To Serve well

Serving with Excellence for a Life of Excellence

Abundance

The small moments become the big memories

Cheering on a baby walking for the first time…

Encouraging the completion of a sentence in “Goodnight Moon.”

Celebrating family birthdays every year.

Raising a glass in honor of your friends.

Snapping a photo of the season’s first snow fall.

This is the last of this brief series on the importance of celebrations. It seemed appropriate to point out that celebrating and honoring others should be a consistent effort for each of us. I feel that it’s in the small moments we capture the essence of life, and that is where we ultimately feel the abundance it has to offer.

This week, I hope you will:

  • Jump on the bed…
  • Make time for a good ol’ fashioned pillow fight…
  • Go get cupcakes or ice cream, just for the fun of it…
  • Honor a teacher or coach with a meaningful message or small gift…
  • Thank the barista at your local coffee shop for waking early every day…
  • Throw a spontaneous dance party to the unexpected audience (even if it’s just your pets)…
  • Celebrate yourself for being the intentional badass that you are, slaying your goals every day….

What ways could you bring the celebration of small moments to your life?

Today, I celebrate each of you!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Abundance is…

Abundance is… Fill in the blank for yourself and for your family today. What does that look like and feel like?

Here’s the thing, I truly believe in the idea that God wants us to experience abundant life – fully in, fully giving and receiving all the love that we can handle. The scripture, “His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine,” from Ephesians 3:20 is so strong in revealing that what we think is likely not even scratching the surface of what we can experience through the gifts He has given us. I love that.

So, back to the first question: What is it for you? Where’s a solid place to start this week? Abundance to me feels like so many things, but it starts with the people God has put in my path. It continues with nurturing those through encouragement, listening, healthy conversations, a ton of fun and a lot of just doing life together.

Abundance is in the everyday to me, whether it’s strolling through the market, watching the children giggle, or the older couples hand in hand, wondering what journey life has taken them through. Abundance is travel and admiring other cultures for their traditions and witnessing unbelievable joy in those who might not have much, and yet they have everything.

Abundance… what is it to you?

Capturing our best thinking…

Rewind! 

I love coffee shops! That is where I do my best thinking… specifically, Black Dog coffeehouse in Lenexa. A bit off of my normal, beaten path, it’s just the perfect hideaway to get the “juices” flowing.

My second choice would be a good walk through trails or any place with an abundance of nature – the trees and creek types are my favorite.

There has been much written and researched on the concepts of “creative thinking” and just how we humans enter a state of “flow.” A place in our minds where we can really feel the ideas rolling.

Susan K. Perry, PhD and Social psychologist, speaks about the “busy mind: fragmented,  unfocused, distracted, too many things on your mind.” Sound familiar? The opposite of which is “THE” FLOW that I am characterizing. According to Perry, “FLOW: loose, relaxed and focused.” My guess is that many of us need to be able to get into this “FLOW” state more often in order to bring our best work.

Experts say that we can indeed achieve this state by facilitating certain conditions that optimize our thinking, offer a quality of awareness and creative expression. Here are 5 ideas that may help you achieve “FLOW” and produce your best work. (RE: Myrko Thum)

  1. Direct your Focus ACTIVELY – Direct it to what you want to achieve… Take the focus OFF of the not so good. (This includes environmentally setting yourself up to succeed, minimizing interruptions)
  2. Choose your most important task – Concentrate fully on the one thing that is most important at the moment
  3. Focus all of your attention with intensity as your task. (Again, no interruptions, cell phone out of the way, etc.)
  4. Do it for a set amount of time – 30+ minutes. Flow cannot happen in an instant.
  5. Stay with the task until it is finished. This will help you to feel accomplished and desire to get back into the “FLOW” or “ZONE” for the next task at hand.

The bottom line is that training your mind to develop a sharp metal focus is a key skill for success and self improvement and peak performance.

Go all in and OPTIMIZE THIS WEEK!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Operating from a place of full trust

When we operate out of a place of knowing and believing that God will provide, we can breathe easier.

When we know we will never truly lack, and that there will be the right words to say, the right resources to do whatever it is we need to do and a never-ending supply of grace to cover our misgivings we are truly free.

The opposite of that is operating out of a perception of lack and worry. That path leads us to be selfish with our resources and our full self.

If today you find yourself at times not believing that you are fully “covered,” then pray that God will give you a spirit of trust and abundance. Like the Fall harvest each year, there are seasons of bounty and seasons of “not so much,” but there is ALWAYS a harvest that provides exactly what we need.

Have an amazing week!

 

Simple Thoughts Sunday: A banner year!

Happy Sunday! I love some abundance! My favorite is abundant life, as in full with joy and achieving purpose.

