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Mark Eastman

Deciding What Your Big Rocks Are

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What Should I do First?

This past week as I was writing in my journal, I was considering what the day’s priorities were. What were the most important things to focus on today, if I’m going to achieve my goals? As I thought I wrote…

What are the big rocks that I need to put in the jar first?

I read about this time/priority analogy several years ago in Steven Covey’s book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I hadn’t thought about this for some time and I don’t know why I thought of it then. I assume it’s due to the recent attention being giving to accomplishing my goals for the coming year.

Here’s how this story goes:

One day this expert was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration I’m sure those students will never forget. After I share it with you, you’ll never forget it either.

As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone in the class said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

Then he smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is:

If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

Dr. Steven R. Covey, First Things First

I love this big rock example of prioritizing our actions. Too often we approach time as though there’s no limit. My time management budget certainly makes it clear that this is not the case. (currently I’m over my time limit for the year, by 746 hours)

As I study this time management spreadsheet it gives me a much clearer picture of where my time is getting spent and a way to determine what rocks should be put in first and what ones should be left out. There are so many great things to choose from but if I’m going to be the most productive, I need focused intensity on the big rocks that help me to achieve my goals.  

What are the big rocks in your life?

Growing in your faith? Spending more time with your family? Serving your customers better? Paying off debt? Taking better care of yourself physically and mentally? Helping with community projects?

Here are three short video examples of how putting the big rocks in first matters. The first explains this perspective well.

Put the Big Rocks in First

Time Management & the Jar of Life

Jar of Life

It All Comes Down to Belief

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Do it Now or You Will Regret it

Some of us procrastinate because it comes naturally. I’ve always struggled with waiting for perfection before taking action. Because I know this about myself, I’ve worked on it and improved over the years. It’s a constant battle and I still need to do better.

In Pastor Lee’s message this week, he told about how Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both filed patents for the telephone on February 14, 1876. Bell was the 5th entry that day and Gray was the 39th.

Think of how differently things would have been for Mr. Bell if he had waited until everything was perfect.

We tend to think there is no hurry but, we all have a limited amount of time, so don’t wait. As we look forward it’s important to also remember that time is finite.

Imagine being on your deathbed surrounded by ghosts of wasted potential, unused gifts, squandered talents and missed opportunities. Too often we come to the end of our lives with regret. The only way to prevent the ghosts is to not procrastinate.

How many ghosts would you have floating around your bed today?

We also need to be careful to not let our regrets consume us either. The things we didn’t do won’t change. We can’t change the past only the future.

Learn from the past, look to the future, live in the present.

In Mark 1:16-20 Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John to come follow Him. There is no hesitation…they drop what they’re doing and go. They believed and acted immediately.

Mark seems to focus on quick action in his book. The word immediately is used 59 times in the New Testament, 41 of those is in the Gospel of Mark.

Often, we procrastinate because we don’t believe in ourselves. We need to have more faith and trust in our God given abilities and take action.

Don’t live with regret. Believe in yourself and be more like the Disciples and take action now.

How to Decide If You Should Do Your Construction Project Yourself

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Consider These 4 Points Before You Decide

I met with a customer recently about finishing a project that had been started eight years ago…it’s still not done. They haven’t even been able to live there this entire time. Yes, it was an extensive project…for that matter it still is.

They did most of the work themselves. The question is…

Were the monetary savings worth the cost of time?

As a builder, I’ve never been a big fan of DIY (Do It Yourself). The TV programs have whole projects done in 30-60 minutes. This is misleading, not to mention downright impossible.

Don’t get me wrong, the satisfaction that comes from doing a repair, changing a light switch or faucet, installing a window, building a deck or even remodeling a complete room can be extremely rewarding. The thing is…

You better know what you are getting into before you start.

Here are some things to consider before you decide:

  • Reasons for hiring a professional –

You need to consider what your skill level is and what the parameters of the project are, before tearing into it. Depending on the specific project there are a lot of things to be aware of.

Even something as simple as painting a wall can be more complicated than many people realize. If your project is going to involve things that are structural; for example, cutting an opening in a wall or building a deck, you certainly need to understand what is involved. Not knowing how to do something like this can lead to big problems.

  • Benefits of hiring a professional –

Time is a precious commodity. If you are like me, I am never able to get everything done that I want to. So, when I find someone that I can trust, who I have determined has the desire and skills to do the thing that I need done, it makes sense to pay them to do it? This allows me to be able to do something else that I am better suited for or maybe would just prefer doing.

Growing up on a farm was very “Do It Yourself. I learned how to do a lot of different things. We just didn’t hire much of anything done. Learning like this took years and lots of trial and error. I didn’t just watch a 30-minute TV program or go online to learn it.

