Mindset Matters

I want to share with you a snippet from a poem called “Good Timber,” by Douglas Malloch: “Good timber does not grow with ease: The stronger wind, the stronger trees; The further sky, the greater length; The more the storm, the more the strength. By sun and cold, by rain and snow, In trees and men good timbers grow.” This poem is convicting for me as I am guilty of sometimes wishing and praying for fewer “storms” in my life. Rather than asking for more strength, I mistakenly request easier trials. Instead of asking for fewer storms, I should instead be asking for deeper roots to take advantage of the rain when it comes. Instead of requesting a gentle breeze, I should request a stronger trunk so I can remain upright when the tempest strikes. Instead of praying for only clear skies, I should be praying for broader branches so others can find shelter and comfort when the downpour starts. I must remember, “Good timber does not grow with ease.”

My day typically starts around 6am. I get up, shave, get dressed and then I spend some time reading. Then I get my things together for the day and pack my lunch so I have only healthy choices to eat. After that, I’ll write a note of gratitude and then it’s off to the gym. On the way to the gym, I listen to podcasts or books, something very intentional to educate and enlighten me. I continue to listen as I warm up and prepare for that day’s workout. After a good warm-up, I’ll work out for an hour or so, pushing it as hard as I can, and then do 20-30 min of stretching and mobility work while I again listen to whatever book I’m currently engaged in. Might as well stretch myself mentally as I stretch my muscles, right? Once I’m done with that, I’ll shower, get dressed and head to the office where I again spend some time reading and writing before I jump into the day. At this point, I’ve been up for about four hours, but I haven’t had to “react” to anything, everything has been inte...

The very nature of goals and aspirations causes tension, and sometimes that tension can become uncomfortable. The greater the goal, the greater the tension and quite possibly, the discomfort. Imagine a giant, invisible rubber band wrapped around you – where you are today in your current state – and some future goal – where you desire to be or who you aspire to become. Now that you have set that goal for yourself, there’s pressure on you to achieve the objective. That’s the tension from the rubber band. Although invisible, those forces are very real and can cause some stress and discomfort. Because you are a human being – and human beings don’t like feeling that tension – you will naturally seek to relieve that tension. The first way is to begin the mission of moving towards the objective, painstakingly reducing the distance between you and the goal. As you get closer to the target, the tension begins to diminish and is replaced by excitement as you near your goal. How...

I wanted to share some thoughts stemming from Friday's’s post, Limits on Learning . I’m sure there are many reasons people put these limits on themselves, but one major factor is how we label ourselves. Our limits are a function of our labels. And it goes far beyond labels on our intelligence or capacity for learning. These labels could include a declaration we place on ourselves regarding our personality, our appearance, our talents and myriad of other applications. Let me explain what I mean. Ever since I’ve been a teenager, I’ve struggled with shin splints and ankle injuries which had often made running painful and laborious. But I read in a book once that exercise was good for me, so I continued to run despite the inconvenient nature of it. Then, about eight years ago, I sustained a pretty severe ankle injury while dragging a Humvee in a strongman event. The damage was bad enough that even months later, after running just a mile or so, my ankle would get so inflamed tha...

There is a great wealth of knowledge out there quite literally at our fingertips, but too often we let those opportunities lay dormant. You can download most any book in an instant and either listen to it or read from a device, or – if you are really old-fashioned – you can order a hardcopy, and Amazon will ship it to your doorstep in just a few days. Digital copies are oftentimes free, or available via very reasonable subscription services and hardcopies are about as reasonably priced as I can ever remember. In addition to that, you can watch lectures and speeches from nationally acclaimed speakers for free on YouTube. Elite lecturers from top Ivy League schools from the likes of Harvard and Yale post their talks as well. And you have access to all this without even getting off the sofa! You can get a fantastic education in almost any field of study, from some of the best instructors on the planet, for the cost of mostly effort and intentionality. Yet I hear so many excuses fr...

Carrying thoughts over from yesterday’s post, Meaning in Suffering , I wanted to point out another one of Viktor Frankl’s observations during his Holocaust imprisonment. Frankl noted several “stages” of reactions and perceptions he and the and other prisoners seemed to experience as their time in the camps dragged on, but there was one particular shift in perspective he indicated as a turning point for him. As he experienced this shift, he began to notice it in others as well and marveled at how their outlooks brightened even as their surroundings remained the same, or possibly even worsened. The “enlightenment,” you might call it, came when Frankl was able to release his grip on what he expected from life, thus allowing his focus to shift towards what “life” expected from him. Those preconceived notions of what he thought his life should look like were blinding him to the opportunities that still remained despite his circumstances. By surrendering those expectations, he was f...

