To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Grit

VICTORY

I love these examples of VICTORY listed in good ol’ Merriam-Webster dictionary:

VICTORY lap

The general led the troops to VICTORY.

The passage of the law was a tremendous VICTORY for their cause.

It was a decisive VICTORY over the other team.

On Sunday, our family friends that play for the Buffalo Bills franchise had a BIG DAY!

After playing for 12 years as a pro bowl defensive tackle, Kyle Williams finally led his team to a playoff game!

The picture the Bills posted on social media says it all. Pure victory! We are so excited for him, and although we will cheer for our Chiefs, we love to see others be victorious! It’s one of the best parts of life, watching others succeed!

The picture inspired the post today.

One of you fine folks listed VICTORY as your word of the year. What would it look like to be VICTORIOUS at the end of 2018? Heck, what would it look like to be VICTORIOUS over the next few days?

I think I’m going to put this picture somewhere I can see it on a regular basis. It defines VICTORY. The effort, over time, to be consistent, disciplined and to showcase true grit and excellence is what I want to be about! That my friends is a VICTORIOUS life, and those moments should be celebrated!

Live, succeed.

Happy New Year to the BEST! I am so thankful for my readers!

I thought today for “Simple Thoughts Sunday” it would be good to share a practice that I feel is very helpful in processing your year. Tsh Oxenreider, author and founder of The Art of Simple crafted 20 questions that will help you think through the nitty gritty of the past year.

The process should help you set your focus and intentions on what you hope to achieve during this next trip around the sun. Here you go…

What was the single best thing that happened this year?

What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

What was an unexpected joy this past year?

What was an unexpected obstacle?

Pick three words to describe this past year.

Pick three words your partner, best friends or family, would use to describe your year- don’t ask them; guess based on how you think they see you.

Pick three words for them based on their year, again, without asking.

What were the best books books you read this year?

Who were your most valuable relationships with?

What was your biggest personal challenge from January-December?

In what ways did you grow emotionally?

In what ways did you grow spiritually?

In what ways did you grow physically?

In what ways did you grow in your relationships with others?

What was the most enjoyable part of your work, both professionally and at home?

What was the most challenging part of the same?

What was your single biggest time waster?

What was the best way you used your time?

What was the biggest thing you learned?

Create a phrase or statement that describes this past year for you.

(By the way, this is really hard for me this year… It’s been a “gritty” year and sometimes it seems like I haven’t made a lot of progress. I’m praying God reveals more to me over the next few days because one thing I have learned, is that progress isn’t always apparent at first!)

I hope you have a wonderful celebration today. I am excited to see what 2018 brings and believe fully that God will show up BIG in every single detail.

It’s that time of year…What is your one word?

It’s that time of year! I introduced this concept on the blog two years ago after having done it for a few years on my own.

I love this idea so much that it has great meaning to me. The stories I’ve heard have been equally cool. Many of you shared your words with me, and even yesterday someone already shared their word for 2018. I love it! Some of the words shared in past years have been:

Curiosity

Joy

Committed

Amplify

Discipline

Enough

Trust

Fun

Accelerate

Focus

My word this year has been “significance” or “stretch.” Reaching a level of “true” significance. Digging deeper into how to best use my gifts and skills in every area of my life. Honestly, I would say in retrospect it was way more of a “stretch” year than I imagined when I wrote this. In fact, I’m quite sure I’m still in that mode, trying to unwind that stretch a bit. I believe that I am always moving toward using these gifts, and that is something to celebrate.

Many ask how I come up with the “one word.” I start with praying that God will give me the word that I should focus on. As you all know, I read a lot. I will often see themes pop up and that guide me to my word. For this year, going into the last few days I believe I have been given the word “revival.”

There is a passionate, wise teacher I like named Dharius Daniels. He gave a sermon about revival as a “season or space of reintroduction.” God introduces himself again, exposes you more to your next assignment and gives you the insights needed to conquer that level, so to speak. That resonated with me. I’d like a REINTRODUCTION please! (We just saw Jumanji as a family on Christmas, so “levels” of the game are on my mind. Go see it if you want something fun and clever that requires no thinking.)  

As I shared last year, life is an incredible journey. One thing I know for sure after nearly five decades  is that we do not know day to day where the road may take us. So we do what we can, living with intention and moving toward what we believe will create the most fulfilled and well-lived life.

So, what is your word? Please share!

*For those who want to go deeper, there is actually a website where a community of people share their words, stories etc.

Time to DOWN SHIFT!

It’s that time of year when work winds down and we shift — as in “DOWN SHIFT” — our FOCUS to our friends and family. (Thank you Mic Johnson, @mictastic, for the term.) 

I know many of you are still working through this week, and I hope you are able to take some time off during these next couple of weeks. We are in a society of constant connectedness, and our brains need to be able to shut down & reboot so that we can CREATE MAGIC IN 2018!

Whether your thing is taking in the new Star Wars movie, doing absolutely nothing and sitting by the fire, binging on your latest Netflix fav, getting a pedicure with your girls or reading some great books, do whatever fulfills you! Research shows that our brains need a break!

“Push yourself through too many hours or days of work and your brain starts to push back. Ideas that once flowed easily dry up, and tasks that you should be able to perform quickly become excruciatingly difficult,” according to Scientific American.

I personally don’t need too much convincing. My mind and body begs for me to take a break! I will be taking off Sunday and Tuesday from the blog, but please know I wish you the very best and am praying for each of you to be filled with the all the peace and joy the season can offer!

Love BIG: Prepare your heart for Christmas

(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

I think all of my boys would say Christmas is the best time of the year, but one of my sons really loves Christmas. I bought him a sign with the message, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” a few years ago and he proudly hung it in his room everyday of the year until he went off to college.

I love that, and I love that he understands the message of Christmas and that it’s truly all about LOVE. My mom-heart hopes that he will hold on to this truth all through his life.

Loving well is central to our hearts as humans. We are meant to love and often we get it right, and sometimes we don’t love as well as we can or should. Regardless, we strive toward LOVE and the world usually magically gives it back to us.

As we head into this week, my prayer is that we love well – the best we can! Even when the world sometimes doesn’t give it back, we press forward and continue to love. Thanks to the Christmas story, we know the truth is that God so loved the world, and he gave us his only son…

And our hope in this wacky wonderful world is real and beautiful. Enjoy every minute of this week leading up to the MOST WONDERFUL DAY OF THE YEAR.

Love my friends! Love well!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Tiny Tim, magic and pure fun

The Kansas City Rep’s version of the Christmas Carol is PURE MAGIC.

I haven’t seen it since my boys were younger and those days I maybe wasn’t paying as attention as much. (A little distracted perhaps?)

Let me tell you… this is awesome! This is every bit as good as any New York production I’ve seen! It’s FUN, heartwarming. So of course, Tiny Tim was the inspiration for today’s Simple Thoughts Sunday.

No matter our situation, we should all remember that this season, no matter if you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or – as my friend recently said – “humanity,” we all deserve the love and embrace of this season. God’s love is big enough for all of us which is my favorite part!

STEP INTO THIS WEEK WITH A COMMITMENT TO LOVE AND EMBRACE ALL AROUND YOU!

Why we MUST build energy, perspective and immunity

Constant growth is what makes us who we were designed to be. Three thoughts for you today.

We must BUILD ENERGY: Be it physical energy or mental energy, we simply must be working on our health game. Even Instagram is a showcase of opinions, thrashing politics and personal agendas… (Aside: Please make it go back to a place for cool pictures and powerful messages!) Staying on top of this is a must have if you are to maintain a healthy mindset. Be thinking about BUILDING ENERGY!

We must BUILD PERSPECTIVE: Your perspective determines your ability to perceive opportunities, pursue optimism and to embrace chaos. Focusing on your perspective — what you know to be true — is a game changer. When problems arise, it’s our perspective that allows us to move to the other side and deal with it in a way that encourages and helps us and others grow. How is your perspective?

We must BUILD IMMUNITY: This one was a wild card, but it was top-of-mind so I had to include it. My point here is immunity against anything that has the ability to alter our days and our minds. Anything that can get us off track. As with sickness (those ugly winter colds going around), the world can get to us. People — even our families — may say something that can shift our mood in seconds. Build IMMUNITY against that.

