Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody is trying to persuade someone.  In fact, most of us are trying to shape other people's thinking every single day, and in many relationships! And each of us has some skill or two that God gave us to bring other's around to our way of thinking.  However, most of us don't have all three!  I'm talkin...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all know the importance of daily prayer.  But what are you praying for daily?  Most of us do a great job of praying about our daily bread. That is, daily provisions like health and safety.  But we may be missing some things from "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew 6.  If we model our prayer after what He taught u...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.  There is power in your relationship with God, and you are hopefully experiencing that every day.  However, God's plans and Christ's power may demand that you ask for help.  There are some things so difficult, so challenging, so transformative, that you simpl...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I'm excited to share this!  It really captivates what the Excel Still More journey is all about for me. Firstly, this is about optimism, redemption and hope EVERY single morning!  Every day we are new, God's mercies are new, opportunities refresh and we can make that day great.  You guys know what a great week is, r...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We should always make the most out of any situation.  If this is where you are now, then make the most out of this.  This applies directly to location.  Wherever you work, work well. Wherever you worship, worship well.  Wherever you life, live well.  With whomever you spend your time, use it well.  And so on.  However, someti...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Well, we all have to grow up sometime, right?  I turned 40 last December and made the decision to make some fairly dramatic life changes.  Maybe dramatic isn't the right word, but there were some internal struggles I'd been very hit or miss about.  It was time to say, "Hey, I'm 40. I'm done with that...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Every parents wants obedient kids.  This is a challenge, since all kids are different and they change quite frequently as they grow.  Parents who try the same approach, no matter the child, or the age, or the outcome desired... well, they don't get great results.  But if parents learn to work backwards: to analyze the ef...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Self centered living is lonely.  Some may be successful.  Some may make a mess of things.  But all wonder, "Is this what it is all about?" I just focus on me.  Everybody else just focuses on themselves?  And somehow our life has value, meaning?  When we learn to be second to Christ, we instantly learn the purpose of...

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...