Great books I’ve read in the last year.

While I have always enjoyed reading, I haven’t always been a big reader.  Reading was always something I did when I had to.  The first book I can remember reading on my own, without anyone making me, was called “King of the Wind”.  It was a book about a horse named Sham, and his mute stable boy named Agba.  I don’t remember much of the story because I read it in third grade, but I remember really liking it.

I became a serious reader when I became a Christian.  I made it a point to read my Bible every night before I would go to sleep.  I also developed a strong appetite for teaching books by Christian authors like Kenneth E. Hagin & Kenneth Copeland.  I read all I could get my hands on.

After several years, I became exposed to other famous authors and famous non fiction books, such as Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people, and John Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of Leadership.  I try to flip through these every year or two to keep fresh on their content.  With few exceptions, I stick mainly to non-fiction.

This year I put forth serious effort to read more, good quality books.  The one’s I talk about here came highly recommended. I would have to say, while I liked some more than others, they were all good and I would recommend all of them to anyone who’s goal is personal growth.  So, without further ado, here’s my list.

The Art of Work – A proven path to discover what you were meant to do.  By Jeff Goins.  Published by Thomas Nelson.

In The Art of Work,  Jeff breaks the book into three main parts, Preparation, Action & Completion.  He examines our purpose, and our journey toward fulfill our calling.  He examines how we look at vocation, career & calling, ultimately leading to the truth “Meaningful work is available to anyone who dares to find it”.

 

 

Launch – Jeff Walker.  Published by Morgan James.     Jeff Walker outlines his secret formula for marketing online.  Jeff started with humble beginnings as a stay at home dad with an interest in the stock market.  His first online business started with a subscription newsletter about the stock market and grew from there.

Jeff points out that there are a lot of online marketers out there, teaching a lot of stuff, but we need to pay attention to the successful ones.  What’s important isn’t necessarily what they are teaching, it’s what they are doing.  The successful ones are usually using Jeff’s formula. Launch outlines how almost anyone can start an online business.

 

Platform – Get noticed in a noisy world. By Michael Hyatt.  Published by Thomas Nelson.

Michael is the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers.  He points out that while there were some tremendous book ideas submitted for publishing over the years, many were refused because no one had ever heard of the author.  Michael outlines why we need a platform and offers step by step guidance in building your own, including building your home base, expanding your reach and handling social media.

 

 

The One Thing, The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results.  By Gary Keller. (Published by Bard Press).
Gary is the Chairman of the board and co-founder of Keller Williams Realty, the largest real estate company in the world.  The One Thing focuses on success and productivity by addressing three major points.
A. The lies we’ve been told about productivity and work, and how they have misled and derailed our success.
B. The simple truth about real productivity.
C. Getting extraordinary results and unlocking your possibilities.
It’s a great book that even comes with a “Do not disturb, I’m working on my one thing” door hanger bound into the back of the book.

 

Living Forward –  a proven plan to stop drifting and get the life you want.  Michael Hyatt & Daniel Harkavy.  (Published by Baker Books).
This book focuses on our desire for a life of meaning and significance, joy and satisfaction.  Michael & Daniel break down life planning into three main parts.  First, understanding the need, second, understanding the mission, and finally, making it happen.  This book is very interactive, and asks you to take a minimum of one full day to stop, and give real real, intentional thought to your life.

They first ask you to write your own eulogy, with a sharp focus on how you want to be remembered.  The authors encourage you to break your life into categories, and then establish a vision in each.  Living Forward helps you to identify and write down the goals for each category, and establish a plan to accomplish them, while continuing to grow in each.  Both Daniel & Michael are Christians and they acknowledge that our plans will change as we come to know and more fully understand God’s direction for our lives.  They have a built in review schedule for you to tweak, update, or fully revise your life plan.  I highly recommend this book.

 

Essentialism – Greg Mckeown.  (Published by Crown Business).    Greg starts off telling the story of Dieter Rams, a lead designer for Braun.  Deiter designed by a principle which in German is stated – Weniger aber besser. The English translation is “Less, but better”.  I now have this statement on the wall in my office at work.

