My Simple Community

August 26, 2010

Every day you do things unconsciously or as part of your routine that advance simple community. Those activities maintain community. Simple community grows when we consciously decided to do more.

The thing with “conscious” activities is that they can feel like work because you think to do them, make a decision, and then do them. So you are aware of the effort. 

I would like to suggest the conscious efforts are the real game changers. When we do good things intentionally our actions just plain mean more. They can also be more focused on things that really need to be done. Knowing conscious acts might be better, however, does nothing to make them feel any less like work. So here’s something that might help.

Think about the times someone has done something out of the ordinary and intentionally to be nice to you without your having asked them to do it. Think of what that action produced in your life and ask yourself if it was worth that person’s effort to intentionally do it.

Knowing how valuable it was to be on the receiving end of intentional kindness should make it easier to muster up the motivation and energy to do it yourself. 

May 20, 2010

“Our character is not judged by our best performance, but by our best performance in our worst of times and conditions.”

I hate to admit when I am not operating at 100% and have no good reason for it. But I know the reason. It’s because I am human. For the record, I don’t have many times when I am challenged to move ahead with vigor. I think I live most of my life with a lot of energy. So in the moments when I feel stuck in peanut butter it’s good to admit it  - and find a good piece of toast!

I know every challenge is handled not by leaps and bounds but by thousands of small steps. I also realize we can never know in advance which specific steps were pivotal in the outcome of our actions. But I suspect this much.  My few steps in the peanut butter tend to be more important to the outcome than the hundreds or thousands taken with ease.

Anyone can perform at their best on their best day. And I have been fortunate to have many more better than worse days. Many are less fortunate. Regardless, I believe that what we do – ANYTHING we do – during the worst of our times contributes far more than what we do at our best. I have learned far more from failure than success and from hardship than from ease.

Songwriter Barry McGuire said it well in the 1970s:

“I walked a mile with pleasure, she chattered all the way

“Leaving me none the wiser with all she had to say.

“I walked a mile with sorrow, and never a word said she

“But oh, the things I learned from her, when sorrow walked with me.”

EVERY step counts!

Keep moving.

May 18, 2010

“Being alone is just like being in darkness.  In both cases nobody can see what you are doing and it’s hard for you to see for yourself.”

I understand the number one predictor of successfully continuing to work out or exercise is to do it with somebody else.  I believe it. That are lots of things we know we should do but, for whatever reason, we don’t.  Honesty would say that many times we just don’t want to. And the reasons for not wanting to can be many – I’m tired, I’m frustrated, I don’t get it, it’s too hard, I will never finish… and on and on. 

I am there right now with community.  I KNOW it’s a good and right thing to do.  I KNOW the approach I am using is the right one, it will work.  But I also know everyone else is facing just as many, if not more, things they are tired of, frustrated by, don’t get… and all of that is eating up their time and energy.

In the end, nobody has time for your passion… but you.

So today I hit one of those walls.  I knew just what to do.  I can do it.  But something in me just didn’t want to.  It reminded me of a dear friend who has his long list of things and I know him to be stuck from time to time too.  So I called him - not to help with mine, nor for me to help him with his - but to commit to be “workout buddies” under the notion if we workout our individual goals in sight of each other we might see the light.

I’ll get back to you on this.