With the new year upon us it might be helpful to ponder this maxim: the best way to predict the future is to create it.

Is there any chance you are trying too hard?

I’ve been feeling really exhausted; sorta the “I’m kinda worried about me” kind of exhausted. But suddenly things have changed:

#1. I cut back on my workouts. I’m doing three days a week, maybe four on a good week, but not trying to hit five days.

#2. I ate some of what I wanted. I actually had a big slab of lasagna on Tuesday evening, and a piece of cake last night. Meanwhile I’ve also focused a bit more on water intake, replacing a little carb with protein and adding some fruit.

#3. I awakened to the truth that the battles I’ve been fighting are not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual enemies (as Ephesians 6:12 says—that’s a series of blog posts in itself) and must be fought with spiritual weaponry, so I/we changed our approach to dealing with our problems.

The result? Well, I am sleeping better. When I got on the scale today I was down three pounds. I horsed a good workout this morning, and feel invigorated. My attitude at work has been superb.

My conclusion: I’d been trying too hard. Trying to push and exercise more. Trying to eat “by the law of the diet” instead of giving myself some grace but continuing to be wise. Trying to muscle-up against my problems. I just think I’ve been trying too hard.

How about you?

In baseball we teach a kid to “loosen his grip on the bat.” When he misses a pitch and hears the ump yell “Strike 1!” it creates tension, and the natural result of tension is for the hitter to tighten his grip on the bad—it’s the physical aspect of his mental resolve to hit the ball. And the result is—all too often—that the hitter becomes just a batter who got to hear “Strike 2!” and “Strike 3, yer out!”

The lessons are: Loose grip, gentle swing, just make contact with the ball, drink your water, eat your fruits and vegetables, reduce but don’t eliminate those starches you crave, and get your butt off the couch but don’t train like you’re going to be in the next Olympics (it’s the little 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, silly boy).

Is there any chance you are trying too hard?

I’ve been thinking much about young ministers lately. About their dreams, the abilities, their disabilities, the skills they have and lack. I can do this—I believe fairly—because I once was one.

One of the things that occurs to me is that (here come the rotten tomatoes) most ministers I know spin their wheels and don’t accomplish much. They generally have good intent, but feeble execution. Nothing in their training or their apprenticeship teaches them “how” to work effectively, and how to “accomplish” with all their doing. So they spend energy and create heat and friction, but, at the end of the day, the answer to the critical question of “Has the ball been moved forward for God” is often “No.”

I believe one of the reasons for this is ineffective use of their time. Again, nothing in ministerial training or apprenticeship teaches them how to maximize the output results from their efforts. In fact, the theological life cultivates a “have another cup of coffee and ponder and reflect some more, oops, wait, I’ve got lunch scheduled down at the coffee shop” kind of mentality. The effort is physically exhausting. Expending energy and not accomplishing much usually is. And it is mentally and emotionally draining as well. Therein lies a susceptibility to moral failure (sexual impropriety) that affects not only ministers, but rising professionals and executives of every stripe.

In the absence of a full, and meaningful schedule that is effectively accomplishing much, there can be too much idle time and too much discouragement. It’s in that idle time and feeling of ineffectiveness (impotence?) that the seeds of immorality germinate and sprout.

We all know the story of David—the chosen one of God; “a man after God’s own heart” the scripture says—and his dalliance with the likely alluring Bathsheba. What may be overlooked in the story where David was and what he wasn’t doing when this whole affair began. History records that David was strolling on the rooftop of his palace and his gaze innocently enough fell onto the naked bathing beauty during “the Springtime, when all the Kings had gone off to war.”

Wait! David was a King. Why wasn’t he at war?

We don’t know the answer. But the implication is that David was in a place if idleness and un-achievement during this most notable incident of moral failure. We can speculate that not being where he was supposed to be (with the other kings at war) was demoralizing to him, emotionally discouraging, and that he wasn’t experiencing fulfillment. That left him emotionally vulnerable.

Work is highly over-rated. Nobody much talks about achievement. But its the achievement and accomplishment that are satisfying and progressive for everyone who is depending on you, and achievement is the purpose of the work. The “forty vs. sixty” hour work week is irrelevant when compared to the larger issue of achievement. But I think most of us sacrifice our achievement by whoring around with the “validation” that comes from saying we worked long hours. Those long hours create an emptiness that haunts us when we consider our lack of achievement. We fill that emptiness with things that aren’t necessarily good for us, and are sometimes immoral.

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A Note to Ministers: I know you ministry types are reading this and likely feel like I’ve been “reading your mail.” If “achievement” matters and you want tools and teaching to help you “engage your transmission” so that all the energy your spending results in forward progress, respond to the blog using the link below. I’ll share some ideas privately. And, if enough respond, we’ll even gather a group of you and learn together. I care about you. You are good men and women tasked with important work. May God bless your efforts with the great satisfaction of progress.

And in those days, behold there came through the gates of the city, a salesman, from afar off. And it cam to pass, as the day went by he sold plenty.

And in that city were they that were order takers, and they that spent their days in adding to the alibi sheets. Mightily were they astonished. They said to one another, “What the, how doth he getteth away with it?” And it came to pass that many were gathered in the back office, and a soothsayer came along to see them. And he was one wise guy. And they spoke and questioned him saying: “How is it that this stranger accomplished the impossible?”

Whereupon the soothsayer made an answer: “He of whom you speak is one hustler. He ariseth very early in the morning and goeth forth full of pep, he complaineth not, neither doth he know dispair. He is arrayed in purple and fine linen, while ye go forth with pants unpressed. WHy ye gather here and say to the other ‘Verily, this is a terrible day to work,’ he is already abroad. And when the eleventh hour cometh, he needeth no alibis. He knoweth his line and they that would stave him off, they give him orders. Men say unto him “Nay” when he cometh in: yet when he goeth forth he hath their names on the line that is dotted. He taketh with him the two angels, Inspiration and Perspirations and worketh to beat hell. Verily, I say unto thee, ‘Go, and do likewise.'”

—Author Unknown

Attitudes produce Actions

Actions produce Achievements

Achievements increase Capability

Capability results in Accomplishment.

…….it all starts with your attitude.

Speaking of attitude, is yours like a diaper? Is it stinking up the place? Does it need to be changed?