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist in Austria before being taken prisoner by the Nazis and sent to numerous concentration camps including Auschwitz and Dachau. Miraculously, Frankl survived the death camps and went on to write a book on his experiences and observations during that time, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” In his book, Frankl recounts the many prisoners he encountered in the various camps and noted how some individuals were able to find meaning in their suffering and purpose for their lives, and thus fared much better and lived longer than those who were experiencing the same atrocities but had lost their “meaning.” In fact, Frankl would too often observe when a person’s meaning, their “why” for existing, had expired, that poor inmate would usually be dead in a matter of hours or days. Obviously, the Holocaust is a very extreme example of suffering as millions experienced a level of cruelty most could hardly even imagine, much less will ever face. That being said, the...

Proverbs 13:11 (ESV): “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” Even though these words were originally inspired three thousand years ago, the lesson is never more pertinent than today. Our lives happen at such a rapid pace and change seems to be accelerating with every new day, making us accustomed to things happening in an instant. We get frustrated when a webpage takes a couple of extra seconds to download … from space. And we are annoyed when a picture we texted to someone across the continent isn’t delivered instantaneously. Patience is becoming a rare treasure as we forget that some things can’t and shouldn’t happen quickly. I think this wisdom applies to much more than material wealth. Your physical health, your emotional well-being, your relationships, your career … the list goes on and on, and all of these take time to build. Without a great deal of hard work, they are unsustainable. Easy come, easy go is all aroun...

My family and I recently moved this past spring. After six years of living in our old home and adding two more kids to the three we already had, we certainly accumulated a lot of junk during that time. I think we suspected this, but that suspicion became very apparent when we started going through the garage, closets and storage to box things up before the move. It was a great opportunity to declutter and organize before settling into the new house. We ended up giving or throwing away a ton of items we never really used or no longer needed. Some of the things we trashed were garage sale items we had purchased and left on a shelf. Essentially, we had paid a stranger for the privilege of taking out his trash and storing it for him, but that is a whole other conversation. Just as a garage or shed can accumulate useless clutter, our lives can get bogged down with unnecessary junk that only slows us down and takes up space and time that could be used for what is truly important to...

I remember as a teenager reading an interview of Arnold Schwarzenegger in which he recounted stories from his childhood in Austria. I don’t remember a lot of it, but one thing that still sticks out twenty years later, I vividly recall reading how Arnold’s dad used to make him “earn his breakfast” every morning. Before he was allowed to eat, Arnold would have to complete not only chores, but also a workout regimen consisting of pushups, sit-ups, pullups and I think a run as well. His dad wanted to ensure Arnold fully appreciated the process of earning what he enjoyed and didn’t want him to feel entitled to anything. Although you would probably have been hard-pressed to find many entitled kids in Arnold’s neighborhood, being it was post-WWII Europe, it is certainly epidemic today. We struggle to appreciate what has become commonplace and expected. But there’s another lesson from Arnold’s father: he taught his son to begin every day with an accomplishment. He groomed the futu...

Do you know who Eliud Kipchoge Rotich is? How about Feyisa Lilesa or Galen Rupp? Maybe not, but I’ll bet you’ve at least heard of Usain Bolt. And you probably still remember guys like Carl Lewis and Michael Johnston even though neither has really competed in the last couple decades. We are wowed by the flashiness of speed. It grabs our attention and holds it captive. We are also mesmerized by obvious display of seemingly otherworldly skill, such as Simone Biles in floor routine, who just made history with her sixth all-around US gymnastics title. Conspicuous displays of talent and speed are hard to ignore. Stamina, however, is far less exciting. It may even be boring. Rotich, Lilesa and Rupp are the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal winners respectively from the 2016 Olympic Marathon. Eliud Kipchoge Rotich finished the course in just over two hours, 2:08:44 to be exact. That means his average speed was 12.2 miles per hour. But that speed is nothing remarkable by itself. A lo...

