I was at an arcade with my son Camden recently and he wanted to play Whack-A-Mole.  He pumped in the token and started whacking.  At first, he was in the rhythm.  He was smacking those moles with pretty good precision.  For a split second, he got off balance. From that point on his rhythm was off he wasn't hitting the moles as he did in the beginning.

My point?  The thing I realized while observing this is that many times in life we can be in rhythm and doing quite well.  Then something happens to throw us off.  If we try to keep going without resetting our mind or actions, we will be out of balance.  Our rhythm will be off.

The next time you start to feel off-balance, stop, reset and then proceed. 

What do you think?  Post a comment or share a story below.

I had a great think day yesterday.  It was really good to get out of my normal routine and spend some time planning and thinking.  Like I said yesterday, my goal is to do this once a month.  My main focus is to spend some time thinking about bigger picture ideas and directions for my life and business.

Here are 7.5 ideas to help jumpstart your own Pray Day, Think Day, Dream Day:

1. Carry a notepad with you where ever you go.  As you move about the day, ideas will come to you and you'll need a place to jot them down.

2. Change environments.  Make sure you don't spend all of your time at one place. 

3. Don't be isolated all day.  Go out for lunch and talk to people.   I chose to eat alone (which I really enjoy), but I did chat with my server and host at the restaurant.  Just getting some social interaction helps clear your mind from the focus of the morning.

4. Ideas come at random times.  Break up your idea sessions by thinking about lots of different topics.  When I'm thinking about one topic an idea/concept for a completely separate topic becomes clear in my mind.   Write it down then.

5. Don't go entirely web-based.  Use paper and a pen.  Nothing beats a good old notepad and pen for brainstorming.

6. Watch a video on TED.com.   There are a lot of creative speakers and awesome ideas to be found on TED.com.   The point is to free your mind to dream about other ideas and concepts which will lead to focus on the topics you're pondering.    Here's a link to a video I watched yesterday by Seth Godin on Tribes:  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

7. Read a non-industry or unrelated book.  I was doing some business planning most of the day yesterday, so I chose to spend some time periods reading my Bible.  It allowed my mind to rest on the business ideas and gave me fresh perspectives when I returned.

7.5 Be prepared for a bit a catch-up the following day.  You might feel behind, but the time you take to get away is so much more valuable than the time it will take to play a bit of catch-up.

So, there you have it.  Now GO.  Schedule a day in your calendar to escape and do your own think day.  Let me know how it turns out for you!

[image by chris gin]

Today's a good day for me. I'm forcing myself to take a day away from my office to think and pray. I say "forcing" because the daily grind of projects, tasks and software development can literally suck my time and cause me to forget about the important things. Sure, managing projects and tasks is extemely important. My business is a service business and I love our clients. But if I let myself get bogged down in the "call of the urgent", I'll never give myself the time to think and plan and work on strategy.

I know I'll be more productive in the day-to-day details when I take the time to get away and do big-picture thinking. Some call it a "dream day". Some call it "strategic planning". Some call it a "think day". A friend of mine called it a "pray day". It's all of this for me.

One of my goals for 2010 is to take one day a month purely to get out of my daily routine and retreat to think and pray.

[image by eric brian ouano]

I love to journal. I need to be more consistent doing it. My journaling started about 12 years ago. I've been on and off over time. There have been periods where I was very active in my journaling and then there are times when it's been very quiet with long periods of nothing written.

My journal is a stream of my life. I've been thinking about my life stream and I see it consisting of 4 things:

1. This Blog
2. My Twitter Stream
3. My Facebook page
4. My offline paper journal

The one I like the best? My offline paper journal.  I don't think anything can replace a good old notebook and pen.  I seem to be able to think so much clearer when I'm sitting on a couch or oversized comfy chair with a pen in hand.

One issue I struggle with (because I'm an organization freak about notes) is constantly carrying around my "work" notepad/binder and my personal journal notepad.   The thing I'm thinking about doing now is combining them into one.  After all, my business/work, my personal life, my spiritual life is so intertwined that I'm starting to think I should carry just one journal and it will contain the entire stream of my life.  When it fills, I get a new one.

The type of journal I decided upon is this:

This is the most basic of composition notebooks on the market.  It fits perfectly into a thin leather binder I use to carry business cards, marketing materials people hand me at meetings, etc.

Here's my plan: I have a couple different colored highlighters.  Any personal thoughts I have I'll run down the margins with a blue highlighter.  Any work notes/thoughts/etc I'll run down the margins with a green highlighter.  It's about that simple.  

Currently, I carry around a thick personal leather bound journal that I love, but it's heavy and bulky.  I think this streamlined approach will work and it will be interesting to be able to see the thoughts I'm having about work strategy and personal strategy and how they overlap, etc.  I'll keep you posted.

What are your favorite ways to capture your life stream?  Do you journal? If you're on Twitter, post your twitter link in the comments, I'd love to follow you and connect. If you blog, post a link to your blog.

So, I blew it last night.  Messed up, screwed the pooch, whatever you want to call it.  I blew it in the patience department in getting my boys to bed.   To make myself feel a little better, can anyone relate to difficult bed times with young kids?  It can be the hardest part of the day for me!   Don't get me wrong, I love putting my boys to bed, reading stories, snuggling with them, etc.  But, when the requests for snacks start and trips to the bathroom and the constant up and down...I start to lose it.  Most nights are fine and they go right to sleep, but there are some nights like last night where I just get pushed to the limit.

