Jason Taylor

“…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affections, and brotherly affections with love.   For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowldge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Anna and I have been talking about love, and how it seems that loving folks who to us seem a bit unlovable is hard.   They have rough edges or weird, quirky personalities and I generally just don’t try to engage because I know that it will “cost” me something.   Energy, frustration….whatever. 

I’ve been really convicted of this lately and this passage today was just another really good reminder of how important it is that we love and love well.   Most of the time, those that seems difficult or unlovable are those that need love the most.   and frankly, if I stop and look in the mirror, I’ve got some of the weirdest, most rough edges of all.

LOVE IS THE LOFTIEST PREFERENCE OF ONE PERSON FOR ANOTHER

I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now.   I’ll probably write a separate post about this post but…for me…I have to share that there’s this constant tension between “journaling” for personal growth and devotion, and blogging for devotion and inspiration.  For me the tension increases a lot more with the deeper issues I wrestle with.  I know others must struggle with these as well and the coach and helper in me wants to share it and let others know, “hey you are not alone,” and the blogging side of me holds back a little with, “you shouldn’t be too transparent, it sounds like whining and complaining.” 

I haven’t decided with clarity what’s right to write and what’s wrong so for now, I’m just living in the tension and continuing to learn.  That being written, this is a post that would border on a bit more the personal journal.  

Enjoy.

I give credit to John Eldredge and Craig McConnell for the majority of this post.   These thoughts came from a chapter in Walking with God and from the Walking with God Journal that I’ve been walking through over the past year.   

It’s been an amazing journey personally for me to go through this book and journal in my alone time each morning.   I haven’t done it every day just slowly a few a week as time has marched on.   It’s been uncanny how applicable each entry has been to my life and the seasons I find myself in.  Case in point…

Last night I was sharing with Anna this incredible anger that had come over me earlier in the day.   There’s a lot happening right now in life that has left me reeling.   And yesterday on my bike commute home frustration and anger towards all sorts of people and things was coming out of my heart.    I was gripping the handlebar tighter and tighter and going faster and faster as I allowed my mind to kind of cycle deeper into this anger.    It was kind of weird.    I just wanted to get home and write, write out some of what I’d say to specific people and God if I could take the filter off my mouth and just spew what I wanted.   Mostly, I really needed to pour out my heart to God and ask alot of questions. 

So I did.  I wrote.   I wrote a document called “If I Could Say Anything….”   It will not be something I post.   

Then Anna and I went on this walk and we were talking about anger and about this book and how it seems that each chapter just matches so poinently with our life at any given moment.   Anna had been doing some serious spiritual battling against a spirit of anger and really felt like it was beginning to diminish but her fear was that it would show up in me, almost a transferrence so to speak.   Hmmm.  And then there it was just pummeling me all afternoon.   Interesting.  The kind of thing that makes your spirit wake up a bit to the reality of spiritual warfare. 

 Then today, I was reading this passage title Assault. 

“It’s so important to see that the assault isn’t so much to get you to sin, but to separate you from God and leave you in a vicious cycle of self-contempt and shame that we assume to be the normal Christian life.  I have got to remember this–the issue is never the presenting sin.  The issue is the surrender, however subtle, of our hearts.   The open door, the agreement. What follows is the enemy’s real goal–our separation from God, and from our true selves. I think most Christians never see the battle.  They think they want evil, and they embrace the contempt as conviction.  Then they assume that, of course, God is going to be distant, and they live under all of that for years.  “My heart is evil, I am such a wretch, of course God is distant.”  They think it’s the Christan life.  

But that’s not the Christian life.   It is helpful to stop, and remind ourselves what the Christian life is about.   And that’s where this post becomes coaching.   Write down your answer to this question:  “What is itthat God wants for you as his son or daughter–what is your Christian experience supposed to look like, feel like?”

I appreciate John’s message and the fact that I read all of this in a daily journal outlining his experience of walking with God over the course of a years, helps me to remember that my journey, my Christian life is a daily process.   I will not arrive until the last day and then really, that’s only the beginning.  The last day, is really the first day.   And oh how I look forward to it.

From the book Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley

“You want the people who choose to follow you to end their journeys with more respect for you than when they began.”

It’s amazing what I learn when I run.    I went for a run during lunch today.   Hot, hot, hot!   I’m getting set for the Wild West Relay this weekend and wanted to get a few more miles in this week just to keep the legs fresh.    All my senses were engaged today, or at least I thought they were.   I was trucking along through the middle of Albuquerque in the middle of lunch traffic as best as one possibly can:  Sight – I could see, watch and take in the road and traffic.   Hearing – I was listening to the sounds of cars on the road, taking it all in so as to be constantly aware of what was going on around me.   Touch – I could definately feel the road, the heat and the cushion of my Saucony’s underfoot as I pattered along my route…   Taste –   When it’s 95 degrees, you can pretty much taste the heat and the salt from the sweat running down your face… BUT…I’d not been aware of Smell – until coming around the corner by the golf course I was hit with a wall; a smell so strong and pungent it caught me totally off guard.  The smell of sun-baked steer manure is strong enough to cause momentary gagging.   

