Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Recently, I read two articles on the Harvard Business Review blog: Fatigue Is Your Enemy and Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time. Tony Schwartz writes … Two years ago, I began hearing the phrase ‘It isn’t sustainable’ over and over from senior executives. They were talking about the everyday demands at work. The day of … Read more
Health and well-being has been a focus of mine over the last several months (most recently, Hitting the Wall). Today, I read that three United Methodist general agencies joined forces to focus on clergy health. The result is a report on 13 Factors That Influence Clergy Health. The intro paragraph from the PDF states … … Read more
Earlier this week, I blogged about the The Pain of Discipline vs. the Pain of Regret. The pain of discipline is future-oriented, while the pain of regret is past-oriented. Another way to think about it is with the two terms “next time” and if only” (this idea isn’t original with me; I just don’t remember … Read more
Yesterday, Gary Thompson posted on Twitter … The pain of discipline is not as great as the pain of regret. The statement both resonates with me and challenges me. In terms of taking care of your health, a similar idea is expressed in the statement, “Prevention is the best medicine.” Better to be disciplined on … Read more
Recently, I wrote a post on Wayne Cordeiro’s book, Leading on Empty. Cordeiro writes, “Sooner or later every long-distance runner encounters the wall. Regardless of how well-trained the athlete, he will meet it one day, and he will meet it head on (34).” Well, I believe I hit the wall five months ago, on June … Read more
In 2006, Pastor Wayne Cordeiro gave a talk at the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit called, Dead Leader Running. The talk struck a chord with me, at the time, and Cordeiro’s experience has stuck with me. In fact, when my ordeal began 19 weeks ago, it was one of the first things I thought … Read more
Recently, I reviewed one of Bill Hybels’ talks from the 2011 Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. In the talk, Hybels mentions the “discipline of replenishment.” Because of where I’m at right now, the phrase struck a chord. Hybels says every leader needs to practice the discipline of replenishment. Otherwise, you’ll burn out. While this … Read more
In June, I wrote about 3 Steps I’m Taking to Manage Stress Better. One step was to call a heath coach. I called a health coach (available through our health insurance) several weeks ago, and specifically discussed techniques to relax and lower stress levels. Here are some of the things we talked about … Exercise … Read more
I recently finished reading Secrets From the Treadmill by Pete Briscoe and Patricia Hickman. The book spent several years on my reading pile (I picked it up during my D.Min. days at Asbury), but I decided to finally get to it when I realized I needed to manage stress better. I took it with me … Read more
I love listening to music, especially worship music. Songs have always played an important role in my journey. See Songs for Leaders. More recently, as I’ve been trying to manage stress better, some songs have been ministering to me. The first song is “Steady My Heart” by Kari Jobe. Of course, the song has a … Read more