MY MORNING ROUTINE

“You will never CHANGE YOUR LIFE until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your DAILY ROUTINE.” —John Maxwell

I really believe that statement. That’s why over the years I’ve established the following routine. It’s critical to my approach to life. Seriously!

1)   Rise Early

Getting up early is not difficult for me, and I really feel like it gives me a head start on the day.

I love it! I love the part of the morning when no one else is up, no one is stirring, and none of the electronics in my house are on… It’s just the lamp, the coffee maker, my dog, and me.

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” —Aristotle

“The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years.” —Thomas Jefferson

2)   Time with God

Beginning every morning with God is a daily goal. This is not a religious routine or legalistic exercise. If I miss a day, I don’t allow guilt and shame to overwhelm me. But I’ve discovered that I’m actually desperate for God. I need Him. Beginning each day with Him establishes God as the number one priority of my day and my life.  

So, I attempt to begin every morning by spending time with my Father. Here’s what that looks like for me.

• Reading my Bible

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” —Psalm 119:130

Youversion.com provides several helpful Bible reading plans. Two of my favorite plans are the following:

The M'Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan

Reading God’s Story: One-Year Chronological Plan

I do my morning Bible reading on my computer, but do not allow myself to open email, Slack, Google, etc. during this time. (I get so easily distracted.) So during this time, I usually open BibleGateway, which allows me to pull up four translations of the Bible at once (NIV, NLT, ESV and The Message), the Bible Reading plan I’m working through on Youversion.com, and my journal.

My primary translation of choice during my morning routine is the NLT. But if something really speaks to me, I can easily check out the other translations to get clarity on the passage.

By using my computer, I can also easily copy and paste a passage that is especially meaningful to me into my journal.

Every day I keep a journal that includes my Bible reading, prayers I feel led to pray, meaningful quotes I may run across during the day, and thoughts that I want to keep track of… I’ve been keeping these digital logs since 2012.

• Prayer

I’ve never felt very competent when it comes to prayer. While I love to read the Bible, prayer has often been challenging for me.

A few years ago I ran across a recommendation from someone that suggested that we simply pray the passages of Scripture we’ve read during our personal time with God. That resonated with me. So, now I usually take portions from my Bible reading and turn them into prayers to God. Sometimes I write these prayers out. And at others times I simply pray.

By the way, prayer lists have also been helpful to me. I’ve been praying over some lists for years…

• Worship / Express Gratitude

Sometimes I begin my time with God with worship. At other times worship concludes my time with God. This involves stuff like singing, writing out prayers or thoughts to God, meditating on God, meditating on a Scripture I just read and / or just expressing my love to God using my own words.

Worship and gratitude are great ways to begin a day!

“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.” ——Lemony Snicket 

3)   Exercise

After spending time with God, I love to exercise. This can involve a brisk walk, a jog or a workout in the gym.

Physical exercise is critically important to me. It clears and refreshes my mind, energizes my body, elevates my mood and helps me to keep the goals I’ve established related to physical health. Further, as a guy who has battled with depression, I’ve discovered that exercise is even critical to my mental and emotional health.

4)   Listen to podcasts or music

During exercise, I almost always listen to a podcast. I use the 1.5x or 2x speed to increase the rate at which I’m able to listen. This also helps me to stay focused. Last week I provided a list of some of the podcasts I love to listen to…

Then, on some days, like today, I listen to music. I love music! Love it! Today I used a playlist I created on Spotify and it really accelerated my jogging time and also encouraged and inspired me!

I’ll just “bullet” the last three items on my daily routine, because they really speak for themselves…

5)   Get ready for work

6)   Eat a healthy breakfast

7)   Take my vitamins

Okay, that’s what my routine looks like. I’m not perfect at it, by any means… But when this stuff happens, it sets me up for a great day!

How about you? Have you established routine that helps set the tone for your day?

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” ―Jim Rohn

Do You Have A Growth Mindset?

Carol Dweck is a world renown Stanford University psychologist. Almost ten years ago she released an incredible, best-selling book called Mindset. In the book, Dweck compares people with a “fixed mindset” and people with “growth mindset..”

