Donald Miller's Blog, page 104

“Sunday Morning Music – Ron Sexsmith” by Trent Dabbs

From Storyline:

We’re changing the way we approach our Sunday Morning Music posts. For the next month, these posts will be authored by artists so you can get a glimpse into what inspires them. We hope you enjoy today’s post from our friend, Trent Dabbs.

I know this song is several years old, but it drifts into my life every year. The delicate and intentional lyric coupled with simple melody is quite difficult to master, although Ron Sexsmith makes it seem easy. I have been a lifelong fan of Ron Sexsmith – long before I heard this song, I admired his songwriting. I would even venture to say he is one of the best and most consistent songwriters in music.

As I am currently writing and recording my new record, I see how difficult it is to write a “slow song” that is also uplifting. Well, good luck writing one better than this! Everyone needs to start the day with the realization that we actually can find “Gold in Them Hills.”

“Sunday Morning Music – Ron Sexsmith” by Trent Dabbs is a post from: Storyline Blog

Saturday Morning Cereal: The Best Viral Videos We Found This Week

Whoa! Magic clerk won by only 1 vote. It’s fun to have so many of you chiming in.

Which is your favorite this week? Vote below in the comments.

Saturday Morning Cereal: The Best Viral Videos We Found This Week is a post from: Storyline Blog

Why You’ll Win In The End If You Make Character Your Career

I have a lot of conversations with people worried about what they do. Worried they aren’t making an impact. Worried their life isn’t panning out the way they expected.

But I know for a fact that the person you are becoming is far more important than the work you are doing.

This isn’t just my spirituality talking either. I believe good character creates sustainable success.

*Photo by Donna Gingrich

I’ll avoid trying to define character and say it like this:

You might have the most impressive ideas and work ethic in the world, but I don’t think you’ll be truly successful until you can get a handful of people around your kitchen table to say they trust you. Because regardless of our personal ambition, we need others to help us reach our full potential. No man is an island.

There is a reason why Dumbledore and Gandalf chose the heroes they did to save the world.

Harry and Frodo were brave, humble, and trustworthy, but they also had friends who would follow them to the ends of the earth.

• • •

When I was 24, I started These Numbers Have Faces from the couch of my apartment. Back then it was a tiny dream to help a few South African friends attend college. The early success of our work hinged on the fact that people trusted us. They trusted our vision and they trusted us with their money. Not sure where it came from, but it’s the truth.

And as we’ve grown and evolved, one thing has stayed the same. Character counts. My team and I have continued to rally people around our vision because of the work we do, but also because of the people we are.

Seth Godin wrote a great little book called Tribes that aims to inspire new leaders to build tribes of people to accomplish great things. The tagline of the book is, “we need you to lead us.” I love that.

If you have a good idea or vision of any kind, we desperately need you to lead us. But I’m not going to follow unless there is something in you that I trust.

I believe the impact of people who are disingenuous and narcissistic is fleeting. Eventually your demons come out.

Remember: Character is how you treat people who can do nothing for you.

Focus on your character. It’s the foundation for everything we do. Form a tight knit circle of people around you. The good work will flow from there.

Why You’ll Win In The End If You Make Character Your Career is a post from: Storyline Blog

We will need your help to change the world…

It may seem we’ve been quiet over the last couple months, but the truth is we’ve been working feverishly. On September 6th, we are launching a quiet, new community of people living better stories with their lives. Here’s what you can expect in the next couple weeks:

 

1. A NEW BOOK: I’ve taken all the lectures I’ve been giving for the Storyline Conference and distilled them into a powerful new book. We are only selling the book on Amazon and it will go live on September 6th. This is a gorgeous little book designed to help you clarify your life. If you’ve a bunch of fuzzy ambitions and you’d like to turn them into actualized stories, this book will be a brilliant resource. Anybody wanting clarity should pick it up. We will also have a robust small-group guide so you can take your friends through the process.

 

2.CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE:  The book will actually come with cloud-based software that will guide you through the process of clarifying the stories you want to live. Not only this, but using the software will allow you to share your life plan with thousands of other users. Have you ever read a book and forgotten what you learned a month later? If so, our software changes that. You’ll interact with the material, lock it in and share it with the world. The software will also release on September 6th.