I am sure that I could make a car given enough time and money, but doesn’t it make more sense to buy one made by professionals.

  • Reasons for not hiring a professional –

The key here is defining ‘professional’. If you’re considering hiring someone then you need to do some research. There are a lot of people out there that seem to be qualified and aren’t. If you hire someone that isn’t then the outcome might not be much different than doing it yourself.

Maybe you have the time and desire to learn something new. This is a great reason for doing the project yourself. Just be careful to not get in too far over your head. Be clear on what it’s going to take to do this.

You can save money by not paying somebody else. Just be aware that there is a lot to a project beyond the actual constructing. There will, or at least should be, time spent in researching, planning, shopping, buying, exchanging, returning, redoing and cleaning.

It is good to be physically active. Depending on your normal routine construction can be a great way to exercise.

  • Another option – Hiring a consultant.

If you really want to do your own home project, but need some help with knowing how, what, when and where. You might consider finding an experienced professional to guide you through the process. Finding the right person for this can be as tricky as anything. Just realize the value of knowledge and the benefit that it can have.

If you have questions about a construction project or know someone who does, contact us in the chat below.

It comes down to priorities. You can choose where to spend your time and money, what’s the best use of either? Saving money by spending time seems like a good plan… but is it really, if eight years later it still isn’t finished.

With over 35 years of construction experience I have determined that getting help is a good plan. I can’t do everything myself…as much as I would like to. That’s why I share the load with others.

Once you have determined that you have the ability (knowledge, time, money, and physical strength) to do your project, then by all means, go for it.

There’s nothing much more rewarding than stepping back and looking at something you built with your own hands.

Based on and revised from To Hire or Not to Hire, that is the Question, published Aug. 12, 2016

We Are All Important to the Building of God’s Kingdom

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No Matter How Small We Are in the Big Picture

Way too often we tell ourselves that we aren’t good enough or don’t have what it takes to do that thing…whatever that thing is. This perception is very good at keeping us from doing the things we’ve been designed to do.

We look around and see what everybody else is doing and from the outside it looks amazing. We have to remember that we are not designed to do what they are.

Each of us is here for our own specific purpose.

Or maybe we’ve been convinced that because we grew up in a certain place or look a certain way that we aren’t capable of doing anything great. We are too easily persuaded by these outside forces.

Some people thought Jesus wasn’t anything special. After all he was from Nazareth. In John 1:46 Nathanael said about Jesus, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

A concrete foundation is made up of sand, cement and water. All of these things are made up of very small individual pieces. A grain of sand, a particle of cement and a drop of water. Each of them by themselves is tiny and seemingly insignificant. However, without them each serving their specific purpose the skyscraper wouldn’t stand. Their role is vital to the outcome.

It takes a collection of different components to build a skyscraper, each serving their individual purpose. Each of us are like these small pieces. We are vital to the outcome.

Accept your part in supporting the kingdom.

This past weekend we had a movie marathon. And watched the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. These are some of my favorites and if you haven’t seen them, I would highly recommend it. These movies are based on the classic fantasy novels and children’s books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In the story, the Hobbits are small little creatures. Just happy to be living their peaceful little lives…when called to do something big and out of their comfort zone. We are all called to do these kinds of things, we just have to be willing to.

Maybe fantasy isn’t your thing. But the story is a great one of good versus evil and how no matter how small and inadequate we see ourselves, if we’re willing, we can make a big difference.

Remember, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or how you look. What matters is your willingness to step out in faith and go where you’ve been called.

How to Decide Where Your Time Is Best Spent

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It Comes Down to Knowing Who You Want to Be

Last week I wrote about the importance of spending time wisely. I shared how I was working to clear the fog to determine what things I should focus on. What should I do and not do? So, like budgeting money I decided to work on a plan for budgeting my time…enter the spread sheet.

Like money, we can choose what to spend our time on.

The difference is that with money there’s the possibility to make more, not with time. This makes spending time wisely, even more critical.

So, what did I find out about budgeting time using a spreadsheet?

What I’ve found so far is that I’ve overspent my time budget by 175 hours (2%) and I still haven’t got everything entered. It is making it very clear that I can’t do everything that I want.

This spreadsheet is allowing me to look at the big picture and see where I can move things around and/or remove things completely to fit into the limited time available.

I listened to a podcast recently that pointed out how important time is due to kids doing school at home and people working remotely. This got me to thinking about how I’ve never really separated my work and personal time. My time is all just…my life.

I think this is because growing up on a farm there wasn’t a ‘clock punching’ separation of time. In addition to that, I’ve spent most of my life self-employed which is the same. I may be doing family, community or church things throughout the day or, I may be doing work things late in the evening or on weekends.

