proactivity

Grab that Forelock!

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accessed from http://greekerthanthegreeks.blogspot.com/

So, last week I was in Parachute, Colorado, a little town about halfway between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, as part of our big celebration of my in-laws’ 25th wedding anniversary. It’s always hard for me to find coffee that I like on the road. (I wasn’t even very impressed with the coffee I got in France!) I was pleased to see that there was something called “The Little Coffee Shack” a couple of blocks from our hotel and decided to go over there, since I was sure that the coffee provided as part of our free hotel breakfast would be terrible. My big beef with coffee made by anyone but me is that it’s too weak. Someone several years ago suggested that I start ordering what’s called a “shot in the dark,” which is regular brewed coffee with an added shot of espresso. I’ve done that several times and had fairly good results. Okay. I went over there and ordered. I even said, “Just to be sure, a ‘shot in the dark’ is . . .” and the girl on duty said, “Sure—I know what that is.” Well, folks, she must not have. What I got was basically colored water, for which I was charged $3.75.

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Goal-Setting Gladness

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I don’t post many of my own photographs on this blog as I’m just not that good at it and not at all interested in getting better, but the whole point of today’s post is the fact that yesterday was the deadline I had set for getting our patio cleared off. So did I fail? It sure looks like it! But there’s a plan for everything that needs to go, and those plans were made by EOB yesterday, so I’m counting it as a win. Everything should be gone by the end of the week. A mason is coming this morning to give us an estimate for repairing the area where the patio had to be excavated to repair the sewer pipe. I plan to post photos throughout the summer to document how this cluttered space gets turned into an oasis of order and beauty.

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The New Rule: 5 Seconds to Act

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I wrote a post some time ago called “Fifteen Minutes a Day Can Change Your Life.” This was a quotation from a former pastor, who may have gotten it from the book Success Is Not an Accident: Change Your Choices, Change Your Life by Tommy Newberry. (I just googled the phrase and this book came up—it looks good! I now have it checked out from that great library service Hoopla.) Anyway, the window of opportunity has now narrowed from 15 minutes to 5 seconds. Very efficient, no? I found out yesterday about this totally, insanely motivating woman named Mel Robbins through a rather circuitous route that started with my usual Thursday listening of the “Happier in Hollywood” podcast hosted by Sarah Fain and Liz Craft. They were interviewing someone who had interviewed Mel on her own podcast, so I went over and listened to that episode (language warning) and then watched Mel’s TED talk (access below) and a video or two or her on her own. Now I’m a Mel Robbins fan.

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It’s the Prep Work that Counts.

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The title comes from a recent BSF lecture, an idea that is so obvious that it gets overlooked, especially by me. Our teaching leader was talking about the Billy Graham crusades that took place in past years, when whole stadiums would be filled to hear the dynamic preacher. But, as she said, the results came about not just because of Mr. Graham’s own spiritual standing, Scriptural knowledge and personal magnetism but because of the advance teams’ work. They would go to a city where a crusade was to take place and meet with churches, scope out the venue, recruit volunteers to help with everything from counseling to cleanup—on and on. Without all of that unseen work the crusades just wouldn’t have happened, or if they had they’d have been much less successful. Whether or not you agree with how the message of the Gospel was presented in those crusades, and many don’t, the fact is that they were masterpieces of organization, and of organization that was done ahead of time.

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Just Say “I Love It”

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Oh man! What a morning we’ve just had! Have to mention this before I get into the meat of this post. So . . . we’ve had some plumbing issues sporadically since moving into this house, and the general opinion of the people who’ve looked at things was that the sewer pipe that goes out to the street was blocked with tree roots and also that a piece of the pipe (one of those old clay ones) had broken off and fallen down into the inside. It was therefore going to be necessary to dig a trench and replace that section of pipe.

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Are You a “Person Who Can’t Be Helped”?

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I’m poaching from a podcast again today, this time from “A Slob Comes Clean” by Dana White. Now I’ll be honest (as I’ve said before): she does rather tend to go on and on. I don’t always listen closely, but I find her to be a comforting presence in my ear as I do some uninspiring chore. Every now and then, though, I’d say at least once per podcast, she comes out with a true gem. Watch for a further gem, this time from her blog, later on this week. But for now I’m emphasizing something she said in her recent podcast #166: “The Fine Line between Challenges and Excuses.” Really, honestly and truly, you should listen to this episode. I’m not even dealing with how helpful her designations of “challenges” and “excuses” are, except to say that you rise to a challenge and sink with an excuse. She goes into great detail giving examples of how that difference plays out.

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Magic Flute Musings

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A couple of years ago I wrote a post titled “Loving the Mozart Requiem Isn’t the Same as Singing It.” My beloved Cherry Creek Chorale was performing the entire work, with orchestra, in the original Latin, and I was so excited about it. But when we actually started working on the piece I was pretty lost. I ended up investing in a professional recording with the tenor part being sung over the top of an actual performance, a move that helped tremendously. That performance was such a joy, on many levels. But boy, did I work! In the end, though, to stand up there and be so sure of my part was an experience I’ll never forget. I said in that post, “If I really love it, I’ll be willing to do the work. But the love isn’t a substitute for the work but the inspiration for it.”

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Lessons from the Government Shutdown

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As I often say, this isn’t a political blog. If you want to see my opinions in that arena you can visit my personal Facebook page or read articles I’ve written myself over at one of my other websites, Intentional Conservative. I’m not concerned within the context of this article with the winners and losers in this rather farcical non-event endlessly trumpeted about from the Right and the Left. Instead, I’m sort of tickled at the way the RFNE illuminates human nature.

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Time-Tracking Tools

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As you know if you’re a regular reader of this blog, one of the bloggers/podcasters I follow is a woman named Laura Vanderkam, a speaker and writer whose area of expertise is the efficient use of time. She tracks her own time regularly, and every year she invites her readers to participate with her for one week. Last year I started to do it but quickly fell off the wagon, as I couldn’t figure out how to characterize time spent sitting at the table and talking to my husband while at the same time eating a meal.

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Do You Have a “Project Brain”?

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big project--cranes, etc.The hits just keep coming from Dana K. White, author of last week’s book pick, How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind and of the blog A Slob Comes Clean. Remember how I said that she had me nailed with her description of someone sitting at a messy kitchen table reading about how to clean up her kitchen, when what that person really needs to do is . . . clean up the kitchen? Well, she has another concept that is so, so me: “project brain.”

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