Holli was out on a girl's night with some friends.   I think the boys can sense it when it's just me putting them to bed.  I think they start hearing voices telling them "Dad's alone...you can take him...you can break him down..."

Each day I rise and think "today just let me be faithful".  Faithful to God, to my wife, to my kids, to my friends, to my clients, to my partner and employees.  At the end of the day if I can look back and say I didn't blow it, that's a great day.  I definitely failed at keeping my patience last night.

There's one truth that I think God revealed to me last night:

It's in the little things, day by day, where character is built.

We must prove that we can be faithful in the little things before God will ever trust us with bigger things.

Sorry Camden and Caleb.  Bring it on next time Mommy is out!

[image by ianders]

Can you relate to my night last night?  Share a story or post a comment about how you handle the little things in life that test you.

I enjoy rap music.  There's something about it that connects with me.  I came across this YouTube video by Lecrae doing a rap for Haiti relief.

Watch it on YouTube here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rerU_NYwD8

Buy the single on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/a1sxJg

Buy the video on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/bjymoY

All money goes to Haiti relief.

My life is too fast.  I seem to rush around from one task to the next.  Or from one appointment to the next appointment.  When I'm in the car and sitting at a stop light, I constantly check my phone for various email updates, social media updates, etc.  Life is just going by too fast.  I try to live my life as intentional as possible, but there never seems to be enough time.

I can't believe it's already December 1.   30 more days and the year is over.   It's been said the older you get the faster the time goes by.   I'm "only" 37 and time seems to be flying for me.   Many others I talk with feel the same way.   Perhaps the technology that is supposed to help our lives and make us more productive actually restricts us and makes the time go by faster?

If you examine the life of Jesus, I think you would conclude that He was a very busy guy.  Healing people, teaching, eating, traveling and casting out demons makes for a busy life back then!   Consider the crowds that followed Him and the constant pressure He must have been under.  I bet He didn't feel like life was going too fast.  I think he thought it was perfectly timed.

As you examine the life that Jesus lived, there's one thing that really stands out that He did.  Jesus frequently got alone to pray.   Why is it so hard for us in our busy culture to do this as well?

Let's try for the next 30 days to take more time for solitude and prayer and see if that helps slow us down.  Make it another step along the journey for a more intentional life.  Any takers?

[UPDATE]

Vortex Ministry has launched a 30 Day Slow Down Challenge to any and all interested.   Click here for more information.

[image by sunside]

The call is out for people interested in serving a Christmas Dinner at Brookside Community Church in Indianapolis.  The Thanksgiving dinner was great and now our friends are planning for Christmas.

Here's a note from our friend Erin:

Hello, friends of Brookside!  Here we are on the heels of a very successful Thanksgiving dinner at Brookside and heading full speed into Christmas dinner!  You are receiving this email because you expressed interest in assisting with this meal and we would LOVE to have you! 

Christmas dinner this year will be on Sunday, December 20th.  It will be served immediately following the morning service (around 11:30am, depending on how the Spirit moves!) and is served in the church gym. 

This year we will be serving: 

Ham
Corn
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Rolls
Pie and/or cake
Lemonade

I'll make every attempt to break the serving opportunities down into several hour time blocks so that you are able to come for as little or as long as you like.  The schedule looks basically like this:                                  

7:30 am – 11:00 am       Warm turkeys and prepare the remainder of the meal and beverages

10:00 am – 11:00 am     Set up serving and dining tables and chairs in the gymnasium

11:00 am – Noon           Set out food and beverages on serving tables

Noon – 2:00 pm             Serve Brookside folks in two shifts

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm         Crew 1 – clean kitchen

                                    Crew 2 – return tables and chairs to dining hall

                                    Crew 3 – Sweep and mop gym floor and empty trash

If you are still willing to serve at this meal, please respond to me when you are able with number of individuals coming with you as well as top three choices for serving times. 

Thank you so much for your giving spirits and Happy Thanksgiving!!

In His service,

Erin Szalkie

If you are interested, leave a comment below and I'll connect you with Erin.  

[image by don2g]

Happy Thanksgiving!  To everyone that came out to volunteer at Brookside last Sunday, it was awesome!

Our friend Erin Szalkie sent out the following note:

Thank you, thank you thank you!  Thanks to your efforts and giving hearts, the Brookside Thanksgiving Dinner was a huge success- we were able to serve close to 300 people this year!  We so appreciate your willingness to share your time and talents with us as we work to show God's love to our neighbors in the Brookside community.  We pray that you felt blessed as well by the experience and that you will consider working with us again next year.

300!   That's amazing.   Everything went so smooth and I think the people at Brookside had a great time.  Thanks Erin and Jim for all you do!

[image by J. McPherson]

What are you going to do today?   Do you have a task list, day planner, outlook calendar synchronized with your phone?  I bet it's full appointments, things to do, places to go and people to see.   I know mine is full and there's nothing wrong with that.  However, in the busyness of life, we need to remain focused on two simple things:

1. Love God

2. Love Others

Matthew 22: 36-40 says: 

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

How do you love God and others?  Start by praising God.   Tell him how you feel, verbalize it.  Get into God's word, read the Bible.   Then apply it to your life.   It does no good sitting on a shelf or to just read and not act.    Once you read it, take action and make some life changes.   Serve others.  Put them above yourself.  Humble yourself.

Start today and try to live more intentional around these two things.   Such seemingly small things, but so important to remember in our lives.

[image by Great Beyond]