On Tuesday, I published a post talking about why you should be living for more than your day job. It’s my belief that while some of us are meant to chase a crazy dream and do it full time, most of us have a diverse set of gifts that could never be put into one sole job description. You’re a video guy who loves playing music and investing in others. You’re a mom with a marketing degree who enjoys baking for others. You’re a student majoring in business but also have a passion for people around the world. Whatever it is, your calling – the unique wiring that only you have – can’t fit into a normal day job. While it’s important to chase after all the things God has called you to do, it’s even more important to do it the right way. You can’t neglect your day job…
Why you should be living for more than your day job
One of my biggest influences is a guy named Jon Acuff. Jon (I can call him Jon because I met him once for twelve seconds and he’s tweeted to me. We’re BFFs now.) is a writer, speaker, and a lot of other things. His claim to fame was a little blog I discovered in college called Stuff Christians Like. A guy was making fun of Christian culture while I was in school at the Christian culture capital of the world? Yeah. I’ll read that. The crazy thing about SCL was that it was amazingly popular while Jon still worked a desk job. Once the blog started taking off, Jon started getting invited to speak at churches and small events. He tells stories of leaving work on Friday afternoon, flying to a weekend speaking engagement, then flying home only to go back to work on Monday morning. Eventually Jon was able to…
Why you should take a walk in the middle of the road
I have a 2.5 year old puppy. I purposefully don’t say 2.5 year old dog because she’s a lab and she’s still fully puppy. She enjoys eating any paper she can get her mouth on, TV remotes, and sticks. And she can sometimes be a terrorist. Recently she’s started doing this thing where she wakes up at two in the morning and growls at us. She doesn’t bark, just growls. It’s as annoying as it sounds. To combat her growling, I’ve started trying to wear her out by walking her around the neighborhood right before going to bed. With it getting darker earlier, these walks have started being after dark. As we walk around the neighborhood, I’ve found myself walking in the middle of the road. I don’t know if I started doing that because I was bored or because I was told not to as a kid, but the…
Story Chicago quote dump
I was lucky enough to get to experience one day of Story Chicago. Unfortunately I had to miss out on the second day, but day one had a ton of quotes and one-liners about creativity, stories, and how to process being a creative person. Below are the quotes I found were worth typing out as fast as possible as the presenters said them.
What an illusionist and snow flakes taught me about changing the world
As I write this, I’m sitting in the airport in Chicago waiting to fly home to Knoxville. I’ve spent the past day surrounded by creators, dreamers, and storytellers at Story Chicago. Most conferences I’ve been to have been packed with information about what we should do and how we should do it. Story is a little different. Story doesn’t focus as much on the task at hand as it does the person doing it. It speaks to the creative person, explaining how they’re wired and what their motivation is. If the typical conference talks about how and what, Story talks about why.
I don’t want to be famous. I want to make an impact.
I don’t want to be famous. I want to make an impact. I first wrote that phrase earlier this year when I began to come out of my year long quarter life crisis. As I started to figure out what I was about, what my calling was, and where I was supposed to be, I began to compile a list of small phrases that I could cling to when the next storm rolled in. I knew myself well enough to know that it was a matter of when, not if, one would come and I wanted to be ready for it. With my skillset, it’s easy to judge how I’m doing by the trackable numbers. How many people downloaded that graphic? What were the views on that video? Did anyone actually read what I wrote yesterday? In those moments, if the numbers don’t meet the expectations, the thoughts of inadequacy,…
We have to take a break if we want to change the world
i’m a fixer. it’s what i do. in fact, it’s probably what gets me in the most trouble with nicole. i see a problem and i want to fix it. the quicker i can fix it, the better. in some ways, being a fixer can be a great thing. fixers are problem solvers. fixers are able to cut through the layers to identify the root of an issue and then offer a solution. they’re perceptive and discerning. more often than not, fixers will go out of their way to, well, fix things. and that’s where many of us get in trouble. fixers have a hard time switching gears and turning things off. a few years ago nicole and i were invited over to one of my coworkers’ house for dinner. throughout the night i would bring up stuff about work without even thinking about it. that’s how the mind of…
We are all designed to change the world
i have a skill set, a perspective, and a passion that only i have. no one else on the planet has the exact same combination of those three things as i do. want to know the coolest thing about that? you also have a skill set, a perspective, and a passion that no one else on the planet has. it’s what makes us all unique and special. when we can combine those three things and find how they’re supposed to play together, we are able to do things that are beyond our craziest dreams.