Soul BREATH (#24)

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As I write this post, I’m struggling a bit. Do you ever have a day when you want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers up over your head…and stay there…for 4 days? I guess you could say, I’ve already had enough of this week. My soul is tired. Sometimes life is like that. The to do lists and the weight of daily responsibilities have a way of taking a toll sometimes.

I think this occurs when one gets too much of something – even if that something is good – and too little of something else. Life gets a bit out of balance. If the Enough Life is the sweet spot between too little (scarcity) and too much (excess), I have to wonder what have I had too little of lately and of what have I had too much?

Too MuchToo Little
Unrealistic expectationsUnstructured time
WorkTime with people I love
HypervigilanceWalking with the dog
Constant productionSoaking time with Jesus
HouseworkSleep

I feel a bit out of breath.

That makes me think of the creation story recorded in the Bible. In the second chapter of Genesis we are told that the LORD God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and Adam became a living being. The breath of life. Yes, that’s what I need right now. My soul needs a fresh breath. The kind of breath that is refreshing and life-giving.

I realize that I have let the ever-present to do lists get more than enough attention at the expense of the things that are life-giving for me, things that nourish my heart and soul. Therefore, I will add life-giving activities to the very top of my To Do List this week…well, right after my nap.

What gives your soul breath? What is life-giving for you right now?

The Enough Life Is The Abundant Life (#23)

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What do you think of when you hear the word enough? Do you think of ‘just enough’ or ‘not enough’? Does it conjure up images of exasperation, like ‘I’ve had enough’ (which I would actually say is beyond enough and into too much)?

When we live the Enough Life, there is no lack and no settling for unmet needs. There is no excess, nor the baggage that comes with too much. We live in our own unique place of enough.

We’ve talked in earlier posts about the definition of enough. Here is Merriam-Webster’s1 definition (the emphasis is mine):

  • occurring in such quantity, quality, or scope as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations
  • in or to a degree or quantity that satisfies or that is sufficient or necessary for satisfaction
  • a sufficient number, quantity, or amount

My definition of the word enough is “perfect abundance.” I love how Proverbs 14:30 in the Amplified2 Bible translation describes what I see as the heart’s enough state, “A calm and peaceful and tranquil heart is life and health to the body.” Go ahead and read that again…calm, peaceful, tranquil, life, health. These are markers of the Enough Life.

In the book of John, chapter 10, verse 10, we are told that Jesus came to give His believer’s life, and not just a little life, not only eternal life, but life here on earth in abundance. The Perfect Savior came to give us a life of abundance that we can walk in today. There’s no skimping with God. This is not name-it and claim-it false theology. This is the calm, peaceful, tranquil heart that we all desire. This is living in Jesus’ abundant peace, joy, and satisfaction.

This is the perfect abundance at the heart of the Enough Life!

This week:

Look up these verses in your Bible or an online Bible app and reflect on them this week. Pray and ask God what He wants to say to you through His word and this post.

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1 “Enough.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enough. Accessed 13 Mar. 2021.

2 Amplified Bible (AMP),The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA, 2015.

Enough Success? (#22)

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How do you define success? I’m guessing your first thought has to do with money or possessions or that dream job. But have you ever really thought about it? Do you have your own definition, or do you lean on the definition of others…the Joneses perhaps? (Oh yes, them…we’ll discuss them more in future posts.)

If you haven’t ever defined what success looks like to you, then how will you know when you have achieved it? This question really gets at the heart of the Enough Life. It is actually an intensely personal question; the definition is different for each of us. The Joneses definition will never truly satisfy. Someone else’s expectations or definition will never give us peace and satisfaction because success, regardless of how you define it, requires sacrifice.

All success costs something, and the price you are willing to pay is proportional to the value of the definition to you specifically. Sacrifice may be in the form of blood, sweat, and tears. It may be the time commitment or the energy required. It may come at the cost of certain relationships. It will certainly come in the form of missing other opportunities. You must consider what success looks like to you, so you aren’t sacrificing for someone else’s definition of success.

A dear friend of mine recently went through this very exercise. She decided to leave a demanding albeit lucrative managerial position with a good company to accept a slightly less lucrative non-managerial position with a smaller firm. The new position will provide her more time with her family and the ability to work from home most of the week. She counted the cost, examined her goals, and decided what she was – and was not – willing to sacrifice.  This is success!

We each have only one shot at this earthly life. What if at the end of your life you realized that you sacrificed so much only to achieve someone else’s definition of success? Success should produce peace and satisfaction in the sacrifice as well as the achievement. Only you can define what your successful Enough Life looks like. Give it some thought today!

