How to Stay Motivated When it Feels Like Summer

Memorial Day weekend was a blast- small town Jersey at its finest. Parades, open houses, picnics and of course the opening of the infamous Stirling "Lake", which is hardly more than a pond.

It was muggy, bright and fun. And... now it's back to work. Mondays have a way of repeating themselves don't they? The temptation is to cling on to what minutes remain with each weekend night, dreading the call of meetings, demands and expectations. But hold on- the terrific rest of a weekend can only make sense with the productivity of any given week.

They almost need one another and that's why Memorial Day is the perfect time to think about your own motivation as it gets hotter and you feel like working less and less.

First, consider they WHY behind your WHAT. In other words, remember the reason why you have to get up early on Monday and report for duty. Is it a calling, a vocation, a cause? Why do what you do?

Second, consider the faces that you kiss goodbye. When I leave for work, I'm literally leaving behind my wife and four children. They depend on me and my labor. That makes the week more meaningful. If I didn't work hard, there would be no quality of life and probably no weekend to enjoy at all.

Third and finally, there might actually be some nice things ahead of you this week. God has a way of surprising us, especially when we least expect it.

This past weekend I was dreading having to work the Snack Shack at a Little League game here in town. My wife wasn't able to work so it was me and four women from town serving churros to ballgame spectators.

Or so I thought- when I showed up report for my time slot I was taken off the hook and was able to coach instead of serve churros. No joke- that was an act of Divine Intervention. God does that all of the time, seriously.

Sure it may be hot. You may have to serve bad fast food at your kid's baseball game. You may not feel like work on Monday but go at it anyway. Think of the faces that you kiss goodbye and the difference that you are making with your work.

Photo courtesy of AMDG.

The Leadership Balance Between Input and Output

I was listening to a recent Catalyst podcast interview between Brad Lomenick and Rick Warren.  Warren, an avid reader, once asked his board of supervisors for only one perk within his job description- an unlimited budget for books.  Since then, he's read thousands of books on every topic under the sun.

Leaders do that- as John Maxwell says, "Leaders are readers."  They know that you can't lead from where you haven't been.  Books help the leader to go deeper, think bigger and broaden their people's horizons.  My team probably makes fun of me but it's ok- I still give them a book for a gift at Christmas.  Even if no one reads the book, I'm practicing the principle of adding quality input to their lives.

This is what we call input: what you put into your mind and heart.  This comes from books, audio, movies, lectures, etc.

The other side of the coin is output.  What we produce and put out into the world.  I've gotten a lot out of journaling and have written about my own prayer life as a result.

A great experiment happened recently.  I read Bill Hybels' book, "Too Busy Not to Pray" almost two years ago.  Since then, I've been praying every day since and have blogged about it periodically.  Input and output.

The key for leaders is to keep your input and your output in balance.  There will be seasons when you are publishing more than you are reading and visa versa.  Just be attentive to both and your leadership will thrive.

The Most Important Four Hours of Your Day

We know intuitively that the first few hours of every day are important.

Really important.

They set the tone for the entire day, especially when we do things that we might otherwise put off.  Brian Tracy's famous book, Eat that Frog made the beginning of the day even more famous. “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”  Brian Tracy

This comes as no surprise, that morning is important time for creative work.  This leads to a successful 9-5 working day.

But how about 5-9pm?  Are we as attentive to that block of time?  Last night I was doing some work on the computer and then checking in on the Red Sox game.  As it became clear that 9 innings weren't enough and things were heading to extra innings, I made a bad decision and stayed up.  And up and into the 12th and 13th innings.

I was so wired that I could not fall asleep, try as I may.  This led to a lousy night's sleep and a Monday feeling slow on my game.

So how can you use 5-9 in order to finish the day well?  I suggest less TV, more reading and a few minutes thinking about the following day.  I like to review my Nozbe lists as well so that my brain is working overnight to make the most of the next day.

What's working for you in the 5-9pm time slot?

Which is Better: 5 Minutes or 5 Days of Solitude?

When was the last time that you took 20 minutes alone?

Too often we think that you have to go off to a monastery and spend a week with monks in robes.  We get this concept from movies. Celebrity goes off to find himself.  Returns a changed man.  Think 7 Years in Tibet.