Using the spreadsheet, it is allowing me to see the amount of time being spent rather than the specific time of the day or night. It allows me to be better at living a well-balanced life.

Ultimately the spending of our time comes down to a personal choice.

It’s all about who we want to be.

We can spend our time where we want. So…to that point…today I want to spend my time with my family having a movie marathon weekend.

That’s who I want to be.

Communication Has to Be Received Before It’s Complete

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Miscommunication Is a Huge Problem in the World Today

In Pastor Lee’s message Sunday, he told a story about a text message that was sent to him months ago. He didn’t see it until just recently and of course responded to it immediately. He made the point that…

Communication doesn’t happen when messages are sent, only when they’re received and acted upon.

Poor communication is one of the biggest issues we face. I know in the construction industry this is without a doubt the biggest problem between contractor and customer. Of course, it isn’t restricted to construction…just look around.

Improving on communication is important enough to me, that’s one of my ‘core values’. That’s why I work to remember that I have two ears and one mouth. I’ve previously written about the importance of good communication and the high cost to no communication.

We need to work harder to be better communicators.

Communication can be done through word or action. Isn’t it interesting that both the Bible and Jesus are both referred to as the “Word of God”? In John 1:1 we’re told that the Word was there in the beginning, it was with God and it was God.

God sent us a message, but it won’t be complete if we don’t receive and act on it.

Time is the Most Valuable Commodity

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Be Sure to Spend it Wisely

The topic of spending time is nothing new. It’s a topic that is written about a lot. My search online for “spending time” uncovered 289 million results. Just so you know, I didn’t read them all. 😊

As I’ve been working on setting my goals for this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about what and where I should put my focused intensity. I struggle with this. What things should be in what order.

Earlier this week I heard a Business Made Simple Daily from Donald Miller entitled How to Know What is Worth Your Time. Notice it doesn’t say “what your time is worth”, but “what is worth your time”. Donald uses the example that his truck tags had been expired for several months, but he chose to spend his time on other things he determined to be a higher priority.

This conversation about time reminded me of how in his Hero on a Mission course for goal setting and life planning starts out with writing your obituary. This form of starting with the end in mind makes the point that for each and every one of us…life is over at some point. As we race through the routines of our daily lives, we just don’t think about time from a finite aspect.

We tend to approach life as if we have all the time we want. This isn’t the case!

So, if we accept that time is limited, what do we do? Determining “what is worth my time” is a good place to start.

This is the hard part for me…there are so many great things that I want to do.

One of the problems with time is that we we’ve been given it. You’ve done nothing to earn the time you have. It isn’t like money. You can’t go earn more time. You can’t put time in the bank and save it for later. Time is being spent constantly and we take it for granted!

Once time is gone you can never get it back. Don’t waste what little you have!

Each of us spend time differently. The important thing is to determine where it is that you are going to spend yours.

Back to goal setting and how time relates.

As I have been listing out all the things I want to accomplish this year, I realized many of them were on the list last year and the year before that…and the year before that. I see a pattern here.

Maybe I’m trying to do too much?

The more I worked through the list the more lost in the fog I got. How can I figure out what is worth my time?

I decided that if I was going to do this, I needed to take the limited time thing seriously. To do this I determined that a good place to start would be to figure out how much time the things on the list would take and compare that to the amount of time available to spend.

Those of you that know me, know how I’m going to this…a spreadsheet, of course.

I’m now going to go get to work on my time budgeting spreadsheet. I’ll let you know how that goes in a future post.

Suffering Has Always Been a Part of Life

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What Are You Going to Do About It?

Suffering and perspective have been a common theme over the past several weeks. It started with the importance of making every day a day of thanksgiving. There’s no question that there’s suffering in the world. It’s been this way since Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden.

Looking back through history at things people have had to endure is easy to read or talk about, but we can’t really compare our current situations to those. We haven’t had to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years with no place to call home. Or be imprisoned in a concentration camp because of our religion. Or lived in a sod house without any electricity, water, central HVAC, and not being able to go to the store to get food.

Sure, there are things every day that are difficult, but we’ve become spoiled!

Doug Miller presented the message Sunday in Pastor Lee’s absence. The point of his message was one of hope, support, and perspective. If anyone can speak to suffering, it’s the Miller family. They dealt with the death of both a mother and a daughter within a week in December. You can see the heart felt message here.

Of course, we want a world without suffering but that’s not going to happen. Doug pointed out that they’re doing okay because of being supported by family, friends, and prayer.

Support of family and friends is critical to well-being.

They found blessings in part because they were looking for them. Looking for this support started long ago being raised in the family and church that they were. All along the way decisions were being made that lead to this place. The decisions we make today will have consequences in the future.

