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Mark Eastman

It’s Christmas Time and This Is the Most Wonderful Time for Giving

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However, Proposal Systems are Not What We Normally Think of When We Think About Giving

Giving is an interesting word. For such a small and simple word, I had no idea how complex it was. In the Meriam-Webster dictionary there are sixteen different definitions with several sub-definitions for the word give. This is just as a verb, plus there are additional ones for uses of nouns, etc.

Just like the large number of definitions for the word give, there are a lot of great ways of giving.

One way of giving is the traditional wrapped presents under the Christmas Tree. And who doesn’t look forward to getting together with the people we love and sharing in the excitement of unwrapping that unknown gift?

Another great way of giving is sharing our knowledge and experience.

In my forty years in the construction industry, I learned some things. 😊 After struggling trying to figure out how to do accurate proposals, communicate clearly with customers and prepare a production budget, I knew there had to be a better way.

While a lot of construction companies are great at “constructing”, they often struggle with the business side of things. There’s a lot more to owning and operating a construction company than just building.

Unexpected costs, changes to projects and poor communication plague the construction industry.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

That’s why I developed the Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal system. This proposal system will give you the documents and instructions needed for preparing proposals that communicate clearly and accurately with the customer, while allowing you to be profitable.

This system includes templates for:

            Bid sheet – A Word document with all the construction sections and individual items already listed out with space for filling out the scope of the work to be done, dimensions, materials, locations, etc.

            Worksheet – An Excel spreadsheet with all the construction sections and individual items already listed out with optional overhead and profit markups already inserted in the appropriate cells.

            Estimate – A word document with spaces to fill in the pertinent information, i.e. customer’s information, what will or will not be supplied by the contractor, the scope of work, the estimated price for each specific element and a total estimated price.

            Proposal – A word document with spaces to fill in the pertinent information, i.e. customer’s information, what will or will not be supplied by the contractor, the scope of work, the proposed price for each specific element, a total project price, payment arrangements and project duration.

            Contract – A word document with spaces to fill in the pertinent information, i.e. customer’s information, list of referenced documents, construction funding information, property specifics, project start date and legal terms and conditions.

            Proposal-Contract – A word document that is a combination of a proposal and contract in one.

It also includes:

            Data Base – An Excel spreadsheet with prices for material and labor for a wide variety of specific construction tasks. This information can be copied and pasted to the worksheet.

            Instructions – Complete and comprehensive instructions for how to use this system and put it to work.

            Example documents – Complete Bid Sheet, Worksheet, and Proposal for a hypothetical construction project.

Back to the spirit of giving –

I want to give of my experience and knowledge because I want to see more successful construction contractors and more happy construction customers.

So, this Christmas we’re giving by reducing the $497 price of our Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal system by 80%.

The Christmas price is only $97!

This reduced price will allow contractors to give clearer more accurate proposals to their customers.

If you know someone in the construction industry that you think would like the chance to save $400 on this proposal system…give them the link to the Blueprint for Building a Better Proposal or give them the link to this blog post.

We also have a free document you can download called the 7 Bid Mistakes. It will walk you through the common mistakes that cost contractors a fortune and how to avoid them. And because it’s free…we’re giving it too.

We May Think Our Plans Are the Best, But Are They Really?

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We Need to Be Careful About Being Too Set in Those Plans

We all deal with doubt. Sometimes it’s doubt in ourselves. Sometimes it’s doubt in others. Or maybe its doubt in God.

This is understandable. We’ve all been sure about something only to be disappointed. This leads to doubt.

In Pastor Lee’s message this week, he pointed out John the Baptist’s doubt in Jesus being who He said He was. In Matthew 11:2-11, while in prison, John heard about the things Jesus was doing. He sent his followers to Jesus to ask Him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

This was John, Jesus’ cousin. The same John that “lept inside his mother womb” when Mary entered the room pregnant with Jesus. Even John had doubts.

The Scripture goes on to confirm that Jesus is who He says He is.

People expected Jesus to be some world leader who would come in and take over. They were expecting one thing and God’s plan was different.

The key to overcoming doubt, is to not give up when things don’t go as we planned. This is hard. We think we have everything all figured out. Surprise!

When we limit ourselves to our humanness, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. God’s plans are big and we need to align our plans with His.

Our plans may not be God’s plans.

