Tag: Personal Development

faith, Fortitude, Personal Development

How To Find Real Rest

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Are you tired? I’m not just talking about fatigue from a poor night of sleep. I mean REALLY tired. Exhausted. Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders kind of tired. Feeling overwhelmed or terribly inadequate for the endless work to be done. Wondering when life will get easier and better, but also believing such a life is not meant for you. Ugh.

tired

Aren’t we all craving real rest? This morning I was reminded of familiar words about rest. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I’m no Bible scholar, but a few things stand out to me as I read this.

Notice the command: “Come to me.” Jesus hasn’t moved or left me behind. I moved. I need to come to him. Jesus is here for me now. Requires action on my part. I see it like this: Stop doing what you are doing now because it’s not working for you. You are tired – probably from working yourself to the bone to earn favor, acceptance, love, and rest. Stop it. Just come to Jesus. He knows we ALL are weary and burdened and tired. He offers us rest from it all. But how?

Verse 29 says, “Take my yoke upon you.” Not an egg yolk, duh. This yoke ties two oxen or horses together so they can plow the farmers field or pull a carriage. The yoke goes over the backs of the beasts so the burden is distributed more evenly between them.

yoke

The yoke doesn’t work when the beasts are of different sizes, because the burden is not equally distributed. So when you hear the expression “unequally yoked” in reference to relationships, this is what they are referring to. If a couple is not equal in their beliefs or world view, the relationship will be unnecessarily burdened and both people will suffer. I digress.

Jesus is saying we need to disconnect from the yoke of slavery from the burdens we carry on our own and connect to his yoke which is lighter and easier. Jesus offers to carry our burdens and lighten our load. Doesn’t that sound nice?

Instead, we are more like slaves to the burdens we carry. That’s right, I said slaves. The burdens are like chains that weigh us down. They have mastery over our moods and behavior. We surrender to the burdens like a prisoner or slave does to his master.  But when we are connected to Jesus we learn his ways. We learn how to really “let go” of things that enslave us so we can live in peace and find rest.

Why do we look everywhere else for peace and rest? Books and lectures from motivational speakers don’t really help us here. Drugs and alcohol certainly won’t help us find rest. Risky behavior, gambling, porn, career, etc. don’t offer the real escape we desire from the burdens we all carry. Only Jesus can give us real rest.

It’s counter-intuitive to believe the answer is so easy. We expect it to be really hard. To get what we REALLY want (peace, rest, comfort, joy, love, acceptance, etc.) we believe we must work really hard to earn it. The lake house, the perfect spouse, the superhero physique, the dream job, you name it. These things will never satisfy. And all our striving for these things is like chasing the wind. The peace, rest, and love we desperately long for is right in front of us. Jesus is calling us to simply come to him.

I write this because it’s very personal to me – a journal entry from a while back. I share it here because I hope you will find encouragement and rest for your weary soul. I’m preaching to myself too. I’ve spent most of my life striving and working and trying to earn acceptance, approval, and rest. It’s utterly exhausting. And I fail so much! I still wrestle with a “performance mindset,” but I’m seeing the benefits of really letting go, answering Jesus’s call to come to him and surrender my will to his.

I’m telling you, it’s way better. It’s real freedom. Peace that surpasses understanding. Joy even. Yeah, life is still hard sometimes. There is still work to do and bad things to go through, but having Jesus with me through it all makes it so much easier. But you may not believe me. That’s OK. You probably won’t believe that being connected to Jesus is the best way to live until you try it for yourself. Jesus invites you to come to him. He will give you rest – and so much more. Will you answer his call?

Fitness, Nutrition

What If You Were As Serious About Your Health As You Are About Your Job?

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Think about this with me for a minute. You have a job. You need a job. It pays you so you can buy things you need and maybe even a few extras. You have to show up every day and give you best effort at your job, because if you don’t there will be trouble. With me?

You won’t let yourself fail at work because you need the job. You are focused at work. You do what needs to be done. You might even go above and beyond the call of duty and eventually get rewarded for it. You have proven that you are capable of focus, consistency over time, and hard work. You are a hard worker!

What if you took even 1/2 of that focus, consistency, and effort and applied it to other areas of your life? Would you be a better spouse, parent, friend? What would your health look like with this kind of effort? I talk to people all the time who are great at their work, but their health is not so great. They don’t have time, or they are too tired they say.

Baloney.

Listen, you need to take care of your health as if it were part of your job. If your health fails, can you work? If you are overweight, stiff, exhausted, or frequently ill can you properly take care of your kids and spouse? In order to be your best at the roles that are most important to you, you need to optimize your health.

So what are you waiting for? It’s never too late to start. You can make changes to your health now that will help you be your best in the future. But don’t wait. There is a sliding scale of returns on your health investment. The longer you wait the harder it will be to get where you want with your health.

