10:10 Talk

Simplicity

I sucker punched some of you with my piece on Priorities. Clearly, my life is not as reactive as many of yours as my kids are now older (and out of diapers), I have a caring wife who supports my flightiness, and a career with a lot of flexibility. When I talk to many of you I feel kinda guilty that I have so much more freedom. However, I'm still ridiculously busy with all the commitments I keep. And I still make time to train. It's a priority for me. How do I know this? Not by what I say, but by what I do.

I mentioned that the first talk at the "Walk to Emmaus" is called Priorities. The speaker on my walk gave us two concrete and objective ways to determine where our priorities are. Look at our calendar. Look at our checkbook. Where we spend our time and money is where our priorities are. I talk a good game about my involvement in ministry (currently that'd be Young Life). But if I compare the time spent in that ministry to just one of my addictions (running), I come up rather short.

Don't hear me trying to beat you or myself about our time and money. It's not where I'm going with this. Instead, for those overburdened souls out there who truly want to make wellness a priority, I wanted to share a discipline that will help you get there. If you recall, we said last time that the most successful people in life have a long term time perspective. So keep in mind that employing this discipline will take time. Thankfully, this discipline won't add another ball to juggle. Au contraire - our goal is to take some of those balls out of the air. Simplicity is the magic word.

I arrived at the desire to simplify, to unclug my life and brain, after several episodes of early-onset Alzhiemers (figuratively speaking - I hope) last fall. However, I can think of other examples prior to this fall when I demonstrated similar symtoms. That symtom being forgetfulness. We've all experienced bouts of not remembering important details of our lives. We men are notorious for only recalling only that information that amuses us. Everything else, no big deal.

Similarly, I've always been very much an air head somewhat like Robin Williams' professor character in the movie Flubber who couldn't marry because he never remembered the wedding. I'll accept that, but when gaps in my mental hard drive occur that are related to recalling rather ordinary experiences, there's a problem. Either the indiscretions of my youth are coming back to haunt me, or I need more RAM for my brain. As much as I'd like, there's no way to install or upgrade my CPU.

So, just as you run your computer with fewer windows open to avoid a crash, I'm chosing this year to close some of the windows in my life. I'm choosing to simplify. I invite you to do the same. Please don't hear me say that I want you to abandon all your commitments. That might dump a burden on others, and that's just wrong. If you volunteered for something then stick to it until your term is over. Just don't sign up again.

Divesting yourself of your existing "jobs" could take a year or more. Clearly, achieving simplicity in our lives is not a quick fix. But you can start practicing the discipline now by simply learning to say "no". Sounds easy enough. It's not. Especially if you've developed the habit pattern of being the "go to guy". Use that long term time perspective mentioned in the last message on priorities when you consider taking on more balls. Acknowledge up front that if I do "x" then I can't do "y". Y being something that brings you wellness.

This approach would apply to all areas of your life. Work, family, friends, volunteering, and even ministry. Just as we can get pulled away from God with good intentions (Oswald Cambers said "Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus, is service to Him"), we can get pulled away from taking care of ourselves because of those good intentions. Disclaimer here - it's tempting to make wellness our God, but always remember - it aint God.

Let me close by sharing 10 controling principles for the outward expression of simplicity from Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster.

1. Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status
2. Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you
3. Develop a habit of giving things away
4. Refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry
5. Learn to enjoy things without owning them
6. Develop a deeper appreciation for the creation
7. Look with a healthy skepticism at all "buy now, pay later" schemes
8. Obey Jesus' instructions about plain, honest speech. "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your'No', 'No' ".
9. Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.
10. Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God.

Foster closes this chapter on Simplicity with the following:

"May God give you -- and me -- the courage, the wisdom, the strength always to hold the kingdom of God as the number-one priority of our lives. To do so is to live in simplicity."

Are you in?

Priorities

I'm about to punch some of you in the solar plexus with what I'm about to say. This message has been in my drafts folder for quite a while. And since the buzz on setting New Year's resolutions is finally dead, it's time has come.

I had the opportunity in 1996 to go on a Christian spiritual retreat called "Walk to Emmaus". The name is based on the account of two guys who were walking along a road to the town of Emmaus, and these guys were totally disturbed because of Jesus' crucifixion the day before. Then some guy they didn't recognize came alongside them and completely explained the whole deal so they could understand, and later the two guys realized it was Jesus walking with them the whole time. This powerful story/lesson inspired a movement in the Catholic church called Cursillo which was eventually copied by the protestants and called "Walk to Emmaus". That's a long explanation for the name of a retreat you're thinking.

