Search

Mark Eastman

There’s Something Better Out There for Each of Us

by

 

 

 

 

 

Figuring Out What It Is, Is the Hard Part

 

There were a couple of boys selling candy bars to raise money for a school project. When they asked a man walking by if he would like to by one, he agreed to, on one condition…the boys had to eat it. The kind gesture on the part of the man backfired when one of the boys refused to eat his half. He said, “I can’t take candy from a stranger.”

 

 


His obedience to the rule was without understanding the underlying meaning.

 


In this week’s Scripture, Luke 13:10-17, Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath. This causes a church leader to become angry. The rule was, no work on the Sabbath. Jesus points out that, if it’s okay to water their animals on the Sabbath then surely, it’s okay to heal this woman.


We often get hung up on rules without looking beyond the surface and going deeper. One of the Ten Commandments is, to keep the Sabbath holy, Exodus 20:8-11. What is the reason for not working on the Sabbath? God made everything in six days. If he can do that and then rest a day, we should be able to do our work in the same amount of time.

 


What about those whose jobs require the work be seven days each week, i.e. medical, power and utilities, emergency workers, etc. The important thing is to rest and honor God…which ever day of the week that happens to be. Most of us are working more than we should and it’s no one’s fault but our own. We need to dig down on this question and find the balance of work and rest.


This doesn’t mean that rules aren’t important and that we shouldn’t follow them, because they are. We need to be careful to not get hung up on each little rule or cultural trend and miss the big picture. Our busy lives cause us to take things at face value. It’s quicker and easier to follow the crowd and just believe what we’re being told. It’s important to dig deep and find the underlying foundation.


There’s something better out there and it’s up to us to find it.


Some people visiting an orphanage in Botswana witnessed a young girl who wasn’t joining in the activities with the rest of the children. Then they noticed crutches lying on the ground beside her. After some research they found out that she was unable to walk from birth, but with the use of the crutches and therapy she was improving. As the group was going inside, she fell, the people started to go help her up, but the leaders of the orphanage stopped them. They said that God has something better in store for every child and her getting up on her own made her stronger.


 

 

God has something better in store for each of us…we just have to get up when we fall down.

 


We need to be careful to not get tripped up by the rules without knowing the underlying meaning and if we do, get back up and go again. The more we do the stronger we become.

Great Things Never Get Done by Under Promising

by

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, Amazing Things Can Be Accomplished by Over Promising

 


This is not to say that we should make promises and not keep them. Keeping a promise is important and speaks to who we are as individuals. We’ve become lazy in our use of words and the English language in general. We throw words and clichés around without considering what we’re saying.


“Under promise, and over deliver” is one of those truisms that at face value sounds like a good way to treat customers. It looks great on a business card.


What are we really saying if our goal is to “under promise”?


Last week I wrote about the issue of businesses over promising. As I was researching, I found an online article, by Josh Linkner “Why Under-promising and Over-delivering Is bad Advice”. In this article Mr. Linkner speaks to the lowering of the performance bar when we under promise.


He says, “…this false wisdom encourages mediocrity. It grants permission to make small, flaccid commitments and then gleefully celebrate delivering them. The very nature of the argument suggests holding back on achievements that can actually be attained. Simply put…


Under-promising is a promise to play small.”


Most businesses don’t want to play small. There are so many great things that we want to accomplish and so little time to do it. This is why we over promise.


It’s been said, if you want to get something done you should ask a busy person to do it. On the surface this appears counterintuitive. It would seem the person with spare time would be more likely to do something than the busy person. In reality it isn’t in the time available, rather it’s in the person’s level of drive. Busy people are doers.


The more we want to do the more we get done.


I’ve come to realize that the tighter my schedule is packed, the more I get done. It’s frustrating to have things left on my list at the end of the day, however when I step back and look at the bigger picture, I can see the benefits of “over promising”.


What we need to do is to rethink the terminology. To come up with different words that better serve our purpose. To be our most productive selves we need to push ourselves beyond our existing boundaries without lying to others or ourselves.


We need to keep our promises.


This is where things get difficult. How can we grow and do more, if we don’t push against the walls and move them out?

 

“I don’t think we have any choice. I think we have an obligation to change the rules, to raise the bar, to play a different game, and to play it better than anyone has any right to believe is possible.”


Seth Godin

 

Be careful to be true and honest, keep your promises to yourself and others as you continue to raise the bar of expectation.