I was able to push through but the lingering scent could be made out for most of the rest of my run.   I was reflecting on this as I continued down the path and thinking about a correlation between my experience in that moment and life and business.  

I think the reason God gave us only 5 senses is because he knew that was about the limit of our ability to take in stimulus, process it and maintain it’s momentum.   Who knows what would have happened to us if there wer 6 or 7 senses…  I believe that most of us can do a decent  job of juggling 3-5 things at one time.  I’m not talking about multi-tasking but the ability to keep 3-5 key values, tasks, goals or strategies balanced and tracking all the time.   In coaching we recommend individuals track 3-5 core values, a short vision statement and the same goes for churches, businesses and organizations.  Most effective lists include 5 or fewer items because more than that becomes overwhelmingly difficult to attain to.

The problem is that it’s still hard to keep two eyes and 1 brain on 5 things at one time and if you let down your guard for just a moment, letting one slide can almost cause a complete standstill.   Add to that how busy we are and throw in a couple of hard days at the office and you can begin to imagine how quickly we might let something slip.    It’s a lot of work to balance 5 core values or master tasks.    We have to create systems of accounability that will provide backstops in case we get distracted or loose site. 

The sudden awareness of smell today didn’t kill me but it slowed my momentum and had I been racing and unprepared – it would have had an effect on the outcome.    This weekend as I go to race with 11 other people, I’m going to be mindful of all 5 senses and making sure to have all of them engaged. 

Here are a couple of suggestions on how to maintain some balance with the 3-5 core “things” you might be spinning currently:

1. Have a plan for life and business and review it at least weekly, if not daily.
2. Regularly go over your plan with key stakeholders in your life, and go over there plan for life and business with them as well.
3. Look for holes or gaps in the plan and when, not if, when you find them, create and implement simple systems that will become backs.

I’d be interested to know what your 3-5 “things” are.   Share additional suggestions or thoughts as you think of them.

Image (Peti)

Here’s a list of the things that brought me joy today.

1. The sound of my wife’s voice.
2. The fact that she still loves it when I call to wake her up in the morning.
3. My goofy nephew and his stories
4. Coffee at Starbuck’s
5. Time with God
6. The ability to use my arms and legs to work out and stay fit
7. Apple Pancakes

What made you joyful today?

I’m in Vegas for the Xterra West Cup tomorrow. I prerode the course with my friend Dave Cloninger and Steve Larsen, both of beautiful Bend, OR! Tomorrow is the race. I’ve been pretty freaked out about the swim portion because it’s the longest open water swim (just shy of a mile) and only the third open water swim I’ve ever done. The bike course is steep both going up and coming down and the run course is going to be the toughest 10K I’ve ever run. Period.

More on that after the race tomorrow…

This is the largest race I’ve ever been a part of, I think there are upwards of 375 racers for the Championship course and they are from all over the world.  In addition, there are 30 pro athletes in the race.

To set up the scene of what I’m going to try to describe you have to imagine the resort setting:  Golf carts, wine glasses, marble (EVERYWHERE!), palm trees, fancy cars, beautiful people all dressed up and then, there are all these  racers, with bike shorts and jerseys and colors and cleats and well you get the picture…

THE IMAGE…

Apparently next to the ballroom where registration was being held today there was some sort of silent auction going on.  There were women everywhere dressed up like it was Easter with these huge hats; all different colors and sizes but they were all some size of BIG.  Everyone looked like they were wearing their most expensive outfit and it just reminded me of something out of the movies that you would see in the south on a plantation on a Sunday afternoon or something, except that there were like 200+ of these ladies.   It was crazy.

I was walking down this luxurious marble hallway on my way to the pre-race briefing and to pick up my packet today and I look up and in front of me is this older guy, probably in his 50′s or 60′s, slender athletic build, wearing a faded, FADED!!!!, brown speedo, with white compression socks up to his knees and a multicolored jersey walking side by side with two of these little old ladies with their hats on!  I only wish I could have taken a picture for you.  It was a classic moment and the first thing that came to my mind was that this is what people must mean when they talk about worlds colliding.

There are probably all sorts of applications to make out of this. So feel free to run wild.