It was Deiter that we can thank for taking the home stereo from being the Oak, or walnut monolith of the past, that took up a large portion of the living room, to being the sleek, streamlined component based stereo that fit in far less space.  Less, but better.  Essentialism is not about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.  Peter Drucker said “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”  There are a lot of people who are very busy but not productive.

Essentialism examines the discipline of finding the essential, and eliminating what is not.  It asks and answers the question:  How can we discern the trivial many, from the vital few.

 

The Traveler’s Gift – Seven decisions that determine personal success.  By Andy Andrews.  (Published by Thomas Nelson).
The Traveler’s Gift is a fictional story of a man named David Ponder.  David is a 46 year old man struggling with his life.  On the way home from being fired from his job, David is in a car accident.  His last words before losing consciousness are “God, Why Me?”

David awakens in another time, and in the course of his journey through time, he meets seven people.  Each person gives David a scroll with a message on it.  These messages are nuggets of wisdom that ultimately change David’s life.

 

Decisive, How to make better choices in life and work. By Chip and Dan Heath.  (Published by Crown Business).
I found this book very insightful.  It helped me recognize areas in my decision making that were not very helpful.  The Heath Brothers examine decision making by highlighting the four villains of decision making.  There is good advice and guidance for the person struggling with choices.

They discuss everything from our tendency to only collect research that supports our already held beliefs or desires, to our tendency to only look at our problems through a remarkably narrow frame of vision.

 

Love Does – Discover a secretly incredible life in an ordinary world.   By Bob Goff.  (Published by Thomas Nelson).
Bob is the founder and CEO of Restore International.  A nonprofit organization fighting injustices against children. He also shares leadership in a law firm in Washington state called Goff & Dewalt, which practices in Washington and California.  He also serves as Honorary Consul to the Republic of Uganda.

This book is full of remarkable and interesting stories from Bob’s own life.  Each chapter declares a topic, Bob gives a short sentence about his personal belief, and then tells a story about it.

This book challenges the Christian to move away from the heavy weight of being religious, and just start loving, serving and helping people.

 

Take the Stairs – Seven steps to achieving true success.  By Rory Vaden.  (Published by Pedigree Publishing).

This book examines productivity, procrastination and self discipline.  Rory outlines seven strategies for helping us to live a more disciplined life.

He points out that many people don’t take the stairs because they are too busy looking for the escalator.  Rory points out that there really is no escalator, and that, once you kill the idea that there is an escalator (an easy way), you’ll realize that the fastest way to get what you want is to actually do the work, and make your goals a reality.

 

There you have it.  These were all worth my time to read, and I find myself using nuggets from each of them in my everyday life.

What books have you read that you would recommend?  Please share in the comments.

Until next time,

Art

It’s the thought that counts.

One time when we were kids, my younger brothers, sister and I were invited to a neighbor boy’s birthday party.  Back in those days we didn’t have any money for a gift.  I remember giving him a pair of novelty glasses that had lights on them.  They were mine and I really liked them but I really didn’t want us to show up empty handed.  I remember feeling ashamed that we weren’t giving him a new gift, but at the same time, I remember that gift being a real sacrifice for me personally.  He may have never known how big of a gift we gave him that day.

One of the hallmarks of this season is buying gifts. I’ve heard that when it comes to retail, there are two seasons. Christmas season and Not Christmas season. There’s no doubt that a pretty substantial chunk of our economy relies on the purchases made for Christmas gifts.

The other side of the buying is the giving. That is where the real action is. Unfortunately, this can be a little tricky. I remember several years ago, we had a “Secret Santa” at my work. We would draw names & then give an inexpensive gift each day for five days leading up to Christmas eve. I drew the name of a young man who drove our delivery van at the time. I thought I would get him things he could eat. Everybody eats – right? It was a terrible idea. It seemed that he was allergic to everything I got him. I could tell he was pretty disappointed. The problem was that I didn’t know him very well.

Don’t you just love it though, when you get it right? It’s pretty awesome when you give a gift that’s a hit. Especially if it’s a surprise. I know how I feel. When someone takes the time to get to know what you like, how you think, what you need, what you WANT. They take the time to carefully evaluate you and what would make you happy, then choose your gift…wow!

