I read a great post tonight on my wife’s blog entitled “Why I blog.” My wife, Marixa, is very passionate about living on purpose. She has a great passion for family and babies and birth. I love her perspective. I love her passion for living. I love her. Very much.

She said something that stuck with me. The following is an excerpt from her post (you can read the full post on her site):

That’s what I want this blog to be about. I want to challenge your thinking on subjects. I want you to think about your view or opinion on a subject and make sure you have thoroughly thought it through. Changing your mind is not my goal. It’s showing you a different perspective or new info so you can be sure of your stance on the subject.

This is one of the reasons I blog as well. I want to wrestle through tough subjects and hopefully have anyone who reads join me in the conversation. That is what blogging is: adding your voice to the conversation that is already going on. We take the time to write out and explain a subject from our viewpoint. Those who read can take that information and do with it what they will. Hopefully the reader is enlightened in some way. I know I am enlightened every time I post because I have had to wrestle through my thoughts on a subject and deliver them in a format that makes sense.

Seth Godin and Tom Peters have a great video on YouTube about why they choose to blog:

Why do I blog? It lets me join in conversations that are important to me. It makes me think through what I believe and what I want to say. It gives me an avenue to impact people with my words, and I am grateful that through the process of blogging I am impacted as well.

I have been a goal setter for years. Ok. Wait. I have been a wish setter. I call them goals, but most of the time I write down things I would like to do/have and then I close the book I have written them and I go on about my life. Then, months later, I find the book I wrote them in and think badly of myself because I haven’t accomplished any of my goals. The truth is I did some wishing on paper, but not much more.

Thankfully this is/has changed. Over the last couple of years I have accomplished a few goals. I have kept them in front of me. I have worked on them progressively. I have seen them accomplished. For instance, at one point in my life I weighed in the mid 260’s (my heaviest was 281). I decided early last year that I was going to make a change. I made it down to 220. Goal set. Goal achieved, mostly. I am up about 20 pounds now, but I am also in much better shape and still happy with the way I look and feel.

I recently read Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. It is an awesome read about the adventure of pursing a relationship with God. On his website he has a 8 page goal setting acticle that really brought goal setting into perspective for me. Goal setting is about looking far into the future and laying out a path for yourself that will get you to the future you have envisioned. Just like a master chess player you think about what you want the board to look like 20 moves ahead. In this way all of the goals that you set form a path. The path leads you to the person that you want to be.

I turned a year older yesterday. I have thought much about where I have been and where I want to go. I have thought much about the path that is in front of me, wondering if it will lead me anywhere good. And I remember, God knows the plans that he has for me. They are plans to prosper me and not harm me. He wants to to give me hope and a future. I trust that.

So, I prayerfully set my goals. There are many things that I have written down that I want to accomplish. They are in front of me. They are a map. They are not set in stone and can change, but that is the fun of the journey. I choose to chase them with all I am. I am excited to see where I end up.

How about you? Do you set goals? Do you have a list yet to be accomplished? Care to join me in the chase?

Once upon a time in my life I had a job I hated. We can all relate I am sure. One of the functions of this job was to run the errands for the office. My official title was Office Manager. My actual title could have been Office Gopher. So, I made a point to run my errands in such a way that I got to go by places or see things that gave me hope. One day I inadvertently found an oasis.

I was trying to get to a Bank of America branch. I had a large amount of coins that I had to deposit for the business owner (So he could put them in his granddaughter’s savings account. It had nothing to do with the business). The drive through would not take the large coin bag and I had to go to the nearest walk in branch. It is in a downtown office building that is made of glass. Inside the building are several businesses spread over 10 stories of building. The first floor of the building has a large water feature. When you walk in the building it is the first and loudest thing you hear. It was like white noise blocking out the frustration I felt inside. There is a cafe across from the water feature. I didn’t care if it took me an extra 20 minutes to get back to work. I bought a cup of coffee and sat and listened to the water. It was a healing place.

The office I worked in was one the most unprofessional places you could imagine. From the barrage of foul language to the owner’s love of smoking cigars in an open office, I could not see any hope some days. My self worth was plummeting. Somthing changed inside when I found the oasis. I was reminded that there was a much bigger world. One that was professional (and didn’t smell bad). Every time I went I watched the people around me. They were sharply dressed. They looked like they had a purpose about them. It was an amazing encouragement. I started to believe that I could be like that.