 

3. A COMPLETELY NEW BLOG: Donmilleris.com will be shut down and forwarded to our new blog. I’ll share the address with you on September 6th. I’ll still be blogging at least three days each week, but we’ve recruited world-class bloggers to create content that will inspire you almost every day. The new blog is beautiful and efficient and you’ll love the content.

 

4. AN ALL NEW CONFERENCE: The Storyline Conference has been radically successful. Thousands have now come to Storyline and our February conference is going to be bigger and better than ever. We have twice as many inspiring guests so you can hear firsthand from people who are living incredible stories. Plus, we will all have even more chances to connect with each other. The February conference is in San Diego, too, so you can plan your winter vacation around the event. You can register for Storyline today.

 

If you’d like to receive a special offer that will include getting the audio book for free, sign up for our newsletter on the right, or follow me on twitter (@donaldmiller) and I’ll let you know the second it’s all ready to go.

WE COULD ABSOLUTELY USE YOUR HELP

We can’t spread the word without you. On September 6th, we launch much more than a new book. We launch a new way to live life, and an entire community who want to live better stories. All the people who are hoping to have an impact will be able to share their profiles with each other. Finally, we will all be able to connect. Would you mind committing to telling everybody you know about this effort? If we want to change the world, lets stop shouting down bad stories and start crowding them out with good ones. We can’t do this without your help.

Specifically:

1. Retweet next weeks pre-launch tweets. I’ll be tweeting a link to a slideshow of quotes from the book. Would you mind passing the effort along?

2. Pick up the book on September 6th. It’s a great book, software and audio book at a terrific price.

3. Lead a small group through the material. Storyline is a democratic, leaderless movement of individuals living out of their passion. Consider joining the movement and connecting with each other through our new website.

I’m grateful you allowed us to go back to the drawing board and launch a system I’ll be championing for years to come. It’s been my heart to help people find their subplot in God’s story and inspire a community to follow Him by finding their passion. I can’t wait to share the work with you. Thanks for your patience. It’s all remarkable and coming soon!

I CONSIDER PEOPLE READING THIS BLOG EARLY ADAPTERS. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS I CAN ANSWER?

We will need your help to change the world… is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Thank you Tara Brown!

About eight years ago I hired an assistant who streamlined my work and my life. Because of Tara Brown, Storyline went from a little conference to a small business, and my time went from a few spare minutes to whole weeks of creative openness.

I often refer to Tara as my left Brain. She’s proof the Scriptures are true when they talk about each of us being a small part of a greater body. Without Tara, I’d be without half a brain, an eye for details and a heart for more and more people.

Whenever I travel, I’m often pulled aside by somebody to say how much they enjoyed working with Tara. In eight years, she’s never missed a detail and she’s always cared sincerely for the people we minister to and work with. Tara, you will be missed.

Tara let me know several months go in a tear-filled meeting she was going to take some time off to devote to family and, well, rest. If anybody deserves it, it’s her. And now the week has come when I’ll be saying my formal goodbyes (though I suspect I’ll be talking to Tara even more as a friend).

If you’ve had the pleasure of working with Tara or just the pleasure of getting coffee with her, feel free to say some kind words.

Tara, you were more than my assistant. You became my sister. I’ll miss our daily interactions! You’ve outgrown us.

Thank you Tara Brown! is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

What’s Coming Up for Storyline!

We’ve let the ground settle for a couple months around here. It’s an important process, I believe, to let the ground recover from years of harvesting. And now we’ve planted the seeds that will soon break the ground and we couldn’t be more excited.

The writing life really is like farming. If you keep planting and harvesting the soil without letting it rest, the crops suffer.

In an age where everybody is competing for attention, a sense of panic can set in and we end up producing material that feels rushed and forced and written from a place of desperation rather than creative inspiration. But quality will win in the long run. And to create quality, you have to let the soil recover.

