Daily Meditations for April 2010
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April is Action Month! Celebrate April by taking action on something good
that you haven't done yet. And pass the word that April is Action Month.
To celebrate Action Month, our meditations for April will be on topics related to taking action.
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4/27/10
Don't panic!
Douglas Adams wrote that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has the words "DON'T PANIC" printed on its cover in large friendly letters. It's not bad advice, no matter where you are in the galaxy: don't panic.
Do what you can with what you have. Do your best. Use your time well. But don't panic. There's lots you can't do. Let it go.
If you're in motion, creating useful things, there won't be enough time or resources to get it all done. You'll wind up with more ideas than you could accomplish in ten lifetimes. Or twenty. Or, more likely, a million. The more ideas you have, the more you get.
Eventually, you'll start tossing out some really good ideas. If you can, choose the best, and let the rest go. Don't panic.
At some point, the paperwork will stack up, and you won't be able to get it all done. Make the best choices you can and stay in motion.
Here's a prayer:
God, help me not to panic when so much is left undone! Help me to make the best use of my time. And for anything that needs to be done that I can't get to, help me to find the best people to help. Thank you. Amen.
Photo: Construction equipment, La Jolla, CA
© 2010 Mark Dahle
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4/20/10
This is the day
This is the day. This is the time you have. Perhaps it's raining or you're sick or you have problems. This is still the day that you have. Will you make use of it?
If you wait until conditions are right, you will accomplish far less. (How many products would Microsoft have shipped if they waited until they got them defect-free?)
Now is the time to take action, even if you're not ready. Even if the day is not perfect.
When the symphony is done, no one will know by listening to it if you were sick when you wrote it. Or deaf, like Beethoven. When the novel is finished, readers won't be able to tell if you were inspired and in the flow during a particular paragraph or if it took you hours to compose. All the paragraphs will look alike to readers, regardless of the effort they took you to compose. When the child is an adult, no one will be able to tell if the child's character was best formed on a "good" day for you or a day you could barely get out of bed.
Here's a prayer:
God, thanks for today. Help me to use it will. Thank you! Amen.
Photo: Culvert, Black Point Wildlife Drive
© 2010 Mark Dahle
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4/7/10
A change of plans
I was lucky. On one of the first days of the cruise, I spotted an industrial site, headed over with my camera, and spent a wonderful afternoon getting some great pictures.
I was in Hawaii, taking photos of machines. I know that won't sound like luck to everyone. But I love taking pictures of industrial sites, so finding this one made my day.
A couple days later, strong waves trapped us on the ship. We only had one day at this particular port, and we couldn't get to it. Whatever was there to see and experience, we missed.
I could have spent the day like some passengers, moping about the bad luck. Or I could have spent the day like others, distracting myself from the disappointment by following one amusement after another. (Distractions aren't a bad way to spend an hour or two, but they're a lousy way to spend a life.) Instead, I did something few of the passengers did. I asked myself, "What if I treated this time on the ship the same as my time at that industrial site, when I was glad to be at the location? What If I chose to be happy about being on board and acted as if I wanted to be here?"
I started touring the ship with a fresh perspective, camera in hand. I had a great day. As it turns out, there are lots of industrial photos hidden in the rigging and mechanics of a cruise ship.
I've read a couple authors over the past month who have mentioned the value of having a child-like perspective in your present position. Daniel H. Pink is one of them, writing in his book Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. He says:
Children careen from one flow moment to another, animated by a sense of joy, equipped with a mindset of possibility, and working with the dedication of a West Point cadet. They use their brains and their bodies to probe and draw feedback from the environment in an endless pursuit of mastery. 130
Here's a prayer:
God, if we're not in the right spot, help us to move. But once we're in the right spot, help us to appreciate this day and get as much out of it as we can. Help us to be animated by joy, seeing the possibilities around us, and working as hard as we can, pursuing mastery. Help us to work on things that matter. Thank you. Amen.
Photo: Cruise ship stainless steel, Hawaii
© 2010 Mark Dahle |
4/6/10
Starting new
Sometimes people work on projects they should abandon. They've invested so much time and energy, they don't want to quit, even if they can tell that further efforts won't be worth it.
Ori and Rom Brafman discuss this bias in their book Sway: the irresistible pull of irrational behavior. One of the irrational behaviors they discuss is the tendency to keep working on something that has become futile.
The Brafmans quote Andy Grove, who wrote in his book Only The Paranoid Survive that in 1985 Intel was losing money. The Japanese were mass-producing memory chips, Intel's core business at that time. Andy asked Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel, "If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?"
They both knew the answer: A new leader, with no emotional attachments, would make the wrenching change of getting Intel out of its money-losing business. Andy asked Gordon why they shouldn't go out the door and come back in as the "new" CEO and president. There was no reason to be fired and have someone else do a job they both were capable of doing.
It may be helpful for you to adopt this strategy: To fire yourself and then return as if you were the new person hired to take a fresh look at everything. Would someone new keep all your projects? How might they work on them differently? What new opportunities would they pursue instead?
Here's a prayer:
God, help me to see what I'm doing with a fresh perspective. If I should make any changes, help me to make them, even if they're life-changing. Thank you! Amen.
