How to Make the Most of Your Morning Routine

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If you have kids (even if you don’t), the morning can be crazy. You stayed up too late watching that last episode on Netflix or the game, hit the snooze button too much, and now you are racing out the door, throwing lunches together, and stuffing breakfast into your mouth.

There is a lot at stake in what we do with our mornings. The most productive people maximize their mornings.

Here’s the reality: If you don’t make the most of your morning, you will feel behind all day.

If your morning determines your day, how do you make the most of it?

Here are six ideas:

1. Get up before everyone. If you want to make the most of your morning, whether single, married, or have kids, you must get up before everyone else. It would help if you were up before people started sending you texts and emails.

Something happens in the quietness of a morning when it is still dark out.

I know you are exhausted and not a morning person. I get it.

When we started our church, I would work late into the night because I hated the mornings, but the reality is that most people do their best work and best thinking in the morning. I certainly do. 

There is a definite difference in my day when I am up before everyone else and when I am not.

Parents know this truth because they feel behind if they wake up when their kids do.

2. Pick a spot. The place is vital to many people, particularly when it comes to focusing on your heart. Choosing a location you return to each morning to recharge, focus, and pray is essential.

This might be a porch, a spot in your room, or a favorite chair.

Wherever it is, don’t simply make this haphazard. Choose a spot that will help to quiet you and focus your heart.

The consistency of a spot and place will signal in your mind that it is time to relax, think, and connect with Jesus. This becomes a very powerful part of maximizing your time.

3. Read/Journal. Focusing on your day will often come through feeding your soul first.

For me, it is spending time reading my Bible. Being able to have space to read, process, and write down what God is doing in your heart and mind is critical.

What things stand out to you while reading your Bible? Write them down.

Many people find a lot of relief from getting their thoughts and feelings out of their minds and onto paper. This is often a great stress reliever but also a place to leave something behind. You can also track what you are praying for and when those prayers are answered.

4. Pray/Think. In the busyness of life, especially with kids, if you want to have time to pray and think in silence, you will have to carve it out. This is why you need to get up before everyone else. If you want quiet, you have to make it happen. Quiet does not magically find you.

If you are a leader, this is very important.

Part of your job as a leader is thinking and praying about what is next for your organization, church, and family. As a parent, you must believe and pray about what is next for your marriage and your kids.

Recently, an older leader challenged me on this and said, “Josh, if you don’t spend time thinking and praying about what is next for your church, who do you think is?”

5. Tackle your most challenging task first. If you’ve noticed, you haven’t done any work yet. For many people, you might be wondering when you start being productive.

But I would say that all of the above will bring greater productivity and success.

As you think through your day, do what takes the most mental energy, the most challenging task that will move the ball the furthest in your life and career, first.

For many pastors and me, this is sermon prep, not a meeting or a counseling session. Tackle the tasks that are not only hard but move the ball furthest in your life or work.

6. Turn on the electronics. Notice: This is last; depending on how long everything else took you, it might be until lunchtime before you check email, Facebook, or Instagram. That isn’t bad (unless your boss would be mad at you about checking your email that late, which is a different topic). Side note, if your boss doesn’t like that, have a conversation about how you can be more productive if you don’t check your email first thing in the morning.

Why does that help?

An email has a way of hijacking your day and brain. It sidetracks you. I don’t check my email on sermon prep mornings until I am done. It keeps my head clear.

In reality, no one else is responsible for making you successful, effective, or productive. You are. If you aren’t, as much as we don’t want to admit it, that is often on us.

Take control of what you can control.

5 Things Productive People Do in the Morning

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We all want to accomplish more, to make the most of our lives and the hours of our day. Productive people accomplish more than everyone else, and it isn’t because they have less to do or more hours in the day. They do specific things that everyone does not do.

Yet, few of us accomplish all that we want to. Why is that? What do productive people know and do that others don’t?

I think this becomes especially relevant right now as so many people seem tired and struggling to keep up. If that’s you, learning how to use your morning more effectively can be a game changer and help you move ahead in life.

Here are five things productive people do in the morning:

1. Make their bed. I came across this from Admiral William McRaven, the Navy SEAL who commanded the operation to capture Osama Bin Laden. He says, “Start every day making your bed, which was the first task of the day at SEAL training. Doing so will mean that the first thing you do in the morning is to accomplish something, which sets the tone for the day, encourages you to accomplish more, and reinforces those little things in life matter. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made–that you made,” McRaven said, “and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”

2. Read. Productive people read in the morning. It might be the Bible, a leadership book, but something that will grow them. This is pouring into themselves, so they have more to give to others. At this time, they don’t check their email. The most productive people check their email at lunch or a few hours into work. You’ll see why in #5.

