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Why Every Wow Needs A How
What Is A Wow?
This past weekend my wife and I attended the Quitter Conference in Nashville, TN. If you have no idea what that is, it’s a conference based on the book Quitter by Jon Acuff. The goal is to bridge the gap between your day job and your dream job. (You can read more here).
One of the things Jon talked about is how most dreamers are “wow” people. We like to dream up these crazy ideas and we exclaim, “Wow! I have this great idea!”
The Opposite Of Wow
For every “wow” person there is usually someone to keep them grounded. A “how” person. Someone who will ask, “How? How will that work?”
If you’re married, that is often your spouse. It is in my case. My wife is my “how” person. Every time I dream up some crazy scheme to get out of a job with which I’ve grown bored, she asks how it’s going to work.
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Will it pay the bills?
Is it realistic enough that it could actually happen?
How will I get from point a to point b?
All legitimate questions and concerns.
Why A Wow Needs A How
I’m so thankful for having a supportive, encouraging wife who is still wise enough to ask the right questions. To remain level-headed when I get too starry-eyed. She doesn’t kill my dreams. But she does know my strengths and my weaknesses, often times more clearly than I see them myself.
Coming back from the high of all the great speakers at the conference and getting to hang out with a bunch of other people who are passionately pursuing their dreams, it is now time to do the work. It’s time to hustle.
I’ve got a thousand wows and I don’t always know which ones I should pursue. But I have someone to ask me, “How?”
I have someone to keep me headed in the right direction. Someone who will keep encouraging me to dream and pushing me toward those dreams.
What is your dream?
Because I Said So
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Speaking For Myself
Many of the subjects I blog about are things that are close to my heart. Either through my own experience, or that of someone I know.
Many times, I’m speaking directly to myself, stepping on my own toes or trying to inspire and encourage myself. Hopefully, I can also challenge and encourage others in the process.
Hypocrites
The last thing I want it to be hypocritical. The church is often accused of being full of hypocrites by people looking for an excuse to stay away. I like what Matt Chandler said a few years ago.
Chasing Your Dreams
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Is Chasing Your Dream Worth It?
When we’re young, we are told to figure out what our dreams are and begin to set up a plan on how to achieve them. Get good grades, get the right college degree, get the right job and live out that dream!
Easy, right?
Easier said than done, most of the time.
What if your dream isn’t what you expected?
What if life gets in the way?
What if you get a new dream?
How do you deal with all of these variables? Read more…
Cherishing Childhood
You’ll Never Get This Time Back
Today’s post was going to be about vacationing with kids. It was going to have some helpful advice for the family road trip, a dash of humor and a nice reminder that your children will only be young for a short time.
I decided that with most kids having started back to school already, it wouldn’t necessarily be the most timely post, and so I’ll save it for another time.
Be A Man
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Imperfect Leaders
Let me preface this by admitting my own failures as the head of my household. I have failed repeatedly as a husband and a father over my ten years of marriage and seven years of fatherhood.
If we’re honest with ourselves, we have all failed as husbands and/or fathers. We are imperfect, sinful and flawed. Read more…
The Weight Of Words
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Weighty Words
In a blog I read recently by Jeff Goins (read it here), he wrote of the power words carry. They have weight. They can change people. Think about it. How many times has your day been destroyed by simple, unkind words? On the flip-side, how many people have you had in life that have spoken encouraging, life-changing words to you?
Arbitrary Language
Words can seem so arbitrary. There are roughly 6,500 languages actively spoken in the world today. That means there are thousands of different ways to say the same thing.
A thousand ways to speak love.
A thousand ways to speak hate.
A thousand ways to say you are indifferent.
Yet these combinations of letters and sounds can elicit our emotions for good or bad. They can impact our decisions about our lives and how we feel about ourselves and/or others.
A kind word, a compliment, simply saying “hello” could save someone’s life. Read more…
Your Life Is A Vapor
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It’s no secret that our lives are short. It seems like, the older I get, time just keeps picking up speed.
Days and weeks fly by.
Before you know it, a whole new season is upon you and then, without warning, you’re buying a new calendar.
Time waits for no man.
How Your Diet Can Affect Your Spiritual Life
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The Best Intentions
One of the most popular New Years resolutions we make is to lose weight. We all think about how we’re going to start eating right in order to lose those pounds and become a new, more fit version of ourselves. It usually starts out great.
Statistics tell us, though, that only 1 in 4 of us will actually keep our resolution every time.
Why is it so hard to see our goal through til the end? Read more…
What The Olympics Can Teach Us About Following Jesus
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You Can’t Stumble To Victory
If there is one thing we can learn from the Olympics, it’s that hard work and training pay off. You don’t get to the Olympics, let alone win gold, without committing to a long, hard, continuous training regimen.
What does that have to do with living a Christian life?
Paul says in Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” (ESV).
Following Jesus is not a sprint. It is a life-long marathon, at the end of which, Jesus waits for us with open arms.
Finding Inspiration
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Setting Goals
I’ve been blogging for three weeks now and I have found it to be as challenging as I expected at the outset. When I started, I set two goals for myself:
- 1. Write to encourage, challenge and inspire others.
2. Challenge and push myself.
As I have never been a writer, the latter was an easy goal to hit. The former is the one that I knew would be challenging.
