photo credit: timtom.ch

I was up early this morning with heartburn (completely new to me courtesy of pregnancy; I’d never encountered it before last week, so I can only be so whiny ) and decided it was finally time to buy the Zen To Done ebook.

I’ve been wanting it for months and am starting to feel the crunch with the impending arrival of our son, so it seemed like a good way to spend my “bonus” waking hours.

I’ve just finished reading it, and the piece of advice that really caught my attention was the repeated caution to only try to adopt one or maybe two of the 10 recommended habits at one time. Ideally I should focus on just one for at least 30 days.

It’s probably good that Leo repeated it so many times. Maybe it will help me actually do it! Focus is probably my number one challenge in every area of my life. I have diverse interests and love starting things, and then forget about all the things I’m already doing. I think I’m his exact target reader.

So that leaves me with two immediate decisions.

First, which of his habits to start with… I feel like I’m in desperate need of most of them right away, but that’s not realistic. So I’m going to spend the next 30 days focusing on the “Process” habit. Leo sums it up like this:

Habit: make quick decisions on things in your inbox, do not put them off. Letting stuff pile up is procrastinating on making decisions. Process your inboxes (email, physical, voicemail, notebook) at least once a day, and more frequently if needed. When you process, do it from the top down, making a decision on each item: do it (if it takes 2 minutes or less), trash it, delegate it, file it, or put it on your to-do list or calendar to do later.

This seems like a great place to start because one of my worst habits (productivity-wise) is letting everything pile up, particularly in my email.

If I start to deal with everything promptly, I expect that at least a few of the other habits will start to take care of themselves. For instance, if I deal with email immediately and am forced to say “yes” or “no” to new projects, that probably will help with the “Simplify” habit.

The second decision is about two productivity courses launching this week that I really would like to sign up for. One is called the 100 Day Challenge—it starts today and goes until December 31, 100 days away, and costs $97. The other is Wake Up Productive—it starts next Monday and runs for 90 days, so essentially the same time-frame, and costs $297.

Both courses include daily content and assignments. I’ve watched sample content from both and they both look like very high quality programs, which makes it both hard to choose and imperitive that I do—I want to get the most out of them, and I don’t think I can do that if I split my attention between them.

They’re both time-based, so I likely will only do one unless they’re repeated. Wake Up Productive seems more likely to be repeated, since the “draw” of the 100 Day Challenge is accomplishing specific goals before the end of 2008.

I’ve never purchased anything from either “guru” so no bias there… My business cash flow is tight, and I definitely need to get things in order before the baby is born, so should I decide strictly based on price? What do you think?

I’m grateful for…

1. A weight average that has stayed good over Thanksgiving week
2. The ability to have my pets cared for by qualified vets
3. My Christmas tree decorated with lights
4. My husband’s newfound enthusiasm for Christmas activities
5. Yummy but not-too-unhealthy food like Pubhouse Battered Cod
6. A body that works for me
7. A wealth of great ideas and the freedom to pursue many of them
8. Friendships with family
9. Being warm and comfy
10. The ability to read and write effectively
11. My church that cares about people inside and out
12. Friends who are happy to just be together
13. My great-and-getting-greater marriage
14. The “democritization of media”
15. Sore muscles that mean I worked hard on a hike
16. My thriving business
17. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens… and fun muscials!
18. My ability to sing
19. Cheap but cute clothes and accesories
20. My experience with web development
21. Things that smell nice
22. The convenience of a laptop (so I can type this while watching Biggest Loser!)
23. Clean water as close as my sink or Nalgene bottle
24. Silly chat conversations
25. Bright colors
26. Kiva.org and other innovative difference-makers
27. My great library system

First, the funny ones:

I find this particularly amusing as I’ve attended “church with cookies” since I was about 14 (with a 4-year exception while going to college; I still went to church, they just didn’t offer cookies). One of my favorite things about The Experience is that there’s a meal after each service; it makes it a lot easier to get to know people better, since that seems to happen naturally over food. But it’s not the whole point!

This one has an angel on one sleeve and a devil on the other. The concept makes me smile because in our culture that’s almost universally recognized (though more likely from cartoons than anything else!). I’d probably get the cookie one first, because though this one could land me in a conversation about influences, etc., more likely it would just get smiles. I could get this for my friend, Cindy, though; she claims I’m her conscience.

And the more serious one:

Humans fail, though. Interesting point, and one of the better-designed shirts I found (the downside of “crowdsourcing”: the crowd often has appalling taste… in my hardly-ever-humble opinion).