We’re sure that if we just keep on pushing, we’ll achieve what we want. This is only going to happen if it is also God’s plan. We need to persist but be sure to check to see if this is what God’s plans are. If we’ve done this, then…

We need to persist without exception.

“Great leaders – great achievers – are rarely realistic by other people’s standards. Somehow, these successful people, often considered strange, pick their way through life ignoring or not hearing negative expectations and emotions. Consequently, they accomplish one great thing after another, never having heard that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing!”

Andy Andrews, The Traveler’s Gift

God’s timetable is not our timetable.

We tend to want things and we want them now. This is another part of thinking we know better than God. There is a balance between knowing when to push forward and when it’s not time yet. If we can find that balance, we will live a less stressed life.

This past weekend I saw the movie Father Stu, which is based on the true story of a boxer, Stuart Long, who became a Catholic priest. Stuart had a difficult life growing up and after giving up boxing he went to California to pursue an acting career.

While working in a grocery store, he meets a woman named Carmen. He falls for her and falls for her hard. To the point that he joins the church as one of her requirements to date. His plan is to win her at all costs and it begins to work.

After Stu lands an acting role on an infomercial, he faces discouragement and goes to a bar one night where a mysterious man advises him not to drive home. Stu ignores the advice and drives drunk on a motorcycle, crashing into a car he’s thrown off the motorcycle and then run over by another car.

Severely injured, he drifts in and out of consciousness and has a vision of the Virgin Mary, who tells him that he cannot die in vain. This leads Stu to “change his plans” and to become a priest.

This story is a great example of how God’s plans can be different than ours.

Align your plans with God’s earlier rather than later. It reduces the chance for doubt.

Why It’s Critical to Build Your Business on a Solid Foundation

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Because If You Don’t…It’s Likely to Come Crashing Down Around You

If you own or operate a business, I’m sure you’ve experienced the feeling of your world crashing down around you. There are a variety of different reasons this happens. A few of them may be due to things out of your control. But, more often than not…it’s because of bad decisions we made.

Most of us that are self-employed started out learning our trade as an apprentice working for someone else. This is how I got started. The problem with this is that while I learned how to build a building, I wasn’t taught how to build a business. This is a critical part of why so many businesses don’t survive.

It doesn’t have to be this way if the business is built on a good foundation.

The foundation of a building is made up of two parts, the footing and the foundation. The footing creates an attachment point between the foundation and the soil. The role of a footing is to support a building and help prevent settling.

The foundation is the base of any building structure. The foundation transfers the load from the structure to the footing and also provides resistance from loads exerted on it. If the foundation of a building is inadequate or not maintained, the building will collapse.

The foundation of a good business is the same. If your business isn’t built on a solid foundation, it will likely collapse.

The footing for your business is who you are. It consists of your purpose, core values and mission. These are the non-negotiables. The things that, when faced with decisions, will be rock solid.

Your foundation is three piers supported by the footing while supporting the business. This is the business systems and operations. These piers are sales/marketing, production/operations and administration/finance. 

  • Sales/Marketing – Searching for and finding customers that you can help by providing your service and/or product through word of mouth, advertising and awareness. Meeting with potential customers, determining what they want/need and preparation of estimates, proposals and contracts.
  • Production/Operation – Organizing, scheduling and maintaining the project or product. Determining who the right people are to preform specific tasks. Knowing the parts that are needed and making sure they fit. Maintaining communication between all parties involved. Upkeep and maintaining facilities and equipment.
  • Administration/Finance – The preparation of documents needed to communicate, track and record all aspects of the business. The filling out and filing of income, expense, banking and tax papers. This leg is one of the easiest for ‘trades-people’ to neglect and one of the most important.

For a business to be successful for the long term it is critical to have these three piers in place and to maintain them.

If one or two of these piers get neglected when doing the busy day to day work…the business begins to lean and if not corrected in time, it will collapse.

These three piers are made up of several different pieces. I plan to break these pieces down and explain how they fit together and serve their part in supporting a successful business.

I will start with the Administration/Finance pier, because it is the most often neglected by ‘trades-people’.

It’s up to us as business owners and entrepreneurs to build and maintain our business. If we do this well…everyone benefits.

Life is Crazy Busy, and it Only Gets Worse Around Christmas

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The Real Question is…What Are You Going to do About it?

Most of us have too much going on in our normal daily lives, with work, family, personal task, etc. You know…life. This only ramps up around the holidays.

Why do things get so crazy busy at this time of the year?

