• Should we worry about our kids screen time?

    • Media-centric families (39% of the sample), in which parents used electronic media for an average of 11 hours a day and children averaged 4.5 hours. These families were most likely to leave TVs on most of the time (48%) and put TVs in children’s rooms (44%).

    • Media-moderate families (45%), in which parents used media nearly five hours a day and children were plugged in for nearly three hours.

    • Media-light families (16%), in which parents averaged less than two hours and children averaged about 1.5 hours of screen time each day.

    “Parents set the family style,” Wartell says. “Children are not the driving force here.”

    source

    Idle Hands are the Devil’s Handiwork

    colonialkidsMy kid is wasting time online. All they want to do is play video games. Should I limit their screen time? Video games are so violent today, should I be worried about that?

    These are all common questions I get at parent seminars on social media. I get it. I really do. In our own house we face the same questions.

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  • Do you have friends?

    friendship-circles

    Do you have friends? Maybe that sounds like a weird question.

    But the truth is that I know a lot of people who really don’t have many friends.

    • Friends with whom they can be really, truly honest. 
    • Friends with whom they have shared significant stuff.
    • Friends with whom they’ve known a long time, through the ups, downs, and monotony of life.
    • Friends outside of their marriage.
    • Friends outside of their family.
    • Friends outside of their workplace.
    • Friends with people who don’t give a crap about who you are or your fancy title or your work responsibilities.

    Scott Rubin summed this up in his rant at the Middle School Ministry Campference last year… “Do you have people in your life with whom you can put your worst foot forward?”

    And the result of not having enough friends?

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  • Free Palmer, The Penske Moving Version

    truckThe subtitle of this post could be “The absolute random life of Adam McLane.”

    Tomorrow I leave for a 3-day trip. I’ll be flying to Nashville and then driving back in a giant Penske moving truck with my buddy Dave Palmer as part of a theory that you can catch a company doing something good.

    Free Palmer!

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  • Your ever evolving vision

    change_positive

    • Knowing what we know now what can we do better?
    • All this got us here. What do we need to learn to get us there? 
    • If this is level 1 or 2 what will level 7 or 8 look like? 

    Last week, I re-watched our first video announcing my joining The Youth Cartel. This was the Cartel on July 10th, 2011. 

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  • When Great Ideas Overcome the Noise

    When Great Ideas Overcome the Noise

    When Great Ideas Overcome the Noise

    Great ideas come into the world as quietly as doves. Perhaps then , if we listen attentively we shall hear, among the uproar of empires and nations, the faint fluttering of wings, the gentle stirrings of life and hope. Some will say this hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history. Each and every one, on the foundations of their own suffering and joy builds for all.

    Albert Camus, famous dead guy

  • The Problem with “The Number Is” Thinking

    the-number-isAs a small business owner, I have a number in mind for what my business must make each month.  It’s an actual number based on the amount of money the business needs to make so we can pay all of our bills and ourselves.

    Here is something that I’ve been wrestling with lately:

    The number, however exact or arbitrarily picked, becomes the number.

    It’s a goal but also a limiter.

    So, right now, I can open a spreadsheet and point to every month in 2013 and tell you exactly how the business got to, is getting to, or will get to that number.

    Could I make more? Yes. Could I make less? Yes. But chances are good that the business will generate just about that amount of money we need because that’s what we’re aiming to do.

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  • The Power and Purpose of Play

    One of the things I’ve been learning is that I simply cannot work all of the time.

    I have to play. Beyond the concept of Sabbath, which is ultimately about trust that God will provide 7 days of sustenance for 6 days of work, the discipline of play (recreation) is the secret ingredient to creation. (In my world, my creativity is a commodity.)

    Therefore, you can’t have creation without recreation.

    Thoughts? 

    p.s. This is my first test video with the GoPro Hero 3. First impressions? Wow!

  • Moody, You Are Worth the Fight

    Some backstory…

    Moody-Bible11 years ago this week I graduated from Moody Bible Institute. The moment of walking across that stage, shaking Joe Stowell’s hand, and knowing that I had done it, goes down in history as one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

    I had defied every odd stacked against me.

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  • The Psychological Advantage

    I’m always impressed how much retail space exploits psychological advantage to prepare people to spend money. I can run into a corner store and quickly grab the 5 items I need. But the same 5 items in our local grocery store? It’s at least 15 minutes as I walk from end to end of that building.

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  • Twelve

    Megan turned twelve yesterday.

    12!

    megan-jungle-ropes

    Mom and dad did our best to suppress saying, “Holy cow. How has it been 12 years? You were just a baby yesterday?!?!!?” Of course, that’s what we were thinking. But such nostalgia is pre-teen uncool.

    Celebrating Megan

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