Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Okay, first of all, this episode is NOT about 30 days without food.  I've never done that and don't plan on trying it any time soon.  However, it is about two important ideas. 1) 30 days.  It is the decision to commit to something for 30 days.  After you have "Tried Three Times" and determined that somethi...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! No tricks, illustrations, or planning here:  just Be An Encourager! The best way to make even day worth while, and to grow as a person, is to uplift the people God puts in your life! We have to get over our own issues, and certainly pop the me-bubble, in order to fulfill our purpose of brightening other peoples' day.  Bu...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! There is an awesome secret to daily peace! If you master this one thing, then you will have much less strife in the day.  And if you repeat it day after day, boom, anxiety will disappear from your life!  There is a strategy of planning your day: eliminating non essential plans, spreading out essential elements, and journallin...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everyone is interested in a stress free life.  No one wants to live with worry, anxiety and mental exhaustion.  There are some great daily practices that can eliminate most worries, and we'll discuss that in the next episode.  But first, let's talk about 4 big things that have got to go if we want to see the stress...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! James Clear wrote an article titled:  "The Science of Mental Toughness: Talent is overrated, mental strength is critical."  It includes research proving that success is based more on grit than inherent ability or intellect.  People who are passionate about something and persistent accomplish more.  People who are co...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! It is great to set big goals.  But beware, they are not what this is about.  This is about the process. This is about you becoming the kind of people who can achieve goals.  The problems with grading ourselves by goal's reached is 1) if we, for whatever reason, don't reach them, we are crushed.  2) we do reach them...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I love Simon Sinek's book, "Start with Why."  The idea of finding your purpose and passion before proceeding... crucial!  Once you find your Why, you'll know What you want to do. For instance, if you find your why in fitness, you'll want to be a daily exercise person.  Great!  Connecting Why and What...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Sometimes you can just sit down with someone and restore peace.  You can establish some common agreements, and zip the jacket.  But sometimes it's more difficult than that.  Sometimes too much has happened.  Too much time has passed.  Someone went too far.  What do you do in that case?  Many people give up on the relatio...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Do you ever feel overbooked and underproductive?  Do you get stressed by all the things on the calendar?  Do you wish you could do less but do it better?  If you want to create a simpler, more productive schedule and life, then Essentialism, a book by Greg McKeown, is for you! In today's episode we'll walk through s...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! God is doing incredible things in your life! He is answering beautiful questions, He is surrounding you with providential guidance and opportunities.  The question is:  Are you seeing it?  Sometimes the lighted path is right in front of us, the next person to influence is right beside us, and our eyes are closed. I want to te...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! This episode is for people who are trying to get better, who are really seeking to excel, but who fall short of that.  I do.  Many people give up when things go poorly.  But those who are really in this war to win it, will not be stopped by a lost battle.  Some people avoid losing battles by quitting the war for growth.  We c...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Teenagers get a bad wrap sometimes.  Largely because their accomplishments are held back by the low expectations our culture puts upon them.  In their book, "Do Hard Things," the Harris brothers enlighten young people to a rebellion against low expectations.  They talk about how to do things that move us past our co...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Prayer is incredibly important to daily growth and faith.  But sometimes it begins to wane.  Sometimes it becomes difficult to stay focused on God.  Maybe you are praying, and even journaling about prayer items, but still find it difficult to give Him attention and stay engaged for more than just a minute or two.  I deal with...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Simon Sinek wrote the book "Start with Why." It discusses businesses and advertising and how the proper use of "the Golden Circle" makes all the difference.  If you can learn the same strategy and apply it in your daily tasks and goals, you too can see incredible differences in your achievements.  We often...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I like the word "Try." I think it has gotten a bad wrap over the years. But if you are talking about genuine effort to achieve something, whether you succeed or fail, the diligence to try is noble and God sees that!  But sometimes we try things, good things, one time and then give up on them.  In this episode we loo...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Just about everyone knows how to zip a jacket.  You put the pieces together at the bottom, get it started rightly, and it glides from there.  If you rush it or force it, the jacket will not come together.  In repairing damaged relationships, we sometimes try to rush it or force it.  We sometimes try to fix it all in one momen...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I used to think that affirmations were not cool!  I mean, what good is it sitting in front of a mirror saying nice things about yourself?  Well, I've got news for you: affirmations are very cool. At least, when understand through our connection with Jesus Christ.  We can believe in Jesus to the fullest.  But if we do not...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Christians are optimists.  We know the Lord is with us and we always expect the best.  And yet, many of those same Christians struggle with Worry.  Why is that?  Well, maybe it's because we are so prayerful about it going right, that we haven't prepared ourselves to handle it going poorly.  And the fear of it not wo...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody talks about gratitude!  I mean, everyone from the preacher on Sunday to your favorite self-help agnostic guru. And while everyone says it will make all the difference in the world... it won't.  At least, not at level 1.  It turns out, there are 3 levels to great gratitude.  When we can get our thankfulness, our...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Dale Carnegie's famous work - How to Win Friends and Influence People - is based on one central idea: that every person wants to feel important. It's just the way God made us.  So, if you can acknowledge that in relationships, you can quickly build trust into new relationships.  How?  Well, to start, learn and prope...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! What do you remember from last week? Did you do things that really made a difference and left lasting impressions in your journey to growth?  For many of us, time passes, days fly by, and we don't track much change.  It's time for Your Daily Highlight! What if, each morning, you not only journal a frog to eat (somet...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Are there areas in your life where it is time to close the door?  Maybe you've almost closed it many times, and maybe you consider it "basically closed" now.  But those approaches have far too easily failed, and the door swings right back open.  It is time to resolve things, to make a decision, close and lock t...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! What if I promised you $100/day for the rest of your life?  And all you had to do was speak more about others than yourself, even by the slightest margin, to receive it. How would that go?  If you want an indication on that, take special note of your pronouns.  They always tell the story.  To learn more and how to flip the sc...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! If we move, we live.  If we stop moving... well that's either the end, or the beginning of the end.  But good new: motion is lotion!  God built our bodies to be active, to have purpose, to be useful in His service!  God wants you to enjoy health and freedom from pain so that you can enjoy His blessings and apply yourself...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Parents! We have work to do!  God has asked us to train our children to understand His authority.  We are showing them what it will be like as adults to be children of God.  Should that include yelling at kids?  Should that include ignoring bad behavior? Let's discuss that and employ one very specific tip that can make a...