Tag: motivation

  • What inspires you?

    What Inspires You?

    This question has been on my mind a lot lately.

    Here’s what I know: When people are inspired emotionally they take action physically.

    Conversely, when I see people mired in inaction– I know that they are deeply uninspired.

    Inspired people are an unstoppable force. Uninspired look for excuses.

    Here are some things that inspire me:

    • Listening to an artist show and explain his work.
    • Meeting people for the first time.
    • Road trips.
    • Uninterrupted time to breathe, rest, play.
    • Biographies of ordinary people.
    • Teachers. I mean, how do they do it?
    • Short stories.

    What are things that inspire you to action? What causes you to dream big dreams, big enough to go for them?

  • Still Crazy After All These Years

    Yes, I am a Paul Simon fan. I can’t explain it, other than the fact that my mom introduced me to him as a high school kid and I listened to the album The Concert in the Park nearly every day when I lived in Germany. This particular song has always made me think.

    Here I am at 33 years old. Still crazy after all these years. Some days or weeks I’m crazier than others. With adolescent fervor I am still crazy enough to want to change the world. I remember 15 years ago, in freshmen orientation at Moody Bible Institute, being told by someone that I was just young and idealistic… “Everyone wants to change the world but no one really can.” I think over the past years I’ve shown otherwise. Sure, I can’t tilt the Earth on a new axis. But there’s been some change. And I wake up each day excited about more changes.

    The converse is also true, you know? Instead of being young and idealistic I could be old and pessimistic. I know plenty of curmudgeons in the world who live for bad news and think the best days on this planet are in the past. That’s an easy path. I chose to think that the best spins left on Earth are still out there.

    I chose to be just crazy enough. More importantly, I want to encourage others to be crazy enough to recognize that they can change the world. I believe each one of our roles in the world is important. I believe that every effort we make invest in life change with a person or positively changing an institution matters– lots of little impacts make a big impact. While it’s true that I cannot tip this busted world on it’s access alone as my butt just isn’t quite big enough. I wonder about a co-ordinated army of world-changers– is there is an army of people just crazy enough… together could our butts be big enough to change the world?

    I’m still crazy after all these years. Are you?

  • Responding to Stress

    Here are a few categories of responses to job stress. I think I’ve exhibited them all in the past 3 months.

    – The ostrich: This person looks at the stress at work and just sticks their head into their own work, trying to ignore anything else that goes on. This can be good because at times of high stress there is a need for some people to keep plugging away at work. But it can be bad in that this response can lead to that person working on old priorities and foregoing new priorities.

    – The jackal: This person is the cynic. Generally makes fun of the stressful situation. I think of this as a nervous response to stress. This person tends to have a “sky is falling” type of attitude and veils negativity with humor. But this person will also have every intention of being the person to turn out the lights on the last day. Keep working, keep scavenging, it’ll pay off in the end.

    – The parrot: This person repeats everything. Not so much a gossip, but a person who likes to communicate what the problem and solution is as presented. Both helpful and annoying at the same time, this response seems to be a self-motivating one. But the parrot likes to think it is helping those around it.

    – The bear: This person is all black cloud. They think that today is as good as its going to get. Tomorrow is just another day closer to destruction. This stress response is toxic to a stressful situation because its pessimism can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Their Eeyore belief system is not cautious, it is reckless. This person secretly likes stress. Above I said I’ve expressed all of these in the past three months, that’s not true. I refuse to be the bear.

    – The bull: This person sees an opportunity in everything. Relentlessly over-optimistic. This stress response is helpful in times like this because they don’t care about forecasts and the nightmares MSNBC predicts.

    – The honey bee: Similar to the ostrich, this person just shows up and gets the job done. The swarm of activity around doesn’t seem to matter as this person merely concentrates on building the hive and following the orders of the queen bee. Collect pollen, make honey, repeat. If anything the stressful situation makes this person more urgent.

    – The sloth: This person responds to a stressful situation by retreating. They burn up sick and vacation days. They find excuses to avoid dealing with the cause of the stress. Really, this is just a lazy response to stress. This person hopes that while they are checked out the problem will get resolved.

    – The viper: This person just gets mean. Like a snake, they strike out of fear. They feel like if they are mean they can just scare their problems away. Of course, fear is a short term motivator… but this person doesn’t seem to care about that.

    What are some stress responses I’ve missed?

  • Defining quotes

    you_suck“I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.” That’s a bunch of crap, isn’t it? The truth is that sometimes words said to you hurt way more than any of us would like to admit.

    There’s something in my personality that remembers these words, embeds them as self-talk, and run through my brain like a broken record… and they serve as a powerful motivator for me. The negative ones, I desire to shove them back into  the face of the person— long since forgotten– who spoke them. The positive ones, I try to live up to in all that I do.

    Here are some negative examples:

    – “Adam is a spiritual orphan.” — my first “real pastor” in Indiana. This implied that my parents didn’t care about me and always made me mad.

    – “You’ll never finish college. You’re destined to be a community college drop-out.” — my stepmother said this my senior year of high school.

    – “You’re not cut out for pastoral ministry. You’re too much of a maverick.” — a co-worker at my first church said this… repeatedly.

    – “You are a legacy hire, I wouldn’t have hired you.” — a former boss said this all the time.

    Here are some positive examples:

    – “Your work ethic makes up for a lack of talent and money.” — a high school golf coach

    – “There’s something special about you. God is going to use you in big ways.” — a favorite camp counselor

    – “Adam is one of the most organized/driven students I’ve ever had.” — an undergrad professor

    – “You made a big impact on my kid. Thank you for letting him in to your family” — a parent

    So what’s the point?

    First, I’m convinced that the self-talk that we all have can be either a severe motivator or a severe motivator. If you’re finding that you beat yourself up endlessly, there’s no weakness in going to see someone to help you. I’m not going to claim that I’m the most healthy emotional person in the world. But I’m here to tell you that good self-talk has gotten me through some tough stuff.

    Second, be really aware of the words you speak into people. Of the eight examples I gave above I’m convinced none of them felt like they were saying something prophetic. Some of them were even just little side comments that stuck. Words have weight… things we say to and about others can impact them for years!