The Power of Continuums

In one of the courses I teach, the students and I interact around the Illness-Wellness Continuum.  Basically, this model is intended to help someone determine if he or she is moving in the direction of Wellness or in the direction of Pre-Mature Death. The Illness-Wellness Continuum served as a wake up call for me a few years ago.   I have found what I call "Continuum Thinking" to be a very helpful tool in determining if I am moving in the right direction, or not.  A continuum is defined as, "anything that goes through a gradual transition from one condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt changes"

Here's how it can work:  decide what is important to you, and then determine what the opposite might be.  For example, on one end of the continuum you might identify "Financial Freedom" as the end goal.  What is the opposite of that?  "Debt" or "Foreclosure", as examples.  And then map a few indicators out on either side as points of evaluation to help you decide if you are moving towards Financial Freedom, or away from Financial Freedom.  Or, another example might be if you had a dream to  "Publish a Book".  You can ask yourself, "Am I  moving towards fulfilling that dream, or away from it?"  Every day you make choices.  You either move towards the things that matter, or you move away from the things that matter.

Today is my birthday.  It's always a good day for me to reflect and think about the overall trajectory of my life.  A question I am asking myself is: "Am I generally moving towards what's important to me, or away from those things?"

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses....Oh, that you would choose life...!"  (God in Deut 30:19)

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."  

St. Francis of Assisi

Wednesday marked the first day of classes for the new year for my college students.  Also the first day of a new course for them, it was appropriate to start our class with this quote by St. Francis.  Right now, my students only dream of the day that they will be able to serve society as professional RNs.  If they were to be placed in the clinical setting today, it would literally be impossible for them to function as a licensed RN.  However, showing up for the start of a new semester, beginning a new course and continuing to do what they need to do, and doing what is possible every day, will transform that which is currently impossible into possible. 

Isn't that how it is with anything we wish to accomplish?  It happens one step at a time, day by day doing what is possible.  We rule out our dreams before we ever even get started.... "oh, that's impossible for me" or, "there are just too many obstacles" without considering what could be done every day to overcome an obstacle at a time and see that dream accomplished.

     Writing a book becomes possible when a little bit is written every day over a period of time.

     A degree is gained when one decides to push through the challenges of coursework every day.

     A thousand dollars is saved when $20 is put away every week for 50 weeks.

How about you?  What is it that you would love to do or to become that seems impossible right now?  Maybe you are already working towards it a day at a time, doing what is possible right now.  But maybe you haven't started taking any steps because it seems too big and too impossible.  Whatever it is that you would like to do or to become, I encourage you to just start!  Start somewhere. Do what is possible every day, and before you know it you will have accomplished the impossible.

Day 10, An Idea for the Christmas Season

In case you're wondering what it is exactly that I'm keeping track of, this is the 10th morning of being up early to sit in quiet and peace by the light of the Christmas tree (and that's the idea, too).  It's my remedy for the craziness of this season.  It's a mini-retreat each morning before the day kicks into full gear.

The other piece is that during my break from teaching at the college, I committed to writing every single day leading up to Christmas.

As a girl, I was in Girl Scouts.  Early in my time as a Girl Scout, each girl was required to create a poster and present it to all of the parents and grandparents who came to watch each girl do the same.  As my turn was approaching, I felt myself starting to panic at the thought of being in front of that room full of people (maybe 30 in all, but it may as well have been 3000).  As I walked to the front with my poster in front of me, I felt my throat tightening up and when I tried to start my speech, I literally could not get a sound out.  I hid my face momentarily behind my poster to try to get a grip.  After a few seconds of literally hiding behind the poster in front of everyone, I lowered it again to give my speech another attempt.  Again, not a single word would come out of my mouth. At this point, I was so embarrassed.  So embarrassed that all I could do was to start laughing!  And laugh I did...hysterically.  I laughed so hard for so long that I finally had to be escorted off of the little stage! It's a wonder I didn't wet my  pants, too!

I've had many embarrassing moments in my life, but that one stands out in my memory as one of the worst.  It's ironic that now a large part of what I do in life involves speaking in front of others!

Anyways, all of that to say that but for a few exceptions, we rarely get "talkers block". (I had it bad that day.)  But  it's  because we talk every day.  Its just what we do.  We do it naturally and without a lot of thought.  Yet, "writer's block" seems to keep millions of people who would like to be writing from writing.

Writing daily is me pushing myself against the natural tendency towards "writer's block".

So how about you... what is something you are deliberately doing every day because it matters to you?

Get Those Feet on the Floor!

Joelle getting those feet on the floor!

This is what I say to my daughter pretty much every morning.  I know that if she doesn't get her feet to actually touch the ground, she'll never be able to get her day going.  She literally will just keep falling back to sleep.

Isn't that how it is with everything, though?  If we don't make one decision, take one step, one action, we don't go anywhere. We just keep on sleeping!  I've been thinking about this a lot these days as I've been working on life goals.  Whatever it is that we are called to do, or to be, we have to take one little step in that direction every day or won't see our dreams realized.  Baby steps are better than no steps.  In fact, its the little steps every day that really do add up over the long haul to affect the greatest change and/or bring the greatest impact.

So here's to getting our feet on the ground today as we  take steps towards our dreams.

