When was the last time...

When was the last time you took a serious inventory of your life? Sounds deep doesn't it? Yet, it's something that we should all spend time doing.

Last Sunday, my pastor reminded us that all businesses have annual business reviews - a time when they look at their previously stated goals and measure their success. I remember having to do this quarterly as a business manager for the companies that employed me. It was something I always regretted doing but was always so glad when it was completed.

The first and most obvious question is, "Have you ever taken the time to commit your goals, dreams and family aspirations to paper"? If not, it will be tough to measure how you are doing. I encourage you to take time to dream. The older we get, the easier it is to brush things aside as childhood fantasies but something magical happens when we take the time to put these dreams to paper. Start small, perhaps a list of 10 things that you hope to accomplish this year. You can even just commit your values to paper and then see how you live out those values over a given period of time.

I recently found a bucket list of 100 things I wanted to do before I died. This was a list that Larry and I made about 12 years ago. I was cleaning my desk when I found it. I was amazed to see how many of the things I had accomplished without even viewing the list after I had committed it to paper. Imagine if I had put effort in to it and revisited it on a regular basis?

If you have made a list of your goals, when was the last time you took it out and seriously reviewed it? If it's been awhile, take time to do that now. The weather is perfect to be indoors with a warm cup of tea snuggled on your favorite chair or sofa. Pull out your list and walk through each item carefully. If you haven't completed an item on the list, ask yourself why. Perhaps it's not as important to you as it once was, but perhaps there is something that is preventing you from living the life you were meant to live.

There is nothing more engaging that a human being who is living their life to the fullest. Someone who lives with intent and purpose. You probably know and admire someone like this in your life.  My encouragement for you today is to be that inspiring person in someone else's life.

Do it today!

Waking Up...

The challenge. Make a 'specific' list of all of your gifts, talents and abilities. For example, rather than saying you are creative, say "I am a talented photographer". Once you have taken the time to make the list, write a number next to each of the items indicating the number of hours you spent this past week doing them. Ouch!

This was another great exercise in my book titled, "One Month To Live" by Kerry and Chris Shook. Yet, this one really hit me hard. First of all, it takes time to come up with the list. My first inclination was to say that I don't have any talents. That moment passed and then I stalled out in coming up with more than one or two things. Forget about the final task of assigning time allotments, I couldn't come up with the list!

It's a great exercise and one that I encourage you to do, especially while you are still young and have years ahead of you to develop good habits of making time for yourself and those unique gifts that you have been given. For the rest of us, it's a great idea to remember those passions that we've buried deep within.

What's so amazing to me is that for every truly exciting idea that keeps me up at night, I usually have the ability to accomplish it - yet, I don't. Why? Why is it that we're uniquely created to accomplish specific things in life yet we settle for the path of least resistance? We settle for the safe choices, the popular choices, the choices less likely to 'rock the boat'.

I honestly think we need more people willing to rock the boat. We need passionate, excited and talented people standing up for their ideas and for rising above the status quo. When was the last time you were fired up and DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT?

We visited with a friend this past Sunday who told us about a political rally that he just participated in and how doing this elevated his spirit. In the past, he complained about the problems with our government to anyone and everyone. This was the first time he did something about it. Hooray!

In his book "Living Your Strengths", Donald O. Clifton says from a very young age we are taught to be well rounded. Teachers and Adults in our lives attempted to soften our sharp edges, to become smooth and well rounded. According to Clifton, however, what we're often taught is how to become as dull as we can possibly be. We're taught to play it safe, to be compliant, to follow convention and tradition, to color inside the lines and to stay inside the box. God never meant for us to be well rounded, he made us each unique with unique talents, passions, abilities. We should pursue those things we're good at and let go of what we're not.

I've made my list and I'm fired up! I'm excited that there is not another Jan Wood out there and that it's up to me to be all I was meant to be. I am happy to embrace all of my talents and abilities, and to speak up regarding those things that I'm passionate about. I'm going to focus on them and develop them until they flow out of me without my consent.

Watch out world, one more sleeping giant has been awakened!