Do you have an oasis? Is there a place you go to gain perspective? Does it help you find focus?

I went back a couple of days ago. It had been a while. I am since in a job where I feel like those people I described before. I have worked hard. I have gained respect. I feel like the work I do matters. I needed the oasis for a different reason this time. I have dreams and goals I am working towards now. Personal and professional. Life gets so busy sometimes it is hard to find a quiet moment to think. So, I went back. The oasis I needed was still there, even though I needed it for a different reason. After a few minutes listening to the water and surrounded by the people the thoughts began to flow.

If you feel stuck, I encourage you to find your own oasis. Even if it is just 40 minutes in the middle of an average day, it will do wonders for your soul.

I found this out the hard way the other day. I already knew it, but I got a fresh reminder all the same. We are potty training our son. He gladly gets up to do his thing, but usually wants to play one of his favorite applications on one of our iPhones when he does. I guess he was sitting different this time. One second he was playing his Grover game (of Sesame Street fame) and the next my phone was dropped into the toilet.

I was standing in with him when this happened. Thankfully. I had the phone out in a couple of seconds and then…the screen went black. I was certain the phone was ruined. I went from zero to frustrated in as long as it took to drop the iPhone in the water. (Note, I was not frustrated with my son over this. He is two and he had no intentions of doing what he did. Complete accident.) My frustration came from the fact that replacing an iPhone that is under contract before the renewal is an expensive ordeal…especially if the iPhone is out of warranty. (Water voids the warranty regardless, but if it is still within the warranty time the Apple Store Genius Bar will replace the iPhone 3G for $200.) My phone was out of warranty. This was not going to be cheap.

It is sad to say that I am as addicted to my smart phone as I am. I realized over the next day that I spend way too much time on the thing. I use it for valid reasons, but my emotions were too tied up with it. So much so that I was considering laying the money down for a new phone that afternoon. I went to the AT&T store. I asked for the early upgrade prices for the new iPhone 4 (I have the 3GS.) I swallowed my tongue when told the price. After recovering I asked the price on an upgrade to another 3GS. I fought back swallowing it again. The cheapest I was going to get out was $300 and that was for a smaller sized model. In the back of my mind I had the thought, “man, I never knew potty training would be this expensive.” I asked the associate if the phones were in stock. He said no and that it would take 5-7 days to receive a new phone.

Again, I am way too plugged into the stream of information. My mind went numb to the idea of having to spend 5 days without my iPhone. (Oh, the horror!) To my credit, I thanked him and walked out….and went straight to Best Buy to see if they had any in stock. Same deal. They did not. Thankfully.

An hour had passed since the phone dropped in the water. I had been able to get it back up to a degree (not recommended, I was a moron for trying to turn it back on with water still in it), but it was doing very funny things and the water damage sensor was on in the upper left corner of the phone. I turned it back off and started thinking. I had an old spare cell phone at the house. It is not like I wouldn’t have a phone. I started to calm. Then, I did something else that should have come to my mind much sooner. I prayed. It seemed silly, but I know God loves me. So, I asked Him to fix my phone. I turned the power on again and it powered up. The screen had some lines going through it, but it wasn’t black anymore. Progress is progress.

Again, I have fried an iPhone in the water before. If you get water on the motherboard they can go out in a flash and never come back. There seemed to be some hope and I had found some peace, so I got home, pulled the sim card, and threw it in a bag of rice. A day later the phone worked without a hitch. God had answered my prayer. I am left on the other side with a few lessons to ponder.

When do I need to use my smart phone? Why do I need to use it? Why did I feel the angst deep inside for not having it with me? My wife gave me a hug and a good reminder…”It is just stuff,” she said. “It will be all right.” She was right. It was not worth getting as upset over it as I did. It was replaceable. Not cheap, but replaceable. It was nice to have something drastic to help me put this issue back into a healthy perspective.

I watched Meet the Robinsons for the umpteenth time this evening. It is a great Walt Disney movie for kids. My son loves it. I really enjoy it as well. There was a quote at the very end of the movie from Walt Disney himself that is too good not to share:

Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

If you have a dream, keep moving forward. Learn from the failures, but don’t focus on them for long. Success is waiting to be found.