Are You Getting What You Pray For?

by

 

 

 

 

If Not, Maybe the Problem Lies in Your Expectation

 

We’ve all had times when we prayed for something only to be disappointed. Whether the outcome we prayed for happened only to make things worse. Or, maybe we prayed and prayed and never got the answer we wanted.

 


What’s the problem with our praying?


We need to align our praying with God’s plans.


Pastor Lee told a story about a church that was struggling financially. They needed $10,000 to meet their year-end obligations. The church began a prayer campaign to this end and soon they were given some stocks worth $5,000. The leadership of the church met and decided to go ahead and sell the stock and continue to pray for the remaining $5,000.

 


The next day when the pastor was planning to go sell the stocks there was a snowstorm that kept him from going. After a few days the storm was over and the roads had cleared, he went to complete the sale of the stocks. In the few days he was unable to go, the stock price had doubled. Prayer answered.


Why is it when we pray for peace or healing or some other worthy cause we don’t receive it?


We need to align our praying with God’s plans.


Maybe we need to alter our expectations, but not our faith. In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus teaches us how to pray. Most of us are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, Verses 1-4, and many can recite it from memory. We’re less familiar with Verses 5-13. Here He tells us to continue asking and you will get what you ask for. The problem is that often what we ask for is not the thing WE SHOULD ASK FOR.


If we break down praying, there are six main points:

  1. – Remember that God is God. He made everything and can do anything He wants. We need to align our wants with His.
  2. –  We’re given just what we need each day. God wants us to have blessings overflowing, but to not be wasteful.
  3. – Forgive us because we continually mess up. Jesus has already paid the price for our failures…we just need accept the payment and mess up less tomorrow.
  4. – Forgive others. This is paying forgiveness forward. If we’ve been forgiven, it only makes sense to forgive others.
  5. – Protection from being tempted. Put on and wear the Armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-16. This protection is ours to use, but we have to put it on and wear it every day.
  6. – Be relentless in your asking. Ask…ask…ask…ask…and ask again, just be careful what it is that you’re asking for. Once you get it, it might not be what you thought.


When we align our praying with God’s plans for our lives, things go a lot smoother and the outcome is much better.


A lady was shopping for an anniversary card for her husband and found the perfect card to give him. On the front of the card it said, “Well it’s not what you prayed for…” On the inside it said, “but apparently it’s the answer.”

 

 


We need to align our praying with God’s plans and then we’ll get what we pray for.

 

One of the Biggest Issues in Business Is Over Promising

by

 

 

 

 

Why in the World Do We Do This and What Are We Going to Do About It?

 

 

I received a phone call from a gentleman asking about a problem he was having with a leaking metal roof on his shop building. As normal when confronted by a situation like this I began asking questions.

 


Early in the conversation I found out some important pieces of information. First, he thought he had called his contractor neighbor. Second, they live almost a hundred miles away. I pointed out the distance and unlikeliness of my coming that far to do a project.

 


This didn’t stop him from needing answers to questions.

 

 


As the conversation continued, he shared about his problem and I (being the solution seeking contractor that I am) continued to discuss his situation with him. Then I found myself looking for ideas to solve his problems, all the time thinking to myself, why are you doing this when you know he’s so far away and you’re already doing too much.


Near the end of the discussion, I agreed that if he would send me some pictures and a written description of what the problems were, I would give him an estimate…strictly from a consulting perspective of course.

 


You know you have too much to do. Why did you do that?

 


As we ended the conversation, I told him that I was busy and would get him something as quick as I could. He proceeded to tell me a story about several experiences he had with people in the construction industry that had made promises and then not kept them. He asked why this happens? I’ve asked myself this question many times.


The question of over promising is rampant. I know that in my business it raises its ugly head daily, whether it’s sub-contractors, suppliers, IT people, mechanics or my own schedule. I certainly believe that most of the situations of over promising that I experience are not done from a place of malice. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s still being done.


Why does over promising continue and what am I going to do about it?


 

Maybe this isn’t the right question. Andy Andrews says that “The quality of your answers is determined by the quality of your questions.” I’m thinking that maybe my question isn’t very good.

 

 


This is a big issue, as you can see from these previous posts.