There are several reasons for this. Most of the things we do are important, some not as much. I know our family starts holiday activities before Thanksgiving and continues through New Year. This can make things a little crazy.

This includes things like family gatherings for Thanksgiving, decorating for Christmas, Church events, etc. As families grow and kids marry, there are multiple activities that need to be organized. Other family members’ schedules affect our schedules. It’s a little like a game of holiday musical chairs.

Decorating, gift shopping, baking, gift wrapping, gathering to open gifts, traveling to the next family gathering and on and on. It’s easy to get caught up in the process and forget the reason for the season.

The key to holiday crazy is to be clear on what the most important thing is and to enjoy the crazy season.

Baby Jesus is the small center of sanity in the insanity of Christmas. Jesus is the ultimate gift and we need to remember that.

John the Baptist knew what the most important thing was. He makes this clear in his conversation with the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 3:1-12. He explains the importance of not just going through motions, but knowing who Jesus is and changing your heart and lives accordingly.

He explains the importance of repenting. Repenting is more than just feeling regret for something you’ve done.

Repenting requires change.

We’ve all experienced our GPS telling us we need to turn around. Granted, our GPS isn’t right 100% of the time, but we as humans think we know better and too often just keep on driving, even though we’re going the wrong direction.

Pastor Lee told us a story that makes this point. He was going to a town that he was sure was one place when, in reality, it was not. After listening to his GPS telling him to turn around for two hours, he realized the GPS was right. This cost him a lot of unnecessary time and heartache.

We all tend to do things like this in life as well. We think we know what’s best and we ignore God telling us to turn around. 

In this crazy Christmas season, embrace the busy, enjoy the season and listen to your life GPS (God’s Positioning System) for direction.

An Update of Our Progress on the Blog Post to Podcasting Journey

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Like Any Project That Has Some Size…It Takes Some Time to Build

A few weeks back I told you about my plans to convert my blog posts into podcasts. We started by discussing the WHY question. We came up with the answer of – being able to help more busy people find solutions for building their dreams.

Next, we talked about HOW we would ever get blog posts turned into podcasts. It was determined that if I was going to do this…I was going to need some help, i.e., Nic at AdWise Creative. Nic’s help has made a huge difference in what we were able to accomplish.

Then, we reviewed our progress, which included –

  • Having written the intro and outro for the construction company focused podcasts
  • My recording of the construction company focused intro and outro
  • Nic having put together the intro and outro sound effects
  • Nic combining the intro, outro, sound effects and reading of the blog post into a preliminary episode

This got us to a point considered WHAT the next step of the journey would be. Which included –

  • Designing artwork for the podcast landing page – check
  • Researching and deciding where we would host the podcasts – check
  • Recording more construction company focused episodes – check
  • Write the intro and outro for the construction customer focused podcasts – check
  • Record the intro and outro for the construction customer focused podcasts

This is good progress. Four of the five things on that list are done and the things on this list aren’t easy.

Like I wrote about in the second post in this series, I would need some help to pull this off. Thanks to my assistant Katie and Stacey my IT specialist at Custom Internet for their help in getting the first couple of things on the list moved forward to where we are.

Let’s take a look at these things that we done.

First is the Solution Building podcast landing page. I’m very happy with the way this page has turned out. Thank you, Katie and Stacey, for all of your hard work on this beautiful site!

Before we could even have a podcast, we needed to decide where we host them. We decided on Castos as our podcast hosting site. There were a few reasons we chose them, but the main ones are…their connectivity with WordPress, which is the host platform of our other websites, unlimited storage of content, both audio and video, and an affordable price.

Yes, we have more recorded episodes done and you can listen to them here.

We’re still working on the intro and outros for the customer and life building podcasts. We also are working on getting the podcast page connected to our AWeber account. This will let people know when the most recent episode become available.

We’ll keep you updated as we go forward.

Go check out the podcasts and let me know what you think.

Not Being Awake at the Right Time, May Mean Missing Something Important

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Pulling Our Head Out of the Sand Helps Us to Stay Awake

We’ve all been so tired that we can’t stay awake one minute more. This appears to be the case for a man at Super Bowl LIV. Sporting News editor Karisa Maxwell captured footage of the sleeping man from her spot in the stands at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., during the first quarter.

