How to Have a Good Week

Hi Folks!  Happy Monday!
  Are you feeling ready to tackle a new week and get things done?  If not, let me tell you one of my biggest (and simplest) ways to have a super productive week.  And let's face it, who doesn't feel good about a productive week?  Are you ready?  Here it is....Proper Planning.  Yup, that's it.  Seem too easy?  It is.  But it works.  Here's how I do it.  I pick one day a week when I know I have a few free hours, and I make that my planning day.  Then, I sit down and write out my week.  I start out with my calendar commitments:  work, family events, Dr.'s appointments, and church.  Then, I add in my goals for the week:  Reading, Writing, Eating Well (Yes, I actually block out time and write on my daily calendar "Read- 9 am," "Breakfast-8:30am.")  I promise you that as silly as it sounds, writing things down in a specific time slot will help you to actually get them done.  It's easy to say, "I'm going to read this week."  But the week gets busy, and you run from brush fire to brush fire just trying to stay ahead, and by the end of it all you realize you didn't get any time to sit down and read that book this week.  Maybe next week?  If you keep up like this, I promise you it will never get done.  If you want to be serious about being productive and becoming your best self, written planning is vital to your success.
 Another planning tool I use is an app called Wunderlist.  And no, sadly, I do not get paid to endorse them, so you can take me at my word when I tell you that I use and love this app.  What Wunderlist allows you to do is to make lists and to set reminders for them, so for example, on my app I have a list of birthday cards that need to be sent, and I set the reminder for a week before the person's birthday.  Simple right?  But it has streamlined my life immensely.  I also keep on this app, my grocery list, my list of tickets for events that need purchased at different times throughout the year, a running list of books I want to read, a list of gift ideas for my son and husband, and a whole host of other lists.  What I can tell you is that this saves me an enormous amount of time because I can just add things as they pop into my head.  No more roaming the house before a grocery trip trying to figure out what we need.  When I take the last stick of butter out of the fridge, I add it to my Wunderlist and forget about it.  It saves me the mental energy of trying to remember a long list of items that need taken care of somewhere in the future, and it also saves me time on a weekly basis when I sit down to plan my week.  I can see in advance what extra little items need taken care of and add them to my weekly plan.
  Maybe it's time to carve out a little time after work today to treat yourself to a cup of coffee and get your week in order.  You'll be amazed at how much of a difference these two tools will make.  I'm hoping that you use these simple strategies to streamline your days and make this your best week yet.  As always, I'm cheering for you!

~K.W.

Take a Look Around

When I was in college one of my professors gave a brief assignment which changed my thinking forever.  She asked us to write two paragraphs about the same subject.  Seems simple enough right?  But here's the twist.  The two paragraphs had to be from two opposite perspectives.  As the day of the assignment approached I was struggling to decide what to write about.  Finally, in frustration, I lay down on my living room floor and stared up at the ceiling...and that's when it all started to come together.  I saw the dirt stained ceiling, the cracks in its aging plaster.  I felt the worn carpet underneath me and cringed.  I started to take in the ugliness and oldness of the room, and there was my first paragraph, but then I had the task of decidedly switching perspectives.  I lay down again, determined to see the good in this room, and sure enough, I saw it.  The high cathedral ceiling brought an openness to the room, and the large front window allowed the warm sunlight to stream in and brighten the room.  Covering the entirety of one wall was a mural of a mountainside, a conversation piece, but one which has always brought me joy upon seeing it.   It wasn't long before the second paragraph was written.  What was paramount about this assignment though was not the subject itself, a room.  No, this assignment awakened me to a thought much deeper and more profound.  In any situation there is good in bad.  In any person, there is good and bad.  Why then do we so often choose to focus on the bad?  What if we purposefully changed our perspectives?  What good things would we start to see around us in our jobs, our coworkers, our spouses, our relatives, our society?  How would your life benefit from a perspective shift?  Maybe it's time for you to take a moment to lay on the living room carpet of your life and get a new perspective.  Try it this week and see if it doesn't bring you more joy and excitement about life.  Sometimes we don't need to change our circumstances, we only need to change how we see them.

~K.W.

Want vs. Need

One of the most difficult lessons we must learn as we progress into maturity is how to differentiate between what we want vs. what is actually good for us.  Imagine if parents were to never regulate what a child eats.  He or she would quickly realize that candy tastes good, so why not eat more candy?  Why not only eat candy?  You can see that this would obviously not be good for the child and could stunt or stop his development.  Yet, many of us, if we truly think about it are a lot like the unbridled child in a candy store.  We know we need to eat healthfully to avoid causing distress to our bodies, but we want junk food.  More importantly than food though, are the issues of the heart.  We know we need to become more disciplined with our learning in order to progress, but we want to sit in front of the T.V. instead.  We know we need to disconnect ourselves from the negative influences in our lives, but we don't want to experience the displeasure of upsetting other people.  True maturity however, can look at wants as simply that...the desires of a child which need to be curbed by the wisdom of what is actually best for us.  Although it can be painful, taking a good long look at ourselves and learning to call out our wrong desires as what they are can be one of the most important catalysts towards creating the life we want to live.  If we are ruled by our wants, we will never enjoy the fruit which comes from a life of consistent progress by choosing what is best for us.  Just as those who enjoy fit and toned bodies do so by consistently choosing to exercise, those of us who would like to enjoy a full and successful life must reach our goals by consistently choosing to subject our wants to the maturity of what we actually need.  It's time to put down the candy and start moving forward!  I'm cheering for you!