What you can expect from me over the next six months is a lot of new crops. I’ll be releasing a Storyline book that is, essentially, a personal development guide. I’ve taken the three years of conferences we’ve done about living a better story and distilled the process into eight modules that, once completed, will give you a life plan centered around experiencing a meaningful life. But it won’t just be a book. When you order the book, you’ll get free access to an online dashboard in which you can enter and share your story with the world. The process is designed to “lock in” the changes you’ve made so you’re more likely to execute your plan.

Not only this, but the whole process is going to be cost effective. Actually, you won’t believe how accessible we are making it for everybody. We can’t wait.

This blog will also be changing. We have invited some well-known writers to contribute along with some lesser-known writers who, we feel, are destined for the best-sellers list. And I’ll still be blogging regularly so you’ll be hearing a great deal from me, too.

We will also be announcing a new Storyline Conference that will take place in San Diego in February of next year. It’s going to be our biggest, most ambitious conference yet. Once again, we are taking Storyline to the next level. And yet as always, the conference is focused on helping you live a better story. We won’t be doing the shotgun approach, we are the rifle conference, the conference that hones down on your story and where you fit in God’s overall epic.

We are hoping against hope to have all the changes up and running in August. We will be sending out an e-mail when the changes are launched.

We are eager to bring you great new material and create community around the concept of living a better story. Thanks for being patient as we let the ground recover.

Talk with you soon,

 

Don

What’s Coming Up for Storyline! is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Announcing Huge Changes to the Blog!

We’re making huge changes to this blog and we can’t wait to announce them. For now, though, all the work we are doing is behind the scenes. Our plan is to show you what we’ve been working on on August 1st and we think you are going to love the changes. Here are some of the things you can expect:

• A brand new blog (It won’t even be at this address. The blog is moving!)

• Guest contributors. We are assembling a team of writers who will provide great content several times each week.

• The blog will have a full time staff helping to ensure great content and create a community around our interaction.

• A brand-new personal development guide from Don based on the Storyline Conference. But it’s more than a book. It’s a book, audiobook and interactive cloud-based software. We can’t wait.

• A special announcement about our next Storyline Conference that is going to blow your mind (Hint, keep February in mind as you make your winter plans. And make plans to meet up in a warm climate, too!)

We are transitioning this site from the personal blog of Donald Miller to a site emphasizing Storyline as an organization that helps people live better stories. And our plans are big.

Forgive our absence for a while, if you will. We promise to come back bigger, better, stronger and more helpful than ever.

See you back here on August 1st!

Sincerely,

Donald Miller

Announcing Huge Changes to the Blog! is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Do Negative People Get Attention While Positive People Lead?

I often get insulted in @replies on twitter. I don’t blame people because I’ve shot off ill-advised tweets, too. I always feel bad later.

It’s tough for me to send out a tweet at all that doesn’t get some kind of push back. If it’s a tweet including a theological statement, I’ll get ten times as much push back. There’s really nothing you can say about God that isn’t going to either tick somebody off or be seen as an “I’m smarter than you” softball they want to hit out of the park. (If you really want to tick people off, write a book about God. And if you want to see them go ballistic, make a movie!)

That said, I go through this little routine when somebody is insulting or disrespectful. I don’t respond, then I click on their names to see a little more about them. If it’s a God thing, I wonder if I’ve insulted somebody who doesn’t profess faith or somebody in ministry or what.

In doing this, though, I’ve noticed something striking. And it says a lot about people in general. It’s this:

I’ve never been insulted or disrespected by a person who has more followers than the number of people they follow themselves. What I mean is, the people who are insulting are following a lot of people but they aren’t following them back. Or at least statistically, they are being influenced by more people than they themselves are influencing.

And when I say never, I honestly mean NEVER. It’s never happened, and I’d say I’ve had about 300 people or more insult me or be disrespectful.

It’s not a scientific process, to be sure, but I’ve learned something. I’ve learned not to be a reactionary (believe it or not, I’m the exact kind of guy who would send off a rude @reply because God knows there are times when I want people to know how stupid they are!) but I’ve stopped doing it. The reason? It doesn’t work. Our negativity may feel validating, but it has a short reach in terms of influence.