So, I’m kind of new to this whole thing.  I have journaled for years.   I have read books and lots of them and absolutely love to take what I’m learning and share it with people.   But this blogging thing is hard.   I have some sort of block.   I get started on a blog, get into it and then get stuck.   I do the same thing when I’m trying to explain a concept I’ve heard or read about to someone else.    I get all tongue tied and just end up ending it quickly without really speaking it with conviction.

I’d really like to NOT do that anymore and I’d really like for this blog to be a better expression of my thoughts than that.   As much as I want to write about GUIDEPOSTS, I also want to share my aspirations about racing in Xterra this year and how all that is coming along.   My wife and I just recently transplanted to a new place.   I moved to Central Oregon after spending 34 years in New Mexico.  We moved here with no work, no place to live, just a dog and a lot of hope.   There’s a lot that we’ve experienced and learned and continue to learn in this experience.    I want to share those things too.

So, even though I’m not totally clear where this blog is going, I do know clearly that I want to inspire, influence and encourage people.   I have a lot to say, I want to get better at saying it.

I’ve been online for hours tonight, looking at templates for my blog, thinking about porting over to WordPress, (after reading this) following Twitter, thinking about stopping and reading an actual book…there is so much to learn. I’ve read more this week than I can believe on how to craft a blog, get people to read it, use it for work, marketing, pleasure…everybody has something to say about blogging. That’s the point of all of this, everybody has something to say and the more people you can say valuable stuff too, ultimately the better.

A blog is a place to set up shop on something, whether it be your thoughts, your opinions, some specific set of topics. I’ve been most impressed with Rhett Smith‘s blogs and tweets this week. It was encouraging to read that he’s blogged for quite a while and is now, after a long time of doing this, re-imagining his blog, his focus and ultimately his voice. No doubt it will help him to have a greater impact.

I’ve held off blogging this week several times. I get a thought, then I stop because I can’t figure out how to get started, or I know it sucks and just don’t want anybody to see my writing. But, I have to be willing to move forward. That’s all part of it. All part of the journey. Geez, this theme shows up a lot. Most things worth doing take accurate action and an intentional process to see bear fruit.

Maybe in a year, I’ll have a following, I’ll have graduated into a great writer and thinker…and then again maybe it’ll still just be me and my wonderful two followers. I’m fine either way.

I promise not to quit. Quitters are lame.

I’m okay with keeping things simple. There’s been a shift in my life over the past few years from being and doing complexity to being and doing simply. Maybe Solomon was right, there is nothing new under the sun.

Life is not meant to be analyzed to death. I’ve spend my fair share of time pondering and contemplating things. I want to get on with it. Say what I have to say and move on. This blog is certainly a part of that. I don’t propose to be a published author or great writer, although per Seth Godin, I guess I am published because I have this blog.

I simply want to find simple ways to influence, inspire and encourage others in their live and leadership. I want to find ways to point people the right way, using my thoughts, quips, experiences and story to act as guideposts.

Along that line, I’ve been doing some research on blogging and in the past day have found some great resources.

This is a great post by Chris Brogan on the power of storytelling and how to use it in your blogging.
ChurchCrunch.com has a weekly blog topic going right now on Wednesdays. Follow the comments for great ideas.
The Power of Narrative post is incredible. If you are blogging or starting a blog, this is a great way to break it down into bite size pieces, not only for you, but also your followers.

What’s your GUIDEPOST today?

I grabbed a short interview this morning on a pod cast by Harvard Business Ideacast. Author Holly Weeks was being interviewed about her book Failure to Communicate.

The title of the interview was “Speaking Well in Difficult Situations;” more specifically she was addressing how to handle the tough conversations we sometimes face in the workplace. Here were some of my takeaways.

1. Have a blueprint (see below) for how to handle tough conversations
2. Prepare yourself for your own vulnerabilities

A good blueprint is built of three main components.

First, make sure you have clear content; say what you mean, mean what you say and let the words you speak work for you not against you. Even if the message is hard, it’s better than masking it. People can tell when we are dancing around issues and the by product of a fuzzy message is that people will start to guess what we are trying to say and most often will guess wrong.

Second, use a neutral tone; make sure all the “non-word” part of communication matches the words you are speaking. Put all the weight on the words so as to avoid confusing the person or people taking in the message. The point here is not just tone of voice but body language, body position, articulation, everything we use in communication minus the words. Think of it as the supporting cast. The words need to be main stage.

And thirdly, utilize temperate phrasing. What this means is to check word choice and sentence design. Stay away from words that can act as triggers or might provoke the other party.

The biggest learning for me, my GUIDE>POST, is to prepare for my own vulnerabilities. If I know that I have certain sensitivities, whether to a person or a topic or tend to take things personally if they have to do with a specific topic etc…prepare for that, think through it, get clarity on what I’m going to do in those circumstances.