If we can see the long-term payoff of an action it’s easier to make the tough choices in the moment, but sometimes it’s hard to make the connection between a sacrifice today and a benefit tomorrow. Earlier this year, we had moved out of our house to move into a new home we just had built. Even though our old home sat empty, I was still paying the mortgage on a structure no one was using. It was benefiting no one and those payments felt like a tax. Like money just going out the window. It was especially frustrating to pay the property taxes on the empty home no one was using. Talk about adding insult to injury! Now speaking of taxes, I realize they provide for necessary things, but as I sat here this morning paying the second round of property taxes on the year, I couldn’t help but feel some futility in the payments I was making. On the tax invoice, they will itemize the breakdown of where that money is going once you write the check, as if seeing how my hard-earned cash will...

Real, lasting, effective change typically only happens from the inside out. At best, changing surroundings and scenery is only effective for a short while. Putting a raging bull inside a China shop doesn’t make him any less of a raging bull. In fact, he will likely be even more destructive in the new environment. First, you must tame and train the bull before he can be introduced to his new surroundings. We all have a self-destructive bull inside of us. We can change our surroundings, but unless we change who we are, our lives will typically migrate back to where they were before, just with new scenery. If your life feels like a country song now, a fresh setting doesn’t alter the lyrics or the tune, only the backdrop. The belief that the new job, the new girlfriend or the new house will “fix” your life is a deceptive illusion. However, a new you will start to change what appears around you. And the improvements may not be drastic all at once, but they will be lasting and ...

I remember as a young boy, trembling on the top of the high dive at a local pool, waiting for my nerves and fears to subside before I jumped. Standing about two feet away from the end of the diving board with my heart climbing into my throat, I felt even more fear welling up inside me as I looked down at the water below. The longer I waited, the more anxiety gripped me. When I finally jumped, the fear actually diminished as I fell towards water. Jumping was the worst part. Just a few minutes after the first jump, I was ready to do it again, and with each subsequent jump, the fear seemed to weaken and become quieted within me. Typically, when faced with an action that causes us anxiety, we tend to want to wait it out until the fear subsides, but rarely does this approach ever work. As we dwell on the task in front of us, our mind continues to feed the feelings of fear and doubt, making them stronger than ever. If we wait for the fear to die down before moving, we will likely n...

Success and accomplishment have a strange way of working against us. While goals and targets can be great for motivating us and clarifying a path, once we hit our mark – getting that new job, hitting the sales target, getting the A in class, taking on that leadership role, even marrying that perfect someone –   we can have the feeling as though we’ve “arrived” if we aren’t careful. In this way, success can be damaging. There’s a tendency to want to “coast” once we make it to a certain point. Imagine a car traveling up a mountain with no breaks. Coasting will only last for so long, then the vehicle will start rolling backward. Because we have no brakes, we can’t just stop the car and relax either. The only way to avoid sliding back down is to continue to push ahead. I’m not suggesting to never be satisfied with where you’re at and what you have, it’s more about who you are as a person. If you are always chasing that new thing and ignoring the blessings you already enjoy,...

It’s quite common to see people going to the gym to get stronger or running outside to improve their cardiovascular system (or perhaps they just have to imagination for what to do with extra time on their hands). However, does working out really improve your fitness level or overall health? By itself, no. In fact, exercise just makes you weaker and more tired (feeling motivated yet?). In fact, without proper recovery, exercise can actually reduce your level of health and fitness. Now before you go cancel your gym membership, please understand that I am not saying working out has no value. That isn’t the case at all. But as a standalone event, exercise has little to no positive effect. Let me give you an example: If you get in a really solid, intense workout and then spend the rest of the day eating junk food, pounding energy drinks instead of water and staying up all night with no sleep, there’s a good chance that your workout will be useless at best. Or, you may end up like a ...

A strike out certainly has negative connotations attached. As “America’s Pastime,” baseball terminology has woven its way into our everyday language to a point that “strike out” has become nearly synonymous with failure. Timmy, who was recently rejected by a date, is said to have “really struck out with Lucy last week.” A bad product presentation at work might result in someone commenting that “Timmy really struck out with the board this morning.” (Timmy is having a rough week). As a person searches for new employment, one might remark “Lucy keeps striking out in the job market” (maybe the mounting frustration is why Lucy so heartlessly rejected Timmy in our first example). Similarly, someone on the brink of disaster is said to have “two strikes against him.” As common as this colloquialism is, there is another very different meaning. “Striking out,” removed from the baseball analogy, can also refer to one heading in a particular direction or venturing out to pursue a new opp...