3. Eat breakfast. Breakfast is the day’s most important meal and starts things off well. Productive people not only eat breakfast, but they eat a high-protein breakfast. That means no cereal. You will be hungry in an hour and then spend the day snacking, which will hurt your health, and you’ll end up overeating sugar, and you’ll feel it in the middle of the afternoon.

4. Sleep. While sleep isn’t a morning thing, it does determine the morning. Productive people do get better and more sleep than unproductive people. They go to bed at a decent time (usually the same time each night) and get up at the same time each morning, so their life is more routine. A good night of sleep goes a long way to having more energy and better clarity to conquer the day.

5. Plan your day. All of us have known the feeling of our day getting away from us. That doesn’t happen to productive people. They don’t waste time. They don’t sit in meetings they shouldn’t be in; they check their email on their timetable, not someone else’s. The first thing I do after reading in the morning is list the 2-3 most important things I need to accomplish in a day and then strive to do those things.

You might think you don’t control your schedule or your kids hijack your morning. And that might be true, but as Carey Nieuwhof points out in At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor, you control more of your time and schedule than you think. The key is to figure out what you control and schedule and focus on that time. 

How to Find the Mentor You Need & Want

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Recently, I was on a call with some younger leaders at a company, and a lot of the conversation centered around how to be successful in your 20s, what roadblocks you might hit and how to find a mentor.

We spent a lot of time talking about mentoring and coaching because it is a big part of what makes people successful.

But how do you find a mentor? How do you walk through that process?

We often put a lot of pressure on those relationships, which hangs us up sometimes and keeps us from finding the help we need.

The best mentoring relationships have three things in common:

  1. They are intentional but organic.
  2. They are relational.
  3. Growth happens through conversations, not necessarily a curriculum.

While you will sometimes ask a mentor to walk with you, sometimes it will just happen.

They are relational, which means it should be someone you naturally connect with, and they connect with you. If that doesn’t exist, you will not get all of what you could out of the relationship, and one or both of you will end up frustrated.

While you can sometimes go through a curriculum, the best mentoring happens naturally through conversations. When you have them, come prepared with questions, put your phone away and take lots of notes.

Before getting to how to find one, let me give you a caution I’ve learned over the years: A mentor is someone further ahead of you in an area you want to grow in.

No one person can mentor you in every part of your life.

This is the problem we run into. We look for someone to be the end-all, be-all for us.

When someone asks for a mentor, I explain this to them and then ask a series of questions:

What are one or two areas you want to grow in as you think about your life in the next 3, 6, or 12 months? This could be finances, prayer, marriage, boundaries, health, etc.

Why do you think I can help you? I want to know why they think I can help them. Not because I want to pump up my ego, but I want to know they’ve done their homework on me and didn’t just throw a dart at the wall and pick the closest person.

What are you doing, or have you tried to grow in this area? Often, not always, but often people seek a mentor because they are lazy. I want to know what books or blogs this person has looked at in this area. Are they actively seeking to grow in this area or just hoping to rub off on the success from someone? This leads to the last part.

How much time are you willing to put into this? Anything worth doing will take time. You won’t grow in handling finances, health, marriage, career, preaching, etc., without putting in time and effort. This is a commitment you, as the person getting mentored, make. The mentor is coming along for the ride, and if I, as the mentor, am not convinced you are into the ride, I’m getting off.

If you are worth your salt as a leader, person, or pastor, you will often be asked to mentor people. You must be selective about who you mentor because you are giving up one of your most precious commodities, your time. If you are asking to be mentored, to succeed and have it worthwhile, you need to do your homework and be willing to put in the work. There is nothing more exciting than working with someone who wants to grow in an area and helping them do that.

We can’t become the person we are to become without relationships with older, more mature people in our lives.

What Changes to Make as a Leader (And When to Make Them)

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One of the things leaders do is make changes. It is in our DNA. Leadership is about influencing those around you to a better, preferred future. That future is different from the past or the present.

What trips leaders up is knowing what to change and when to change it.

This is crucial to understand if you are a new leader or new to your church or organization.

When I arrived at Community Covenant Church, I learned much about the church. While I knew things about the church (I thought I knew a lot when I came), you don’t know what you don’t know. And you need to make sure the data you have is accurate, which can be a challenge in a church. But that’s a different post!

