Category Archives: Personal Growth

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4 Building Blocks To Develop A Daily Routine

This is part of the series How To Develop A Daily Routine. Check out more from the series!

A daily routine is essential if you want to be as effective as possible in your day to day activities. While there is a danger of developing a rut, a healthy routine can help you get more done, and done better, each day.

Building Blocks

I’ve found that there are four basic steps in establishing a daily routine. You can make this is simple or as complicated as you want. But no matter how elaborate you want your routine to be, these four actions can help you set things in order in your routine.

Research

Begin by looking at all the tasks that you need to accomplish each day. If you already have a routine that you’d like to tweak or improve, begin with these three areas: tasks that you already do, tasks that you need to add, and tasks that you need to eliminate or delegate. If you do not already have a routine, start by asking yourself a few questions, identifying what you need to do each day in areas like getting ready for work, preparing meals, housekeeping, errands, and anything else you do on a day to day basis.

Do this by making a list, adding everything you can think of. You can purge unnecessary tasks later if you don’t need them.

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How To Accomplish More With A Daily Routine

This is part of the series How To Develop A Daily Routine. Check out more from the series!

As a minister, developing a daily routine is crucial. Most of the time, in ministry, there is no one really watching over your shoulder to see if you are getting the work done. As a result, ministry can be a target for the lazy; and often the lazy get away without doing much.

Calendar - Daily Routine

As a minister, I’ve had to develop a strict routine over the years, but keep it in such a way that it can be flexible as needed. For example, I work on my sermons early in the week, blocking off Monday and Tuesday to do the bulk of the study and research. But what if someone comes into the office needing to talk? Or needs financial assistance? My routine is flexible enough to accommodate these types of interruptions, and I still have a significant portion of the week left to get back on track.

But for a long time, I simply had a list of things that needed to be done each week, and no rhyme or reason applied to when I did what. I would catch myself working on things with a very low priority, or getting distracted by social media, and suddenly my week was gone and I felt the pressure of the immediate deadline of the weekend.

In order to combat this, I developed my routine. And to keep me on track, I developed a chart depicting what my ideal week looked like, structured out enough to accomplish what I need to accomplish, while leaving enough flexibility and margin in to keep myself balanced and healthy. Along with this, I developed my Life Plan, identifying the most important aspects of my life, and becoming intentional about growing in these areas. (Thanks to Michael Hyatt for the inspiration and resources for these two items.)

Knowing what I was meant to do, and knowing what I needed to do to make those priorities happen freed me to focus on the truly important things without agonizing over whether or not I was doing the right things, or feeling the stress and pressure of procrastination.

Here are three things I’ve found to be beneficial when it comes to a daily routine.

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The Importance Of Routine

This is part of the series How To Develop A Daily Routine. Check out more from the series!

Developing a good routine is one of the most important parts of my day to day life. It can be a crucial element to being as effective as possible.

But routine can be detrimental, too. It can become a rut if you’re not careful.

Desert Ruts

This was made very evident to me over the past few weeks. You may already know, I just moved my family from the Gulf Coast of Florida to southern Missouri to take the lead minister role at Cabool Christian Church. This is a very exciting time for me, as a minister, and for my family, not only as we start a new ministry, but start a new type of ministry. I’ve been a minister to teens for more than two decades, and making the transition to the lead role in a church comes with a new learning curve.

But the process of making the ministry change, both from youth to preaching, and from Florida to Missouri, has caused some significant upheaval in our lives.

I have a pretty typical routine that I adhere to most days. The past several weeks have been difficult, simply because the familiar routine hasn’t been there.

Here are a few of the elements that occur in my morning routine on a daily basis, almost without fail. My morning starts with a cup of coffee, brewed in my Chemex, once I get to the office. While the water is heating, I boot up my computer and pull out my iPad and journals. Once the water is hot, and the coffee is brewed, I sit at the desk, and read the days’ passages from my Bible reading plan, usually using the Logos app on my iPad. When I finish my general reading, I turn to the passage I’m writing. On a normal day, I handwrite several verses from whatever book I’m currently working through, usually eight to ten or so, in my Journible. While I am writing these verses, I watch for things that stand out to me from the passage, with an eye to what God may be trying to teach me for the day. These I list out in my journal, along with other thoughts and prayers. All of this usually takes me around an hour or so.