Choose your friends well. Life is hard, but it’s harder if you try to go it alone.

This also means that we need to be willing to be good friends, because there’s always a need for good friends. You can choose your friends. You can choose to be a friend. You can choose how you will deal with life’s difficulties.

You can choose!

Every Year is a Great Year, Some Are Just Greater Than Others

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And What Makes a Year Like 2020 so Great?

Some people would argue that there was very little about the year 2020 that was great. 2020 was certainly not what I expected or had planned for. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t great.

Often, when asked how my day’s going, I will pause briefly, review the day and answer, Good, but then…

Every day is good. Some are just better than others.

While writing in my journal yesterday morning, I was enjoying the fire burning in the wood stove as I looked out at the falling snow. It was so peaceful and quiet. I don’t think life gets much better than this.

Not everyone would agree with my assessment of the snow. This is fine, we are all made different. The important thing about any situation is to look for the blessings. Just as some are not fans of cold and snow, I’m not a fan of heat and humidity. But in every situation, I work to find things to be thankful for.

The focus of this journal post was my annual life planning. Reviewing the past year and looking forward to the new year. As I thought about the coming year, I wrote…

2021 is going to be a great year, but then…every year is great. Some are just greater than others.

As I wrote this, I realized that this mindset was the same years as it was for days.

The new year is a natural time for stepping back and reviewing the past and planning for the future. It’s common for new year’s resolutions to be made and then be abandoned once the busyness of our daily lives takes over. This annual process is great, but it needs to be done more often if it’s going to be anything more than a fleeting resolution.

It needs to be done more often than just annually. It also needs done quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily. This is hard to maintain. We get into daily routines that become weekly, that become monthly, that become quarterly and the next thing you know another year has gone by.

We look up and realize we didn’t accomplish the things we wanted.

Several years back I broke my year down into these smaller increments as an effort to not loose track of my year’s goals. It worked really well until the past few years when I gradually neglected to keep it up. It’s up to me to not let this happen.

This is where my need for focused intensity comes in.

I have control over a limited number of things, but those things are directly connected to how great this new year will be.

Things I can control:

  • What I say yes to
  • What I say no to
  • My schedule
  • My attitude
  • My perspective

I’m going to be intensely focused on my plans and the choices I make in 2021. This will make it a great year. Breaking the mountain down into shovel size amounts makes it movable.

As I review 2020, what made it great?

  • I joined a mastermind group. Never before had I done anything like this. The friendships, personal growth and opportunities from this have been life changing.
  • The personal and business connections from this mastermind opened up the opportunity to take a digital marketing training that have expanded my abilities and skills for growing my business.
  • Substantial business opportunities that have and will come from these connections
  • Opportunity to build an audiovisual booth in the sanctuary at church without causing disruption to worship service during the weeks we didn’t have live worship.
  • Our Pastor’s willingness to start recording, broadcasting and sharing his messages virtually when we weren’t having live worship. (We had been trying to get him to do this for a few years.)
  • Realization of how fortunate I am to have a loving family that is close both emotionally and geographically.
  • A clearer understanding of who God made me to be and the skills I have and the opportunity to help others with them.
  • The fact that I’m alive and haven’t completed the work that I was put here to do.

2020 was a great year, but then…every year is great. Some are just greater than others.

Here’s to your having a great 2021!

Look for the Blessings in All Things

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We Get to Choose How We Look at Things

Another year has come and gone. Many are happy about this, considering this past year. There is no doubt that it had it’s share of difficulties.

Why does God allow suffering?

Who knows? What we do know is that can’t always understand God’s plans.

Suffering is nothing new, ask Joseph. His brothers sold him to slave traders who sold him to Potiphar. Then Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him, and he was sent to prison. Gen. 37:18-36 Years later the king had Joseph interpret the dreams. He then was put in charge of everything the king owned. Gen. 39:1-47:57

Joseph wasn’t around to witness some of the long-term outcomes made possible by his actions. Each and every action we take or don’t take effects the future.

Regardless of the difficulties Joseph continued to focus on the positive.

History is full of examples of people who choose to look at things from a ‘blessing perspective’. In Andy Andrews book, The Traveler’s Gift, he shares about the Joyful Decision and how Anne Frank, even in the situation she found herself in…choose to look at the blessings.

“Complaining is an activity just like jumping rope or listening to the radio is an activity. One may choose to turn on the radio, and one may choose not to turn on the radio. One may choose to complain, and one may choose not to complain. I choose not to complain.”

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

Life is better when we look at things from a positive perspective. God gives us hope…it’s up to us to accept it. Will you accept the gift of hope or not?

Look for the blessings!