Over Promising Is Easy When You Have A Servant’s Heart
5 Ways to Stop Over Promising and Under Delivering
How to Create Realistic Expectations for Customers – Part 1
Honesty Is the Best Policy – I Don’t Care How Hard It Is

 

 

I’m not going to stop looking for an answer to this question.

 

 

How Can I Know Who I Am and What I’m Here For?

by

 

 

 

 

 

By Digging Down To the Foundation

 

 

 

Who am I and why am I here, are questions that we’ve all asked. Finding the answer is the tricky part, not to mention we may not like the answer once we find it.


We will never know who we are until we determine WHO’s we are.

 

 

There are a lot of lost people wandering around seeking purpose in money, a job, a relationship or some other worldly treasure. Not that any of these worldly treasures are wrong, in and of the themselves. The problem is when we build our lives on them. Making these things the most important is like building a house on a sand foundation.

 

 


Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:24-27, what happens if we build on sand. He tells us to build on the Rock. If we use Him as our foundation everything we build is solid and steady.

 


To use Jesus as our foundation requires us to get to know him. The more time we spend with Him the better we will know Him. Just like parents, grandparents, spouses or children, after spending large amounts of time together you recognize them by their smell, shape, voices, actions, etc. The same is true for spending time with Jesus.


The Master Architect has designed our lives, it’s up to us to read the blueprints.


This past week was youth Sunday at church and Hannah (the youth leader) gave a super message. Here’s a link to a short video titled “Who I Am”, by David Bowden that she used as part of the service.


Who are YOU and what are YOU here for?

An Update on The Lavallee Remodeling Project

by

 

 

 

 

A Good Example of How to Hit A Moving Target

 

 

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the challenges of remodeling and how they pertained to the Lavallee project. I pointed out that these challenges start before construction and continue throughout the project. These moving targets are part of remodeling.

 


Hitting a moving target requires the ability to look ahead and visualize where it’s going.


One of the project goals was increased head room at the top of the stairs on the second floor. The top of the stairs ended in a low vaulted ceiling attic room with a small raised dormer for head room. This area was cramped and dark. It didn’t provide a very usable space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The increased head room was the initial focus. We also planned to remove a dividing wall doubling the square footage of the space. It was still going to have limited head room at the sides of the room but would provide the head room needed to access the second floor and would make a great play area for kids.



The original plan was to install some beams to allow for raising the center portion of the roof and ceiling. As the project progressed, we began seeing another option to gain more usable space by adding to the existing short walls. This option would open the area up more and make it more usable. It would also allow enough wall height for installing two 25” x 25” windows above the porch roof giving the area some great natural light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Once the walls were built level it was apparent the floor was not. It was decided to remove the floor from the stairway landing and level it up as well as eliminate the existing broken floor joists. When the original painted tongue and groove wood floor was uncovered it was determined that it should be salvaged and used. At this point we don’t know where yet, but we’ll find the right place.


After seeing the open framed ceiling with a few temporary ceiling joists, the customer asked about leaving it vaulted. After some discussion, we decided to leave it vaulted with a narrow flat ceiling near the ridge and install some beams rather than ceiling joists.


As you can see the targets keep moving and we have the stairway landing one in our sight.


The floor height in the stairway landing area was fifteen inches lower than the height of the second floor. To accommodate this height difference there was a step at the top of the stairway turned 90 degrees. This is not a good design and is not going to work. We are currently planning to cut a step back into the second floor rather than how it is currently.

 

 

 

At our weekly production meeting with the customers earlier this week we discussed the stairway plans. As we talked there were some new and different options that began to surface.

 

I’ve been thinking about some ideas for this stairway since the meeting and have come up with different options. I think this target is on the move and we better get it in our sights.

 

 

 


Check back later to see what direction the stairway goes and how it turns out.

Do You Have Your Affairs in Order?

by

 

 

Having Your Priorities in The Right Place

 

 

“The love of money causes all kinds of evil. Some people have left the faith, because they wanted to get more money, but they have caused themselves much sorrow.”, 1 Timothy 6:10 NCV. Money and wealth are often seen as evil and wrong.


The problem isn’t the money, the problem is the heart.

 


The Leo Tolstoy story, “How Much Land Does a Man Need” is a classic tale of greed. In this story Pahom, a hardworking farmer with a small piece of land. After a series of events he has managed to purchase more and more land, but it’s still not enough. He is then presented with the opportunity to buy some land for a fixed price. He can have as much as he wants but must be able to walk around it in a day. He starts walking quickly around the property as the day goes on, he keeps getting further and further from the starting point. He looks up and realizes the day is coming to an end and he still has a long way to go. He runs hard to get back and just as the sun sets, he collapses at the starting point. Exhausted from his effort he dies. He is buried in a 3’x6’ plot, thus the question is answered.


