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Month: March 2021

12 Week Year – Reflections

Published by on March 31, 2021

A few years ago I read The 12 Week Year, by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington. At the time, I picked up some good tips, but I didn’t take it farther than that. Towards the end of 2020 I heard Brian Moran interviewed on a podcast, and I decided to pick the book back up. Better still, I decided to put the system into practice.

If you’re not familiar with this book, the idea is that while having annual goals is better than having no goals at all, there are some real drawbacks with annual goals. We all know the feeling of setting annual goals in January, yet not feeling any real urgency since we have so far until the end of the year. It’s why in the fourth quarter we actually get a lot of stuff done. The 12 Week Year isn’t simply quarterly goals. It’s treating those 12 weeks as a year, with goals, strategies, and celebrations. As the authors say, “Twelve weeks is long enough to get things done, and yet is short enough to create and maintain a sense of urgency.”

This made a lot of sense to me, so I decided to give it a try. I set a few goals, some dealing with work and some with self-care. The two self-care goals were to read ten books and to do 48 sessions of cardio. I’m happy to report that I exceeded both of these goals. I track my reading with Goodreads, and last night I finished my fifteenth book. I set up a spreadsheet to record my cardio, and yesterday I recorded my 53rd session. The majority of these sessions was spent on a treadmill, though lately it’s been more bike riding or outdoor walks/hikes.

My other set of goals dealt with my work. I came into 2021 with several construction projects that had just begun. The first goal was to have 1176 Sledge Ave finished and on the market. I’m going to miss that goal by a week or two, but it’s mainly because we ended up doing more to the house than we first thought, which simply means a longer renovation period. The second goal was to be finished with our new construction project at 909 N. Avalon St. I underestimated this badly. We’re probably six weeks away from that being finished. This meant that my third goal, beginning construction on our second build, also did not happen. New construction is a brand new thing for us, so those were both overly optimistic goals. No harm, no foul. The last goal was to have 1195 Dorothy Pl under contract. That happened. I also bought and then sold another house during this time, and listed and got under contract a project we did a year ago, so all in all I’m happy with where I landed at the end of the 12 Week Year.

The last goal I had falls somewhere between self-care and work. It’s blogging. I set a goal of one post per week. This is my tenth post, so I fell short just a bit. Writing is something that I want to get back in the habit of doing, and while I have enjoyed blogging these last few months, I am definitely still trying to find my rhythm.

Now for some reflections…

  1. With both of the self-care goals, the key was setting the goal, but then also having an easy way to track it. I’m going to continue tracking my cardio activity, but with the weather as awesome as it is, I will most likely set a little higher goal for this next 12 Week Year. And with reading, I’m inspired to set an overall 2021 goal of averaging a book per week. I’ve never done that, but I think it’s very possible. Goodreads has been a huge help with this.
  2. I think the reading goal and the blogging goal can actually shape one another. It’s one thing to read a lot of great books. It’s another thing to take the time capture key ideas and reflections. I’m not always as good at that, but it’s something I want to get better at. For this next 12 Week Year I’m going to write some blog posts on key takeaways from some of these books.
  3. The new construction part of my business is way more passive than the renovation part. The reason is that we hire a builder to do everything. It’s actually pretty fantastic. My goal for this first 12 Week Year should have been to implement systems for the builds moving forward. That is a goal that I was able to accomplish. We spent time getting set up with the vendors that our builder uses. We selected products for this build that we will no doubt use for future builds. This will allow the next projects to be even more passive than the first one.
  4. I did not set any goals with my client business because I wasn’t sure what goals to set. That was a mistake. The goal I will set for this next 12 Week Year will have to do with the number of touch points I make each week with clients and friends. I’m really looking forward to making and accomplishing this goal.
  5. Finally, with a new 12 Week Year right around the corner, I’m able to start afresh without waiting until the end of 2021. That’s genius. I get to celebrate my successes and reevaluate my misses.

Formative Books – Spirituality

Published by on March 4, 2021

It’s fun to go back in time and reflect on the books that have shaped me most through the years. Like the previous post, this list is in the order of when I first encountered them. I must say at the start that this was a difficult list to settle on. Being that much of my adult career was in vocational ministry, reading books on spirituality was part of my job. And so I’ve read a lot of great books during that time.

