Best Day Ever

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I began yesterday expecting it to be a day of leading, influence, and productivity. It ended by me staying late at the office, and dealing with a no-win situation that caused me to feel frustration, discouragement, and uselessness. Definitely not my Best Day Ever.

Best Day Ever. I've heard that said many times lately. I've seen it in status updates. Sprint even claimed those words for its retail business on the day the iPhone 4S was launched.

Best Day Ever. Maybe you've heard it used, or a variation of it: Best weekend ever, Best night ever, Best worship service ever.

Best Day Ever. Have you ever had one? Can you declare with all certainty that today, or any other day for that matter, is your Best Day Ever? Maybe you've already experienced your Best Day Ever, but you've forgotten it: Your wedding day? The birth of a child? A Spiritual experience?

Perhaps the term Best Day Ever has become like other "common" pop phrases we hear so often: Final, Extreme, Epic. (Click on that link to read my recent thoughts on the subject.)

Is your Best Day Ever about what you gained, what you experienced, what satisfied you?

In an episode of Spongebob Square Pants, the wise philosopher Spongebob (who had planned a Best Day Ever for himself) laments "...'everything went wrong', and then gives an elaborate speech about how his Best Day Ever has been ruined. However, his friends tell him about how he helped them with their problems out of his kindness, and teach him that his Best Day Ever is not about 'perfect days', but about having friends."

Best Day Ever. May I challenge you to make every day the Best Day Ever. Do that by investing into the lives of other people, rather than seeking to get gratification for yourself. Don't let your problems and disappointments prevent you from experiencing the good that you are able to do, the positive influence you can have.

What may not be a Best Day Ever for you, may be great day for someone else.

Question: What has been your Best Day Ever? Was it for your benefit, or for someone else? Share your thoughts below in comments. 

   

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Don't Pay Attention

Creativity never stops. Sometimes we just don't pay attention to it.

Creativity doesn't leave us. Sometimes we just push it aside.

If you have a mind, you have an imagination. If you have an imagination, you are creative.

Even in the smallest, mundane actions, we exhibit creativity. What should I eat? What should I wear? What should I say?

Asking What if? and Why not? are creative endeavors. So is asking Why?

It's only when we say I don't care that we cease to be creative. But even in not caring we are being creative, because we are tapping into something within us that makes the choice not to care. And by choosing, we are creating a path by which to walk.

Creativity never stops. Sometimes we just don't pay attention to it.

Question: Do you ever feel you stop being creative? Share your thoughts below in comments. 

   

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Image And Reflection

This morning as I was driving in to work, I noticed a seagull standing in about two inches of water of the Santa Rosa Sound (the body of water that parallels the coast of Northwest Florida separating the mainland from the Island).

The water was like a mirror: calm and clear, and the reflection of the seagull was crisp, as if there were another below it. A remarkable, sight in my opinion.

I began to think about our reflection, and the image we project. How do we come across to others? How are we seen? These thoughts came to mind:

• We cannot control the backdrop by which our reflection is projected. We are not always going to have calm and clear conditions for our image to reflect against. Most of the time life is turbulent and changing. Would there be the same beauty had the water been choppy and grey?
• We cannot control how our reflection is seen and interpreted. At 50 mph, a quick glance at the water through a break in the trees revealed this picture to me. Am I sure it was a seagull? Could it have been two birds, close together?
• We cannot control when our reflection is seen. The bird was still, and I saw it as if captured in a moment. But how often are we still, and seen by others in a moment of inactivity and calm? And if we are still and seen, what are doing at that moment?

My conclusion: Don't focus on the image we project, or the reflection we cast. Rather, concentrate on who we are: our character, our relationships, our influence. Ask yourself: Do I want to be seen, or do I desire to affect others?

Question: What is more important to you: Who you are, or the image you project? Share your thoughts below in comments.

   

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Final, Extreme, Epic Creativity

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We are good at devaluing. Look at our economy: the value of the dollar is constantly falling. Property values are down, inflation is up, things cost more.

Your immediate thought may be to blame others (elected officials, political party, other countries). And in doing so, we devalue personal responsibility.

Human life? We have devalued it to the point where the argument has become about "choice" rather than about "life".

And what about our language? Words that had one meaning 20, 10, even five years ago have been devalued to commonplace.

Final used to mean ending, complete, conclusive. If that were true, how can there be a Final Fantasy XIV available for game systems?

Extreme used to identify the outer reaches of, the utmost, the farthest. Now what was once considered extreme in our culture is simply ordinary.

