear outcome. You don’t want to leave problem solving steps open ended. Open ended step may cause your problem to compound and you’ll find yourself in a bigger problem. So define what you will do and what you want that action to accomplish. That way if your actions don’t achieve the desired outcome you can alter the plan not repeating the same mistake.

I’ll leave you with this valuable quote:

“You are defined by the problems you solve!”

Discuss:

1. I’m getting healthier.
I have committed to run a 5k in the middle of July. I have been losing weight for the last year and kind of hit a plateau, so to change it up I’m running. Never done this before and it’s hard. But I expect better results than I’ve been getting so time to change it up.

2. I’m getting smarter.
I’m committing to blocking out study time every week to sharpen my self. This includes Bible study and other reading time in leadership books. I’ve been reading on and off for a while and I do read my bible most everyday, but to grow and get better I’m Blocking out 2 hours a week to focus on study.

These are just 2 things I’m doing to change it up and add life into myself. If you find yourself in the boring day to day rat race, I would challenge you to find an area that your unhappy with the results your getting, and make a change. Start small but do something different! Trust me you’ll be happier for it.

Have you tried anything new in the last couple of days? tell me about it! 

4. Without oxen a stable stays clean,
but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.

I learned a long time ago that I can’t do much on my own. But the problem lies in the fact that people are messy. Just like an ox dirties a stable, people cause messes in life. But if you get rid of the mess makers you limit your harvest. I use this analogy from the bible to remind myself that the harvest I want is bigger than me, so I need to shovel some crap in the stables and do work in the field. Loving people is never the wrong thing to do even when they poop in your stable! Just go get a shovel cause you’ll need them later.

p.thad

50-75% capacity – This is your average employee – these people deliver day in and day out. The worker bee of the business that very simply gets work done. Occasionally something remarkable comes from this group, but typically they get the job done and go home at night and turn off. People who run at 50-75% capacity need vision, encouragement and recognition to reach to the next level.

75-100% capacity – These are the stars, people working on all cylinders every day. These are people who think about the next level constantly. They recognize the value of their individual contribution to the team’s goals and won’t settle for anything less. They push themselves and value management doing the same. They believe in themselves, they believe in the team and have a strong work ethic. Honest assessment, team recognition and promotion make them tick.

Understanding what capacity level you operate under is important to making decisions as to what new projects you can take on, or should let go of. So comes the question of time, how to best manage it, and is it possible to make more of it? Of corse we know that there are only 24 hours in a day, so creating more hours is humanly impossible. So the real issue is how do I redeem the wasted or lost hours in a day? As I have spent some time thinking about this issue here are my thoughts.

1. Stop Worrying – Worry cause a loss of focus and consumes your time. When your worried your not productive. Matthew 6:25 says don’t worry. Worry has never helped me accomplish anything, however it has caused me to miss a few deadlines.

2. Know your abilities and limitations – I like to help people and I have a tendency to get in over my head. There’s nothing wrong with helping people out, you just need to know where to stop and where you can’t help. Understanding that even when you can do a project it doesn’t always mean you should do the project.

3. Always have a current priorities list – To manage your time effectively you have to know what is most important for that day. Keeping a daily priorities list is key to not wasting time. I find that without my list I sit in my office and think about what to do next instead of doing it.