As I was meeting with leaders and people in the church, getting to know them, asking questions, and simply observing things, I started a list of things to change. This list grew through my meetings as people shared ideas. What is great about being a new leader is all the ideas that people share with you. These are often ones that haven’t happened in the past, thoughts they’ve been holding on to until the new leader comes, or things ripe with potential you need to know about.

Here is the problem: There are too many good (and excellent) ideas for you to get to right away.

You can’t change everything and go after everything all at once even if you want to!

How do you prioritize as a leader, what to change and when to change it?

This depends on the situation, the age of the church, what the previous leader was like and their style of change, how ready the church is for change, and how dire the situation is.

The need for change is high if you go into a church that is about to run out of people or money. The desire for change might not be, but the need is.

You might be in a situation where the desire for change is strong, but the need isn’t, or the resources for change aren’t there.

You must consider these things as you set your strategic plan as a leader.

When I moved to New England, I had a simple question I asked myself and our team as we thought about what to do and what not to do. This question has been a guide for us.

Ready?

Will it matter if I/we don’t change this in two years?

If I don’t change this in two years, will it matter?

Look at everything in your church: kids and student ministries, worship services, online ministry, groups and discipleship, theology, mission, and strategy. This question can help to clarify what to focus on.

There are a lot of things you could do, a lot of things you could focus on, but if you don’t do anything with them, in two years, it won’t matter. At least not compared to other things.

3 Questions to Lead Your Church into the Future

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Covid gave the church some opportunities.

Yes, I know that statement might seem odd because it has sped things up and made a lot of things about being a pastor more difficult. But, leading your church into the future has many potential opportunities if you look for them.

What are they?

While there are some universal ones, some are just for your church.

First, you have to decide to embrace it. Many pastors are trying to get back to what it was, getting people back into the room, etc.

You can’t go back. And while some things about the past are nice, there are some things you’d like to leave in the past.

Second, you need to know exactly where your church is. Many pastors don’t know who is a part of their church, who is still engaged, or what things are or are not working.

Too many pastors make decisions based on feelings. It feels full, and that service felt good. But, you can’t lead simply on what feels full or good.

I would encourage you to pull your team together. Whether that is staff, volunteers, elders, or a combination of these. Ask them some simple questions about every ministry (kids, students, groups, worship, outreach, etc.):

Why did we start this? Everything your church does begins with a need (or it should). Someone saw a need and started something to meet that need.

Do you know why you do everything that you do as a church? This is the time for every ministry and program to be clear on why it exists and why it is taking staffing and resources. Gone are the days when churches could do all things.

Does it still meet that need? Once you know what needs you are trying to reach or what caused you to start doing something as a church, you can ask the following question: Does it still meet that need? Is that still a need we are called to meet? The reality is that just because it is a need or a good idea doesn’t mean your church needs to complete it or do it. Also, just because you used to meet that need doesn’t mean you must keep meeting that need. Maybe you no longer have the vision or passion or lack a leader or skill set to do it well.

One of my favorite questions is, What problem created the meeting that resulted in this answer? Every ministry or program or way of doing church started with a problem. That problem resulted in getting some people in a room to solve it. What came out of that meeting is the way your church does church.

Every leader must regularly ask, “Is that still a problem for us to solve? If so, what is the best way to solve it?”

You see, it might not be your problem to solve; it may not be a problem anymore. The things you started 10-20 years ago may no longer be issues or things your church is passionate about.

How Difficulty Makes You a Better Pastor & Leader

When we find ourselves in difficult seasons, whether of our own doing or someone else or even the world around us, we often ask why. We try to make sense of it and look for reasons. But during a situation, it is hard to see any reason. Only with distance can an explanation come into focus; a lesson could start to make sense for us.

Eighteen months ago, I knew my time in my role in Tucson was done. The problem was, I didn’t know where my new position would be, what part of the country we’d be in, what kind of church I’d be working in or what my role on that team would be.

I was aimless, frustrated, depressed, anxious, and angry.

I remember telling a mentor that I was frustrated at my job, wanting something more and different. This frustration was primarily built around the reality that I was done there, but it wasn’t public knowledge. 

He told me, “If you let it, this will make you a better pastor because many church members are frustrated with their lives and jobs. Most of the people you preach to want something more and different.”

I’ve thought about this a lot over the last 18 months. It has enormous implications for our leadership, counseling, and preaching.

But how?

1. Don’t run from difficulty. We are a culture that is built around comfort. We do everything in our power to avoid pain and hardship. I’m not suggesting that you look for pain and difficulty or that hard times will be fun, but they are beneficial if you learn from them.