The rich man who had a great harvest and tears down his barn to build a bigger one in Luke 12:13-41 experiences the same fate. He thinks he can have good things for many years and can “eat, drink and be merry”. This doesn’t work out so well.


Both men are dealing with four of the same issues.

 


1st – Full barns and empty hearts. They both were looking at themselves from man’s perspective rather than God’s. They saw their worth only from a worldly view.


2nd – Overestimation of their own worth. They saw what they had as being from the work of their own hands. They gave none of the credit to God.


3rd – They forgot what their real business was. Like in the Christmas Carole when Jacob Marley come back as a ghost and warns Scrooge. “I wear the chain I forged in life…I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”…”Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were my business.”


4th – They forgot about time. They thought they had all the time they wanted…but they didn’t.

 


We all have a limited amount of time and only God knows what that is.


We need to use the time we’re given here to prepare for the eternal. We have a limited amount of time in this life and we need to use it wisely. Pastor Lee pointed out how digital clocks show time as fixed and unmoving and analog clocks with second hands are constantly moving, time is continuously moving.


A very sick man was sitting, with his family. His doctor told him that he didn’t have long to live and that he should get his affairs in order. The man put his arms around his family and said to the doctor, “Sir, my affairs ARE in order.

 

 


Make sure that your affairs are in order.

How To Stop The Time Monster From Eating Up All Your Time

by

 

 

 

By Being Selfish and Not Letting It Have Any

 

 

The time monster will chew up our time if we let it. He gobbles it up as soon as it’s available and doesn’t leave anything but crumbs. This is one case when it’s okay not to share.


Don’t let the time monster have any of your time.


Last week’s solution was about ways the monster eats up your time. I concluded by pointing out that it’s up to me to manage my time, just like it’s up to you to manage yours. Let’s look at how we can get control of the time monster.


The first thing is to acknowledge that there is a monster. Pretending that he’s not out there won’t work. Closing your eyes and putting your hands over your ears doesn’t make the monster any less real. He’s out there and he likes the taste of time.


Next, we have to recognize it. Time monsters come in different sizes and shapes, see last week’s post. Each of our monsters are different. If you’re going to do battle with your monster you need to know what it looks like so that you can protect your time.


Once you recognize it and see how big it is, it’s natural to want to turn around and run. Don’t be overwhelmed by the size of the monster.


When dealing with a big hairy time monster the best weapon is a snowball.

 


The intentional, continuous, focus of small actions over time will bring the monster down. The process, known as the “snowball effect”, is the accumulation of small things upon small things until they become a big thing, like a snowball rolling down a hill.


The snowball effect works the same on time as it does on anything.


Small segments of time used wisely over and over add up to big savings. Saving a minute here and a few seconds there add up over time. If we save five minutes every hour, twelve times per day, we end up with an hour that the monster didn’t get. If you add that hour to another the next day and do that five times a week for a year the time saving snowball would be 260 hours. The monster is not going to like that.


We can’t imagine our little snowball having any effect on that big hairy time monster. At first it doesn’t appear that it does, but if we keep after it, it will. Those little wins add up. Being able to see each of these little wins give us an opportunity to celebrate. The more celebrating, the more winning, the more winning, the more celebrating.


This leads to another nice thing that happens when that snowball rolls downhill, it picks up momentum. This is another benefit of good time management. The better we get at spending time wisely the more wisely we spend time.

 

There are a lot of different ways to spend time and how you spend yours is up to you. The important thing here is to realize that you control the snowball. The only way to get control of our time monsters is to just do it.

 

 


If you take care of the minutes, the hours will take care of themselves.

 

Every One of Us Is Different…Not Better

by

 

 

 

What Makes Us Better Is Dealing with Those Differences in The Right Way

 

 

We’ve all been in situations where our feelings have been hurt or we hurt someone else’s. Most of the time this is unintentional, not always, but most of the time.


I’ve told the story many times about how my feelings used to be hurt when my wife would give me a short and direct answer on a question. These “crushing blows to my psyche were perplexing to me. I was sure that she loved me, why would she be so uncaring with her answers?

