I haven’t been online as much lately. This decision has been decided by the order of my priorities and my online presence just doesn’t seem to fit in the top five spots lately. I’m trying to fit it in because honestly I really love doing it, but I keep coming back to priorities and the fact that I love life without the computer on at all times. Also, I’m a huge believer in not stealing time from your family. This means not taking time from them in the middle of the day. With our new schedule even waking up early doesn’t provide that anymore. It seems that sleep is the thing on everyone’s mind these days.

I’m able to keep up with about half the pace that I used to, and here’s why:

In the past few years I’ve gone from having my priorities totally out of whack to having my priorities in a place where I honestly feel good with where they’re at.

I think it was a mixture of Colorado, having Colbie, making sure that we are intentional with being around people that are great examples more often and putting more time into making our marriage better.  Throughout this whole process I’ve been as close to this contract as I could be. I’m striving for longevity because that’s where I feel that people are really successful. I think that this comes from a love for what you do at a pace that you can handle. And this is the point I am continually striving to find.

So yeah, this is what I’ve been up to. And because of these things we probably haven’t talked in a while…

So, what have you been up to?

What is the most important thing in your life right now? For real.

I think I have figured it out. The reason I haven’t taken risks is the fear of failure. Everyone has read this concept before, but for me, I would rather live in denial than face my fears. Of course it’s hard to face your fears. It’s uncomfortable. It’s usually easier to just live in denial to tell you the truth. Don’t take the easy way out. I’m in the process of learning to face every one of my fears. There’s some that I’ve been able to face in the past, but now it’s time to face all of them.

Lately I’ve had to take risks just to know what the outcomes would be, even if I end up not succeeding. I have to know what the outcome is, so I don’t have to ask myself twenty years from now if I would’ve made it. Of course this is what conquering your fears brings…RISK.

I am learning to enjoy the risk because the process is what makes us all better.

What is your biggest fear?

sometimes we feel like we can take on the world by ourselves.
sometimes we feel like we need help.
sometimes we know exactly what to do and execute them perfectly.
sometimes we don’t know what to do next and feel like giving up.

wherever you are, you have to keep going.
you end up doing whatever is necessary at that moment.
and that is when we grow.

where are you at in life right now?

Maybe you’ve noticed that some people like to talk negatively. That’s just a sign that they think negatively, too.
Not only do people like to think negatively, but they tend to stay there.
That’s just annoying to be around.

When people think positively, they change the atmosphere around them. Ever noticed why you like to be around people who think positively?

Here’s why I think that positive thinkers have an advantage:

• Positive thinkers help those around them to see that they can accomplish whatever they can dream up.
• People who think negatively don’t try things because they have already canceled themselves out of even accomplishing goals.
• Positive thinking is just better and it’s contagious.

Help me finish this list…

What else can positive thinking do for people?

I often get the question, “Do you think dreams can change?” Since that’s happened to me, I actually know they can.

The question is what actually changes?…

Is it life? The person? The dream? The circumstances? The influencers around you? Did you just get tired of chasing? Was it too hard to reach your dreams, so you just gave up? Did you get scared? Maybe the dream just wasn’t the right fit for you. Or, did you have the wrong dream in the first place?

Once you figure out that you don’t want to chase your current dream any longer and what the reason actually is, the next part is finding what your next dream should be. The sooner you find this, the better.

Here’s three questions to ask yourself when looking for your next “big dream”:

1. What do I get excited about?
What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you think about constantly throughout your day? How can you make your current happenings fit into your big dreams? It’s a great thing to be excited about what you are doing. Working in your “genius” makes you and everyone else better.

2. How big of an impact do I really want to have with this dream?
Some people are ok with having smaller dreams. I guess that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re going to dream, then you might as well make it big. People don’t remember the small stuff, so if you really want to leave a legacy, you’re going to have to dream big.

3. What are the things that I want to get out of this dream?
What do you get if your dream becomes a reality? Think of the results you could have. Is the process worth the result at the end? Those are the questions you’ll have to ask yourself and only you can decide.

It might seem that I am talking about your dream job, but you can really apply these things to those “big dreams” that you have in life.

So, how would you answer those questions?

it would be…

There’s two different ways you can react when you do something wrong. You can act like you didn’t do anything wrong and say you have no idea what people are talking about. Or you can tell everyone what’s up because you don’t want to lie. I know about the “causing your brethren to stumble” thing comes up quite a bit when talking about the things that Christians should do, but sometimes you gotta keep it real. I actually respect keeping it real more.

What do you think?

We probably haven’t talked in a minute.

So…

What’s one awesome thing that happened to you this week?
How are you doing?
Really.

The above tweet got a big response last week, so it got me thinking about the negative mentality that people naturally have towards Mondays. Most of the negative mindset people have is about starting the work week. If you have a job that you dread, then I can see why you don’t want to go to work. So yes, I’d say that finding a job that you love is pretty important. Or, maybe money is that thing that makes you happy, because your job is decent enough to handle, but the money coming in allows you to do what you want to when you’re not at work.

I will say that weekends are pretty awesome because it gives you time to spend with family and go do the “fun stuff” while kids are out of school and most jobs allow you to be off. But, maybe you have a job that allows you to take off time during the week as well.

I do think that Mondays can be great if you decide to make them great. The cool thing is that we can control what happens on Mondays for the most part and we can control how we react to Mondays.

So, what does your typical Monday look like? Is there anything special you do on Mondays to make them a little easier?