Bryan Parady's Blog, page 54

Evaluate

 

On the journey of trying to race everywhere and meet our goals, deadlines, and dreams, it’s important to re-evaluate sometimes and make sure you are headed down the right street.

A really good exercise you can do is something my wife came up with.  Get a piece of paper or open up your writing program on your computer or tablet.  Make two columns. Title the first column “Things I Do”.

Then title the second column “What I Want to Do”.

Then proceed to list everything that takes up time in your day.  From work, to doing favors for people, going to meetings, running to the grocery store, picking up kids…whatever it is, write it down.

Then right down what you want to do in the appropriate column.

Now just looking at the “what I do” list, would a complete stranger if they read it know what you wanted to do with your life?

If the answer is no, then you need to start crossing some things off, and adding to the other column.  Your time is valuable, and you need to do the things that you are called to do.  Make time for them, and more importantly, cut out the things that don’t get you there.

You Are Strong Enough

A couple days ago I talked about how your capabilities are endless.  This is true. There’s a really good book that expresses just how much we can truly accomplish.  It says, “I can do all things through Christ”.  It doesn’t exclude anything, it’s not “all things except…”

No all things. We are told again if we have a tiny bit of faith we can move a mountain.  I don’t know about you, but I think it’d be pretty sweet to move a mountain.  We can, we have the capability, we simply haven’t tapped into it.  But it is possible to.  The power is there.

Sadly we get held up in our mind, we rationalize and tell ourselves all the reasons why it’s impossible.  But nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible with God.

Think Outside Yourself

Something that’s really important is helping others.  It’s easy on your way to fulfilling your dream to forget others.  It’s easy to become so obsessed with your vision and goals that you blow past those who need help.

There are always those who are less fortunate for you.  Go volunteer at a hospital if you don’t believe, me go serve at a soup kitchen.  You have great opportunity, but don’t forget those who need a helping hand.  Find someone who needs you today.  It doesn’t matter how small or in what way.  Maybe it’s just calling up that person who has no one, or stopping by and giving someone a hug.  Make someone else’s day today, and don’t just get through yours.

Just Do It

Anything is possible.  Don’t believe me?   Google some people who have changed the world in the past.  Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, Sylvestor Stallone.

People who if you knew them when they were young you would have thought had no potential, and are now household names.  Why?  Because they realized something.  They realized they had a dream and purpose in them, and that if they didn’t fulfill it two things would happen. 1.  The world would miss out.  2.  They would be miserable.

There is something in you that has to to be done.  You know this.  You feel alive when you do it.  You are insanely creative in it, and you run to it whenever you have free time.  Don’t treat it like a hobby, don’t treat it as stupid.  You have a gift, you have limitless ability.  Don’t waste it.  Make the world a better place, after all if you don’t, no one will.

Moving

 

Moving day is fast approaching, and my wife and I couldn’t be more stoked.  We love moving.  We love traveling, so moving feels like we are visiting a  new place.  We like change too.  While we are not moving anywhere crazy yet, (we’ll see in two years when grad school is done), it still is exciting.  Moving invites you to get rid of crap you don’t need, sell of things you don’t want and go looking for new bargains at yard sales.

Moving is like starting over in a sense.  Sometimes we need to move whether it’s in a physical, emotional, or spiritual sense.  We have a tendency to get comfortable in one spot and not want to change, but change is often times the one thing we need to kick butt and start a new adventure.

Are you stuck?  Try something new.  Maybe it’s finding a new job, a new church, a new city, a new country.  Explore.  The world is huge, explore as much as you can.

 

 

 

Change the Problem

It’s really easy to come up with reasons why you can’t do something.  Really easy to say I can’t.  “If only” is a phrase that rolls off our tongue too easily.  “If only I had started younger, if only I had or hadn’t done this or that.”

We imagine how great it would be to travel to that other country we’ve always wanted to go to, or what it would be like to graduate with that degree we’ve dreamed of, or what it would be like to ask that girl out, or land that dream job.

And we leave all these things in our thoughts and never do a dang thing about it.

Stop analyzing, thinking, and wondering what if, and start doing.  Do you want to never chase after your dreams or go after what is important to you, and wake up one day and realize you never fully lived?  To be old one day with regrets and sadness?

Someday won’t ever come if you keep putting everything to someday, it will just become an endless string of “tomorrow”, or “the next day”.

Don’t like your life?  Change it.  Yes you have that capability, yes you have that power.  Your past, your mistakes, your circumstances are not holding you back, you hold yourself back.  You can rise above any problem, any hardship.

Start acting today.

Seeing The Good

My coffee simmers next to me, Mat Kearney fills the room. My daughter is sitting on the couch staring at me, still waking up with that sleepy look in her eyes.  I’ll be out the door and off to work in 15 minutes.  Some mornings I really hate going to work, not that the job is terrible, just there are more important things I would love to do.

I work a Tuesday through Saturday shift, and I never realized how much I would miss out on with Saturday mornings.  Yard sales, spending time with my family, pancakes.  It’s the simple things I feel are stolen from me.

I am grateful for the good though, thankful for my job, that I can provide for my family.  That I can see them be happy and do the things important to them.  It is worth it, even though on this particular Saturday I really want to walk around in my pj’s and eat pancakes instead.

Keeping It Real

Sometimes it’s really easy to put on a fake face.  To act like everything is so good, when in reality we feel like crap on the inside.  We keep up our “facebook”, or “instagram” face that the world sees, and hide the real us.

We all have short-comings, so why are we so afraid to show these?  Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s a friend.  You know there are deep hurts, pain going on, and yet the smiley selfies seem to come with a new sense of frenzy.

Dying on the inside while keeping up a plastic smile will never help you to overcome.  There are times when you have to move through things and can’t just wallow in your sadness or pain, but you also need to admit that you are having problems while working at moving through them.

Don’t worry about people judging you, some will, but just know they are not true friends.  It will also open up new friendships.  Most importantly it will give you a new sense of freedom, and true peace. No fake musings.  Give it a go, and keep it real.

Give More, Love More

In this crazy fast paced world, where it seems there are never enough hours in a day, it’s really easy for me to get caught up in thinking about just me and my family. While those are important things to focus on at times, there is more we have to look to.

There are so many people out there down on there luck, stuck in depression, just needing someone to offer a helping hand, a friendly smile, or a simply a sincere hug.

But in my daily race, how often do I miss those who are looking for a kind word?  How often do I miss the man who needs an encouraging word, the woman who needs a genuine smile?

It’s so important for me to slow down enough to notice that there are others out there who not only need, but deserve me to be engaged, who knows how I could change their day?

The Problem Is Me?

 

It’s easy to find fault in other people, after all we live in a tough world.  Everyone has a story to tell.  We all have demons from our past.  Things that have hurt us, made us weak, made look at the world through jaded glasses.  We all have missed out on certain elements that we needed in order to have a healthy life, but for one reason or another we didn’t get.

But there comes a point in our lives when we have to stop blaming our past, our pain, or our childhood, family, ex, or anything else for our lives not looking like what we want them to look like.

You have to take ownership of your problems.  Yes they may suck really bad, and yes they may not be totally your fault but the way you move forward is your responsibility, and you can get beyond your past.  You can hit your goals, hit your dreams, and have the life you’ve always wanted.

Start looking for ways to conquer your problems, not stay stuck in them.