Low Hanging Disciplines

I'm much more likely to continue pressing in on a new rhythm, a new discipline when I experience some fruit in the short term. I realized this while encouraging my kids to keep pushing in on learning instruments, writing and drawing projects and creating Halloween costumes this year. Kids reveal too much of my own heart when it comes to routines and disciplines.

I like to get up around 5:45 AM and rotate between mornings of exercise and morning filled with writing. I noticed right away that exercise made an impact - I thought more clearly first thing, I felt better and I even felt that I felt better, part of that mental game, ya know?

Writing on the other hand did not reap immediate fruit. I didn't throw up thousands of fresh insights and words and paradigms. I didn't quickly complete a first or second draft of anything and I definitely didn't strike a publishing deal. The low hanging fruit was not ripe and ready for the pluck.

Nowadays, however, exercise is still refreshing and rewarding but with a less dramatic impact on my dailies. Writing, however, has slipped into a sweet groove of edits and additions. Writing feels good and after six-months of this rhythm I'm much further along on my current project than previous haphazard non-disciplines snubbed.

How are your disciplines? Look for some short-term wins and partner them with some long term goals. Don't forget to invite your kids to press on beside you?

Steps or Die

I have become less and less inclined to read books that offer a handful of steps, no matter how practical, to success in a given area. Each author promising a series of baby steps divinely guaranteed to make a better: marriage, family, vocation, hobby, home, side hustle, writing style, blog, website, education, sex life, dating relationship, discipleship rhythm, faith journey...

And you know what? Many of these experienced authors and creators and equippers have some really good contextual advice. And they're sharing it! This is fantastic.

But sometimes it's good to simply sit back and look at a painting, walk through the forest or the city streets, read a non-fiction adventure or listen to a record without each step of the artist's journey propped up like a beacon. Sometimes the enjoyment of creating action steps in life is the quiet and slow discovery tucked within a story or a song or a painting or a podcast.

Sure, if we don't take steps to grow and mature and move in faith we'll wither and die. But sometimes a key part of our movement is finding that hidden gem. Are you?

Awesome: Lexicon

Check it out! I'm introducing a new Thursday series on the blog.

It involves words. More directly, I'm snagging some favorite words used and abused in my home to coach and disciple my kids. We'll unpack how they build up, stir up and even tear apart a home. Words mean things and as I work my way toward the launch of my new book, A Lexicon of Awesome (spring 2020), I want to share some bits and pieces with you along the way. Kind of like offering you a few tasty crumbs of the delicious piece of apple crisp I'm eating and all the while a fresh pan is in being prepared in the kitchen as we speak.

...unless you don't like the apple crisp, which, if that's the case, we're done here. That said, let's kick this word-fest off at the top of the alphabet. Enjoy.

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/ A /

Awesome is one of those incredible words that gets thrown around without the full weight of it coming to bear.

Most times I throw it up like a reflex during one of those lowercase "a" awesome moments in life. Personally captivating? Yep. Awesome defined? Nope.

As reflexes go, I’m quick to toss out a breathy, "That... was... awesome!" when my son hits a slippery patch on the floor between the dining room and the living room and biffs it without warning. Tousled hair. Knees bent in ways the turn the stomach. Is it really awesome? Is that really something to be impressed by? Something that stirs up a genuine sense of wonder and fear and awe in power and might?

Not really.

It’s a reflex. A careless word spit. These moments can be astounding, but they’re not really capital "A" awesome.

Terror, on the other hand, is found at the heart of something awesome. Something so mighty and powerful and wonder-stirring that when I’m in awe I’m temporarily paralyzed, frozen to the gully...

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Keep some eyes out for my forthcoming A Lexicon of Awesome: words that build the home (and some that suck the air out of it) in spring 2020.