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30 Day Hustle - Day 6

Day 6 – Where

Where to write has been a problem for me in the past. For the past ten years, I have either lived alone, or lived in a situation in which I had a lot of alone time. I did not take advantage of the quiet this opportunity afforded me. If I had known then what I know now, I would have been a writing fool. I am currently living with family because we are doing the Dave Ramsey budget together, splitting all of our bills equally. We should be completely out of debt in the Fall of 2014. That is when I’m looking at purchasing a house. I’ve considered getting an apartment in the mean time, but that’s just more money we can put on our snowball and get out of debt faster.  I’m willing to make that sacrifice for one more year (less, actually).

Every possible location presents a challenge -

A) I love sitting by the fire in the winter, but when people are home, it’s too distracting to be in the middle of the living area.

B) I have an awesome kitchen bar, but it has the same problems as above.

C) My bed is super comfortable, but I’m more likely to drift off to sleep.

D) I have arranged an office in my garage, but the mess in the other half of the garage distracts me and it’s not as cozy as upstairs.

E) Going to a coffee shop sounds very hipster, but I often don’t have the motivation to do it, or at least not frequently enough.

F) I have a classroom that is enjoyable to work in, but it’s a 40-minute commute.

Therefore, I have devised a plan that incorporates all of these locations on a rotational basis.

Sunday – Since Sunday should be a restful day anyway, I want to spend part of the day sitting on my bed and writing. And I won’t feel guilty if I get tired and need a nap between ministry activities, since Sunday (let’s not start a Sabbath debate) should be restful anyway. Monday – Sit by the fire because no one else is home. Tuesday – Write at the counter with my coffee in the AM. In the afternoon, I will drive home from work to get ahead of rush hour, then stop at a coffee shop close to where I live since I’m already out. Wednesday – See Tuesday. Thursday – See Tuesday. Friday – Write in my classroom from 12:00-1:00, between AM and PM tutoring sessions. Saturday – Spend half my time arranging the garage, a little at a time, and the other half writing in office until the garage is perfectly clean and I can spend all of my time writing. Also, people will be around to help with the garage on Saturdays.

Specific enough? I think so.

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30 Day Hustle - Day 5

Day 5 – When?

I like how Mr. Acuff has divided the when of things into macro and micro.

Macro

Looking at the next 25 days, I already know which ones will provide the biggest obstacles to accomplishing goals. I teach on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and have a crazy commute, so at first I thought about not doing anything goal related on those hectic days. But I really want to establish some good daily habits, so I want to at least do a little bit on those days, too. I’m kind of a math nerd, so I divided up my productivity into percentages that I think I can accomplish each day (in terms of word/chapter count).

Sunday – 18.75% Monday – 25% Tuesday – 6.25% Wednesday – 6.25% Thursday – 6.25% Friday – 12.5% Saturday – 25%

Hopefully, that adds up to 100%. Feel free to double check.

Micro

No matter which day, I want to have a firm morning and evening routine.

Morning: On Tuesday through Friday morning, when I teach and tutor, my writing routing needs to occur at 6am, before I have to go to work. On Saturday through Monday morning, I can move this routine back to 8am, to give me more time to exercise and make a good breakfast.

Evening: On nights when I teach the next day, Monday through Thursday, my writing routing will need to start at 9pm so I will get plenty of rest. On the remaining nights, Friday through Sunday, the routing can be pushed back to no later than 11pm. On non-teaching days, I can insert additional writing time in the middle of the day.

Every night I would like to shoot for 7.5 hours of sleep.

I wonder what tomorrow’s hustle holds.

[davisshepherd]

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30 Day Hustle - Day 4

Day 4 – Fun

And she’ll have fun, fun, fun ‘Til her daddy takes the T-Bird away!

So, how do I make my goal getting fun? How do I make writing fun? I struggled with this all day today until I realized that writing IS fun. That’s why I do it. I mean, sometimes it’s frustrating and it doesn’t always turn out the way I want it to…but I enJOY it (which means it brings me joy) or I wouldn’t CHOOSE to do it.  Simple, yet profound. Mind blown.

[davisshepherd]

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30 Days of Hustle - Day 3

Day 3 – How?

So, I have a little bit of my how figured out and documented already. I said that I would write more by doing it first thing in the morning and at night before bed, preferably for an hour. I don’t have a perfect record so far, but at least I have written some every day, which is improvement.

