The Beautiful Enfeebled Tree

One foot in front of the other climbing the ridge trail at Ludington State Park again. Definitely one of the best trails in Michigan in my opinion. It is the middle of spring and it is perfect weather, which for me is on the little bit colder side. So I am trotting along on the part of the trail that has the highest elevation. Gazing out through the trees nearest to me to take in the vast view of being able to see over the canopy of trees in the valleys.

Then one smaller tree near the trail to my right catches my eye. It is full of beautiful white blossoms. Flowering trees are one of the best parts of spring. These white blossoming trees are the only one flowering this early in Ludington State Park. Upon closer examination of the small tree I see the trunk of the tree is laying flat near the ground. It looks as when the tree was younger is was totally knocked down by a force. Some other trees would just give up and die if this happened to them. Not this tree. This small tree didn't let getting knock down flat stop it from continuing to grow and become something beautiful in the world and showing what and awesome creator God is for creating it.

God Speaks in a Whisper

I was on the logging trail right and I wasn't planning on stopping, but when I paused to check the map on checkpoint 8 marker pole it was so quiet and It made me think of how noisy regular life is.  How everything in the city life is noisy and therefore we feel we have to be noiser to be heard.  God on the other hand speaks in a still small voice as he did to Elijah.  If we want to hear him we have to be in the quiet.

 

1 Kings 19:11-13 (NKJV)

God’s Revelation to Elijah

11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.

 So I decided to sit in a shelter near post marker 8 and enjoy the silence.  In the silence I am able to listen to the Holy Spirit (God) in my heart.

P.S.  I think I'm sitting next to some raccoon scat.

Isaiah 40:31

On May 11, 2018 my wife, son, and I were camping at Ludington State Park.  On this morning as I woke up around 6 a.m. as I usually do, ate a quick breakfast, and headed out onto the ridge trail.  I feel so at home in the woods especially in Ludington.  The trees blend together in a majestic forest of what I call tree awesomeness.  It is in this tree awesomeness I feel closest to God.  It is here in Ludington State Park that God has enabled me to experience coming in close contact with many wild animals that I believe more than likely wouldn't have happened by chance.  This was one of those times.

I was walking on the ridge trail soaking in the spender of it all.  Being so high you can see above the 80 foot trees growing from the bottom of the valley below.  Birds chirping their morning song.  Squirrels scrounging up their breakfasts.  Then I hear the distinct crack of a branch.  I freeze and peer through the trees around me to find out what had broken the branch.  I hear and see powerful charcoal wings thrusting up and down.  Displacing air and producing a swoosh sound with every stroke.  A bald eagle propelling itself into the air.  After it cleared the tree it had been perched upon it straightened it's wings and soared through the sky and over the valley in front of me to a distant tree.  The sound of my heart filled my ears as I gawked in wonder.

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.  Isaiah 40:31

This verse has full meaning for me now.  This close encounter has shown my the Bald Eagle is a powerful animal.  I understand now why it is at the top of the food chain.  I understand why it is our nation's emblem.

Journal Idea: Review Your Week

Here is a great idea for your journal entries.  Every week you write how well you progressed on what you value in life.   So if you value family you write an honest review on how well you spent time with your family.  If you did well then pat yourself on the back.  If not or you just want to bring that value to the next level then write about what you can do next week to improve that value.  If you make a habit of this week in review and keep acting on what you learn just think on how much that will improve your life and keep you focused on your values.  So give week in review a try.

Drewbie

Procrastination and the Internet

In school I grew up with the computer.  From the baby stages of DOS in elementary to the grown up stages of Windows XP and beyond.  Soon every home had a computer and with that came the internet. Maybe it was the other way around though.  Did the computer become a staple in every home only because of the internet?

The internet is the most captivating piece of technology with endless entertainment and is ever expanding with each passing year.  Today we have this party on a screen available to us anytime and anywhere in our pockets on a number of mobile devices.  Information available to us at any moment of the day.  So this means we have become more productive with all this information available to us, right?  We look up just the information we need or talk/text to just the person we meant to talk/text to and get back to the task we were working on?  Or do we become distracted as soon as the screen lights up?  Check email, play a game(just a few minutes), text back friends who texted you, update the social media status on where your at, I wonder what movies are coming out, what will the weather be like in the coming week?, and of course have to find out what people are complaining about the president this week.  That only took 15 mins right?  Probably more like an hour to an hour and a half.  How many times a day does this happen?  Now you have to throw together something for dinner.  It taking you twice as long or more to finish reading a book.   When did you say you were going to reorganize the basement or garage?

Research shows that 47% of internet use is wasted time.  It serves no real purpose.  So almost half of internet use is preventing people from having productive lives.  At what point does the internet stop being a tool and start becoming an addiction?

I used to be really addicted to the computer and internet.  Right after high school I was introduced to computer games.  They blew me away on how advanced and more complex they were compared to video games.  My brain was hooked.  I saved up around $1500 and bought my first computer.  I played games more and more after my purchase.  College didn't pan out for me and I quit the job I had at a foam factory that was giving me physical problems.  With my new free time my computer/internet addiction grew.  I was living with my parents and I had $20,000 saved up so money wasn't an issue.  My computer became my life obsession.  From when I woke up to when I went to bed(really late) I was on my computer.  For two years this continued until my money started to dwindle.  I had to get a job.  I still played games all the time when I wasn't working.  I wasn't the best worker though.  I couldn't focus well and I would miss bad parts.  One time I even mislabeled a box.  Eventually I figured out I was a computer addict and I cut my computer/internet usage drastically.  My work improved and I felt better physically and mentally.

