Tag Archive - purpose

Cultivating Discipline, Part 6: Cut Yourself Some Slack…

August 20, 2010 in being christian with 1 Comment

I am not a perfectionist… but I’ve worked with a few of them.

It seems like a pretty miserable existence to me… Constantly stressed about every detail of every project… Unable to collaborate, delegate or overlook the tiny flaws…

Don’t get me wrong, I stress about project details and I get focused on correcting issues, and sometimes, I have been known to push a little too hard.

But I learned a long time ago that outcomes are rarely perfect, but most of the time no one notices…

Except the perfectionists.

I hesitate to hate on the perfectionists too much, because I have some perfectionist friends… And I LOVE having a perfectionist on my team. As a leader, it’s a huge weight off my shoulders to have someone else that I can count on to stress about the details…

Truth is, I feel bad for a person who is locked into a destructive pattern of perfectionism… In general, perfectionism is “destructive” when it looks like this:

1. If you are always on edge…. The stress of getting every detail arranged according to your vision is unmanageable.

2. If it limits the scope of your leadership because you (like any micromanager) can only lead as much as you can do yourself…

3. If the fear of failure is paralyzing for you or you would rather not work on a project where the outcome is likely to be imperfect.

The ex-perfectionists that I know all understand a very liberating reality:

They aren’t perfect and (in spite of best efforts) never were.

So, after you suck it up, don’t forget to cut yourself some slack… Your heart will thank you.

Now, I gotta go look at revision 17 of this graphics project I’m working on…

NEXT in this series: Making Good Decisions…

Cultivating Discipline, Part 5: Suck It Up…

August 18, 2010 in being christian, creativity, leadership with 3 Comments

Aw... Poor thing... Suck it up...

The “path of least resistance” is virtually the same as the “road of good intentions”…

Think about this: If you have a goal (let’s say you intend to lose 10 pounds) but you skip the gym every time you come to an obstacle or time conflict, you are never going to reach that goal…

Because all of our worthy aspirations are met with resistance…

I don’t really have an explanation for this, but I have a theory:

Since our best, most worthy goals are designed to improve us or our world, they are likely to run afoul the status quo…

I’ve never made it my goal to gain 10 pounds of fat, unlearn an instrument or narrow my friend-network to something manageable like 2 or 3 people… Those outcomes can happen all by themselves because I am introverted, lazy and tend to medicate with Oreos…

Paul has this to say:

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.     – Paul, The Bible, Philippians 3:13-14

It always makes me smile when I hear Christians talking about “pressing on” or “pressing in” because that’s so 15th century… Modern paraphrase: “Suck it up.”

To conquer the inertia of the-way-things-are, I have to suck it up to reach for the-way-things-could be…

Here’s an example:

I’ve been trying to interview an artist for the site for 3 months. We’ve set appointments and I’ve missed them… sometimes through no fault of my own… but I feel like a schmuck every time it has happened. The temptation to just quietly stop trying is overwhelming to an introvert like me…

But the goal is more important than my insecurity… The prize more appealing than the comfort of retreating into my embarrassment…

So, I suck it up and keep trying…

The payoff is that I’ll have the opportunity to learn from this artist, share his encouragement with you and move closer to my own larger goals…

So, what inner turmoil is holding you back? What does it look like when you “suck it up” and push toward your goals?

NEXT in this series: Cut Yourself Some Slack…

Breaking News: Art Degrees Not Very Lucrative…

August 12, 2010 in creativity with 2 Comments

I think this falls under the category of too-obvious-to-be-news, but Payscale Inc. has issued their list of the 20 worst-paying college degrees… Here’s a link to the CBS MoneyWatch article.

For the record, this is the first animated bling to ever appear on WOP...

And guess what? There are 5 art degrees on the list… For the right-brainers, that’s 25%… Degrees involving children also account for 25% of the list… Ministry studies made 10% of the list in 2 separate categories as well…

I don’t expect that anyone will be surprised… I’m certainly not, since I’m sitting-pretty with a dual major in Religion and Theatre Arts…

My question is: Why do we study art? or theology? or disciplines that involve children? If it’s not for the bling…

I can answer for myself, after six years in a job that was math and engineering focused, life is more than the sum of your net worth and satisfaction is more about passion than about my personal balance sheet.

But I gotta eat and nobody wants to pay me to believe in the power of my dreams…

So, most of us will have to find a way to pay the bills while we work on the artistic pursuits that fuel our passion…

The CBS article ends with this clever dig:

If you’d rather end up with one of the best-paying college degrees, you’ll have to major in something that requires a lot of math classes.

I think if somebody had told me this going in, I’d have picked a more lucrative, third major… Of course, I could’ve been a doctor in the same amount of time…

How about you?