We are nearing the halfway mark for 2018, so it’s a great time to stop and declare (or recommit to) this thought and promise over our lives. We were all designed to live in abundance. We only have to set our minds on those things and move forward with actions that ensure we are on that path.

My prayer is that this week, you will consider what this looks like to you in every key area of your life, relationships, health,  finances, community engagement, etc. Abundance is yours for the taking.

Let’s all drive toward having a BANNER YEAR!

Why do we settle?

This quote is from Brendon Burchard, The Motivation Manifesto. I’m kind of savoring this one right now. His writing is brilliant. (Apologies for the super long quote in the photo, but I just had to include the whole thing because to me it’s perfect.)

Here’s the message I took so strongly from this: Like the cattle in the middle of the road, not knowing their direction, we often do the same. We stand in neutral and don’t take on the full glory of our potential. We all have this amazing creative bent, and we should go after our dreams and desires. No seriously. We really need to think about this and consider if we are in the middle of the proverbial road more often than we’d like.

I like the idea of unlimited abundance. Just imagine the pure power in that for a moment… how cool!

Have a strong wrap to your week! I’m cheering you on!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: Living in abundance

Most of you know that on Sunday’s I usually write about my faith. This thought was powerful for me and I hope it will be for you. What do I mean by abundance? Here’s what I am thinking:

Abundance in positive thinking (vs fear)

Abundance in joy

Abundance in strength

Abundance in prayer

Abundance in deepening friendships

Abundance in health

Abundance in wisdom

Abundance in generosity for others

That’s a short list. What areas of your life do you need or desire “abundance” in?

God’s word tells us that he desires for us to have great victory in this life. (The Psalms are a great place to find these messages first… Psalm 37:4 is a good start.) 

If we can lean in on Him, instead of our own understanding, we can experience the freedom of His love and provision over our lives. I pray that this week you will pray for ABUNDANCE in the areas that might help your life to overflow with just what you need. When we are filled, we can exponentially give back to others.

Capturing our best thinking… “THE” FLOW

I love coffee shops! That is where I do my best thinking… specifically, Black Dog coffeehouse in Lenexa. A bit off of my normal, beaten path, it’s just the perfect hideaway to get the “juices” flowing.

My second choice would be a good walk through trails or any place with an abundance of nature – the trees and creek types are my favorite.

There has been much written and researched on the concepts of “creative thinking” and just how we humans enter a state of “flow.” A place in our minds where we can really feel the ideas rolling.

Susan K. Perry, PhD and Social psychologist, speaks about the “busy mind: fragmented,  unfocused, distracted, too many things on your mind.” Sound familiar? The opposite of which is “THE” FLOW that I am characterizing. According to Perry, “FLOW: loose, relaxed and focused.” My guess is that many of us need to be able to get into this “FLOW” state more often in order to bring our best work.

Experts say that we can indeed achieve this state by facilitating certain conditions that optimize our thinking, offer a quality of awareness and creative expression. Here are 5 ideas that may help you achieve “FLOW” and produce your best work. (RE: Myrko Thum)

  1. Direct your Focus ACTIVELY – Direct it to what you want to achieve… Take the focus OFF of the not so good. (This includes environmentally setting yourself up to succeed, minimizing interruptions)
  2. Choose your most important task – Concentrate fully on the one thing that is most important at the moment
  3. Focus all of your attention with intensity as your task. (Again, no interruptions, cell phone out of the way, etc.)
  4. Do it for a set amount of time – 30+ minutes. Flow cannot happen in an instant.
  5. Stay with the task until it is finished. This will help you to feel accomplished and desire to get back into the “FLOW” or “ZONE” for the next task at hand.

The bottom line is that training your mind to develop a sharp metal focus is a key skill for success and self improvement and peak performance.

Go all in and OPTIMIZE THIS WEEK!

Simple Thoughts Sunday: HAPPY NEW YEAR

(Photo Creds: We Heart It)

Happy New Year everyone.

Today sets forth a blank page and new path. I prefer my paths fairly straight, with few rocks and beautiful scenery. Mountains, rivers, friends, fresh air… That’s good because God promises us paths that drip with ABUNDANCE.

As we all know, life has many paths and some are what I fondly refer to as “ass kickers” – and that’s okay. We don’t reach our highest potential, or enjoy life’s true beauty without some effort and “STRETCH.”

I’ve been putting together my 2017 plan over the last few days (while dealing with this awful cold that some handsome college kid delivered to my door step). I will pray over this plan today and in the days to come, and what I know is that God will put me on many paths this year. I need to follow his guidance and not my own desire to take the route of least resistance… To put on my explorer hat and be ready, fully knowing that whatever the path looks like, He’s right there with me, along with some really great friends and family He has put along the trail!

I pray that you’ll join me throughout the year as we find out what’s ahead and together, and fully know that whatever it is, the year is promised to be “CROWNED with GOODNESS.”