And then of course there is the term epic. Heroic, majestic, impressively great are original definitions. Now anyone can take an iPhone video and post on YouTube where it can easily be tagged as epic.

I am choosing the words Final, Extreme, and Epic to describe the creativity that God used in ransoming the human race (which by the way Christians are celebrating as "the Resurrection" this Sunday, as opposed to Easter, which has taken on a devalued meaning in our culture).

When faced with the enormous task of redeeming mankind, God conceived the most extraordinary and creative plan ever: sacrificing His own sinless Son for the sins of all humanity: past, present, and future.

It was final, in that it was complete and conclusive. It was extreme, in that it reached out to the utmost, the farthest. It was epic, in that it was heroic, majestic, impressively great.

Pretty creative, I must say.

Question: What are your thoughts on the final, extreme, and epic Creativity that God used in reaching mankind? Share your thoughts below in comments. 

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Stories

All of us have a story. Our stories are our lives. Some would say their story is exciting. Others would say their story isn't very interesting. Exciting or common, long or short, all of us have a story. And no matter what we may think about it, all or our stories are good!

Yesterday as I was running I began to think about my story, and how it intersects with other's stories. All of us have "chapters" in our stories that are very similar to another's story because that is where our stories intersect.

Some of our stories have many "chapters" that are similar because of long relationships: my wife of 35+ years, my grown children, my life-long friends. Others have resurfaced in my story, as I have in theirs because we have reconnected in relationship after a season of different paths.

And as our stories progress, we find that we are constantly writing new chapters because we are constantly connecting with new people.
 Allow me to encourage you to continue to write your stories. See your story as an organic, living, changing, and flowing stream that takes on new dimensions as you grow in every area of your life, and as you grow your relationships.

Seek to make your story better as it gets longer: Invest in others, take risks, use your creativity, lead well, end strong.

Expect your story to continue even after you die, because those you have intersected with and influenced will intersect with and influence others.

 Question: How would you describe your story? Share your thoughts below in comments. 

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Practice, Practice, Practice

The old joke goes something like this: A tourist in New York City asks a man on the street, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The man responds, "Practice, practice, practice."

That's sound wisdom for any artist or creative (and I believe that all of us are creative, because we were made in the image of the Great Creator). Practice.

So we sit in front of a music stand with our instrument, or at the pallet with our brushes, or with pen in hand and we practice.

But we need to think beyond traditional practice and look for creative ways to improve our craft. The writer looks at people and in their mind creates a "character" based on what they see. The painter always has their sketchbook handy for when they stumble upon a scene.

I remember as a Jr. High student, learning music in my Beginning Band class. My director was teaching us about intervals, and the relationship between notes. Wanting to master this fundamental, I would listen for sounds in "life" (the hum of a motor, a blaring car horn, the test pattern of a TV station), and practice humming intervals while identifying them in my mind.

To this day I still hum intervals when I hear a sustained tone. I think I'm being creative. My wife thinks I'm odd.

And then there are scales, the lifeblood of instrumental music. Wanting to use more than just my "band time" and my "personal practice time", I would (as a trumpet player) practice the fingering of the various scales by tapping them out on any surface my hand was on. (For you brass players reading this, when I took up the French horn in high school, I had to practice tapping with my left hand also!)

Again, I still find myself unconsciously moving my fingers in the sequence of a scale. I've noticed guitar players working on fingerings using their forearm as a fret board (a tell-tale sign you are a guitar player).

We should never stop practicing, even when we've "arrived". Practicing should be as much a part of our creativity as the performance. To this day, the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma regularly practices, sometimes five hours a day.

May I encourage all of us to continue to practice. Whether it be purposeful or casual, in preparation for an event or simply to hone your craft, practice. Your goal may not be Carnegie Hall, but the investment is worth the effort.

Question: What do you do to practice your craft/art? Share your thoughts below in comments.
 
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If I Had Facebook

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If I had Facebook when I first stubbed my toe,

     Would I share in my status, or simply get up and go?

If my Mom had Facebook when I won my first race,

     Would she update her homepage, or give praise to my face?

If I had Facebook when I won my first match,

     Would I put up a link, or pat myself on the back?

If I had Facebook when I got my first ride,

     Would I post lots of pictures, or take my friends for a drive?

If I had Facebook when I preached my first time,

     Would I tell all my contacts, or just kept it inside?