Take a moment to determine which mindset best describes you and your approach to life.

How did you do?

Here’s the great news: you can determine which mindset best describes you. Is your mindset currently “fixed”? Have you bought the line that there’s nothing you can do to grow intellectually, strengthen your character, become more creative or leverage your gifts? Ready to start embracing life’s challenges, instead of running from them? You can change your mindset! You can determine the way you’re going to approach life!

Make a decision today that you will become a person who diligently, relentlessly and continually pursues personal growth. Review the list above daily for one week. Get started now!

Six Areas We Need To Dream About — Part 2

“Everybody ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose.” —Andy Stanley

In my last post I covered the first two aspects or areas of my life that are critically important to me. Here are four additional areas I think and dream about regularly. 

• My Career

I’m a pastor. I love what I do. I mean LOVE IT! Here’s the dream statement I’m using right now for what I hope to accomplish as a pastor.

I want to faithfully lead a2 Church into becoming a thriving, growing, “Acts 2” biblically functioning community of believers, where…

-worship is passionate,

-relationships are authentic, growing and life-giving,

-outreach is taking place on a daily basis as people share their faith and invite people to join them at a2,

-God’s truth is communicated in fresh, relevant ways through the use of all the arts, and a2 itself becomes a leader in fanning into flames the creative gifts of all artists

-people experience life change and total transformation as they apply God’s Word to their lives, grow in their relationship with the Jesus and do life in a small group,

-develop a campus that is “state of the art,” yet functional and includes worship space that lends itself to theatrical productions, a children’s and student ministry center, classrooms, a counseling center and office space beautifully situated on the property God has given us…

-we are committed to supporting career missionaries, sending out hundreds of participants on short-term missions trips and launching at least one new church plant every year…

Okay, that's longer than two or three sentences... I’ll keep tweaking it, but reading and reviewing it on a regular basis keeps me focused on what I'm attempting to accomplish.

• Financial Freedom

Here’s my dream statement regarding our finances:

Live in financial freedom by honoring God with His tithe, excelling in generosity, being completely debt free, and leaving a legacy for our children and grand children.

Janet and I have a long way to go on this one, but we’re making progress.

• Physical Health

I believe the way we treat our body is a matter of stewardship. Our body is a gift from God. What we eat, whether or not we exercise, making certain we get an adequate amount of sleep, and taking a day off every week, all of this matters.

So, here’s the dream statement I’ve written regarding my health:

To honor God with my physical body by pursuing a healthy diet, exercising six times a week, and developing good sleep habits. I also want to honor God, refresh my body and mind, and refuel my spirit by taking off one day every week. 

That's a pretty simple, concise and doable statement. 

The decisions I make today about my health will have repercussions tomorrow. If I continually neglect my physical health I'm potentially creating significant burdens and responsibility for my children and grandchildren. It’s my goal to enjoy life as long as I’m breathing. Living out this dream statement makes that possible.

• Personal Growth

Finally, here’s my dream statement for personal growth.  

To pursue lifelong learning and personal growth by reading daily, listening to podcasts, attending growth conferences and developing relationships with people who challenge me to keeping growing.

Remember the old “United Negro College Fund” ad back in the 70’s? Probably not. But I do. It included this tag line: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Thirty-five to forty years later, I still remember those ads. Wow! 

Here's what blows me away: every day a significant number of people are wasting their God-given mind and intellect on cheap “eye candy” and intellectual junk food. We're veggies out on hours of television, social media and a 24-hour news cycle, when we could be growing our mind and our spirit. I really believe we were made for more!

Make a decision today that you're going to keep growing until you stop breathing. Read books. Listen to podcasts. (Here's a list of the podcasts I regularly listen to.) Attend conferences. Join a small group or book club. A mind is still a terrible thing to waste.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste...

That’s it! Six areas I regularly think about and six statements that help define my life, dictate my calendar and hopefully determine my outcome.

Why not take time this week to write out a “dream statement” for the important areas of your life? Then, regularly review these statements.

It could change everything.