The man is shown sitting in a seat with his head leaning back against a wall, legs crossed, eyes closed and mouth open. Several football fans can be seen standing up to watch the game in front of him, but he seems unconcerned with the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Granted, sleeping through the Super Bowl is not life threatening, but the average ticket price for this game was $6400. That’s a pretty expensive nap.

I would hate to pay the price for something like that and then sleep through it.

Life is like this. It has a pretty expensive ticket price and too often we sleep through it.

There was a point in my life when I was asleep and got a wakeup call.

When a scaffold plank broke and I fell, it got my attention. After the accident, I gave some serious thought to my life and how I had been just “going through the motions”. It was more like I was sleep walking than living my purpose.

We need to get actively involved in our lives and not wait to be hit upside the head. It’s much better to figure out what our purpose is before something like this happens.

We have the power to choose if we will go through life asleep or awake.

In Matthew 24:36-44, we’re told the risk if we choose to sleep through life. If we live nonchalantly with our head in the sand, one day we will wake up too late and miss the boat.

I believe that God has a plan for our lives and the time we need to accomplish our purpose. In Psalm 139:16, is says that our days have been determined before we are even born. Only God knows that number.

Finding our purpose requires us to get and stay connected to God through studying His blueprint (Bible) for our lives and talking with Him (praying) regularly. Paying attention to the needs around us and doing something about them. Taking the opportunity to share His plan with those around us through our words and actions.

Our responsibility is to wake up, find our purpose and live each of our days to the fullest.

Your life is more important than a Super Bowl…don’t sleep through it.

The Benefits of Combining Your Calendar and To Do List

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The Strength of These Two Things Together Can Increase Your Productivity

As business owners, entrepreneurs, hardworking employees of companies, and active people, we find ourselves busier than ever during this time of the year. As we approach the end of one year and begin preparing for next, there just isn’t enough time to get everything done. Add to this the Holiday season and everything that goes with this…it can get overwhelming.

As busy people we struggle trying to get everything done. The thing we need to remember is…

We don’t have to get EVERYTHING done.

Instead, we should prioritize our actions and focus on the first next thing. What is the most important thing currently on the list? At the same time we need to remember there is a limited amount of time available.

Recently I had a day that made the importance of a calendar and the limits of time very clear.

I typically have my calendar packed tight. Some of you have seen my calendar and know what I’m talking about. On this particular day, I had no meetings or events scheduled. I was lazy about putting things on the calendar.

As always, I had a long list of things to do. More than I could ever get done. The problem with not having things scheduled on the calendar is…the importance of time available is lost. At the end of that day, I was disappointed in how little I got done. I should have put things on the calendar.

This is why it’s important to use a list and a calendar together.

A calendar is a visual view of the time available. As you put things on the calendar, the day, the week(s) and the future begin to fill up. It’s a gauge for what you can get done. It isn’t an exact science; you already know that some things are going to take longer than you plan for.

Seeing this limited amount of time packed to the point of running over amps up the sense of urgency. This increased urgency improves productivity. It’s a black and white way to see the limited time available, a list of things to do doesn’t show you this.

A calendar is a great way to measure the time you have to do the things on the list.

The purpose of lists is to keep track of things that need to be done. We all have lists of things to do, whether it’s in our head, on paper or electronic. I use OneNote for my lists because of its simplicity, connect-ability, flexibility and options available.

The thing that I like about my OneNote list is that it improves my ability to keep track of the things on the list and allows me to easily move things around and add or remove as things change. And we all know that things never change. 😊

A list is a great way for prioritizing things that need done first and keeping track of the rest.

A calendar is a time focused tool. The “to do list” is just what it says…a list of things to do. These are two different tools, with different purposes and abilities that work well together.

Most of us business owners, entrepreneurs, hardworking employees of companies, and active people want to be more productive. Using these two tools to support each other is a good place to start.

It’s a Lot Easier to Say Something Than It Is to Do It

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

We’ve all heard this phrase, “Actions speak louder than words.” It’s a pretty common saying.

It is believed to have originated during the English Civil War. John Pym, an English parliamentarian, coined the expression in 1628. He said, “A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver, and actions are more precious than words.”

It’s easy to say things but harder to do them. Words can just roll right off our tongues before we take time to think about what we’re saying. This is especially true when we want to do everything for everybody. I call this a servant’s heart. I know because I have one.

When we do the things that we say we will, we are showing where our hearts really are.

The thing to remember is that we have control over both what we say and what we do.