I did some research and came up with some more hows to motivate me that I haven’t seen before (And I’ve seen a lot) -

Cold Turkey – There is a program you can download that will block your access to certain social media and game sites, but still give you an avenue to research for your writing. I’m sure I could just turn the program off or outsmart it, but just having it there would be a good reminder and I probably wouldn’t WANT to cheat.

Stop While You’re Hot – I found the following quote from Ernest Hemingway and I think it has a lot of merit:

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time.

Take Your Time Back - One of the most encouraging things I read today is that it is up to us as writers to claim the time to write. Time is fair. We are all given the same 24 hours. We cannot expect the universe (as they put it) to simply gift wrap 3 hours for us that we can set aside for writing just because we have announced we want to be writers. We have to stake our claim to that time, guard it, protect it, and not let anyone or anything take it away from us. I like that. I can work with that.

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30 Days of Hustle - Day 2

Day 2: Why?

Why do I want to write in the AM and PM? I feel like this kind of bookend to my life will demonstrate how much I am truly dedicated to writing.

I quote this a lot, but I love this scene in Sister Act 2 -

Even though she makes the lesson about singing, this quote really spoke to me, even as a young child -

“Don’t ask me about being a writer. If when you wake up in the morning, you can think of nothing but writing, then you’re a writer.”

And that’s me. So I should stop thinking about it and do it.

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30 Days of Hustle - Day 1

Day 1: WHAT

My goal for the next 30 days is to write as soon as I get up in the morning and write before I go to bed (Preferably to spend an hour each time)

I seem to be joining a lot of accountability groups lately, and the more involved I become, the more I learn that success is really all about learning to hold yourself accountable, but the proper group dynamic can provide much needed motivation and validation.

I often use the mirror analogy. I used to live in Honduras and the house we lived in was very poorly constructed. It was made of cinder blocks, so if you wanted to hang anything, you had to drill holes. We did not own a drill when we first moved there (nor did we know where to purchase one or have the money, for that matter, at the time), so we tried to hang a few things with command hooks. The wall/paint combo was having none of that. It spit mirrors and paintings off the wall faster than a picky two-year-old projectiles green vegetables. Even the few things we managed to keep on the wall fell off during the big earthquake. Thus, we were quite mirror poor. We had to resort to hand mirrors and such to do our hair. Luckily, we were not very vain women, but often we would check our appearance in the bathroom mirrors at school and readjust if needed.

Later in life, when I was struggling to be more social and involved with the world outside of my hermit hole (because of a lot of bad experiences), I realized that being a part of social groups, church groups, business groups, etc., while not necessary to survive, can serve as mirrors. Sometimes  you just can’t quite see what you look like. You need a bigger mirror, just to check. Oops, this hair is out of place. Oh, look, I have a smudge on my face. I didn’t realize my blouse was torn! Those people aren’t shoving it in your face. Maybe they’re not even pointing it out to, but just the mere act of being around other people who are examining themselves empowers you to examine your own self more closely and objectively.

Don’t fear the process. Don’t fear being around others. Don’t fear the accountability. Mirrors help us see the truth.

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On Waking Up

I’m productive when I’m awake, but getting myself to the destination of awake is kind of like trying to make it to California in a go-cart (there’s a story behind that, I’ll tell you about it sometime).

Today I discovered the new geeky way of getting up. There’s an alarm that makes you scan barcodes before it will go off. For example, let’s say you want to make coffee and eat oatmeal first thing. You can program the alarm to make you scan the bag of coffee and the oatmeal box (which, presumably, would be in a different room than where you slept!)

I’ve tried a lot of the tricks that people use to get out of bed and let’s face it, there’s always a way to cheat. I used the alarm that makes you do math problems for a while but even after solving the problems, I would snooze sometimes. And a lot of the other tricky alarms I would eventually get annoyed with and just shut them off manually. I have an amazing ability to do complex tasks while half-asleep and still be able to go back to sleep afterward.

Why is this one any different? Well, it might not be, but the reason it is worth a shot is because it will force me to pre-plan my morning (which I usually do anyway) but then reminds me what my plan was. Sounds simple, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve slept in and later regretted it, saying if I had just realized what I was doing, maybe I would have gotten up.

So, perhaps I need to set this thing to scan my notebook to remind me to write, scan my shoebox to remind me to put on my sneakers and exercise. For that matter, the alarm doesn’t have to just be for waking, but for activities throughout the day. The possibilities are endless.

Easier still might be to just record a motivational speech from myself and set that as my alarm, reminding me of why I want to get up and be productive. But I think I might lull myself back to sleep, so the kinesthetic style of scanning barcodes might give me the extra edge I need to wake up. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

[davisshepherd]

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Site Revamp

I’m getting ready to launch a new version of this blog. I’ve already passed a major milestone in the arena of writing in that I am still here. In the past when I would get busy, I would abandon projects. Does anyone here remember open diary? Yeah, I had a few of those back in the day. One of the first “blogs”, even though the term didn’t exist yet. (Geez, am I that old?) Since then, I’ve had just about every type of blog that exists. Due to my perfectionism, however, I was unable to keep up with my writing because I held it to such a high standard. I would read it later and think my words were ridiculous and worthy of deletion. But I promised myself and my audience (we few, we happy few) that I would not quit, no matter what. Why? Because I am a writer. And writers write. I forgot that for a while. I left all the words in my head where they existed as paragons of plots and characters and messages. My mind was the only place they were safe from the critical eye of the world. But you know what? Who cares if this paragraph is getting so long that the skimmers and scanners among us have lost interest and moved on? I am writing. This is WRITING. Be it marvelous, miserable, or merely mundane, here it is.

I didn’t delete my old posts, just in case you were wondering if I am contradicting myself with this post. I have saved them for a place on the revamped site. I wish to make a distinction between before and after. Before, I was attempting to “establish” myself as someone and I used various tactics to do so. That doesn’t mean I was being dishonest or manipulative. I was just putting way too much thought into a blog that was only supposed to be about my writing journey and be a place for me to pour out all of my random thoughts so that my pointed thoughts could flow more freely into the book that I am writing. Would I like readers? Sure. But that isn’t the point of this for now. The point is the journey. Soon there will be sections of my site reserved for articles, essays, and more structures or intentional writing. But this, this bloggity blog right here, is for FREEDOM!

[davisshepherd]

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The Lion of Judah (Part 3)

Now we come to the part of the story that first inspired me to write this mini-series on Daniel. One day I would like to do an in-depth exploration of the book of Daniel, which could possibly be turned into a book. I know there are already a lot of books out there on the subject, but I think with a little more study added to my passionate interest, I could produce something with a fresh perspective that might inspire others to seek wisdom from this prophet’s story.

Anyway, on to the event that inspired the title. The New Eyes Ministry went out to the strip clubs last week to give gifts to some of the girls. We had the opportunity to chat with them and it went really well. I am currently working on a newsletter to share some of our work, success stories, and how others can get involved by donating resources or becoming a prayer partner. We typically get together before our meetings to prepare gift bags, discuss our purpose, and pray. This time we split up into two-person teams and went to different locations, so we met back up afterward to compare notes. It was during this conversation that God revealed an additional part of this Daniel puzzle, which has been the theme of my life, and encouraged me through my fellow group members.

We had been talking about fear and intimidation, in regards to entering these facilities and just as Christians in general. Caterpillar quoted scripture about how Satan is like a roaring lion trying to devour us, but that Christ is the Lion of Judah and is more powerful and intimidating. I was reminded of a sermon I once heard about how the Bible says Satan is LIKE a roaring lion, so from a distance, perhaps he looks powerful and intimidating. Upon close inspection, he looks a bit more like Scar than Mufasa (I’m sorry, this Lion King reference just popped right out during our conversation – I couldn’t resist). He is old and frail, with rotting teeth and mangled claws.

But as SOON as she said the phrase “Lion of Judah”, I practically leaped out of my chair when another piece fell into place – Going back to the story of Daniel in the den of lions, the Bible said that the Lord shut up their mouths and Daniel was saved. I suddenly had this image in my heard of Jesus Christ, the true Lion of Judah, showing up in all of his glory in that den of lions. As the alpha lion, all of the other lions would cower in His presence. I don’t know exactly HOW the events transpired that day, but I don’t think it was a coincidence that lions were the animals chosen for this pit of death. And God has a way of taking what Satan has meant for destruction and using it to protect and restore.

I mentioned this idea to the other members of the group and we pondered how fitting it was that the lion would be used as a symbol for Christ, despite how he is often perceived as fragile. I prefer to imagine Christ as perfectly masculine, his very essence commanding respect and honor. The lion is the king of the beasts and represents royalty, power, strength – who cannot stand in awe at the sound of a mighty lion’s roar?  Yet He is different from other kings who demand loyalty from their subjects.  That is why he is both the lion and the lamb. He is fierce and mighty, but compassionate and kind. He is gentle without being weak.

The lion was chosen as the symbol for the tribe of Judah before Daniel was ever born or taken away to Babylon (where, ironically, the lion symbol was also used) and before Christ ever descended from the line of Judah to fulfill ancient prophecy, some of which can be found in the book of Daniel. I love it when God confirms His truth and His word with a continuity that spans thousands of years of history, a history that has survived despite every attack brought against it to discredit it. And no matter how strong the kingdoms of this world try to rise up against him with their lionish roars, the true Lion of Judah can shut up their mouths to cause no harm to come to His saints.

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If you need daily inspiration, visit our Facebook! www.facebook.com/babeeproducks

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Give it a try, shall you? I dare you to “affirm” this, for 60 days, every morning. I promise, that if you put your heart into it, you will feel smarter, more confident, more patient, fearless, and more in control than you ever have.

Remember, what you tell yourself “you are…” is precisely who...

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The Lion of Judah (Part 2)

My return to the book of Daniel began with a radio series that explored his character as well as his gift. I never had a lot of time for radio before, but now that I drive so many hours for my job, I’ve been able to use that time to educate myself on a lot of topics. The very same day that I began listening to this series, I happened to pick up a seemingly unrelated book – The Circle Maker. I hadn’t heard of it before and just grabbed it because it was on sale. Mere minutes after the conclusion of one of the radio segments, I opened the book during a break at work and was startled to discover some of the exact same revelations on the life of Daniel.

I started remembering pieces of sermons I had heard over the years on the life of this prophet and I realized that all of it was coming together to encourage me and guide me in the direction that God wanted me to go. I was particularly encouraged by a new revelation about Daniel’s prayer life. I had often read about the decree put forth by King Darius, forbidding anyone from praying to any other gods but himself, which was actually a trick by the other so-called wise men of the kingdom as a direct attack on Daniel. They could not find any fault in him, any way to undermine his integrity, and so they used the only thing they could against him – his method of worship. What a testimony, that he was so consistent in his prayer that they knew they could count on it even in the most dire of circumstances.

And what did Daniel do? Even after the decree, he continued to prayer in the way he always had – in his room, three times a day, with the windows open. However, there is a detail that I recently learned that shines even more light on on his deep faith. Daniel and many of the other exiles in Babylon prayed toward Jerusalem. I used to read past this fact without realizing its significance.  Just as most Jewish rituals had an original purpose that is often lost to modern Christians, praying toward Jerusalem was a concept rooted in scripture and their very faith in God’s promise. Consider  II Chronicles 6:36-39 -

“When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near, if they take thought in the land where they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly’;  if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to their fathers and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name, then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

Not only was Daniel praying consistently, but he was praying while facing the very object of his prayer, not in an idolatrous way, but as a way of maintaining his focus on the Word and promises of the one true God. And he did not change his ritual to be more or less conspicuous to those who were trying to destroy him. Nor was this unshakable faith something that he developed over night. As I read the book of Daniel again recently, I realized that Daniel had been practicing his faith and covering his decisions with prayer and fasting since his youth.

Though I do not feel as faithful and strong as Daniel the man or Daniel the youth, I realize that the same Yahweh has been cultivating something in me since the days of my youth. The next and final part of this series will detail the most recent revelation that I was given concerning the faith of Daniel as he faced a den of lions and how a group of fellow warriors helped me to face the lions in my own life.

[davisshepherd]

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The Lion of Judah (Part 1)