P.S. You may also want to check out post #18 if you haven’t yet.

Enough Noise? (#21)

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Thanks to COVID-19, I have been working from home now for about a year. On one hand, it has been marvelous – no commute, no traffic, fewer miles on the car, and days with my adorable fur-baby curled up by my feet. Oh sure, I miss seeing the in-person faces of my wonderful team and the convenience of printing on demand. But the thing that my soul misses most is the processing time in the car. It was me time. Time to think, pray, learn (podcasts, anyone?), strategize, and solve problems was a precious gift I never truly appreciated until now.

But often, by the end of the week, I just craved quiet. I could not put one more bit or byte in my brain. I had had enough…my soul was weary. You know what I mean. So, on those days I would drive home in silence. Beautiful silence. No thinking, no podcasts, no solving problems. Just quiet. On summer evenings when traffic was light and the air was warm, I would make that drive home with the windows down and the sunroof open, basking in the white noise of the breeze. Ah, quiet.

You see our souls are on the front lines, taking hits every day from things like relentless emails, phone calls, to do lists, texts, social media, marketing messages, images, news, and everything else that clamors for our attention. I call that the noise of life. Most days we can handle it and it’s enjoyable, productive, even energizing. But we must know when our soul says, “enough, please, enough.” When the noise in our lives exceeds the peace.

We may not be able to stop the noise, but we can take a time out. We can be careful about the mechanisms that funnel the noise to us. We can make technology serve us instead of the other way around. We must be mindful of our souls. And when the noise in our soul is creeping past enough, we need to make time for quiet, solitude and peace. We must create space for our souls to breathe and our minds to productively rest. We must be kind to our souls.

So, when you have had enough of the noise of life and just need a soul break, I recommend:

  • Listening to Soaking Music (just search YouTube, you’ll see)
  • Listening to nature sounds – like waves or birds – or better yet go into nature and listen to the sounds firsthand (you can find these also on YouTube and there are also several apps you can download)
  • Indulging in something beautiful – artwork, a sunset, or a sunrise
  • Buying yourself flowers and spending 10 minutes just looking at them, really seeing their colors and design, inhale deeply
  • Praying
  • Taking a break from all electronic devices, put social media aside for a bit and play a couple of games of solitaire – with an actual deck of cards.
  • Taking a long drive with the windows down, the sunroof open, and the breeze whipping through your hair.

How do you care for your soul?

The Productivity of Good Leadership (Post #20)

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In post #18, we talked about applying intentional effort to developing the kind of person we want to BE, and starting the process by developing a BE List. The previous post focused on applying that concept to leadership, specifically the leadership legacy. Today, I want to take that idea one step further and apply it to your leadership productivity.

While it makes good, intuitive sense that people prefer to work alongside those leaders with high integrity and positive leadership attributes, can those leadership attributes also translate into productivity and effectiveness for your organization? I submit to you that they are directly related.

If you have ever had a supervisor, then you know that the research about the impact of a good supervisor on employee engagement and longevity is true. Research has repeatedly confirmed that a good supervisor has a more significant impact on employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention than compensation or financial incentives. Employees want good supervisors (duh!).

Conversely, poor supervisors are one of the leading causes of employee turnover. Some studies suggest it costs the equivalent of 9-months of an employee’s salary to replace them (in terms of recruitment, training, onboarding, and gap in productivity). And one doesn’t need to be a leader long to realize that when turnover is high, the overall group productivity is stagnant at best.

It’s no surprise that employees want inspiring leaders with integrity, good moral character, and positive personal leadership qualities. The positive leader, driven by virtue and integrity, will inspire their team. They will see the individuals on their team as valuable people, deserving of respect. They will treat others with dignity and value their work and their contributions to the department’s success. While the leader who lacks integrity almost always also lacks productivity, the good leader, with integrity and positive leadership attributes, foster greater levels of employee engagement, satisfaction, and inspire their teams to produce greater results for the organization.

You can’t fake being a good person or a good leader, but you can intentionally take steps to change and improve who you are as a person and as a leader. It starts with an honest evaluation of both. What kind of person do you want to BE? What kind of leader do you want to BE? Choose one attribute common to both lists and spend the next 60 days intentionally focusing on BEing exactly that. Read books on it, watch videos on it, immerse yourself in that concept until it changes the way you think and behave. Ask people you trust to hold you accountable.

You can do this. Start today, for today is literally the first day of the rest of your life.