First, you need some people who will walk with you through the difficulty. Who will ask you hard questions, listen to you, pray with you and for you, and be your friend. 

2. Engage your feelings in the difficulty. For you, this might be easy. It is challenging for me to engage my feelings and something I have had to spend a lot of time working on and learning how to do. I thrive on simply getting things done and moving through things. Much of my life has been spent not dealing with what’s happening in me.

Over the last several years, that has started to change by God’s grace, some good counsel, and a loving wife. Over the last few years, I have engaged with what God is doing in me, what feelings I am feeling, and what they are trying to show me. 

This is so crucial in the midst of difficulty. 

Name your feelings: sadness, anger, frustration, betrayal, hurt, dismay, whatever they might be. Figure out why you are feeling those things, what has led to it, and what is happening that is making you feel that way.

Then, you can evaluate your feelings. Don’t dismiss them, but evaluate them. 

3. Process it. Most of the time, as we walk through life, we walk through life. We don’t step back and process it, especially the difficult and painful moments. My frustration with a job is nowhere near the same pain or difficulty as losing a loved one or being given difficult medical news. But the principles still connect.

Over the last year, I have been processing the lessons God taught me in Tucson. The things he wanted me to learn about Him, myself, others, leadership, and the church. It has been incredibly fruitful as I have worked through that. 

The reality is, I could not be where I am, be the pastor, leader, and preacher that I am without that season. Now, I didn’t know that at the time; I was just angry (because, as an Enneagram 8, that is natural and protects me), but I needed all of that time. 

And chances are, you might need it as well if you don’t waste it. 

Living a Life of Purpose & Passion

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The sad reality for many people is that the place where they spend most of their time (work) often doesn’t align with their passions and talents. 

This leaves a lot of people feeling stuck. And then they wonder if they are missing out on something, missing their chance, if they should switch jobs or if there is any hope of living a life of passion and purpose. 

Over the years, I have noticed a trend among many adults that gets to the heart of why most people miss their chance or miss living a life of passion and purpose. 

They don’t know who they are, how they are wired, and what fires them up. 

Look at the questions below and see how you line up for you:

What are you passionate about? Another way to ask this is, what keeps you up at night? We often overlook our passions when looking for a job, and when we do, we miss out on so much. We often feel that we are too old for a job that aligns with our passions. But, if you aren’t in a place you are passionate about, you will find it hard to be excited about work. Eventually, you will ask, “Is this all there is?”

Now, this isn’t always possible, but I’d encourage you to think about your passions in terms of values and ethics. Can you find a company that cares about what you care about? More and more companies are seeing the importance of values and ethics, which is a good thing. 

What are you wired and gifted to do? This is about understanding your personality, temperament, talents, etc. I am stunned at how few people know where they are on Meyers-Briggs, the enneagram, the working genius, etc. While those don’t tell the whole story of who you are, they tell you many things and help you understand what kind of job you are looking for. 

Do you like working alone or on a team? At home or in an office? When are you at your best during the day, does your job line up with that? Are you creative or analytical?

Knowing these things helps you make wise decisions about how you spend your days. 

Are you getting to use those gifts, passions, and wiring in your job? When you know those things about yourself, you can ask if you are getting to use those gifts, desires, and wiring. If not, can you make some changes to your current job to fit that better?

In reality, you may not get to use all of your gifts, passions, and wiring in your job. If that’s the case, that doesn’t mean you need to find a new job (although you might.) It might mean you need to find a place to volunteer and use those gifts and passions outside work. 

What opportunities do you see knowing these things about yourself? When you take all these together, you can ask, “What’s next? What opportunities are there in front of me?”

Most people do not step back to dream about what could be, which is a sad reality. But take a moment and see what opportunities are before you. What might you be overlooking in your life? If you aren’t where you want to be, what will it take to get there? How can you start moving in that direction?

6 Ways to not be a Pastoral Statistic

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A lot has been said and written about the latest stats from Barna about pastors. According to Barna, 38% of pastors have thought about leaving the ministry

The reasons for this are many: tensions over covid and politics, people leaving their churches, exhaustion.  

While there isn’t a way to take away all of the issues facing pastors, there are some things pastors can do to help their longevity in ministry:

1. Know that ministry is hard work. Every job is hard. Whether you are a pastor, electrician, engineer, or barista. Life and work are demanding, and ministry is no different. You can’t be naive about this. Too many pastors have rose-colored glasses about putting out a church sign and just expecting people to show up, and the people who show up will be bought in, not messy, and without difficulty. Yet, the leader and the people who walk through the door are broken and have needs and stories they are dealing with. The post-covid world we find ourselves in is incredibly divided and will take a different kind of leader to lead a church.