We’ve all heard “It’s the thought that counts”, and it’s usually used to make us feel better about a bad gift.  When you really think about it – It’s the thought that counts is an eye opening perspective.  Consider for a second that it really is the thought behind any gift that makes it what it is.  It shows how much or how little we think of the people receiving the gift.  It’s getting easier to buy for people you don’t know very well now that so many stores are offering gift cards.

Now consider the truth behind Christmas.  John 3:16 says For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  Now, that verse gets more attention than many other verses in the Bible.  But so often, people don’t take the time, stop, and really consider the implications of it.  While there are people everywhere who know that Jesus came to earth, most don’t consider why.

Often, the gift represents honor, and honor represents value.  God’s gift to earth represents how much He values us.  He sent us His only begotten son – who laid aside His majesty, glory & honor, and became one of us. In Philippians, the King James Version says “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”.  New American Standard Bible says it this way “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men”.  He became a man and came to earth because, to save us.  Why? Because we were beyond helping ourselves.  We were sold under sin to a cruel master, cursed and unable to help ourselves.  God, the Father loved us so much that He sent His Son.  To become one of us.  To live with us. To die for us. To be raised from the dead for us. To be seated at the right hand of the throne of God for us, so that Hebrews 6 calls Him the Forerunner.  That’s a very important distinction because forerunners are not the only runners.  Forerunners are the first runners.

Heb 2:10  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

It all started on earth with a little baby in a manger. From an earthly perspective, such a humble beginning, but we can see heaven’s perspective by the way the angels acted in front of the shepherds on the hillside outside Bethlehem that night.

Luk 2:13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,  Luk 2:14  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Heaven’s perspective of this gift was significantly different.  They were ALL rejoicing.  This was a big deal.  Think about what they said.  On earth…peace, good will toward men.  This means that before this, there was no peace.  Things were incomplete and broken.  Why? Because the definition of peace literally means “set at one again”.  Fully restored.  Nothing missing, nothing broken.

Take some time during this Christmas season to reflect on what this really means.  God said in Jeremiah 29:11 (God’s Word Translation)  I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.  The King James says it this way “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you…”  God’s thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace, wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken.  These are all reflected in the gift He gave to us – Jesus. God could not have given us more.  The gift reflects the thoughts.  That’s what God thinks of you.

From my family to yours,  Merry Christmas!

Art

Being A Man Of Love

To be a good man, you need to bring good things to the table. Think about it. In dating, you may have high standards for what you are looking for in a woman, and that’s okay. You need to make sure that you’re meeting your own requirements first though. You need to be a man of equally high value.  Why would you want to punish a woman for choosing you? You need to be a man worth having. To be worth having, you have to have a few things nailed down.

man-on-rocks-at-beach

Photo courtesy of stocksnap.io

All friendships and relationships destined to grow and become meaningful need to start out with courtesy and manners. If a person doesn’t lead off with courtesy and manners, they are immediately making the road ahead unnecessarily difficult before they even walk it.  While courtesy & manners are the basic minimum for any positive relationship to last, to have a truly meaningful and mutually fulfilling relationship, Godly love must become the center and the glue that holds all else together.  A good man will have manners and be courteous, but a good man will also be a man of love.

From the Bible, the Greek word for this love is:

ἀγάπη  agapē  ag-ah’-pay.  From G25 (Strong’s); love, that is, affection or benevolence; specifically (plural) a love feast: – (feast of) charity ([-ably]), dear, love.

In the Hebrew the word is:

חֵסֵד  chêsêd   kheh’-sed.   From H2616 (Strong’s); kindness; by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opprobrium) reproof, or (subjectively) beauty: – favour, good deed (-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity.

True love brings all sorts of other things with it. Things like respect, faithfulness, honesty, integrity & kindness & mercy.  To be a good man, you need to be a man of Love.

