Living Intentionally Personal Growth

What if the change you want is just not happening?

February 20, 2014

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Ever dream of changing a life situation or a way of thinking and approaching life but can’t seem to break out of the rut you are in? Like the sun keeps rising on the same day over and over?

I have been here more times than I can count.

In the past, when I was stuck I thought the only way I could get the change I wanted was to make a drastic life change – job change, move to a new area, etc.

While these changes were extremely helpful, I have found another great way to make the forward progress I constantly crave in my life without needing to move every 6 months.

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Entrepreneurship Living Intentionally Personal Growth

How starting a business magnified my necessity for personal growth

February 17, 2014

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For me, with starting a business, it became painfully evident early on that I needed to learn how to do things better if I was going to make my idea work.

And I’m not talking about learning how to do the accounting or discovering the latest marketing technique, although those things are very good.

I’m talking about how to manage myself. Things like how to structure my time. How to decide what to pursue and what not to. How to move beyond discouragement. And how not to let the stress of the business affect my marriage.

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

On Regret

February 13, 2014

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Mistakes. We all make them. But I now see that some of us get stuck in regret over our mistakes (whether real or perceived) and can’t seem to get out. For those that do, regret expands into a constant, low, dark-gray cloud and brings with it self-doubt. The cloud then casts a gloom over every hour of every day. Every interaction is affected by it, every decision is weighted by it, every move is prolonged by it.

It is exhausting both for the individual and for every person who interacts with them.

But saddest of all, the heart of these people, the true courageous heart, goes into hiding because it rarely gets to glimpse the joy which comes from freedom of conscience.

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

3 life lessons I learned from losing power for 5 days

February 10, 2014

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Last week due to a bad ice storm here in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 90 percent of the county’s residents lost power. We were part of that 90 percent, not getting our power back till five days later.

Temperatures plummeted, both inside and out (our house got down to 44 degrees at one point), tree limbs and wires littered roads, and schools and businesses stayed dark.

For the first night, we stayed with family and then were able to borrow a generator from Claudia’s dad and come back home. Even though we had lots of cords running throughout our house, didn’t have hot water, and needed to cook on a camping stove, we were grateful to be back home and not freezing.

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

Ask

February 6, 2014

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The people that get helpful insights are curious. They ask good questions.

“How did you get where you are?”

“How did you learn to do that?”

“I see you changed in this area. How did you go about making the change?”

“What did you learn from that time in your life?”

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

The familiar, playing it safe, and Tony Dungy

February 3, 2014

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It’s so easy to play it safe and stick with what we’re familiar with. But if we only stay there, it will keep us from all the richness life has to offer and ultimately from fulfilling God’s incredible purpose for us.

Claudia and I saw this played out in a small way this past weekend when, instead of  just hanging out as a family as we usually do, we decided to do something different and go to a nearby nature preserve. We had been there in the past, but not since we have had Jude, our two year old.

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Personal Growth

The scary and imperfect

January 30, 2014

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I just got my book printed, as many of you know. Well, lo and behold, I found a typo. Actually, Michael did. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t on the first page, but it was. Yup.

To be sure, I will fix the typo and get more books printed, but I had already given out a few. Embarrassing? You bet. I was tempted to get discouraged over the whole thing, to feel foolish, to worry about other imperfections (even though I have spent the past year on this thing).

But then I was reminded that trying something always trumps NOT trying something.

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

Important things and my schedule

January 27, 2014

3428826109_60a6e15db1_bYou may have heard how it’s best to make time for the “important” things in life, rather than just doing the “urgent” all the time. Or, how it’s best to work “on” your business, rather than just “in” your business.

I’m going to be honest. I have not done a good job of this over the past year! Between lots of “life” stuff happening like selling our house and moving, and then the busyness of the Christmas season, I went from one emergency to another just putting out fires.

My work time would usually get eaten up by the most urgent things on my to-do list.  I’d say to myself, “I better take care of that before it becomes a big problem.” Or, “Oh, that’s right. I really need to follow up with that person. I better take care of that now.”

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

A crash course on seeing opportunity and moving on it

January 23, 2014

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I’ve learned a few lessons in my 34 years of life, and one is that opportunity rarely comes knocking at our door, nor will it stick around to enjoy a cup of tea with us if it does. It is a constant traveler and it won’t hesitate to pass us over if it senses indecision or waffling on our part.

Opportunity waits for no one.

I think opportunity behaves more like a shooting star. It is only seen by those who are actively and constantly looking for it.

Sadly, we often miss opportunity because we perceive it to be a neatly wrapped package that sits and waits until we finally find the time to open it. But no, opportunity is much swifter than this. It shoots off quickly when we take too much time to deliberate.

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Living Intentionally Personal Growth

Pay for breakthrough

January 20, 2014

I was recently reminded again that we place greater value on things that we pay for, rather than things that are free. Not only that, when we to pay for something, there’s a better chance for growth and a breakthrough.

Paying to get 2014 off right

Claudia and I purchased Michael Hyatt’s goal-setting program a few weeks ago and, I have to tell you, it has really helped us get focused and excited for the year ahead.

While we’ve set goals for a number of years now, 2013 had been somewhat of a tough year and we were looking for something that would give us a fresh new perspective in 2014.

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