At the end of the day, life is too short to get our feelings hurt easily and we can decide up front that we are not going to be distracted from joy.

Have the most amazing weekend.

Time well spent: next-level thinking

I thought since the year is closing in, it would be good to spend one of the last work weeks focused on a deeper topic. One that just might help you as you’re closing in on your goals and establishing your big, bold and amazing 2018 plan! (We’ll get to that soon, too. I have some great content to share.)

In Tim Ferriss’s new book, Tribe of Mentors, he showcases a transcript of the same few questions he asked about 200 people that have inspired him in some way. His question was: “What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you have ever made?”

One of the stand-out answers for me was from Brené Brown who said, “PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION.”

That resonated because I like to move straight to the ACTION part of solving a problem. In fact, her comment was that “most of us are plagued with action bias and really struggle to stay in the problem identification part… ” The idea that getting clear and digging deep into what the root is would be pretty helpful, don’t you think? Here’s where my mind went:

When someone I love is struggling, it is easy to assume the problem is something obvious (their significant other, work, school, etc.). For the most part, it’s a combination.

When you can’t seem to work through a project at work easily, is it because you haven’t asked the “right” questions and haven’t been engaging your mind to next-level thinking?

When I’m even in “innovation” mode and ready to conquer the world with ideas for my clients, do I even know what their real problems are? What research can I do to dive deeper?

When I can’t seem to sleep, could it be because of something not immediately clear?

Answering what’s not so obvious seems like the perfect place to go when problem solving. Being more thoughtful, spending more time in research, asking better questions… yes please.

I’d love to know if this resonates with you!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Increase from giving

It’s the “season of giving,” and while our backseats are loaded with gifts and front porches stacked with boxes, we turn our focus on how to best show love to those we adore. It’s really so much fun.

The insight for today comes from what might be a reminder to some to put GIVING to those who may need a helping hand at the top of your conscious. (Side note: For many years, as much as I’m a natural giver, it was at the end of the list instead of at the top.)

As many of you know, I often use Sundays to discuss my faith and rely on scripture as my source. It is my source to tell you the truth. Today’s scripture is found way back at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis where we find Abraham (yep, the same “father Abraham” that you may have sang about at some point in Sunday school…).

Abraham was the first real GIVER and he is the first person to give his land freely — and even to even give his son. As you read and embrace the text, all of his gifts were returned to him with more than he gave. That’s how the God I serve has worked in my life and I think that’s worth sharing. The more generous I have been (even when it was a sacrifice), the more God has given me in all areas of my life, providing me both protection and provision.

I now LOVE to give, especially to those who don’t expect it. Is there any chance this season that you know someone who could use a helping hand or a surprise gift that would be a game changer for them?

Bonus story: I am a fan of Joyce Meyer. She is a passionate gal who is often pointed in her remarks. She said in one of her podcasts (this won’t be perfect but you’ll get the idea…): “I am tired of Christians saying they know someone whose washer went out and they put it out in their ‘prayer circle’ for God to provide a new washer. If you can, you should just go and buy them a new washer, or offer to do so. YOU ARE THE PROVIDER. God gave you the ability, so why are you praying about it? Go do it!”

I love that, and it has been a mind shift that has been a game changer for me. I hope it inspires you as well.

The best gift idea

I found one of the best ideas I have heard in a while in Tyler Perry’s new book, “Higher is Waiting.” It’s a gem, and the type of read that is quick with some game changing takeaways.

This was one of those game changers — I hope you agree. In fact, I liked it so much that I told my boys, sister, brother and parents that this is exactly what I want and nothing else. (I did ask for it to be gift-wrapped since there’s such a thrill in opening presents!)

I’m as guilty as almost everyone else in that the days seem to suck me in and spending thoughtful time writing out my thoughts to a loved one is not something I do well. Sure, I send text messages, birthday cards and Facebook posts, but sitting down and giving thought only to that person who means so much… not my strong suit. In fact, I get a pretty low score on this… or maybe no score at all. So, I’m stealing this idea from Mr. Perry this Christmas and plan to write a few myself.

Have the best weekend yet this year!