Personal Productivity Secrets (Spoiler: It's Bacon)

@danielbelltn asked this question on Twitter the other day:

I'd like to know how productive folks do life without workaholic behavior. Any ideas?

I, being the over opinionated person that I am sometimes prone to be, had an answer.

I think strategic prioritization, always moving forward, and knowing when to Not to do something. Not that I do this well :) 

In the interest of posterity, I will leave my "to Not to" grammatical shame intact.  Also, notice my patented (not really) use of self deprecation to emphasize my humility.  It's easy, folks, when you have mad skills like this.

So I clicked "Tweet" and went on doing something else, but kept coming back to my answer and thinking a simple thought.  If I have a legitimate answer to a question I've asked myself, and I think that the way to get where I need to be is to do... Why am I not doing it?

My go to answer is that life happens.  And it does.  Right now life is happening.  I'm writing this blog post (my first in months) at 1:30am, after having cleaned the house at 12am, because life has been happening and it's the best chance I've had.  But at 30, that's not a good enough answer anymore. 

I thought about that answer.  And I thought about it some more.  And several hours later I'm writing about it because it makes sense.  It's doable as a mantra.  For example, I'm fat.  (I know, you think it's all muscle when you look at me.  It's not.  It's really as if someone took a bathtub filled with lard and poured it into my body.  Yeah, that's gross.  So's all the fat I'm carrying around with me.  I digress.)  Since I was at my lowest weight in college (a point where I still wasn't small), I've gained almost 80 pounds.  Let's apply my three points to losing that baggage.

Strategic Prioritization
First things first, I need to stem the tide of overeating and introduce some type of exercise.  I can do without running shoes, go all organic, or drinking whey protein.  What I need to do is not eat a piece of pizza (okay, 2), a sandwich, an oatmeal cream pie, and a honey bun (You can judge me. I give you permission).  And I need to move fast at some point each day.

Always Move Forward
During one of past attempts to lose weight (one that was fairly successful, actually, but died a painful death when stress and depression slapped me silly), I made a goal to make "small choices".  Any healthy choice, no matter how small, was a step toward better health.  Maybe I skip the salt, or park at the back of the parking lot, or eat a Hershey's kiss instead of the Chic-Fil-a vanilla shake (otherwise known as the Cup of YummuliciousneI don't need toss).  The concept is always keep moving toward your goal.  The smallest step is still progress.

Know When to NOT do Something
Okay, so my example is going to break down here.  What I really mean by this is that we have to know when to say "No" to projects and requests to come our way.  I know to lose weight you have to say "No" to food, but the spirit isn't the same me thinks.  So, I'll just leave it at that.

Okay, I'm done.  Go live.

P.S. No, bacon does not actually make an appearance in this blog post.  Except that it just did.  Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Wobbly Legs

I just sat down at my kitchen table.  The chair swayed when I did (which, as a large man, always gives a moment of panic and the fleeting thought of my keester on the floor amidst broken wood).  I got up and turned it over, found a couple loose bolts, tightened them up, and then set down to write this sans wobbling.

In life we have a purpose.  We have goals, or a ministry, a reason, maybe a cause.  A chair has a purpose.  My chair had a purpose.  It was meant to hold my girth a bit over a foot off the ground.  But its purpose was almost derailed because its foundation lacked surety. 

As a Christian, I believe our ultimate foundation is Jesus Christ, but that's not necessarily the foundation that I'm referring to here.  Rather, I'd say more that in my allegorical rhetoric that Jesus is the floor that the chair stands on (the Rock that the house is build on from Matthew 7), and the legs represent the strength with which we stand on that floor.  We can never achieve X (whatever that mythical algebraic giant might be), if we stand on wobbly financial, spiritual, emotional, or organizational legs. (Sure, there are likely more legs to mention, but have you ever seen a five-legged chair?  Gotta make the metaphor work here.)

I have my dreams, and one day I will attain them by the grace of God.  But as I reach for my dreams, I must be sure I reach with strengthened legs that can support them, lest both my dreams and I perish in the fall. 

Today, the password is...

Stability.

Closely linked with consistency, I define stability as the state of being stable.  Yeah, I'm just deep like that.  Stable, as in not moving/changing a lot.  If you are standing on a bridge, or atop a tall building, stability is the fact that the thing only moves as much as is necessary.  The Golden Gate bridge sways, but only within the constraints of its purpose.  Anything outside of that purpose results in catastrophic disaster (I'm looking at you, disaster films).  The same concept applies to us.  We can't be rigid and unmoving.  If we are, we won't handle the pressures of life.  We'll crack and break instead of bending and swaying.  Bend and Sway!  Bend and Sway!  I'd make that my mantra, but it might sound a bit awkward in a corporate meeting room.

Abilities + Attitude = Results

This post's title comes from John Maxwell's book, Attitude 101.  I liked it so much I tweeted it, but wanted to expound my elucidative commentary on the equation (Tangent 1).  The ultimate level of our success will be dictated as much (or maybe even more) by our attitude as it will be by our abilities.

I'll be 30 this year.  I looked in the mirror a few months ago and, aside from noticing how handsome my beard was, traveled the journey of self-reflection and reached a decision.  I had underachieved this decade of life.  Why is that?  I am reasonably confident in my abilities, and have a good understanding of what they are (and what they aren't), so why did I accomplish less than I'm capable of?  Attitude.  Some days I'm lazy, some I'm discouraged, some I'm negative, some I'm combative, some I'm gluttonous, etc. etc. etc.  Those days are where my abilities are shackled by my attitude.

How can I change my attitude?  Don't know.  Just started that section of the book. :)  In all seriousness, my own experience says that you change your attitude like you change your habits.  Consistent effort.  I can say without a doubt that my attitude today is exponentially better than my attitude at 20, and that has taken a lot of effort (as well as that process of life slapping us upside the head we call Experience).  Start with identifying the bad attitudes and the stuff in life that triggers them, and work like the dickens (Tangent 2) to fix them.  Pray, read books, listen to speakers, ask for advice and feedback. 

Tangent 1:  "elucidative" is flagged by spell check for not being a word.  I get great pleasure from this.  It's like I'm rebelling against the system, one made up word at a time.  Maybe I'm a Shakespeareal Ninja.  Then again, maybe not.

Tangent 2:  Euphemisms crack me up.  I can say "Like the dickens" or "Dad blame it" or "Crud Muffins" and most people don't even notice it (unless to laugh at me for saying Crud Muffins.  However, replace those with real, non-PG versions, and a lot of people would freak out and revoke my Christian credentials.  The spirit of the response is the same.  So, imhho, it makes sense to either 1) refrain from all interjectory language, or 2) not care about either one.  This argument is independent of two other arguments.  First, that of using references to God flippantly (or "in vain").  Second is the argument that we shouldn't do things that cause others to stumble.  For if in my language I cause my brother distress, my language should reflect my care for his distress.