If I win one of the gift certificates, you may see me sporting one or more of these in the future.

I’ve been reading Bill Clinton’s excellent new book, Giving. It’s stuffed full of inspiring stories about people who are making a real difference in the world—everyone from kids to celebrities—and it’s reminded me of just how much one person can do. (I also think I’m going to have to get my own copy so I can dog-ear all the pages of organizations I want to learn more about…)

I’m an enthusiastic subscriber to GOOD Magazine (where your subscription price is entirely donated to a charity you choose from their list). While occasionally they publish a piece that has a strong political slant, it’s the only magazine where I feel compelled every page to tell Daniel about something incredible I’ve read. They are believers in using capitalism to improve the world, not just the checking account.

Tim Ferriss launched LitLiberation this week in an attempt to to raise $1 million in the month of October for education, domestically and internationally. This caused me to dig into the DonorsChoose.org site and start a challenge of my own (go donate right now, people! ).

Here’s what gets me. The dollar, devalued or otherwise, can do a tremendous amount of good in places where it’s scarce. Realistically, it’s pretty easy for me to earn money. I have skills which are in demand and which people will pay me for. Just a small amount of the money I earn could change the education and standard of living for literally thousands of people. With just $75, I’ve been a part of the success of six entrepreneurs in the developing world, and that will continue indefinitely on that initial $75 investment. That amazes me.

When I think about what motivates me, and the conflicts I’ve had about making money, this seems like the obvious solution: make money to give it away in ways that really matter. How can work be worship? When the result is doing exactly what Jesus asked me to do.

At least that’s my thinking this week.

A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;
a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

Proverbs 11:28 (The Message)

We’re doing the 40 Days of Purpose (going through The Purpose Driven Life in groups and in the sermons) again at The Experience.

Even though I’ve been through it twice already, I’m looking forward to it. It’s always a different experience because 1) I’m an ever-changing person and 2) I’ll be going through it with a different group of people.

The timing is also good. Lately I’ve been struggling with the question of how to put my whole life together. On the one hand, I have my work life, which consumes most of my waking hours. I like my work pretty well, but my constant goal in that part of my life is to make enough money (both by saving it and by creating passive income) to not have to work. I have that goal in common with many folks, I think, and it’s generally considered reasonable.

But on the other hand, I go to sites like Kiva and hear how such a small amount of money is changing lives so drastically, and then I want to throw myself into doing “things that really matter.” I have a hard time reconciling the pursuit of money for my own comfort with the state of the world and the Great Commission.

The optimistically pragmatic among you are probably thinking, “Well, easy. Take the money you make with your business and put it into Kiva or other things that matter.” If I was a less-disjointed person, I’d do just that. But I want my money for that new touring bike I’ve been eying, or to afford more cycling vacations, or just to have Daniel around more. There might be some “mattering” side effects (like doing more work on the church website or contributing to open source software if we didn’t have “jobs”), but really, I’m in it for my own personal comfort.

Something has to shift. I think God’s going to have to help me shuffle my priorities or I’m going to go nuts. (Only I hope He’ll wait until after I get the touring bike… and sadly, I’m only half-joking about that…) Maybe He’ll show me how to use my resources better, and give me the desire. I’m really hoping I don’t have to learn by losing everything, though if I continue to be selfish, that may be what it comes to! Definitely prefer to avoid that.

So maybe this 40 Days of Purpose will give me both tools and inspiration to get my priorities straightened out. That’s what I’m hoping for.

As far as blogging it, I’ve learned my lesson… I’m not going to promise to blog every day, but I will blog whenever it makes sense and I have time.

Clearly people don’t really get the whole supply-and-demand thing. Demand is still demand, regardless of what day it is or where you do your demanding. The market is not going to reduce costs of a limited-supply commodity unless demand goes down.

Though it certainly wouldn’t be popular, I think the best long term outcome for the US would happen if gas prices continue to rise. I’d be in favor of pretty drastic measures to get people to stop using so much gas. So much of what we do use is wasteful (seriously, why do you need an Expedition for a commuter vehicle?), and maybe we could positively impact one of our other “great outrages”, the cost of health care, if people actually started walking and biking more (not to mention reducing the long term effects of city pollution).

Enough ranting for me. If you’re bored, go replace your incandescents with CFLs.

I do not like open-ended projects. I like finite tasks, things that can be checked off a list and marked “done.”