Kathleen Norris, one of my favorite authors, made hanging out with monks a contact sport.

It's not the amount of time that you take to get away.  It's not about the people with whom you get away.  It doesn't matter if you come back feeling different.

It's enough simply to withdraw.

When we withdraw (another word for 'taking sabbath'), we pull back and actually give God a chance.  A chance to whisper something new.  An opening to get us to think about our day- its ups and downs.

Without withdrawing on a regular basis, our "faith system" doesn't get the full stretch that it deserves.  It's like owning a Porsche but never venturing into the far left lane.

Withdrawing is so right on so many levels.

It's enough simply to withdraw.

A Permission Slip ... to Slow Down

The past two weeks in New Jersey (and in many other parts of the country) have been hot. Very hot.  So much so that we have started to feel like old timers, talking more about the weather than about anything else.

"Hot enough for ya?"

That classic line has become very popular in the St. Pierre house.  Even our four year old is a weather expert.  It's become a sport to check weather.com for daily updates.  Like a badge of honor, we brag to our friends about how close to 100 it is.  Just today I spoke with a friend who smiled and relayed a story of how his sandle melted on some sand at the beach as if to say, "real men brave the elements."

As we now wait for rain, and it seems like it will rain one of these days, I'm a bit sad.  You'd think that I would be happy, after all our lawns look like hell.  Strangely enough, the heat has taught me a crucial lesson.  A lesson about rest, about sabbath and about spiritual things.  The fact is, most of what we've done in the past two weeks has been downright restful.

We have read books.  Played board games.  Cooked healthy meals.  Took trips to the pool.  It's been spectacular and filled with moments of Sabbath.  It was as if we needed the heat to give us permission to slow down and just be.

Life is like that.  My friend Christine talks about a time when she was sick with a cold.  She "called in sick", read magazines and enjoyed hot tea- all day long.  "I loved it," she said as she explained how she needed a cold to give her permission to slow down.

That's all we need most of the time, permission.  Permission to take a break.  Permission to nap without guilt.  Permission to spend a bit longer cooking a meal when we would ordinarily rush.  Permission to linger in your prayer time.

Our culture is often about the work of taking permission away. You shouldn't take a break, work harder.  You shouldn't do one thing at a time when you could be multitasking.  You shouldn't enjoy a small home when everyone else is heading to larger four bedroom models.

Our faith tells us to counter all of this.  To swim against the stream and accept permission to live consciously right here and right now.

Which area of your life are you feeling as if permission is needed? Have you been beating yourself up because your waistline isn't perfect?  Forget about it.  Guilt-ridden because you didn't get the perfect gift for someone?  Please!

Go ahead and give yourself permission today to let God meet you right where you're at.  That might take place during supper or while you're going for a swim or even while you're waiting in traffic.

It's ok, you have permission.

A Good Hobby for Techies

My friend Kevin is amazing.  I admire his ability to maintain hobbies outside of work and even his family life.  He enjoys Civil War community groups, golf and gardening. All of these keep him balanced and his outlook is remarkably positive.

I've developed a new hobby of my own since Twitter has come online: saved searches. First I'll tell you why I like saved searches and then I'll tell you how to do it for yourself.

Why saved searches?  Saved searches allow you to scan the conversations on Twitter and identify anything that matches your search.  For example, I've been saddened by the latest news about Fr. John Corapi and the poor choices that he's made in the last few years.  Twitter has allowed me to stay up to speed on updates and accurate news about him.

Saved searches also allow you to join in on the conversation.  I've been able to help people with questions about technology and with others, entered into meaningful dialogue about the faith.  These small bits of communication go a long way.

How do you create saved searches?

Step one is to open up Twitter.  I use the official Twitter app for my iPhone and iPad.  When I'm on my desktop, I might also use TweetDeck because it allows for an easy pull of multiple different accounts.

This morning's Twitter feed looks like this:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here I click on the magnifying glass and type in a search keyword.  In this case, my keyword is Wunderlist, a productivity app that I want to learn more about:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, you can follow someone's link to a recommended article or simply reply to someone's point of view.  I also use Instapaper to batch my reading items for a later time.

Right now, my saved search list looks like the following and I check it about once a day:



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lower three items are what's trending on a given day in Twitter.

How are you using Twitter to follow important information that's of interest in your life?