Accepting criticism is important, but accepting it in a public sphere is out of place. The person being criticized doesn’t feel respected and if you’ve taught them anything you’ve only taught them that you’re a jerk for throwing the mud.

I get what you might be thinking next, though. Who needs a world where nobody shares their opinion and we’re all just being falsely nice? I don’t want to live in that world. But there’s no need to go to extremes. The idea is if you want to be chippy, go ahead, but don’t expect people to want to listen to you for long. It may get you some immediate attention, but when people need sound advice, encouragement or wisdom, they won’t be thinking about you.

Ever sent off a tweet you regretted?

Do Negative People Get Attention While Positive People Lead? is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Want to Bring Blue Like Jazz to Your City? Here’s Your Chance.

For those of you who haven’t had “Blue Like Jazz” come to your city, or those who missed it and want to bring it back, we have worked out a deal with our friends at Tugg to make it happen. Through Tugg, you’ll have the opportunity to host a special screening of Blue Like Jazz at your local theater.

Tugg crowdsources theatrical screenings, so if enough people in your community want to see the film, then it can easily happen. It’s really simple to set up the screening, and together we’ll provide you with tools to help fill up a theater. For more information on how Tugg works, please go to www.tugg.com/howtuggworks.

Right now this opportunity only applies to the US, but we are still trying to secure a way for those of you outside the United States to bring Blue Like Jazz as well. We really like our little film and we think you’ll like it to. Thanks for all your continued support!

Want to Bring Blue Like Jazz to Your City? Here’s Your Chance. is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Want to Make Better Decisions? Here’s a Mental Trick

HERE’S THE MENTAL TRICK: To make better decisions, imagine your life one year from now. From that perspective, look back on where you are now and think about how you wish you would have handled your current situation.

I was talking with a friend recently who was going through a tough breakup. He was angry, to be honest, because his girlfriend hadn’t been faithful.

It’s easy to get caught up in a moment like that. Our subconscious, squirrel brain takes over and we want to react, vent, seek vengeance, and basically trade pain for pain.

As I talked with my friend my advice was simple.

“A year from now,” I said, “when you’ve mostly healed from all this, and perhaps seeing somebody new, how will you have wanted to deal with your current situation?”

The question was sobering for my friend. He realized he was making all sorts of mistakes. He realized immediately he was reacting and his reactions were going to make things worse.

Humans have the unique ability to self reflect. We are not like other animals, always being motivated by pre-programmed instincts. We have those, for sure, but we also have the ability to override them. And those who practice overriding their base instincts are considered wise.

Instead of reacting, we took out a tablet and wrote some words he could live out of for the next month or so. Words like strength, kindness, truth, forgiveness, resolution and so forth.

My friend realized a year from now, he would likely no longer be angry, but instead would feel sorry for his ex-girlfriend. She certainly had a lot of issues to work through and was in no shape to be in a healthy relationship.

It wasn’t easy, but my friend decided to live out of that wise, one-year removed place rather than in reaction. He was tempted to react, of course, but when tempted he returned to his notepad and read the descriptors, and every conversation he had with her, including e-mail and text messages, came from a place of strength and forgiveness and also resolution. He didn’t take her back, but he also didn’t seek vengeance.

Because of his strength, his ex realized she’d lost a great man. And she grieved and made some changes. If my friend would have reacted like an animal, it’s doubtful she would have changed. She would have just felt like they were even, both hurting each other.

I know most of you aren’t going through a breakup, but what are you going through that could be helped by removing yourself from the situation ? My advice would be to imagine yourself a year from now and look back to ask how you’d do things differently. Get out a notepad and write down some words and maybe even a few phrases you can use in your interactions with key people and live out of that wise, one-year removed place.

Wisdom can see the present in hindsight.

We cal all learn from each other. Even if you aren’t going through a breakup, what would you want to have done differently in this season of your life if you were looking back a year from now? Would you want to have finished a project, faced some conflict you were avoiding, been more devoted to a cause? Share what you’d want to have done differently in the comments section to stimulate more thought for the rest of us, would you?

Want to Make Better Decisions? Here’s a Mental Trick is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog