Play it. Play it I say! Play it now and play it and fast. Your race to somewhere card... What are you waiting for? Have you been promised eternity? Have you been assured unlimited time to reach some destination of your choosing? I seriously doubt that. Because we don't have endless time, may I suggest this?...... Get off your tooshie up  and get moving!


Start a Task --Post written by Leo Babauta.If you read my Un-Procrastination ebook, you know how easy it was to read. Short chapters, easy reading, you could be done in a short amount of time. I purposely made it easy, so you wouldn’t procrastinate.

But then someone said, “It’s easier to read the book than implement it!”

Too true. Unless you make it even easier to get started.

How do you start on a task when you’re procrastinating because it’s too hard? You make it super easy.

First, pick a task. Is that too hard? Randomly choose one, to make it easy on yourself.

If you’ve picked a task and it seems too hard to get started, make it even easier: just do one minute. If that’s too hard, just do 20 seconds. That’s so easy you can’t say no.

Whatever the task, if you’re procrastinating, make it easier. The key is to just get started. If you want to go beyond the 20 seconds, keep going. If not, do another 20 seconds after you’ve taken a break and wiped the hard-earned sweat off your brow.

Start a Habit

How do you start a habit? Some people have no trouble starting — it’s the sticking-to-it that’s hard. But others have been wanting to do something for years and just can’t get into it.

Either way, you want to start as easy as possible.

Starting is the key to a habit. If you don’t start, you won’t ever make it a habit. So make it as easy as possible. Want to exercise? Just lace up your shoes and get out the door. Even just 5 minutes is all you need.

What if you want to do much more, because you’re excited? Don’t. Start as simply as possible. Why? Because the sticking-to-it is made much, much easier if you are doing a tiny habit. Try forming the habit of running for 30 minutes a day, and then try the habit of 5 minutes of running a day. Which do you stick with longer? I can already tell you the answer: the easy one.

If you want a habit to stick, start so incredibly simply that you can’t fail. Later, you can iterate on the habit until it’s at the level you really want. But start easy.

Start a New Venture

You’re finally ready to channel your powerful creative energy into a new project. Not just an ordinary work project, but one that will be a new venture for you — one that will start a new business, a new life, and make your mark upon this dense earth.

But you’re putting it off. There’s too much to be done, and you’re already busy. It’s intimidating to get started.

Start as simply as humanly possible. How simple can you make this new business? How simple can you make the product? Make it even simpler.

Let your new business or product do just one thing. And then make it do less of that one thing. Sure, later you can iterate and add a feature or two, but as you get started, do as little as possible.

You won’t be able to fail to start, and in the start is everything. It is where new worlds are created, new journeys begun, new lives born.

‘There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on.’ ~Robert Byrne

I think there is a saying that goes "if you don't stand for something you will stand for anything." Or I might have just made that up. In any case, I like it. Why? Because it really means something to me. I can relate. I can translate it into something usable in my path.

I struggle a lot with keeping it real 360 degrees. I go about my life and at least three times a day I bite my tongue. By the way, in my 20's I lived by the tongue. Sometimes that got me in trouble. Trouble I saw too late.

Because I know we live in a punitive judgmental society we put on many faces. We have our job face, our home face, our I am  with my children face, my church face, my family face, my respect my elder face, my alone with my thoughts face. Too many faces. 

God must be sitting on the throne saying, "Poor souls this is not my way. This is not what I intended for your life." Wouldn't it be grand if we could spend a single day living in a world of complete transparency. Transparency in the sense where  among everyone there is no mystery, no second guessing one another, and no hidden agendas. A single day where we got it all out on the table and professed our determination not to leave that table until we reached some common ground.

If we had this one day how would the world be different? Would there be so much hatred, prejudice, scrutiny, and intolerance. Would we be at war with one another? I just don't think so.

If we started closer to home and in a spirit of complete transparency, how would we change our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces, our relationships if only? If only we stood on our principals. We became compromising versus divisive. Curious versus steadfast.

Open versus shut up and shut out. What if?

One of the tools humans are all gifted with is intuition. Oprah calls it that inner voice that should never ever be ignored. Christians call it the Holy Spirit. On the eve of His crucifixion while still in the Upper Room, the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, "The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

No matter how you look at it, we all are equipped with the ability to decipher right from wrong. Each of us was born with an innate filter to guide our behavior and thoughts. We can choose to ignore the filter as many people do. The more we ignore it the wider the filter becomes and many more bad acts slip through. Each time this happens we are making a mindful, spirit- choice to act in a certain way. Over time our filter becomes corrupted.

The really bad thing is it is very difficult to mend a damaged filter without intervention.  Many will live their lives damaged. Others will turn back to the very gift, The Counselor, granted to them by The Father and begin trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube.


We sit beside these persons on trains, at lunch counters, church pews, and on loveseats. People trying to put toothpaste back into their tube. Trying to repair their filter. Broken filters show themselves as lies, adultery, theft, deception, fornication, cheating, and so on. Don't believe me, look no further than watching the nightly news.  Better still, look at the broken family, our prisons, our empty church parking lots.


Truth is we are all damaged. We all fall short of the Glory of God. We are sinners.


The answer remains the same. CHOICE. The choice to repair our damage or live with a broken filter.

So many times you have come a hair close to achieving something magnificent. You have been close enough to smell your victory. An aroma of your craftsmanship. You have been within an inch of moving out of something old into something so brand new. You felt exhilarated! Not because you made it, but more  because you tried so hard for so long to grab hold to it.  And by your sweat and tears you worked tirelessly at it. 

Today I  join you in your  pursuit. We all do. So many of us have been there too. We have toiled away under the shadows, inching away toward a goal which is no longer just a dream. It has become our oxygen. We have worked in the dark, scratching our thoughts into reality, rubbing our temples to remain focused.  Sometimes we have felt heavy moments of defeatism. The kind that sits on your lap, weighs you down, will not allow you to get up. We have been there. Head trips we call it. Perhaps you call it something else.

If you allow us we will be your choir while you continue to do the heavy lifting. We are not trying to take over. Not a bit. We are here to help you make it over. We want to encourage you, not discourage you. We want to revel in your success, holler from across the room  when you reach each new milestone. Remember we have been where you are.  And because we know that it is so very hard to do what you are doing, we don't want you to do it alone. Your failure is no longer an option.

Here is the gift we bring you, unwrap it with the love in which is was intended. Here goes....

Because we know you are so intent on arriving in your new place. You must recognize that not everyone around you is deserving of the ticket you may choose to grant them to accompany you there. Some of those are the very reason you were not already there a long time ago. Their fear kept you still. They were standing on your feet. Too afraid to stand on their own two feet.

Let me begin by saying I can count the times on one hand I have spanked either of my children. Even then it was nothing close to corporal and never younger than age 4..

It would take the hands of everyone I know to count the spankings I got as a child and that is counting their feet too. I grew up in very different times. I could be spanked for wasting shampoo when washing my hair or leaving dirty dishes in the sink. I got the kind of spankings she wanted to hold a conversation through. Every contact from the switch with a word, "What did I tell you, how many times must I tell you." My mother wanted to make sure I never saw the inside of a jail cell. The way she was going to ensure that was to keep me in check at home under her watchful eye and switch. She succeeded.

If my mother ever heard me use my "that's 1, that's 2, that's 3" method of discipline with my children, she would have spanked me and them. What is that she would have asked? You can use that time beating the sense into them. My father in-law called his belt "the hearing aid". He said kids just hear better when it is around.

I don't know the right answer. I have been on both sides of the spanking pendulum. Personally, I prefer not to spank. Some would say it depends on the child. On this point at least I disagree. Either you use it or you don't. You don't talk to one child and then turn around and spank his brother.

I do know that as parents we need to use all the tools in our took kit to raise our children. I believe it begins with patience and a willingness to talk things out. This includes hearing and being heard.

I grew up never being allowed to question my mother. "Do as I say, not as I do."

Giving our children a voice and allowing them to express their points of view in a tempered manner is extremely important. Showing them there are consequences for bad behavior, expressing our disappointment, admitting our culpability, all lead to well adjusted children who will one day become well adjusted adults.

It is always easier and more expedient to threaten our children, knock some sense into them. But a lingering question I am confronted with is this....what have we really accomplished in the long term? What were we really teaching them?

I truly doubt my kids will spank their offspring. Largely because they don't have that orientation. They have not been taught spanking as a general rule. Perhaps theirs will be the first generation spanking-free.

Today is the first day of your new day. Your do over. If you draw breath then claim it. Embrace your opportunity that many will not have. A day that not one of us has been promised. Do something spectacular with it.

Stop putting off that little voice in your head that says, "What if?" The one that says. "I am waiting patiently for you to realize that anything is possible." Today step out on faith. Stop allowing your insides to trick you into believing that first step is impossible. It may be hard, but it is never impossible.

Ever wonder how so many have accomplished so much all around you? They all have one thing alone in common. They believe in the possibilities of their talents. So rise up my brothers and sisters,  step out there. Stick your head above the fray. Fix your spirit on that one thing you desire most and walk towards it. 

One step, then two. Two steps then three. Soon you will be sprinting, then charging ahead at full speed. YOU will be unstoppable!

I can feel convincingly sorry for you if that is what you want. My shoulder makes the most inviting landing pad. I can listen til your lips turn blue and my ears fall off. I can be most agreeable. Tell you to the "t" exactly what you want to hear, need to hear. I can do that. I can make you sound like a super hero, complete with cape and all. 

I can ignore the contradictions in your words and actions. Pretend I did not see what I saw, feel what I felt. I can do that like the best of them. If that is what you want...what you need.

I can also, with your simple nod and a wink, tell you what I really think and probably what you already know. Your slip is showing. You are digging with a hole in your shovel.

As someone who loves you without condition, and if you allow me, I can stand with you. I can be the kind of friend to you that you deserve at this time in your life. No judgement. Just that second voice in the wind. The voice that says, I feel your pain. I will not abandon you. I have been there. Let me take some of that heaviness away,  just long enough for you to draw that strongest breath and re enter the ring in your fight for what is calling you by name.

Stop telling me how to do me. STOP IT! That is what we should all be saying all the time. As long as I am not self-hurting, hating, hurting others. Mind your own business. Stop projecting! Live on your side of the block and I will live on mine. If I happen to ask your opinion then give it. If I don't ask, assume I don't want to know.

Let me bruise my own knees. Take that time you are spending on me and work on you. I am just saying. I don't benefit from seeing your little devil horns on my shoulder all the time. You are heavy and a distraction.

Now that I have put this as gently as I know how let me also say this. I do appreciate your interest in me if that is what it really is ...interest.  My lenses see it differently however. I see it as an intrusion. A way of chipping away at me to make me think less of myself and make you feel better about you. It is not working, so STOP IT!

Cross the street back over to you and yours and work on your pieces. I can do bad enough by myself. I have enough to worry about without worrying about you pretending to worry about me. STOP!

Be you doing you and let me do the same.

If you really care about me ask yourself this....Why am I talking to this person in this way? What am I trying to achieve? Where will this end? How do I hope to come out of this on the other side?

When you have answered these questions, tuck yourself back into your thoughts and come at me again. This time, come correct! Now if you will excuse me, I have my life to live.

Signed: A word for all of us to them others.

So you know what you want to do but you just haven't done it. Have not done it at all.

What you have done is claimed this thing by speaking it aloud three times. You have looked at yourself in the mirror and said aloud three times. I am going to "x". You have written it down in non fancy words, plain talk. You have even talked to an antagonist about this thing and suffered through all their egregious reasons you are sure to fail. You stood there and took it. Great! Now let's get down to work. Remember, we are on our way.

Next I want you to go to your closet and get an empty shoe box. Yes shoe box. If you can't find an empty one, take the shoes out and wa-lah! An empty shoe box. Now every day for the next 12 days I want you to put something in this box toward your "x". No more than one thing each day. The type of things you put in the box might include a picture of "x", an article, a check toward "x", a competitor to "x" when it is launched, a list of people on your advisory board, a URL you have reserved. You get the picture.

Perhaps some of you might have a "x" that is quite different. Perhaps you are planning to end a relationship, begin a new relationship, quit a job, buy a house, stop drinking, stop smoking, stop swearing, stop trying to be the man in his house. Perhaps your "x" is to begin showing love, providing your forgiveness, showing up and being present in your children's lives.  Same assignment. Get out your shoebox.

The shoebox represents your contract with yourself. When the shoebox is full we are going on a special assignment.

You are on our way! Your God will not allow you to fail.

Our relationship with God may well be the most personal relationship we will ever participate in. It is the only relationship whose outcome is completely within our control, bar none. Many of us over complicate how we obtain this relationship. We conjure up all the requirements that predicate the relationship. We must firstly,  live righteously, attend church, read the bible, become baptized. Of course none of these is remotely true. In a relationship with God we will want to do these things. These are not the musts. We can always have a relationship with God. It is our heart that determines the type of relationship we ultimately have.

If we are seeking access to all that God has to offer in our lives we only have to do two things.

Enter a username: I am a sinner
Enter a password: I believe in Jesus and I will be saved

Enter  these into your heart and start living your life as God intended.

The Word Brings Salvation
"THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART "-- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10

It takes a lot to acknowledge our shortcomings. It is much easier to discuss our strengths and talents. When we are really accomplished in some area of our life, we want everyone to know, will work it into the most random of conversations. We are the first to engage in things that interest us, areas where we excel.  If we know a lot about something we are not shy about sharing our knowledge with the universe. As human beings we want to feel validated by others. We thirst for attention. We thrive on accolades. We are attracted to glittering lights and sparkling stars. We are ever seeking a bigger stage. That's just me. You could be different.

But when it comes to owning our imperfections that is a horse of a different color. Now we wear masks. We dodge truths, We exaggerate our failures and skew them toward success. At the very least, once told, they become our "mistakes" because of "others" failures. We fail to take ownership. We don't want to be called out. We refuse condemnation. We will end relationships, changes friendship circles, move from cities, skip family gatherings, resign from jobs, withdraw from church memberships, all of these things, when we are close to being found out. When the truth in us is seeping out and being exposed. The truth that we are not perfect.

The thing is none of us is perfect. We weren't even created to be perfect. Nowhere is it written that we must even aim for perfection. That expectancy we placed on ourselves. A figment of our own creation.

I would much rather live in a world where we put all our stuff out on the table. A place where we begin to learn from each other's failures. A place of no judgment. A place where we don't run away from anything about us. But rather we run to others who accept our imperfections and help with the healing within us.

That is what Jesus would do.

First thing I want you to do is decide what you want to do. What is it? Be specific. Look at yourself in the mirror and say it out loud three times. I am going to "x". Fill in the blank. Don't give it a time table just yet. Now leave the mirror and write it down. No fancy words just plain talk between you and you.

Next is a more complicated thing but important. Go to a true naysayer in your life. We all have them. Someone who always sees your glass half full. Someone who whether they admit it or not wants to see you fail or at least not pass them by. Your task is to tell them your "x" and listen to them work in all the reasons you should not or could not. Let them get it all out because this is the last time you will involve them in your journey towards "x". If they happen to say anything constructive capture it, you may need it along the way. Sometimes even the worst critics can show us something helpful about ourselves. 

Do not argue with this person. Stand there and take it. Trust me. 

Then when they are finished being themselves with your stuff walk away. "We can show them better than we can tell them." 

Return to your mirror clutch your "x" in your hand and tell yourself, "I am on my way,"

Remember you serve a God who will not allow you to fail.