~K.W.

Don't Miss Another Opportunity

Have you ever stopped to think that many of our frustrations in life are a result of putting off things we know we should do?  For example... remember that garbage can that you thought about taking back to the house when you pulled in the driveway after work?  You know, the one you backed in to the next day because you didn't take it back to the house (not that this has ever happened to me before or anything). Or how about that paperwork that needed done... which you kept saying "I'll do it tomorrow."  But when the due date came you were scrambling around like a crazy animal, yelling at everyone in your path because you needed to get this done.  Hmm... How many situations like this could we avoid in our lives if we just made it our motto to "Do it now."  Whatever it is you know you should do, do it!  It could be as small as sorting out that stack of papers on the desk, or calling your grandma.  It might be as large as starting a business, going back to school, or asking for a raise.  Don't be fooled into thinking that procrastination has no effect on your life.  Putting off what should be done only causes frustration and hurt for us and others around us, and it can also lead to missed opportunities because of our lack of preparation.  Don't miss out on your calling because of an attitude of procrastination.  After all, procrastination is often rooted in fear, and we already talked about what fear does to us. ( Learning to Fly )  Start right now today to create a habit of "do it now."  When you finish your coffee cup in the morning, put it in the sink.  When you get the mail, take care of those bills right away.  As you begin to develop your do-it-now muscle in little things, it will become more natural to use this approach when it comes to bigger things too.  And when that big opportunity comes knocking, you'll be ready because you are a "do it now" kind of person.  I'm cheering for you!  Go get it done!

~K.W.

Keep Walking

Good Morning!

You've probably heard the phrase "going the extra mile."  But where does it come from?  And what does it actually mean?  There is a story in the Bible where Jesus was talking to a group of people.  He was giving them some ideas for living life well.  He told them that if a Roman soldier forced them to walk one mile with him, they should walk two miles instead.  (Matthew 5:41)  Hence, go the extra mile.  But going the extra mile isn't just doing so when you feel like it.  Nope.  It's going above and beyond when you don't want to, when it's inconvenient or painful, and doing it cheerfully.  You see, in Roman times, a Roman soldier could pick a civilian at random and command that person to carry his pack for up to one mile.  Now, imagine you're going about your day, you're trying to work, get food for your family, etc, when a soldier grabs you from the crowd, hands you a heavy pack and tells you to start walking.  Not exactly a welcomed interruption, but what Jesus was suggesting was that we see these circumstances as opportunities.  When your boss asks you to do that extra job, whether as small as making copies, or as big as an important phone call, do you do it quickly and excellently with a good attitude?  Or do you grumble about having one more thing added to your plate?  Each time you "go the extra mile" you are planting a seed, and you may not see the results of that seed pop up for a while, but keep at it.  The more seeds you plant, the bigger crop you will have.  Is there an area of your life you want to be promoted in?  Maybe it's your marriage, your health, your career, or your relationships.  Take time to conscientiously go the extra mile in that area.  The harvest is coming my friend, so keep taking those extra steps and planting those seeds.  True character building happens from doing more than what's asked of you consistently and with a good attitude.  The day is waiting!  Let's get to walking.

~K.W.  

Learning to Fly

Ok, so here it is... Faith Vs. Fear. 
Have you ever considered how much of our lives we as human beings live out of fear?  And imagine  if we chose to live without fear.  How would our lives be different?  Would you take that job? Introduce yourself to that guy?  Call that family member?  You see, fear paralyzes us, while faith promotes us.  Faith gives us the freedom to step out.  Often times, as Franklin D. Roosevelt so profoundly stated, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."  What are the monsters you've created in your head?  Those imaginary ghosts that keep you from being where you want to be.  Often times if we choose to look at things from a faith perspective and assume the best rather than the worst, we find that the worst case scenario really isn't that bad, and the best case scenario, well it's worth attempting for.  Faith produces action, while fear only produces reaction.  Faith takes that step and soars to new heights.  Fear is too busy preparing to fall to ever consider the possibility that you might just learn to fly.  So here's to faith, to challenging the comfort zone.  To staring fear in the face and pressing forward anyway.  A life lived in fear is a life which never progresses.  A life lived in faith can exceed your wildest expectations.  Step out today.  I'm cheering for you to fly!

~K.W.