Job Hunting

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If I were looking for a job right now here's a few things I'd be doing...

1. Reading/Reviewing these books: The Art of Possibility, 48 Days to the Work You Love, The Total Money Makeover, & Strengths Finder 2.0.

2. Wake up early & get 8 hours of sleep.

3. Exercise.

4. Get involved in everything: Church, community programs, or anything where I have constant contact with others.

5. Stop reading or watching the news. It's a hope inhibitor.

6. Apply for jobs I don't intend to take in hopes of being able to practice interviews.

7. Review my resume everyday.

8. List 20 places I'd like to work and have lunch with anyone I knew who might work at those places.

9. List 20 businesses I could start and begin doing 2-3 of them for free.

10. Pray.

Goal Realignments

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Mark Sanborn pointed out that "Resolutions are about resolve, not wishful thinking. Depending on the data you believe, less than 50% of New Years resolutions last past sixty days. The failure rate for resolutions in general is probably similar." That would mean a lot of us are over half-way to being finished with our resolutions for this year.

According to Dan Miller, there are seven areas that you should focus on when developing goals. If you fail to carry out goals in any of those areas, your life will run like a flat tire. To be well rounded, picture the following goals as spokes on a wheel: Career, Physical, Financial, Social, Family, Intellectual, Spiritual. If you leave one out, something in your life will be missing.

I've taken some time to realign some of the goals I set at the beginning of the year, and I did an exercise I really enjoyed. I took the results of my Strengths Finder 2.0 test and used the book to identify what I could do to improve in my strengths rather than just focusing on trying to overcome my weaknesses (something I would venture to say inspires most of the failed resolutions).

So, I realigned my goals by putting each of my 5 strengths as subcategories under the seven goals. Any goals I had that did not appeal to my strengths, I put on the back burner. This exercise really made looking at my goals more exciting and fulfilling - particularly with my "career" goals. I don't dread what it will take to accomplish any of the things I've listed.

Submitting to Authorities

Romans 13:1-7 can be a difficult passage for me sometimes. Especially, when I feel like people throw it in the face of others during elections. When Paul was addressing this issue, it was already understood among Jews that they should respect and pray for authority. During that era, there seemed to be a sort of mutual respect where "you don't cause trouble for us, we won't cause trouble for you." They didn't choose Roman leaders, and even though many Roman leaders flexed their muscles, it was a big pill to swallow when it came to praying for some of their leaders.

So, in our democracy we decide who our leaders are. Yet, who ever gets elected we say "God appointed them" based on the Romans 13 passage. In which case, does my vote really matter? Wait...that is getting into a Calvinistic way of thinking with predestination and all. Do Christians agree on Calvinism? I don't think they do.

See the struggle? Now, apply the same thought process to how many churches "elect" elders/shepherds. Don't we often treat the situation like a democracy? Should we?

I am all about praying for our leaders. In fact, I am all about praying for everyone. When I read that passage, I wonder if our culture today loses a lot of meaning and purpose behind Paul's words in translation. For example, what does it mean to different individuals today when we say "submit to authorities?" I bet not everyone answers the same.

I could go on but it's not that I disagree with Paul and Scripture. I'm just laying out some thoughts to stretch my mind a little - and maybe yours.

You got any thoughts?

Scooters: New vs. Used

When we bought our scooters a few years ago, we bought them new for two reasons.

Unlike motorcycles, you could not easily find scooters in Tennessee at the time. Second, in the event that we had found a used scooter we could not guarantee that the following didn't happen with the previous owner.

Why 7291?

I've always wondered why Google mail decided that I should have 7291 MB of storage. Why not round it down to 7k or up to 8k? I wonder if there is something special about that particular number.I don't really care to form any conspiracy theory but if you'd like to, I would enjoy seeing what you had to say.

Overtime

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Seth Godin discussed a pet peeve of mine on his blog. I really hate it when speakers go over their allotted amount of time - even when they are really good. It's not their decision to take longer than planned and it's disrespectful.

However, I disagreed with this statement by Godin.

"No one ever leaves a speech or a eulogy or a presentation saying, 'I wish it was longer.'"

In most cases, Godin is right about this. But, there have been speeches and presentations that I wish had gone longer, but that's what makes a presentation great. The encore effect leaves listeners wanting more. However, when a presenter takes more than their allotted time, everything they said is easily forgotten. People are left remembering that the speaker thought his points were more important than the listener's time.

Having said all of this, I thought the sermon I heard yesterday was great in content and time.