Myers Park UMC Youth Praise Band! How did this happen when I couldn’t even play last year?
Here’s a blog series to inspire you to accomplish your goals in 2019 by offering “no excuse”, creative ideas on how to combine your loves (or things on your ‘To Do’ list) and become hyper-productive!
My New Year’s resolutions last year were to get good at guitar and learn Spanish. Guitar was ok…meaning I could pluck out a few chords and get through a 3-4 chord worship song with youth, but it was kind of rough. Spanish was no bueno, and that was no bueno for our yearly mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico. But I will save that discussion for next week. Let me tell you about my mid-life crisis. I am pretty proud of it. In fact the conversation went like this:
Me: “Honey, I’ve got great news!”
WW (Wonderful Wife): “Great…can’t wait. (Here he goes again).”
Me: “I’ve figured out my mid-life crisis.”
WW: “Oh, this should be good.”
Me: “And what’s really great is we won’t go broke. I am not going to cheat on you, or buy a Corvette, or be in denial about my bald head.”
WW just blinks and stares.
Me: “It’s the guitar. I want to get really good at guitar. What do you think?”
My wonderful wife is super-musical and has been incredibly supportive. A side life lesson in this post is how taking on new challenges at 45 (or any age) is a really healthy thing to do. I want to constantly change, grow, and evolve. That won’t happen without action, frustrations, hard work and just never quitting.
One Saturday morning, I wanted to sit on the couch and just play my guitar. But I also wanted to train, be present with my family, and get chores done. The plan was to play a song, do a set of push-ups, and do one chore. I set a fitness goal of 300 push-ups. The set was only as long as the quality of each rep remained perfect. I started with a couple of sets of 25 then moved to 15, and sets of 10 for the last hundred reps or so, until I reached the goal. Over the 2 hour morning, I played worship standards like Your Love Never Fails and One Thing Remains; along with some Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Lord Huron, and Radiohead. I also helped clean the kitchen, folded laundry, and danced with my daughter.
You might be saying, “Ok, you were just multi-tasking, I do that everyday.” Maybe so, but there were specific goals stated and achieved. By keeping the workout simple – one exercise with a big number to achieve over a few hours, I knew it would be tough, but I could get it done. Also, by combining a complex exercise with a fun activity (guitar) and an un-fun activity (chores), your energy for both gets revved up! Seriously…dishes, laundry, and cleaning are not that bad when you know in one minute you can be jamming a song or doing more push-ups.
Two hours later I felt amazing! I had accomplished a full days activities and still had the rest of the day to do more! I remember that Saturday as a turning point in my playing and an “ah-ha” moment of how to combine my loves and get things done! Let me know your thoughts…have you been able to combine some tasks and get similar results?
Live with Strength!
Jason