Goals

I've been thinking lately that it's time to establish more goals for my life.  I could perhaps have another 40-50 years  to live life (by the year 2050, it's projected that there will be at least a million people over the age of 100).  Right now, I have about 10 very specific goals (or, dreams)  that I have identified that have not yet been fulfilled.  So if you do the math, that means I'm accomplishing 1 goal every 4 or 5 years.  Hmmm... I think I can do better than that.  In fact, I think I need to do better than that.  Having a sense of purpose and a vision for our lives is part of what leads to a fulfilling, alive, and God-honoring life.  So, I've been prayerfully thinking about all of this, writing down thoughts and refining some of the goals I have had to be very specific and measurable.  I'm also working on identifying goals that I haven't ever really clearly articulated before.

 With God, all things are possible (Jesus)

On top of that, I'm challenged to identify goals/ dreams that go beyond what I am capable of accomplishing in my own strength and know-how.  Many of the goals I am working on are  big enough that if they happen it will only be because of God.

Bill Gates has said, "People overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years."  It seems that most of us have busy schedules and its easy to get caught in the trap of not taking the time to think beyond what happens this day.  Writing  goals down and keeping them visible can serve as a daily reminder to us of what is important.  So, when 10 years goes we can look back and celebrate the accomplishments of that decade.

Currently, these are the goal categories:

• Family
• Influence
• Service
• Gifts, talents and skills

I'm also aware that what we do comes out of who we are.  So I'm doing the background work of asking myself what kind of person I want and need to be in order to achieve the things that I want to do in life.

And, finally and most importantly, anything worthwhile ultimately comes out of that place of knowing and walking with God.  Jesus said, 'Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15)

"Action Trumps Everything"

There's one conference a year that I try to take in and that's the Global Leadership Summit hosted by Willowcreek Community Church. I really appreciate the posture of The Summit:  we can learn from those who are doing things well from many different spheres. I love that the speakers are a real mixture and variety of people and backgrounds. So, last week, I got to take in the Summit again.

One of my favorite sessions was by Len Schlesinger, the President of the leading school for entrepreneurship, Babson College. I've always been fascinated and intrigued by what it means to be an entrepreneur, and what makes one an entrepreneur.  I think we tend to believe that entrepreneurs are only a small, select kind of people. The kind we could never be.  But what if that weren't true? I've thought that if there's a way more of us could figure out what it means to be an entrepreneur and actually take steps in that direction, that there's a whole lot of Kingdom potential that could be released.  What I loved about this session was that Len Schlesinger dismantled many of our widely accepted perceptions about entrepreneurs.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Many entrepreneurs don't start with a big, clear vision.  They just do something, learn from it, and keep on doing it.
• Entrepreneurs are not actually all that excited about risk; in fact, the good ones know how to avoid it.
• Research has shown that entrepreneurs aren't more decisive and self-confident than others.
• We think a true entrepreneur is someone like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg but in reality an entrepreneur is more likely to be someone who sees something being done and they just do it better.
• Being an entrepreneur is a discipline, and like any other discipline it can be learned.
• If you can't predict the future, create it.
• In the face of unknowability, you can sit and think, or you can act.
• How do you start something?  Start with something you care about.
• Many great enterprises have been started by 2 people who like each other deciding to just do something together.
• Failure doesn't mean "game over", it means learn from it and try again.
• When you fail, its quite likely you've just learned something that no one else knows that will help you do it better the next time.
• Stop obsessing about what you think you need and don't have, just act with what you have.

More on Dreams

Yesterday I saw an article in our town's newspaper written by a local columnist that caught my attention.  The article was about dreams. I read it with great interest, as the topic of pursuing dreams is one I'm particularly drawn to.

As a parent, the author wrote how all of her big, lofty (to use her term) dreams had been traded in for dreams of:

"...the day when the white shower curtain stays white.  When no muddy hand prints appear two hours after its been bleached...I dream of the the day when the counters are free of milk that Nobody spilled.  When the Oreos don't have to be locked into a cast iron safe to prevent "evaporation". When a simple phone conversation isn't broken up by an ominous game of charades."  

On one hand, I loved the honesty of the article!  I so get where she's coming from and can relate entirely!  On the other hand, the article reminded me of why we have to fight for those larger, long term dreams that often lie deep within our hearts.  If we don't hold onto those, even if they have to be put on the back burner for a different season of life, we will completely lose site of them in the day to day of the immediate.  I would like to say to the author, "you can hold onto your 'loftier' dreams and still fulfill the dreams you have as a  parent".

Life has a way of causing us to forget our "loftier" dreams if we allow it. We can forget the "more" we were created for as we wipe the counters day in and day out, pick up the scattered socks, and make sure the homework gets done.  I'm reminded that there are short term and long term dreams.  The long term dreams don't need to give way to the immediacy of the short term, but it takes intentionality to not lose sight of the long term dreams in the midst of the day to day.

For me, writing for this blog is part of a longer term dream I have. Right now, there are about 50 things I can think of that I need to do, but those will have to wait because doing this, right now, is part of me acting on something that I believe I'm to be about as part of a longer term dream.

So, today, in the midst of all we have to do, may we each take an intentional step towards the more we were created for.