I also want to point out the fact that I’m aware that all but two of these books were written by white men. When I recognized that, there was a part of me that didn’t want to write this blog post, both because I felt a bit of shame because of that, but also because I feared being judged by others. I guess I got over that. I share this post in part because I can’t change my past. Each of these authors impacted me in profound ways. I’m so glad that I read each one of these books. I do wish that my exposure had been broader, and I know that this hope can impact how I move forward with my reading.

First up is No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green, by Melody Green. I first read this book in high school, and for the next few years, I would share this as my favorite book whenever I was asked. If you’re unfamiliar with Keith Green, he was an uber talented musician who was also a very passionate follower of Jesus. He, along with two of his children, tragically died in an airplane crash. It was his passion that caused me to see the Christianity that I had grown up with in a new light.

After college I had the privilege of helping to start a new church in Nashville. A little over a year in, Mandy and I got married, and it was such a wonderful community for us to begin our marriage in. We were a part of a small group there, and The Life You’ve Always Wanted, by John Ortberg, was one of the books that we read together. As you can see, the subtitle is “Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People.” At the time, I didn’t know much about spiritual disciplines, but I certainly didn’t think they were for ordinary people. This book not only opened me up to spiritual disciplines, but it also gave the opportunity to practice these together as a community.

The Silas Diary, by Gene Edwards, is the first of five books that tells the story of the early church. There’s a lot of reading between the lines in these books, but these books changed the way I thought about the Bible. I read these during my final months in Nashville before we moved to the bay area so that I could go to seminary. It was an exciting time of dreaming, and these books helped to shape those dreams.

Today, when someone asks me what my favorite book is, without hesitation I say The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard. I’m not alone in this. This book opened me up to Jesus and his kingdom in a way that few other books have. Willard isn’t the easiest author to read, but the reward is well worth the effort. I’ve read just about all of his books, and all are excellent.

I was first exposed to John Perkins through CCDA, when my friend Ryan and I went to New Orleans for their annual conference. When I got back I bought Let Justice Roll Down, which is John Perkins’ autobiography. I knew the history of injustice that African Americans had faced, and I knew a bit about the Civil Rights Movement. But this book caused me to see it in a new way. Perkins grew up and lived much of his life in the Jackson, MS area. This isn’t too far from where I was born. I still remember that what hit me so hard reading this book was realizing that some of the unjust treatment that he faced happened after I was born. It wasn’t simply something that had happened long ago. It was still happening. That changed the way I thought about race relations and injustice.

The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning, is one of the most beautiful books that I’ve ever read. The subtitle is “Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out”, and good news it truly is. It’s probably the book I recommend most to those who are interested in coming back to the faith that they grew up with but later rejected.

Mandy and I listened to Walking with God, by John Eldredge, on a road trip to Florida almost thirteen years ago. It wasn’t so much that it was new material, but it couldn’t have been more timely. I was in the middle of a challenging time in my life, and I really needed to hear these words. And what were those words? That God’s desire is for us to be near him and to be able to talk to him. Come to think of it, I need those words today as well!

Some of my buddies like to say that I have a man crush on Mark Sayers, author of The Road Trip that Changed the World. I think they’re right. I’ve read everything that Sayers has written. This was the first, and it’s still my favorite. Sayers has a way of bringing God, culture and history together in a way that I’ve seen few other authors accomplish. I highly recommend his work.

In Christianity, the crucifixion of Jesus is central to our faith. But there are so many theories on what happened, and why it’s important. N.T. Wright’s book, The Day the Revolution Began, has helped me the most in understanding the significance of this moment.

In May, 2018, I kicked off my three month sabbatical with a silent retreat at Our Lady Queen of Peace retreat center. On the first day I was perusing the library, and I came across Everything Belongs, by Richard Rohr. At the time I had heard of Rohr but had never read anything by him. By the next morning I had finished it. This was another one of those very timely books. I couldn’t put it down, and I took pages of notes on it. I highly recommend it as well as silent retreats.

I hope those of you reading this find one or two books to add to your reading list. Reflecting on this makes me want to reread quite a few of them.