We can change what we say and do. We don’t have to accept the status quo. We can write our own story.

In China, if they don’t like the way a movie ends…they change it.

In the final scene of the movie Fight Club. the star stands with his girlfriend, as they watch explosives blow up a cluster of skyscrapers — all part of what was presented to the audience as a plan to destroy consumerism by erasing bank and debt records.

That amount of anarchy — and the government’s inability to stop it — doesn’t appear to have passed muster with China’s notoriously strict censorship rules though.

In the version available in China, the entire scene featuring the explosions has been cut out. Instead, it has been replaced with a caption explaining to audiences that the authorities arrived just in time to save the day.

“Through a clue received by the police, they rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding,” the caption reads. “After the trial, Tyler was sent to [a] lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”

We have the power to change how our story ends.

We can decide if our actions or words will speak the loudest. As long as we are still alive, we can write our story.

In Luke 23:33-43, we see an example of rewriting the end of a story. As Jesus hung on the cross there were two criminals hanging there with Him. One of them insulted Him by saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

The other criminal responded harshly to the first, “Don’t you fear God, seeing that you’ve also been sentenced to die? We are rightly condemned, for we are receiving the appropriate sentence for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus replied, “I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise.”

Both criminals wrote their own stories by the choices they made in that instance.

Jesus’ actions spoke loudly. The criminal’s choices spoke loudly. Our choices speak loudly.

Our actions are more important than what we say. We shouldn’t stop at our words. We can bring our words to life through our actions. We can write the ending to our story.

Choose your words and actions wisely and write the ending to the story that God wants for you.

Goal Achieving is a Better Plan Than Goal Setting

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Too Often Once the Goals Are Planned…We Forget the Achieving Part

This is like having plans to build a building and once you get the blueprint drawn…you stop. You have a picture you can hang on the wall, but the building never gets built.

Having a plan before you start is good, but it’s not enough. If you don’t dig some dirt and drive some nails, nothing is accomplished.

Accomplishing anything requires action and action requires decisions.

This book gives us Seven Decisions shared with David Ponder while on his travels bout how we should live our lives. I review and contemplate these decisions daily.

We’re nearing the end of another year. The closer we get, the more we beat ourselves up because of the things we didn’t get done. It’s easy to get caught up in the things that we didn’t accomplish and overlook the things that we did. We all have visions of what our dream life will look like. This can be frustrating and depressing when things don’t turn out like we planned.

We need to remember that we can’t change the past, only the future. The key is to not give up.

Giving up is like dying while you’re still alive. Don’t give up!

Last week I wrote about how we can use urgency to accomplish more. Urgent things become a higher priority. This moves them up higher on the list. As an example of how this works, let me tell you a story that happened just this morning.

As Katie (my awesome assistant) and I were working on some website things, I realized that I couldn’t log in to the Solution Building site because I had waited too long in setting up my two-factor authentication. This is something that Stacey (my amazing IT person) told me to do a month ago.

This meant that I wasn’t going to be able to publish this week’s solution until I got this taken care of.

As it is with busy people…I kept putting it off to do other things. The level of urgency ramped up though when I couldn’t get into the website. I had to decide what I was going to do. At that point, it became the highest priority.

We all deal with these kinds of choices. The key to accomplishing more is to decide early on what is important and what isn’t. No matter how clear we are on our life and business plans, things are going to happen. Some are within our control, and some aren’t.

The more answers we have to big life question, the easier the smaller questions are to deal with.

Ultimately achieving goals comes down to decisions and deciding is up to us.

As I think about life and decisions, once again, I’m brought back to Andy Andrew’s book, The Traveler’s Gift. I know, I refer to this book a lot. As I was thinking about goals and decisions, I was reminded about the profound impact this book had on my life as I recovered from my concussion.

  • The Responsible Decision

I accept responsibility for my past. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions. I am responsible for my success.

“THE BUCK STOPS HERE.”

“If decisions are choices…and our thinking dictates our decisions – then we are where we are because of our thinking.”

President Harry S. Truman

  • The Guided Decision

I will be a servant to others. I will listen to the council of wise men. I will choose my friends with care.

“I WILL SEEK WISDOM.”

“God moves mountains to create the opportunity of His choosing. It is up to you to be ready to move yourself.”

King Solomon

  • The Active Decision

I am courageous. I am a leader. I seize this moment. I choose now.

“I AM A PERSON OF ACTION.”