Cultivating Discipline, Part 3: Character and Discipline…

August 2, 2010 in being christian, leadership with 1 Comment

As a particularly undisciplined person, I have often shrugged-off the connection between discipline and character… But lately, I’ve sort of been challenged to do things that only a person of great character could do…

And I don’t wanna…

I’m not whining, just generalizing in a way that I hope will challenge you to think about this…

Jesus told his followers that this world would throw hardship and trouble at them (John 16:33) but “take heart,” He said, “I have overcome the world.”

Could character be fueled by the discipline to do things that are difficult, painful or heart-killing?

This promise that Jesus overcame the world sometimes seems hollow in light of the very real pain that the world dishes out. But the same power that fueled Jesus is alive in those who follow Him…

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
- Paul, the Bible (Romans 8:35)

When Paul wrote these words, he was facing tremendous persecution, in the next verse he says that he faces the threat of death continuously… Then he goes on to answer his question:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  (above, verse 37)

So, there is a supernatural work going on inside that gives us the potential to more-than-conquer (overcome even) some pretty extreme hardship… But I find that I am often way-laid by some simple slight… or thrown off-course by someone’s harsh words… or discouraged by the decisions of those in leadership…

Where’s the disconnect? What happened to all of the overcoming and more-than-conquering that I was supposed to experience? After I pray and repeat the promises to myself… After I conjure all of the spiritual-sounding jargon that has ever been thrown at me… If I’m still way-laid or off-course or discouraged, what am I missing?

Discipline?

Really?

I’m throwing this out for your consideration… I think I’m onto something life-changing.  You see, lately I’ve been discouraged and it effects every aspect of my life: I don’t feel like writing, don’t feel like balancing the checkbook, don’t feel like doing anything around the house, don’t feel like taking my daughter to the library… You get the idea, right?

But when I push past the feelings and do these things (that’s discipline, right?), something cool happens: I find that I have just a bit more “feeling” for the next thing… and the next thing… and the cumulative effect:

I’m overcoming that discouragement.

I think this is why Paul compares the life of a Christ-follower to the life of a distance-runner:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… I beat my body and make it my slave…
- Paul, The Bible (1 Corinthians 9:25, 27)

There is a balance between the work that Jesus did (when He overcame the world) and the discipline I need in order to access that work (to overcome obstacles in my own life)… Does that seem right to you? Do you see a similar truth in your own life?

NEXT in this series: Habit-forming…

Cultivating Discipline, Part 2: The Fallow Ground…

July 21, 2010 in creativity, leadership with 1 Comment

Jesus told a story about seeds that fell on different types of soil… The seeds that fell on the path were trampled by the careless or eaten up by birds and never put down roots or produced a crop (Luke 8:4-8).  And while Jesus was not talking about cultivating artistic discipline in that particular context, the lesson is the same for us:

Your gift will die before it gets a chance to grow if you don’t prepare the soil of your life… You’ve got to give your gifts a safe and satisfying place to be nurtured and grow…

I think the imagery of the path is really appropriate in our context: there is a tendency in life to fall into habits… we pace over the same bit of ground long enough and we wear a path there. For me, this is a particularly intense struggle…

I could eat at the same restaurant every day… Camp in the same park… Hike the same trails… Visit the same attraction… It’s a kind of joke between me and my wife: If I ever say something crazy like, “Let’s try that new Mexican restaurant,” she will mock me relentlessly.

The “paths” in my life are well worn and tightly packed… I like them that way. These ways are safe… they are comfortable. There is little risk in walking these roads, unless you consider it risky to avoid my own potential.

Because sowing the seeds of my potential on this well-packed soil is pointless… It will either be trampled on by passers-by or consumed by scavengers.

So, for me, breaking up the fallow ground starts with plowing up my comfortable path… or leaving it altogether and casting my potential onto the fertile soil of risk…

This metaphorical outlook points to a single, profound principle:

I must develop my character in a way that gives my gifts a safe place to grow and be fruitful.

See, this is the place where our leaders failed us… We received the most applause when we performed or produced or succeeded. This is especially true of kids growing up in church. I was 8-years-old the first time I sang a solo in “big church.” People started talking immediately about Tim-the-Music-Minister. It would be 20 years later that I first heard the suggestion that talent-alone was a poor substitute for substantial character…

Here’s another example:

As creatives, we have a tendency toward pride… In fact, most of us will always dance on the fine line between self-confidence and arrogance.  The first gives boldness and voice to our work, the second brings opposition from God Himself (James 4:6).

Pride packs the soil of our lives in the same way that routine does… and we have to plow it up and abandon the path in the same way.  In this example, humility is the fertile soil where our gifts and talents will grow and be fruitful…

What has packed the soil of your life into a well-worn path? It could be fear of failure or a critical spirit or deceit… It might be 2 or 3 of these examples or one that I haven’t listed…

NEXT in this series: Character and Discipline…
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