Here's my point. This retreat is a short course in Christianity. Its creators I'm sure spent countless hours, days, months, and years in preparation and prayer for what would be included in this retreat. Their purpose was to distill centuries of doctrine and belief into three days. The format of these 3 days includes, among other things, 14 talks about the elements of being a Christian. Do you know what the very first talk is about? You guessed it - priorities. These guys knew, as do we, that if our priorities are in order, aligned with our creator in the case of Christianity or any other belief system for that matter, then we will be most effective and fulfilled.

Earlier this year in "Early To Rise" Brian Tracy wrote about setting priorities. He referred to a 1970 book by sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield called The Unheavenly City (don't know what that means) that described one of the most profound studies on success and priority-setting ever conducted. If you "consume" Tracy's material you know he loves this study and refers to it often. Tracy writes:

"Banfield's goal was to find out how and why some people become financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes. He started off convinced that the answer to this question would be found in such things as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life is a particular attitude of mind. Banfield called this attitude "long time perspective." He said that people who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present. He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration, the more likely it was that he would achieve greatly during his career."

I know you're now wondering when your fit writing friend is gonna twist this message into an uncomfortable call to fitness/wellness action. Here I go. If you haven't figured it out, I have a target audience when I write. This audience, which includes 90+% of you, has a number of characteristics the most encompassing being that you're in your 30's and 40's. Did I choose this segment because that's where I am? Yes and no. Yes, because I/we tend to hang out with kids our own age. No, because people in their 30's and 40's are the one's who get off track (for "good" reasons), but are still young enough to avoid a train wreck.

We 30 and 40-somethings are in that period of life that involves enormous time commitments to work, family, and keeping the weeds out of our yard and life. Because of those time constraints, what do you think is the #1 objection to maintaining a wellness program? "I don't have the time". What are we really saying here? Here's that punch in the gut I promised you. What we're really saying is "it's not a priority for me". For those of us that aren't on a good program, did that make you skwirm?

So let's cut the crap. The next time I or someone else invites you to engage in something healthy, let's get real. Instead of the usual "I don't have the time", have the cahonies (figuratively speaking for my girl friends) to say "it's not a priority for me". And don't give me any flim flam that "my life is truly too busy to fit time in for exercise and eating well". Go back to what Banfield said and consider what your long term perspective looks like. If you're like 2/3 of Americans, the one's who are overweight and/or obese, your long term perspective will most certainly include what are now commonly referred to as "lifestyle diseases". Good news though. Theres lots of colorful pills you can take to keep you going. Kind of like "Fix a Flat", that aerosol spray that gets a flat tire going again - it don't fix the tire, but it does get you on the road.

My hope and prayer for the 10:10 Wellness community is that exercise and good eating are priorities for you this year and forever! And because many of you are already enjoying that abundance, I hope you'll find new ways to share that with others this year.

Five Ways to Pick up the Exercise Habit Again

Some good ideas from Mercola.com

Disney Success

Way to go Team Disney! You made your coach proud. I love you guys!

Here's Tammy's recap:

I can’t thank you enough for your support. I finished my first marathon as you probably guessed. I remember thinking at mile 9 that I was feeling real good and knew I’d make it the distance. But then somewhere around mile 15 my quads and knees were killing me. But thanks to bio-freeze and mind over matter, by mile 20 something came over me and I was able to block out the pain and time began to fly by. I think this is the first time I have actually achieved that “runners high” some refer to because regardless of the pain, it seemed I was in this place of bliss and each mile seemed easier than any I had run prior. Amazing feeling actually. I think my last mile was likely my fastest mile then entire race.

After passing the finish line, all I could think of is that I should just keep running because if I stopped, I might be in too much pain to walk, so I ran almost the entire way back to the sign out area. Lol. I am so sore but am so happy.

By the way, in case you haven’t heard, Katherine’s boyfriend met her at mile 9 and proposed to her. I get this third hand from one of the Tampa coaches. But isn’t that major coolJ

Here’s some photos from the day of the marathon. If you could forward them to the others, I’d appreciate it. Thanks again!!

Look at the bright side

Allan Murray in The Wall Street Journal

The last Disney team long run

Boy does a running season go fast. Here are a few shots from Saturday's trot through the Robinson Preserve.

A Dark Start

Barney, the waving dog, joined us for the entire run. A neighbor discovered him wandering around and took him in. He goes by "Buddy" now.

It appears that the dates didn't agree with the natives cause we saw lots of these piles.

A stiff but happy Marilee

The obligatory "dock shot"

Notice the team sweeping the path

Pink spoonbills searching for whatever pink spoonbills search for

Way to go Team!

Good luck and God bless at Disney!!!