I started to have some weird heart palpitations (Palpitations are characterized as a general or heightened awareness of your own heartbeat – whether it’s too fast, too slow, or otherwise irregular. You might feel like your heart is thumping, racing, or fluttering.) over the last 6 months that have been a little alarming, so I decided to get back to consistently running. I have been running consistently in September and October. Generally 6 miles per run, three days a week. This allows plenty of time for listening, learning and thinking. Let me share some of my running reflections just from today.
Running through the pain:
It hurt! My running pain was a little more intense today and it lasted a little longer than normal. By the time I was 15 minutes into my first run, all the pain was gone, but, wow. I almost talked myself into a shorter run today.
Dump trucks and construction:
I love running into Panther Creek across the street from my subdivision where they are building hundreds of new homes. It is incredible to see the progress on the homes each week. It is also incredible to see several homes at each stage of the process of being built. It is amazing that those construction guys are often on the job from sun up to sun down. Before I know it, there will be families in each one of these homes, and I will be dodging the cars leaving for an early head start to school and work. For now, I am just dodging the dump trucks and the work vans. I have noticed that it seems harder to breath when I run behind a slow moving dump truck. Something about those exhaust fumes do not fuel the body to run!
Podcasts today:
The Ron Edmondson Leadership Podcast #61 This was my favorite podcast of the day! He went through the goals of systems and structures. This is so valuable when leading an organization or a ministry. Here are the five goals that Ron shares. Good systems and structures will:
EMPOWER / COMMUNICATE / ACCOUNTABILITY / SCALABILITY / PROTECTION
Bonus: CHANGEABLE
I had so many direct applications for how I can implement these leadership principles within my context. I want to better empower those around me to lead on their own. I want to communicate well. I want to provide healthy accountability. I want to share what works by making our systems scalable. I want to make sure that our systems protect the overall vision of what we do each day. So many great things from this podcast.
I also listened to a great podcast by Brad Lomenick – H3 Leadership #122 who interviewed Tara-Leigh Cobble about her Bible Recap Project. I loved her passion for helping people get in the word. She was also very transparent about the seasons that she has gone through where she didn’t even want to read the Bible and that was very helpful. Her solutions were simple, read in community and always make sure you are understanding what you are reading. Also, set manageable goals. You can read the whole Bible in a year with just 12 minutes of reading each day.
Finally, I listened to Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast #525 as he interviewed Chad Veach about residual issues of covid in areas of church membership retention, the great resignation, and the lower commitment from former core members and volunteers. It was pretty interesting. I will have to listen to the rest on my run on Friday.
Three great podcasts, with so many great ideas. Final thought from the run, Tara-Leigh talked about discipleship. She explained that disciple simply means one who is learning. We are all to constantly be learning. These are a few things that I learned this morning. What are you learning today? Thanks for reading!
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