  1. Love God. Put Him first in your life. Make His path for your life your top priority. His path for you includes only good. His plan for you is the best possible life you could possibly have.
    Loving God means also allowing God’s love to flow through you. You allow yourself to be a conduit through which the Love of God can flow. God loves people through you. Therefore, you love people with the love of God.
  2. Love your wife. This applies to those who are already married.  If you are not but plan on it one day, listen up.  As a godly men, the Bible has shown us that we are to love our wives as Christ loved the Church. The very next sentence shows us how Christ loves the Church, He gave Himself for it (Eph 5:25-26). A husband shows love for his wife when he gives of himself to and for her. I also think it’s worth pointing out that when Jesus gave himself for the Church, he has never taken himself back. He will forever be our high priest. He will forever be our intercessor. He will never stop giving himself for us. If he ceased either one of these things, we would surely be lost.
  3. Love your brethren. Jesus said By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:35). He then said This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (John 15:12). While I think it’s important to walk in love toward those that are lost, Jesus specifically emphasized that the world would know that we are His disciples by the love we show one another. That’s a specific love to a specific group. Who? To the brethren. How? As I have loved you. How did he love us? John 15:13 says Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
  4. Love those that are without. One of the lawyers trying to trip Jesus up asked Him a question. Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Mat 22:36-40).  In this case, neighbor means near by.  The one physically close to you.  This is where we get the Golden Rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

When Jesus said that the greatest love is shown when a man lays down his life for his friends, It doesn’t necessarily just mean dying.  Your life is measured by time.  You can give your life by giving your time, and giving your time is a demonstration of love.  Paul the Apostle wrote to the Corinthian church & said “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.” (2 Cor 12:15).  Spending and being  spent are representing Paul’s resources, and Paul’s time.  He equates them both with abundantly loving the people of the Corinthian church.

I want to challenge you this week.  Could you use a tune up in the area of love?  Take some time this week and spend it on someone you want to show love to.  Make the time only about them.  I’d love to hear the results.

I appreciate you guys!

Art

 

Are you being authentic or just stupid?

One podcast I enjoy listening to is called Steal The Show with Michael Port. Most of the time, the format of the podcast is that Michael interviewing people that he believes will add value to his listener. Sometimes its just him speaking directly to the listener. In the last few episodes, Michael has touched on what it means to be authentic and quite honestly, he’s got me thinking.

The Bible says in Pro 18:2 A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

Barnes commentary on Prov 18:2 says this:  Another form of egotism. In “understanding,” i. e., self-knowledge, the “fool” finds no pleasure; but self-assertion, talking about himself and his own opinions, is his highest joy.

Chameleon

During Michael’s interview with Tucker Max, they discussed in depth about having different rolls for different situations. Tucker speaking quite candidly, said “I’ve always resisted the idea that we should have different rolls for different situations, but it’s kind of an immature, young person thing to do to say ‘No – I have one identity. I’m one person. I’m going to be the same everywhere. That’s the only way to be honest’. That’s that sort of idealistic, nonsense, young person stuff. Finally, I have come around to realize that having different social masks, identities, or rolls is not being fake.”

Michael responds with “To be called a chameleon is generally considered an insult, but a chameleon is adaptive. They are green when they are on a green leaf, they are red when on a red leaf, but they are never faking it. It’s actually part of who they are, and people have those abilities too.”

Michael later interviewed Mark Bowden. Mark is an expert at body language. He comes from an acting & performance background. Mark points out that at any given time, you feel multiple ways about what’s going on. It’s up to you to decide the most appropriate manner to display yourself. In this you are still being authentic, but you are also being wise.

Here’s a simple, personal example of what Mark talked about:

  • This is hard. It’s hard to write things week after week with very little engagement from readers. I don’t know if anyone is listening. I don’t know if it’s going anywhere. I don’t know if I’m really helping anyone. It’s hard to keep moving forward. I could be doing something more fun right now. I’m not sure it’s worth it.
  • This is awesome. I absolutely love doing this blog. I love making a difference in the lives of people. I am so grateful that God has given me this incredible opportunity. I’m making a difference in the lives of people. Even if it’s not today, maybe someone will read my stuff in the future and it will change their life. This is awesome. I have so much to say! I love helping people!