Your health is your job. In fact, it is your most important job. I beg of you to take your health seriously. You have one life to live, one chance to make an impact on this world, one chance to leave a lasting and positive legacy for future generations. Don’t be held back from being your best because you chose to lay on the couch and eat junk food. You are better than that. You know you can do it, because you do it at work. Treat your health like your job. Put in the focused effort to eat well, to exercise, and to be consistent at it over time. You will be rewarded for your work and it will feel better than the raise or promotion. You will be your best at life AND your job.

There are lots of ways to go about improving your health. Everyone starts at a different place. There are no cookie cutter solutions. That’s one reason why I think it’s important to have a coach or advocate on your side. Someone who is willing to work with you, to help you, encourage you, kick you in the pants once in a while. Find someone to be that for you. Ask me. I will help you. No nonsense, no fluff, no pills, patches, wraps, or magic elixirs. You can do this. Let’s go!

Fortitude

If Trees Talked

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I love trees. I’m not a card carrying tree hugger per se, but I do appreciate trees very much. They are beautiful, strong, flexible, and resilient. Their roots hold the ground together. They provide shelter from the weather and homes for birds and critters. They make the air we breathe. They are worthy of respect.

The trees at Hocking Hills State Park spoke to me this week. My family went hiking there for our little spring break vacation. We saw some of the most amazing terrain and some really cool trees.

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This tree reminded me of resilience. Clinging to the edge of the cliff with roots that grip like nothing else, this tree is thriving in it’s precarious position. Many years ago this tree started to grow right here. It did not choose this place, nor could it move away from it. Instead, it made the best of the circumstance and dug its powerful roots into the rock to never let go. Now it is tall and proud and reaches to the sky. Was it disadvantaged? Yes. But it is more resilient than disadvantaged. This tree is telling us to be resilient.

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This giant tree stopped me in my tracks. I nearly fell over backward as I craned my head back to see the top of it. It is so big at the trunk, it would take two of me to wrap my arms around it. With roots anchored deep into the ground, this guy reaches high to the sky before branching out to catch the sun. It needs to reach very high because the canopy of smaller trees around it takes all the life giving sun. It doesn’t stop growing because the other trees are doing the same thing. We can learn from this tree too. This tree tells us to never stop growing. Reach higher. Build a strong base to support the growth necessary to go higher.

Listen to the trees. Trees are cool.

Fortitude

Making Time

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making time

YOU WILL ALWAYS MAKE TIME FOR WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU.

I really like this quote. It reminds me that I CHOOSE how to spend my time everyday. Granted, there are things we must do (like work) that take our time whether we like it or not. But I’m often surprised at how much time I REALLY have to do the things that are important to me.
Few notes:
1. You first have to identify what is important to you. This may require some serious thought. Like me, you may find that what is actually important to you is not exactly what you first thought.

2. Take inventory of your time to identify where your time is currently spent. If you don’t like how you spent it, then CHOOSE differently next time.

3. While it is impossible to actually “make time”, we can CHOOSE to spend our time on the important things we’ve identified.

What is important to you? I hope it includes taking care of yourself – and I mean your whole self:
-your mind through reading, art, personal development, etc.
-your body through good nutrition, regular exercise, and rest
-your soul through prayer, Bible study, meditation, helping others, etc.
‪#‎liveonpurpose‬ ‪#‎beyourbestself‬

Fitness, Fortitude, Personal Development

Brush Your Teeth To Fitness

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Discipline bridge

Here are a few ideas to help you achieve your fitness goals, whether you are triathlon training (like me), trying to get to your target weight, couch to 5k, or making it through an entire Beachbody DVD program like PiYo (my favorite).

1. Write down your plan.
Make your workouts part of your daily schedule/ routine – just like brushing your teeth, work meetings, appointments, etc. Consistently completing your scheduled workout appointment will build the habit – and improve your results.

2. Have a purpose to your workout.
This is especially true of endurance athletes who often log unnecessary or “junk miles” because they believe the volume of work will make them better. Not necessarily true. Regardless of your fitness goals, make sure your workout is aligned with them. Focus on your form and the quality of your workout. Learn to do it right before adding weight or intensity to your workout.

3. Try Habit Stacking. One clever way to sneak in your exercise is to associate it with something else already in your routine. I’ve made it a habit to hit my pull up bar after brushing me teeth in the morning. It only takes a minute. Brush teeth. Do pull ups. Boom! done!

4. Don’t ever give up.
Sometimes circumstances will block your workout schedule. Life happens. Healthy living is a journey intended to last a lifetime. Miss a day? Don’t do a double the next day, just move on to the next one. Short on time? Sneak in a partial workout, or modify it to get some activity in. Some is better than none. Building the habit is key and consistency grows over time. Eventually, exercise will be such a natural part of your life that you hardly have to think about it. Daily workout? Yep, that’s just like brushing your teeth…