“My future is immediate. I will grasp it with both hands and carry it with running feet. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act!”

Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

  • The Certain Decision

I will not wait. I am passionate about my vision for the future. My course has been charted. My destiny is assured.

“I HAVE A DECIDED HEART.”

“Truth is truth. If a thousand people believe something foolish, it is still foolish! Truth is never dependent upon consensus of opinion. I have found that is better to be alone and acting upon the truth in my heart than to follow a gaggle of silly geese doomed to mediocrity.”

Christopher Columbus

  • The Joyful Decision

I will greet each day with laughter. I will smile at every person I meet. I am the possessor of a grateful spirit.

“TODAY I WILL CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY.”

“Our very lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make choices. Then our choices make us.”

Anne Frank

  • The Compassionate Decision

I will forgive even those who do not ask for forgiveness. I will forgive those who criticize me unjustly. I will forgive myself.

“I WILL GREET THIS DAY WITH A FORGIVING SPIRIT.”

“Forgiveness is a secret that is hidden in plain sight. It costs nothing and is worth millions. It is available to everyone and used by few. If you harness the power of forgiveness, you will be sought after and regarded highly. And not coincidentally, you will also be forgiven by others!”

Abraham Lincoln

  • The Persistent Decision

I will continue despite exhaustion. I focus on results. I am a person of great faith.

“I WILL PERSIT WITHOUT EXCEPTION.”

“Great leaders – great achievers – are rarely realistic by other people’s standards. Somehow, these successful people, often considered strange, pick their way through life ignoring or not hearing negative expectations and emotions. Consequently, they accomplish one great thing after another, never having heard that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing!”

Archangel Gabriel

Achieving our goals comes down to decisions.

Starting by deciding what our priorities are.

Deciding to be responsible. Deciding to be wise. Deciding to take action. Deciding to believe in ourselves. Deciding to be happy. Deciding to forgive. Deciding to persist.

Worrying About Things Can Really Suck the Energy Out of You

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The More You Know Before You Need to Know it, the Better Equipped You’ll Be

Disaster movies are popular and generally do well at the box office. Who doesn’t like a story where everything is crashing down and the underdog hero steps up and saves the world, even though they didn’t think they could.

This reminds me of a quote I heard recently from Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. He is the pilot who made the heroic landing of the of US Airway’s Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after being struck by a flock of birds shortly after take-off from New York.

Sully said, “We all have heard about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations. They act courageously or responsibly, and their efforts are described as if they opted to act that way on the spur of the moment… I believe many people in those situations actually have made decisions years before.”

Learning and implementing little things into our lives daily is the best way to be prepared for whatever life throws our way.

We all know how life can throw us curve balls when we least expect them.

Jesus tells us this very thing in Luke 21:19-15. He tells us to expect wars and rebellions. Nations fighting, earthquakes, wide-scale food shortages and epidemics. He prepares us as followers of His, telling us we will be sought out and persecuted.

The more we read His word and learn from the Scriptures, the better prepared we’ll be.

Yemen is a country where Christianity is oppressed and discouraged. There is a man there who converted to Christianity. For years he kept his beliefs a secret from his friends and family, knowing that he would be in danger if he was found out.

Then he decided that if the Scripture he was reading was true…then Jesus had his back. He went on to share his faith with his family and now he is ministering to people in Yemen.

Worrying wasn’t going to do anyone any good. He gave the worrying to God.

The Cambridge Dictionary says, “worry is thinking about problems or unpleasant things that might happen in a way that makes you feel unhappy and frightened.”

Things that might happen is the problem. According to several studies somewhere around 85% to 95% of the things we worry about, actually don’t happen. That is a lot of wasted energy.

There are a variety of different studies and statistics that support this. One thing is for sure…we spend way too much time worrying about things that are out of our control.

In Andy Andrew’s book The Noticer, Jones, talks about the futility of worry and discusses the percentages of time being wasted. Jones says to focus on the 8 percent.

  • 40% of the things we worry about will never occur
  • 30% of the time, we worry about things that have already happened
  • 12% of our worry is about needless imaginings about our health
  • 10% would be petty-little-nothing worries about what people think
  • 8% are legitimate concerns

In Matthew 6:34, we read, “Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” This sounds like good advice.

Stop letting worry suck your energy and instead put your focus on Jesus and what God tells us in Scripture. This will equip you to be a hero.