Any chance I’ll remember this the next time someone proposes something ongoing forever? Probably not, but I can always hope…

I have a few random things that I get excited about, things that make everyone else think I’m crazy. One of these things is the concept of communes. I don’t mean communes in the hippy-dippy sense. More the idea of making good use of financial and talent/interest resources, and recapturing some of the joys of community that have sort of disappeared along with small, tight-woven groups.

This commune idea has been on my mind for several years, but lately there have been other things that have penetrated my consciousness. One is the way that Christians are perceived in the secular world. (I know, you’re thinking that my commune obsession isn’t likely to help that! But give me a chance to explain…)

At church last week, Brian played a video where a guy stopped random people on the street and played a little word association with them. “What do you think of when I say ‘Christian’?” and “What comes to mind when I say ‘Jesus’?” were two of the main ones. The answers were sadly predictable: “weird,” “judgmental,” and even “bad.”

This reaction from the secular world tells me a lot of things. One, Christians are really doing a lousy job of communicating the Gospel. I have this fantasy of people responding with “weird, but the nicest people I’ve ever met”. Which is my second point: it seems obvious that either the respondents don’t know any Christians, or the Christians they know aren’t really following Christ. Yes, that sounds a little harsh and judgmental, but it’s not really a judgment because it’s self-evident. If we were truly following Christ, the responses would be different.

I’ve also been reading lots of books that point out that most Christians don’t have non-believing friends. This is partly because it’s easier to be with “people like me,” partly because many just don’t encounter a lot of non-believers in daily life, and partly because of the “Christian ghetto” that everyone’s always talking about.

So what do all these things have to do with each other? Well, I was standing in the shower, and it hit me (isn’t the shower the location of all eureka moments?): what if we had a commune of sorts that solved some of the perception and relationship problems at the same time? A structure that actually makes it more likely that Christians would hang out with secular folks (rather than becoming even more of a Christian ghetto, as the commune idea might imply to some)?

Here’s what I’m thinking: an apartment building owned by a local church, in the general vicinity of the church. The intention would be to have about half to two-thirds of the apartments occupied by people involved in the church. The other half to one-third would be intentionally filled with secular people in the church’s target market (in my church, this is families; in other churches, this could be young singles, professionals, whatever).

Social and “felt need” interactions would be intentional and central to the success of this plan. For instance, with our target, this would mean things like child care, homework help, dinner get-togethers, and anything that would help a young family make connections and get a little less stressed. For this to work, it is essential that the church people step up and lead community interactions.

In my ideal world, this would accomplish a few things:

1. It would foster meaningful relationships between Christians and non-believers. Not “we’re here to convert you” relationships, but true friendships. This is essential if we’re ever going to overcome the stereotypes about Christians (and get down to doing the work Jesus told us to do, already!).
2. It would give us the opportunity to show God’s love to people in a way that matters. It’s good to tell people that Jesus loves them, but how about showing them through service that meets actual needs?
3. It would help us grow as Christians. This would happen both through fellowship with other church folks, and especially through actually following the Great Commission.
4. It would be fun and fulfilling! I think most people long for real community, and some of us find it in the Church, but still feel lonely most of the time.
5. It makes financial sense. We could pool our resources (both financial and in terms of talent and interests) to create a community that is more than the sum of its parts. For instance, maybe someone gets free rent in exchange for childcare or meal prep for the community, while others pay rent that benefits the community.

Is this the end-all, be-all solution? Of course not! There would be plenty of problems to solve (how do you get church people on board for such a big commitment? what happens if there’s tension in the church—or the apartment? how do you attract your target audience without making them feel like pawns?). But I think as an idea, it has a lot of potential.

I have no idea if this is something that anyone’s doing already, or if any church would get behind it, but it’s on my mind, something I’m passionate about, and I believe that it’s God that’s keeping it in my mind and heart. I’m not sure what He wants me to do with this idea (our church doesn’t have the resources at this point to make this happen); maybe I’m just suppose to throw it out there. Any thoughts? (Do you all think I’m nuts now?)

Cool things to note about the “Nothing But Nets” campaign: it’s the work of “the United Nations Foundation, in partnership with Sports Illustrated, the NBA, and the People of the United Methodist Church.” I love the diversity of participation in this. It also worth noting that 100% of donations go directly to the nets, since the U.N. Foundation was specifically set up to cover admin costs, without dipping into donations.

So, c’mon, go spend your $10 on a net already.