If I had Facebook with my fiancee far away,

     Would I have sent a quick message, or written letters everyday?
If I had Facebook when we were to be wed,
     Would I post invitations, or hand-address with a pen?
If I had Facebook when my children were born,
     Would I send one quick update, or tell each friend on the phone?
If I had Facebook when we buried my Dad,
     Would I post for sympathy, or with my family be sad?
If I had Facebook when challenges came,
     Would I share how tough life was was, or faced them with faith?
If I had Facebook when life was going on,
     Would I tell the whole world, or just quietly thank God?

Question: What would you have done differently if you had Facebook before you had Facebook? Share your thoughts below in comments.
 
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Two-Story House

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We live in a two-story house. I actually like two-story houses. I might change my position when I am older, but for now I'm ok with them.

Two-story houses are have always fascinated me. Growing up in South Florida, two-story houses were very uncommon to me. In fact, other than in pictures, I can't remember seeing an actual two-story house until I was in my late teens.

As I consider two-story houses, I realize that they can be an excellent metaphor for relationships. Here are some thoughts:

• Same Foundation: Any good relationship needs to have a common foundation or basis to be solid. Just as in a two-story house both stories share the foundation, relationships also share a common foundation. If that foundation is comprised of "weak" material, the relationship will erode, crack, or fall during storms.
• Stairs: Traversing between floors would be almost impossible were it not for stairs. In the same way, communication is the bridge between people. Sometimes we have to "climb up to their floor" to effectively connect verbally and emotionally, but it's worth the climb.
• Different View: From my bedroom window I can see the Sound, the Santa Rosa Island, and the Gulf of Mexico. I can't see them from the ground floor. In good relationships, the members are willing to see things from the perspective of the other. Sometimes the view is much better.
• Increased Floor Space: Two is better than one the Proverb says. Just as a second story increases the floor space in a house, two people in a relationship is much better. Creativity, responsibility, capacity, and fun are just a few of the things that increase when people are in relationship.
• Same Roof: I am so grateful for my roof. We experienced over two days of steady rain over the weekend but our house stayed dry. Both stories stayed dry. Same roof. The proper covering in a relationship is essential for protection. I am referring to faith in God. The people in that relationship need to share the covering, stay under the covering, and celebrate the covering.

Question: What other ways can a two-story house be a metaphor for relationships? Share your thoughts below in comments.
 
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Commute. Create!

Five days a week I commute to my day job office. Same time, same route, same same. I am one of approximately 130 million commuters in the US. (Some mornings it seems like they are all on the road with me here in Northwest Florida!)

I have found that the 30 minutes I spend in my Mini each morning (and 30 more in the evening) can become some of the most productive minutes of my day. I seek to leverage my commuting time and focus on being creative.

Want to make the most of your commuting time? Here are some suggestions:

• Turn off the radio. Why allow someone else to dictate what your mind focuses on? Yes you may like your music (or talk show host, or news report), but ask yourself if you are making the best use of your time.
• Get off the phone. Unless your job requires you to be on the phone, or a pressing personal issue needs your attention, end the call. Especially if you have others in your car. Are your children with you? Engage them, communicate with them, challenge them. (I addressed this in a previous Blog post.) Are other adults commuting with you? Speak with them, practice your listening skills, build your relationship with them.
• Choose what to listen to. If it's music, select what will prepare you for your day, what will motivate you, what will benefit you. The music I choose inspires me to create new music, and to focus on my Creator. Maybe you can listen to teaching CDs or books on CD. Remember: you are seeking to make the most of your commuting time.
• See what's around you. Sometimes the same route creates a drone-like mentality. We just drive/ride every day and don't even notice what's around us (when did they build that Super Walmart?). I have the privilege of traveling a route that goes for 12.5 miles along the pristine white sand and turquoise water of the Santa Rosa Sound. I can't always see the water because of the structures or trees, but when I can see it, I look. This morning I watched the sun directly in front of me burning through the fog. A surreal sight, but it gave me an idea...
• Pray. This may be a requirement on some commuting routes (the DC Beltway...). But I am referring to proactive praying, where you are leveraging your time and making the most of your commute. Pray for what? Yourself, your family, your co-workers, the people in the cars around you...
• Create. Allow ideas to fill your mind, rather than music, chatter, and noise. Dream, think, create, imagine. That's how the Blog post you are reading was conceived. I turned off the noise, and in the silence allowed my mind to conceive, envision, and create.

Question: What would happen if you took control of your commuting time? Share your thoughts below in comments.
 