2. Make sure you are sleeping & eating well. There is a direct connection between how you eat, how you sleep, and the level of energy you have. Handling your energy is a stewardship issue. Leaders have a lot of meetings over meals and drink a lot of coffee or energy drinks. They stay up too late watching TV or surfing social media instead of sleeping, taking a sabbath, or doing something recharging and refreshing.

3. Have an outlet. Whenever I get tired, I am not taking my retreat day, hanging out with friends, or doing fun things. Leaders and pastors are notorious for being bad friends, not having hobbies or doing fun things. You will start thinking about quitting, not being thankful, and begrudgingly attending meetings or counseling people. Get outside, take a break, and slow down.

4. Ministry idols. If pastors are honest, they struggle with an idol of ministry. In our hearts, many pastors work because they want to have a larger church, a larger platform, to be known, and to change people through their sermons. Not all of these are wrong, but the motives often are. You will run out of steam if you have an idol. Be honest with someone, have someone ask you hard questions, and hold you accountable.

5. Lead from a place of burden. Leaders are idea machines. We read books, attend conferences, listen to podcasts, and look for the latest trend, but those are ideas, not visions. It is easy to confuse the two. A vision, what drives you, comes from a burden. For any leader, ask about their burden if you want to know their vision. It would be best if you kept that in the forefront. You must keep yourself and your church focused on why you exist as a church and maintain that passion in you white-hot.

Deal with your emotions. One thing I was unprepared for was how emotionally tiring ministry and leadership can be. It can be hard to walk with people who get a divorce, get fired, wreck their lives, funerals, and miscarriages. This can shatter your heart. It would help if you learned to deal with the emotional ride that pastoring is. If you don’t, you will become a statistic. To help with that, deepen some friendships, see a counselor, and learn how to handle your story and the stories of those you are ministering to.

Global Leadership Summit Takeaways (Jon Acuff)

Our church is hosting the global leadership summit. This is, by far, one of my favorite events to attend every year: the learning, the relationships, and how God moves through leaders in our region.

Here are a few takeaways from the session with Jon Acuff on “Building a winning mindset”:

  • A goal is the fastest path from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow.
  • Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers.
  • Overthinking wrecks more leaders than anything else.
  • Overthinking is the most expensive things business invest in every year without even knowing it.
  • Overthinking is when what you think gets in the way of what you want.
  • The soundtrack changes everything, and we have a soundtrack for every part of our lives.
  • The longer we listen to repetitive thoughts, the more it becomes part of the playlist of our lives.
  • Soundtracks are the culture of a company.
  • Great thoughts lead to great actions. Great action leads to great results.
  • Great leaders:
    • Retire broken soundtracks
    • Replace them with new soundtracks
    • Repeat until automatic.
  • Ask the loudest soundtracks these questions:
    • Is it still true? Don’t assume all your thoughts are true.
    • Is it helpful? Does the soundtrack push us forward or pull us back?
    • Is it kind?
  • Google wondered, “What do the most successful teams have in common?”
    • Psychological safety: a shared belief held by the team that members are safe for interpersonal risk-taking.
    • You can ask questions, suggest new ideas, and admit you’re wrong without being treated poorly by the team.
  • You only get to fix mistakes that you admit.
  • Leaders who can’t be questioned end up doing questionable things.
  • We struggle to know how to replace soundtracks because we think we can’t choose our thoughts.
  • Thoughts come by choice or chance.
  • Great leaders always pick ahead of time, and they pick thoughts that are actionable.
  • You have a soundtrack for every person in your life.
  • Empathy: Understanding what someone needs and acting on it.
  • What do the people you care about, care about?
  • It is much better to meet a need instead of inventing a need.
  • You’ll get out of touch if you don’t listen to people’s needs.
  • Everyone wants to know: Do you see me? Do I matter?

Global Leadership Summit Takeaways (Deb Liu)

Our church is hosting the global leadership summit. This is, by far, one of my favorite events to attend every year: the learning, the relationships, and how God moves through leaders in our region.

Here are a few takeaways from the session with Deb Liu on “Taking back your power”:

  • When was the last time you thought of yourself as having power?
  • Power is. not a dirty word.
  • Power is the ability to influence events and the people around you.
  • Power isn’t the problem, but the misuse of power.
  • When you hear no, that opens up the opportunity for someone to say yes.
  • Taking back your power doesn’t mean succeeding alone.
  • We have to ask ourselves, who does God want us to be? Who did God create you to be?