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When God Shifts Your Focus

Twenty-three years ago, I started volunteering in a small youth ministry near Ozark Christian College. A couple of years later, I was hired as a weekend youth minister at Park Street Christian Church, my first “official” youth ministry. And from there, I continued to grow in my ministry effectiveness and skills as a youth minister.

Cabool Christian Church

If you had asked me at any point throughout most of my time in youth ministry, I would have told you that youth ministry was all I could ever see myself doing. And for a very long time it was.

However, as I have aged, God has changed my focus gradually. For some time, I’ve been thinking and feeling that my effectiveness as a minister to teens was coming to an end. My passions have been changing from planning events and lessons to writing sermons and articles. My relationships have shifted from hanging out with teens to parents and beyond. God has been shifting my focus into new areas of ministry.

Recently, one of the students from my first youth ministry contacted me, asking me if I knew of anyone interested in a position with the church where he was serving as worship minister in Cabool, Missouri. Since it was a preaching position, I didn’t think twice about it. After all, I’m a student minister, and have been for more than two decades. But after much prayer, and a few more conversations with that former student, my wife and I decided that this might be where God was calling us to go. So, we should check out the possibilities.

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How I Revitalize My Faith

This post was written as an editorial article for the Hernando Today, published on January 3, 2013.  You can see the article here.

 

Writing New Year's Resolutions

With the start of a new year comes a lot of New Year’s resolutions. It’s a fresh start, a time to begin anew in so many different areas of life. It’s the perfect opportunity to review where we’ve been and where we want to go.

One of the areas many people strive to revive is the spiritual life. While there are many ways to bring renewal to this foundational element of life, here are a few that I find especially helpful in my life, and in the life of my family.

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One Word 365 – 2013 Edition

For the past two years, I’ve selected a single word to live by throughout the year. This is a word that defines my life for the year, and helps undergird everything I do for the next twelve months.

One Word 365

In 2011, I chose to focus on the word passion. This word underlined all I did throughout the year. It defined the year. Everything I did, I did with enthusiasm, and passion was pretty visible in most areas of my life.

In 2012, I chose the word commit. One of my biggest struggles in my life has been to stick to many of the things I decide to do. I’m not referring to relationships or responsibilities, but more along the lines of interests and desires. For example, a few years ago, I decided to hone my photography skills. I decided to shoot a photo each day of the year. I outlined monthly themes with weekly sub themes. I didn’t even complete January. 2012 saw a significant improvement in this area, at least in my eyes.

I choose to identify and implement a word every year as a part of my life plan. I add this word to the beginning of my plan, and try to use it as a piece of the foundation for every portion of my plan. Some areas are more successful than others.

The last few months have been pretty intense in my life. 2012 held a lot of significant events and some huge changes and challenges. We moved from the midwest to the Gulf Coast of Florida, taking a new ministry with a pretty awesome church. But moving over a thousand miles and leaving our families and friends behind has been tough.

We’ve experienced the pregnancy of our sixth child for the entire time we’ve been in Florida.

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Losing Someone Always Leaves A Hole

I lost my brother, Mike, to cancer in 2005. He had just turned 30.

That’s too young.

Mike and Titus

Mike with my son, Titus

Today, he would have been 37 years old.

Even though several years have passed, I still sometimes grab the phone to give him a call.

And then I realize what I’m doing. There’s a hole there that cannot be filled.

However, I do have a hope. I know that I will see him again one day. And I’ll be able to catch up on all the “Happy Birthdays” that I can’t give him right now.

I’m thankful for that.

Happy Birthday, Mike! Love you! Miss you!