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Is Easier Better?

Last night I made a change in next Sunday's song list for our church's worship team. Not only did I change a song, but I realized that to continue the flow, I needed to transpose the song into a different key.

I could have used one of the many auto-transpose tools that are available to musicians. But instead I chose to manually transpose it, chord by chord, line by line.

Why? I want to keep my transposition/charting/theory skills sharp. There was an easier way, but was it better?

I remember being a wide-eyed freshman during my first week of college, hanging out before Stage Band class in the music department. A few of the older students in the stage band were sitting with our director in his office watching while he was working on some music.

I was intrigued as he lowered the turntable arm onto a Chicago LP, listen for a few measures, lift the arm, and write the music he had heard on score paper, then repeat the process for another instrument. (We did a lot of jazz-rock music, covering groups like BS&T, Billy Preston, early Stevie Wonder, Chicago - most any group with a horn section... Oh, and the LP thing - hey, this was 1974!)

I came away from that moment very impressed with my director, and determined that I was going to develop that skill. I knew very little music theory, and even less about chord structure, but I purposed to learn what was necessary.

With a lot of trial and error, study and practice, over time my ear developed where I could successfully accomplish that process.

I would be at concerts, in worship services, or listening to the radio, and find myself breaking down melody lines, identifying chords, and writing harmonies in my head. It was work, but it was coming naturally.

Then tools (software, websites, services) became available to make the process easier. But did it make the process better?

Many times we are offered helps and tools that are designed to make our lives easier. For creatives, could those tools hinder our creativity?

I remember the scene from the movie Amadeus, as Mozart leaned over his billiards table with his scoring paper strewn over the surface, rolling a pool ball back and forth against the opposite side with one hand while he scored a symphony using a quill and ink with his other. Would his music be as good if he was sitting in front of a 23" screen on his iMac, scoring with software?

Call me old school, but I don't want to surrender to the fast and easy. I want to keep my mind and ears sharp, to hear a chord and dissect it, to be able to transpose on the fly. For me, easier is not always better.

Question: What about you... As a creative, is easier better? Share your thoughts below in comments.

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Win Twice

We've all heard it, most of us have said it: I was robbed! We had to beat the refs too! It wasn't fair! A bad call cost us the game!

Whatever form that it takes, using whatever words are chosen, the message is the same: It wasn't fair.

I learned something early in my journey: Life is not fair. Expecting an even playing field for all of my challenges, weather in school, sports, business, ministry, or relationships is unreasonable.

I remember the first wrestling match of my senior year of high school. Our coach didn't schedule any matches during the first month of the season, and then once we started we usually had three matches a week. His philosophy: train for an extra month, then once we began against opponents go strong and relentlessly through the season.

My opponent for that first match had a 5-0 record, all of them pins. I knew that my work was cut out for me. As I watched the four bouts before mine, I noticed that the referee was not being kind to our team. Marginal calls went against us. Points weren't given to us when due. There was a lot of complaining from our bench.

I surmised that I now had two opponents to defeat: my adversary across the mat, and the referee. I remember telling myself that I needed to be better than I was. There would be no complaining, there would be no excuses. I was determined to win, but if I lost it was not because of the officiating. I had to Win Twice.

(Disclaimer: It is not for bragging purposes that I share the result. It simply closes the story.) I won, soundly: 10-0. There was no pin - which in my opinion should have been called for me. I even said to the ref, "There it is Ref, there it is!" To which he replied, "I call the match young man, you be quiet.")

This is a determination that all of us should take to every challenge we face. We should never complain about circumstances for not achieving what we believe we are supposed to achieve. We should not point fingers and assign blame. Rather, we should become better than we need to be.

I believe that inside of each of us is the creativity, capacity, and character to rise above the circumstances surrounding us that seem to magnify our challenges. Think of a better idea. Work a little harder. Don't look for the easy way out. Some ideas:

• Leverage your existing resources. Don't complain about what you don't have, but rather creatively use what you do have.
• Deploy your existing personnel (both employees and volunteers). How better can the giftings and skill sets of each person be used to achieve our goals?
• Control your character. Determine that you will not complain, assign blame, or make excuses. Rather, own what's yours, be what you were called to be, and do what you were called to do.

For many people, bragging rights and making excuses after a game makes for heated yet non-productive conversation. In life, let's let our actions, accomplishments, and character speak for themselves.

Question: What have you done to rise above circumstances and Win Twice? Share your thoughts below in comments.

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