Right now, both of these thoughts exist in me. I have to decide which is appropriate for the situation and yield to that one. I am not betraying myself by shutting down thoughts that I have that don’t help me or move me forward.

It seems to me the idea that, in order to be authentic, we should only have one version of ourselves and force-fit that one version into all situations is a bit stupid.

To a certain extent, I expect to see this in younger people. They are still learning what is important. It breaks my heart to see it in people who are old enough to know better though. They are really hindering themselves. Here’s why.

When you hold to the idea that in order to be true to yourself and to be truly authentic, you must be the one version of YOU in all situation, you are requiring the people and the environment to meet you on your terms. You are requiring them to wrap around you – to serve you, your will, your way. We might call people like this High Maintenance. What they really are is selfish.

On the other hand, when you go into every situation with the idea that “I will be what the situation requires”, you are not being less authentic, you are being the version of you that cares about the people you’re with. You’re being more thoughtful, more compassionate, more helpful. You are people and situation focused instead of me focused. You are still being you, you are just being the better, more giving and caring version of who you really are.

So what do you think? Do you have a story about what it means to authentic? Please join the conversation in the comments.

Also, If this has helped you, please share.

Love you guys.

Art

Has your past defined your future?

What do you think of when you hear the word Authentic?

One show that I watch on a fairly regular basis is The Antiques Roadshow. On that show they talk a lot about authenticity. They often use the word Provenance.

While authenticity means real, or genuine, provenance means a record of ownership used as a guide to authenticity or quality. Provenance is a traceable past, and it can often determine the value of an antique.

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Michael Flanigan, a Baltimore dealer of antique American furniture, says “Provenance separates the special, almost sacred objects of the past from the ordinary ones.” On the PBS website, Michael describes provenance as an object’s “itinerary through time.”

In 1997 while the Antiques Roadshow was in San Francisco, a woman brought in a gold presentation cane that was given to a man named Enoch Gerdst by his fellow citizens of Stockton, CA on October 25, 1855. The cane was finely decorated and well documented. In addition to having this provenance, it was also well documented that the wooden part of this cane was made from wood taken from Independence Hall in Philadelphia after a remodel. The highly engraved metal cap of the cane was made from the bell that rang to signify the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The history was all there and documented.

Now I don’t know anything about the value of your average cane, so I googled pricing to find that you can get a pretty decent cane made of metal and wood online for about $70. We don’t know where that cane online came from. It’s one of thousands and it’s provenance is either unknown or unimportant. In contrast, the cane given to Enoch Gerdst is worth $30,000 today. (Read More here)

While authenticity and provenance are great ways to determine the value of objects, they seem to be terrible ways to determine the value of men.  When we use history to determine the potential of a young man, we may be putting limits on him that under neutral circumstances, he could easily surpass.

I’ve written before about how there are people from my past, who look down on anyone with my last name.  Or my former co-worker who, it seems, will forever see me as a 19 year old with a bad attitude.  (Read post here).

What’s even worse than the sentence that comes from without is the one that comes from within.  Many young people can’t see themselves ever being worth very much because their provenance is abuse, a broken home, or a missing father.

I remember being there. As a young man, I remember fighting for respect and spending so much time trying to craft an image that people would like.  I was just sure that if I didn’t work hard to get respect, that no value, respect or care would come. I felt like most people didn’t think I was worth anything.  Compared to the guys I went to school with, who’s dads owned their own businesses or were executives, I felt like I had no advantage.  I felt stuck.  There was nothing significant or special about me.

I learned that I didn’t have to be stuck!  I discovered that I was valued.  I learned that God loved me.  I learned that He wanted a relationship with me and wanted to help me. Jer 29:11 says – I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope. (Gods Word Translation).

It all began with a choice on my part.  (Find out more here).  An amazing thing happened when I did that.  God made me part of His family.  He changed my provenance.  I am now authentically accepted in the beloved.  He has become my Father and I have become His son.  I know the price that was paid for me.  Jesus laid down His very life.  I know, know, know that I have value and worth.

You don’t have to let your past determine your worth either.  You can make a change.  Just click this link to find out more.  (Find out more here).