Photo: Flower bud, Hilo, HI
© 2010 Mark Dahle |
4/5/10
Getting started
Sometimes it's easy to know where to start.
Other times? The choices overwhelm us.
If you can't figure out what to do because there are too many options, one strategy is to pick whatever you can accomplish the fastest. Finish that, and you'll have the satisfaction of getting something done. You'll probably be fired up enough to work on the next-easiest project on your list.
Chip and Dan Heath talk about ways to stay motivated and accomplish goals in their excellent book Switch: How to change things when change is hard. One technique they cite is proposed by Marla Cilley. Marla suggests a five-minute room rescue for people who are having trouble cleaning their houses. The technique: Pick the worst room in the house. Set a timer for five minutes. Work as fast as you can until the timer goes off. When the time is up, you're done.
At the end of the five minutes, you'll have accomplished something visible. And it won't have been that hard.
That small start can provide the energy for the next step.
April is Action Month. What will you do today to move yourself closer to one of your goals?
God, help me to pick something worth working on, and help me to take action on it today. Thank you. Amen.
Photo: Getting Started, Hilo, HI
© 2010 Mark Dahle |
4/3/10
Work arounds
If you've got a hole in your roof, one way to fix it is to stick an umbrella in it.
The repair may not last in a typhoon, but it'll get you by for a day or two.
Sometimes workarounds seem to be good enough, but they create an atmosphere where excellence is not expected. And often they fail just when you really need them. In the middle of a typhoon, you'll wish you had done a better job fixing the roof.
Steven Spear discusses workarounds in his book Chasing the Rabbit: How market leaders outdistance the competition and how great companies can catch up and win.
Spear says that great companies don't tolerate work arounds -- instead they surround problems with people and resources to quickly fix both the symptom and the cause of it. Then they share the knowledge they gained throughout the company so the problem doesn't recur.
God, when we discover problems, help us to fix them with solutions that will last. Thank you. Amen.
Photo: Roof repaired with umbrella, Hilo, HI
© 2010 Mark Dahle |
4/2/10
Wheel spinning
Wheel spinning isn't helpful. Wheel spinning produces lots of action, and gets no results. Wheel spinning is different from perseverance, the good quality of persisting when working on something of value, even if it's hard.
If your car is stuck in the snow, pushing the gas pedal isn't going to help. The wheels just spin faster. That's wheel spinning: Doing something that hasn't worked before and expecting it to work now.
If your car is stuck in the snow, perseverance is getting out of the car and changing the conditions. Give the car a push. Put gravel under the tires. Dig yourself out. Do something, anything, that's different from what wasn't working before.
If you're working on something hard, it's important to keep in mind the difference between wheel spinning and perseverance because perseverance can feel like wheel spinning, even though it will eventually result in a different outcome.
When Thomas Alva Edison and his team invented the light bulb, they tried hundreds of things before they found one that worked. If you're working on a difficult problem that's worth solving, it may take hundreds (or thousands) of experiments to find a solution. Keep trying new things.
If you're working on a cure to malaria, nobody wants you to quit just because the task is hard. If you're bringing clean water to villages without sanitation, it's good to persist even if you encounter roadblocks, because the task is worth it. If you're raising kids, the task is a valuable one, and you should persist even if it feels like things aren't going so well today. If you're doing a valuable task and nothing seems to be working, try something new.
And if you need help figuring out if you're persisting on something worthwhile or just wheel spinning, check out Seth Godwin's book The Dip: A little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick).
Here's a prayer:
God, help me to know if I'm stuck, doing the same old stuff that hasn't worked before. If the task is worthwhile, help me to get creative and start trying new things. And if the task isn't worth my energy, help me to quickly start investing my time in other things. Thank you. Amen.
Photo: Rusting equipment, Redding, CA
© 2010 Mark Dahle |
4/1/10
Get Going!
April is Action Month. It's time to get going!
Of course, sometimes when we get going, we're just wheel spinning. Lots of action, no worthwhile results.
That's not what April is designed for.
April is designed for taking action on things that are good that you haven't done yet. Things that you've always wanted to do, but haven't started yet.
April is Action Month. It's time to get going (on things that are worthwhile).
God, help me to be in motion, doing things that are valuable. Help me to be investing my time and resources in things that are worthwhile. Thanks for your help doing good things I haven't started yet. Amen.
Photo: Tire, Redding, CA
© 2010 Mark Dahle |
Meditations for March 2010
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We are currently looking at the gospel of John, one chapter a week. John is the only source for some of the most loved stories about Jesus, including Jesus turning the water into wine, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and Jesus meeting the woman at the well and offering her life-giving water. The gospel also includes one of the most-memorized verses in the Bible, John 3:16: For God so loved the world that God gave God's only son so that everyone who belives in him may not perish but have eternal life.
La Jolla Lutheran Church is 14 miles north of downtown San Diego. Our services are designed to draw you close to God who loves you. When you arrive, you’ll find kids, parents, and grandparents, all worshiping together in one extended family. We average 70 people at worship, so it's easy to fit in and find friends. No church experience is required to attend - we print everything you need in one handy program, so you won’t have to guess what happens next.