When I was a teenager, I had a dream. But not just any dream. This was a night vision. I crossed a giant chasm on a narrow walkway. It reminded me a bit of the “leap of faith” from the Lion’s head in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Other people were trying to cross, as well, and inherently I knew we were crossing from the natural world into eternity. I saw some people fall and disappear into the abyss, but as I started across, I knew I had to keep my eyes on the other side and not look down. There were footholds that made the journey easier, but some people attempted to cross too quickly, not taking the time to plant their feet. I didn’t have thoughts toward criticizing their methodology because I was too concerned (and to be honest, fearful) of my own perilous journey. Finally, however, I reached the other side. I was ushered into a room, but was slightly disappointed because I only wanted to see Jesus and he was nowhere to be seen. I was led toward a white stone, encouraged to stand upon it, and did. I heard a still, small, but deep and distinct voice, “Well done, my good and faithful servant, Daniel.” When I woke up, at first I was a little confused about the name Daniel. My name isn’t Daniel and I’m not even a boy. My teenage mine tried to reconcile the dream with what I knew. I did know that Daniel had and interpreted dreams and he had a lot of faith. I had a few prophetic dreams in my youth, so I thought that maybe God was confirming that gift in my life. I didn’t know a lot of scripture back then, but I did relate the narrow path to Jesus’ conversation about the way of righteousness being narrow. I took the dream as a sign that I should read the book of Daniel and look for additional clues, so I did. I was able to digest the first part of the book because of its narrative style, but soon got lost in the depth of the prophecy that followed, which now I don’t feel so bad about considering how some parts can stump even the wisest theologians. Eventually the dream and thoughts of its significance faded into the recesses of my mind. Almost a decade later, I was listening to the radio and while changing stations, settled on a message in progress being preached from the book of Revelation. The first verse I heard in its entirety was,

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

My ears immediately perked up, but it was difficult to pay attention to the rest of the message, which didn’t center on this verse specifically, because I kept hearing the phrases “white stone” and “new name” over and over again in my head. I had never known there was a verse about a white stone in the Bible. I had thought it was strange all those years ago, but never really consulted with a pastor or anyone with extensive knowledge of scripture. And although search engines existed, this was a little before they basically read your mind. God renewed the vision in my heart and set me on a journey to discover its purpose…

[davisshepherd]

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Changes

I’m making some changes to the blog. The layout for the actual entries is going to be cleaner and simpler because that helps me focus when I write…it’s kind of like buying a nice clean notebook or having a perfectly crisp sheet of paper and then writing down your thoughts in a neat script, keeping it in the margins, slanting everything in the same direction, evenly spacing your words, and ending up with a neat looking product. You look back over your work and feel a sense of pride. That is the left brain side of me. The right side likes color and doodles. Most of my notes for other subjects in school were marked up and crazy looking. But in English class, everything had an inherent order. People said my handwriting could be its own font because of its consistency. Well, in order to suit my personality, I will create a main page for my website with an explosion of color and design, then link it to this blog, where all of my thoughts can breathe without clutter.

[davisshepherd]

Anyone else use the car door handle to hold dipping sauce?

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I'm Such a Tease

I didn’t lose my writing mojo. I worked a lot last week to pay my bills so that I can work less next week and do some writing! I’ve been working on my book some, so the blog takes a backseat to that occasionally, but I really want to stay connected with my emerging audience as much as possible. There are so many things I want to share and I have a dozen drafts waiting in the wings while I find my voice. But one thing I KNOW I want to share is the first teaser for my BIG announcement. Some people know already, but I haven’t made it official. It’s going to be EPIC. Comment with your guesses.

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I’ve hit one of those motivational lows that I come to sometimes in this writing journey. But this time I’m going to do something that I don’t normally do – write through it.

So, what have I been up to this week? Well, I got together with Master Firebreather and we worked on a video. She motivated me to get more involved with posting videos on youtube. Stay tuned for some wacky stuff. I am a filmmaker at heart and even studied it in college, but I nearly gave up on that passion after a well-meaning mentor in my life basically told me how ridiculous it was for a dedicated Christian to have a hope of making a difference in that area. I realize now how ridiculous HE was, but the seeds of doubt were planted and I’m still uprooting insecurity.

Last night was a much needed game night at the home of Snaps and DirectorB. Funniest thing happened though – Snaps was out taking photos at a wedding reception, so when I get there it’s a group of guys (B, Preacher, SirHoward, and Rockstar) all huddled around a game of Catan and little Prodigy in her bouncy seat. Ha! That kid is going to be able to beat us at Catan before she makes it to preschool. The whole thing reminded me of that movie – Three Men and a Baby (except there were four). Snaps eventually made it home, but I just remembered…Mr. Director, did you tell your wife about the cookie fiasco? I must know!

Today I spent some time with the nieces ColorP and CTape (you simply must check the cast tomorrow for THIS name explanation!) They worked an easter egg hunt today in the pouring rain, bless their hearts. And we made some cookies that were actually inspired by the aforementioned cookie fiasco.

It’s storming outside and feeling more like Spring…and I wish I were in a little bungalow somewhere listening to the ocean along with the rain. I remember a night like that in Costa Rica when I could hear the waterfalls and jungle to the on one side and the waves lapping at the sand on the other. Soon and very soon…