 

Then we did a DISC personality profile test while leading a Financial Peace University class at our church. The understanding of these different personalities was huge. It changed everything for me.


I realized that she answered me directly without wasting any time or energy on unnecessary frivolities. While on the other hand I was unrealistically expecting a detailed, analytical, well thought out and caring answer. Once I understood our differences it made all the difference in the world.


It’s important to know who we are and who other people are.


Some years ago, The Archbishop of Canterbury was rushing to catch a train in London. In his haste, he accidentally jumped on the wrong passenger car and found himself on a car full of inmates from a mental hospital. They were all dressed in mental hospital clothing.

Just as the train pulled out of the station, an orderly came in and began to count the inmates, “1-2-3-4…” when suddenly he saw this distinguished looking gentleman there wearing a business suit and a clerical collar and he said:

“Who are you?” The answer came back: “I am the Archbishop of Canterbury!” And the orderly said: “5-6-7-8.”


Another good example of this in Luke 10:38-42, where Martha is working hard to make everything perfect for Jesus’ visit while Mary is sitting in the other room listening to Him. Jesus tells Martha to relax and make sure her focus is on the ‘one important thing’.


Martha was resentful, narrow and unkind with her complaint of her sister. She was caught up in her own inner desires and thoughts. She wasn’t giving any consideration to her sister’s differences.


Since taking the DISC personality profile I have taken a few different kinds of personality tests. Even though there are a variety of differences in these tests, one thing is true and consistent through all of them.


We are all different…not better…just different.


It pays huge dividends to know and recognize and embrace these differences. I heard it said once by a married couple, “If we were both the same, one of us wouldn’t be needed.”

 


We are all made in God’s image. This means that all our differences are representative of Him. Let’s see our differences as individual puzzle pieces and find out where we fit into His big puzzle.

 

How to Be More Intentional About Being on Time to Meetings with Myself

by

 

 

 

My Time Is Just as Important As Anyone Else’s

 

Scheduling and planning accurately are a difficult (practically impossible) thing to get right. This includes not keeping appointments with ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’m much more intentional about being on time to a meeting with someone else…not so much when I’m meeting with me.


We’ve all been given a limited amount of time; we need to spend it wisely!


How we choose to spend our time is going to vary for each of us. What we spend it on is not the issue. The problem is not a lack of time, it’s a lack of control. Why is it that if we have a day full of meetings and appointments we can make it to all of them on time, but if we fill our day with tasks and projects that don’t involve anyone but ourselves we are running late after the first thing?


Here are three major things that can cause schedules to go wrong:


Things take longer than planned – We have all experienced things taking twice as long, or more, to do than we expected. This is called the Planning Fallacy. This is a phenomenon in which predictions about how long something will take to complete is underestimated. Parkinson’s Law is when we underestimate the time needed as a way of accomplishing more. If I think something should take four hours and then tell myself that I can do it in two, I will get it done faster than if I tell myself I have all day, even if it still takes five. We focus more and work harder when there’s a deadline.

 


Too many things on the list – This is another common problem. Most of us have said yes to too many things. There are so many good things that we need or want to do. The more things we think about the harder it is to focus on one thing. This, like the previous point, pushes us harder to get the things on the list done, even though we know we won’t be able to do them all. Having too many things on the list leads me to the next cause for schedules to go wrong.

 


Distractions and interruptions – Our busy lives are full of these, whether self-inflicted or from outside sources. In this fast-paced digital age, there has never been more opportunities to be distracted. The previous two things are more internal than this one. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have any control, it just means that it often comes from outside sources. These can play havoc on our schedules if we allow them.


You can choose to manage your time better or not…it’s up to you.

 

Managing how I spend my time is up to me. If I’m going to manage it better, first I have to decide that’s what I want to do. Second, I need to consider who I am and what works best for me. Third will require developing a system that works for me.


The flexibility of a digital calendar is nice, but I’ve noticed recently that it’s much easier for me to move things back when it’s a meeting with myself rather than someone else.

 


There’s no perfect system for scheduling and planning, but my time is as valuable as anyone’s. I need to be intentional about how I spend it and be on time to the meetings I’ve scheduled with myself.


It’s up to me!

 

Links to similar Solutions:

How to Live A Well-Balanced Life

How to Get Your Puzzle Pieces to Fit

How to Achieve Your Desired Life Results