Category: motivation

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motivation

Bloom Where You are Planted But Don’t be a Vegetable

Yellow Wildflowers along a running trail

The other day, I met an old friend. He is a steady, dependable guy if there ever was one. He epitomizes the phrase, Bloom where you are planted. He’s done so and has been quite successful at his work and life.

He was shocked when my wife and I moved from Indiana. And I suppose he is still shocked because he said, “It appears you’re no longer concerned with becoming rooted.” Of course, he forgets we have roots in Ohio as well as Indiana.

My wife and I felt led to move five years ago. I am glad we did. Yet I still agree you are to bloom where you are planted. While goals are important, those goals can be where you are or in a new place. The important thing is you keep growing no matter if you never intend to move, or if you have a case of wanderlust.

We are not vegetables. Yes, we are to make a difference where we are right now. At the same time, You can grow where you were born, or you can grow if you are transplanted in a new place. Just keep growing!

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motivation

Learning Leads to Change

I get it. Some people don’t like change… most people don’t like change! It’s uncomfortable. We’ve worked hard to get where we are and we want to keep it. We love our kids and we don’t want them to ever move away, or grow into adults, for that matter. Change can be tough.

But if we resist change, does that mean we resist learning? Does it mean our growth is stunted? If we’re the same people we were twenty years ago, is that healthy? Is it really possible to remain in the twentieth century?

Change is the result of all true learning

Leo Buscaglia

Yesterday is gone. It’s a memory tainted with today’s biases. What worked then may not work now. At the very least, it may need to be modified. We will either learn and embrace change, or we will resist change and fade away. Let’s learn today and make the changes that keep us relevant.

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church cartoons motivation

Flagrant Use of Emojis

Cartoon of a pastor with a disgruntled couple. The wife says, "He can't express his feelings. he even uses emojis incorrectly!"

Emotions are tricky things. We all have them. It’s how we express them that gets complicated. In the workplace, it can get even dicier.

  • Do you let someone know you are going through a hard time?
  • Will it be used against you?
  • Is it appropriate to shed tears of joy when a coworker brings in doughnuts?

One thing I know for sure is the use of emojis at work is still considered inappropriate in most places. A smiley face just doesn’t look right in an email discussing the next round of employee appraisals.

You can try your hand at it if you feel daring. But I have a feeling there are too many guys like the one in today’s cartoon that can’t discern when it’s appropriate to use certain emojis and to whom.

Emojis require interpretation. The sender and the receiver of a message need to be on the same page when communicating. Is the communication clear? Can a heart emoji be misinterpreted as sarcasm or a sincere love? Know your audience before you send that emoji of a pig or a cow!

I drew this for the November 2019 Church of God Newsletter.

Cartoon of a pastor with a disgruntled couple. The wife says, "He can't express his feelings. he even uses emojis incorrectly!"
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motivation

If You’re Stuck, Get Moving!

It’s Sir Isaac Newton’s Three Laws of Motion in Action. Objects in motion, tend to stay in motion. If you’re feeling stuck with some part of your life, the tendency is to wish things will change without doing anyting to change the situation.

If you’re feeling stuck, get moving!

  • Try something new you haven’t done before
  • Change up your routine
  • Quit something that isn’t working and move on to something else

There are no guarantees that things will automatically change. But there is little chance until you make some sort of change and get moving.

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motivation

The Urgent and the Essential

https://twitter.com/HenriNouwen/status/230384864438919168?s=20

This tweet by Henri Nouwen struck me the other day. The work environment can be dominated by the urgent. How many times have you heard, “This job is hot!” from multiple people in the same day?  We are very good at putting a high urgency on jobs, but not very good at tackling the important tasks. We end up stuck in the tyranny of the urgent.

The other day, I had a job that was suddenly hot. I soon found out that there were details missing that were crucial to the success of the job. If I had sent it to the printer without questioning the details, the job would have been done wrong. A rushed job done wrong will be late and will have waste. Urgency can cost us wasted money and time.

The temptation is to jump at the urgent. Take a breath, slow down and ask if this hot job is really important. And if it is, are all the essential details are there to make it a successful job.