I still find myself being drawn to the screen.  I play only one game now and this game can only be played a limited amount per day.  I have to limit my screen time to a manageable level for me not to become sucked in again.  Even the rough draft of this blog post I wrote by hand in a notebook.  It is slower to write this way, but I can concentrate better so for me it takes less time this way.

What I want people to take from this post is to be mindful of your screen/internet time.  It's easy to switch into auto pilot mode and lose track of time.  Set a timer if you have to.  Knowing you have a limited amount of time will help keep you more focused on the task you originally turned on the device to accomplish. If you don't you may procrastinate your time away, it may be an hour or maybe two years of your life.  It's time you can't get back.

TPP Part 3 - Can't Focus?

Have you ever tried working on a project and your mind keeps wandering or you feel slow and fatigued?  You want to work and get this task done, but can't focus?

It may be the time of day your trying to do the task.  Our energy levels rise and fall throughout the day.  Trying to work on difficult tasks when we have low energy will just make you frustrated and lower your energy even more.

Try to think about the times of day you feel energized and what times you feel tired.  Then plan on working on harder tasks during the energized times and the less mindful or easy tasks at the low energy points of your day.  It may help you to take a day or more to do a log of your energy levels throughout the day.  Marking down your energy level every half-hour or hour and see where there is a trend of when your high and low energy points of the day are.  Then you can use that data to know when to accomplish your more difficult tasks.

TPP Part 2 - Three is the Magic Number

So you wrote down your values and what activities go with those values, Now What?  Now it's time to get stuff done.  What tasks do you have to do to promote those values?   That could be a big list and more than likely it is maybe a never ending list for values like family.

What if I told you to pick three tasks each day that would be top priority?  These tasks would make the most impact moving forward with your values.  Three isn't so bad.  You will still be getting stuff done and feeling good about it because it accomplishes your values.  You can do more than the three, but make those three top priority.  They have to get done today.  If it is something that you know will take you longer break it down into more steps.  Like say you want to oraganize your basement.  The one day you might buy and assemble shelves or move boxes.  Make sure it is somehting that you can finish in one day without exhausting yourself.

Some days you might just only decide to do resting activities to recharge you energy for the day after.  Sometime you need the extra rest to keep moving forward with your values.

The Productivity Project (TPP) Part 1

In this world of busy bodies people keep trying to accomplish the most amount of tasks in the least amount of time.  Most people think being more productive is about getting more of those task done quicker.  Making more parts in less time, sending more emails, or making more phone calls.  Speed is key!  This book taught me different.

Being more productive is somewhat like that; but more about wasting less time, being more accurate, and maximizing your time on the most important tasks.  Also known as working smarter.

Have you ever had those times where at the end of the day you are exhausted, but you felt you didn't accomplish much?  I definitely have too many times.  You research this and that, play a game, check social media, and check email.  All of sudden it's lunch time.  After lunch you do some tasks around the yard, watch a little Netflix, do a couple jobs around the house, and take care of kids.  Then it's time to make dinner.  Where did the time go?  You have so many tasks unfinished and no time to do them.  Out of all the mentioned tasks which ones were productive?  The answer is it depends on what your values are for that day?  If you value family most then taking care of kids was the most productive.  If rest was really needed then watching Netflix could be the most productive task.  With the rest you can be more productive tomorrow where if you tried to be productive that day you wouldn't accomplish much and still be tired for tomorrow.

One of the exercises in the book was to write down a list of values that you value most.  So I did a google search "list of values" as the book suggested and wrote down in my journal the ones that pertain to me.  I went a step further and wrote down the interests, activities, and hobbies I would associate with those values.  This gave me a clear picture of what was really important to me.  It told me what I can work on to accomplish those values in my life.  There is the usual values for most people family, faith, friends, etc. 

A lot of my life I dreamed of being an artist.  My goal became to be an artist full time and quit my factory job.  Sounds easy enough right?  That is what I believed.  In my opinion and other peoples opinion that they told me was that I am good at drawing.  Then there is a lot of businesses telling you that you can make it as an artist all you have to do is market and network on social media.  Then I read a book called Art / Work and learned the truth.  The only artist who quit there day job are the ones that sell to blue chip collectors(very rich people) which is not very many.  My heart sank.

After watching the video on my last blog post "Don't set goals, do this!" and doing the values exercise.  I came to the conclusion that I should scrap this hard to obtain dream and focus on become better at what my values line up with.  Most of my values line up with reading(adventure, curiosity, growth, knowledge, and wisdom) and writing(adventure, creativity, growth, meaningful work).  Drawing lined up more with my recharge time(peace, creativity).  So here I am writing and not caring if it goes anywhere.  It's fun and I love telling people cool things I learn from books and videos that may help you through life.

So what are your values?  What is really important to making you feel like you had a more productive day?  Try this exercise, the results may surprise you.

In school they told us to set goals, they were somewhat wrong as usual

For a lot of my adult life I have been setting these long term goals and coming up short.  This left me depressed and feeling hopeless.  Watching this video taught me, hey don't worry about long term.  Worry about bettering yourself in the short term with small strategies to improve your life a little at a time.

Right now I'm reading a book on productivity that I will explain in further detail on how I'm implementing bettering myself with small strategies and increasing my productivity in  a focused manner.  This is a huge game changer for me.  Having a newborn and wanting my dream long term goal was exhausting me from the inside and blinding me to what I can be successful at or at least what I really value in life.