A One Week Shadow

I have been thinking over the last few days about how great it would be to pick a handful of people who are successful at things that I want to be successful at, and figure out a way to spend a week with them learning what they do, and how they do it.

They say that you will be the same person one year from today except for the people you meet and the books that you read. Well, what if you did not only meet those people, but you followed them around for the week shadowing their daily routines, watching their methods, and learning all of the details that make them successful at what they do?

This is a new concept, and I am trying to sharpen my plans for this, but here are a few thoughts that I have already come up with:

Find people who are doing what you want to do.

What field are you interested in growing in? Find someone who is successful who will have time to share with you and contact them about the idea of shadowing them for a week.

Find someone who is successful without being a “Superstar”.

I would love to spend the week with men like Andy Stanley, Perry Noble, and Michael Hyatt but scheduling five minutes with these guys would be extremely difficult let alone a week. Instead find people who are on the same course of success without achieving a level of stardom.

Find someone who is passionate about investing into others.

Whether I am reading a blog or meeting a new contact, I am much more drawn to someone who is willing to invest in others, instead of investing into their own agendas. One day I hope to return that favor by taking what is invested into me, and use it to invest it into others.

Understand the Potential Burden

It is not easy for anyone to follow another person around for an entire week .  Make sure that you discuss with your investor what goals you have in regards to this experience. Make sure that you do everything possible to be an encouragement and a blessing to your investor as opposed to being a burden. Make them sad to see you leave, instead of happy that the time is finished.

Be Willing to Settle

You may not be able to seal the deal with a full week of time. Take what you can get, but I would recommend really trying to get at least two days. The reason for this would be generally it takes a day with someone to get past the initial “meet and greet” dialogue to the substance of daily routine. Also, the purpose of this shadowing is to learn routine, and other details that one may not mention in an initial dialogue. By spending a few days together many of these things will come up.

Understand the Purpose

You may wonder how in the world you could get that kind of time off to go on such an adventure. I would argue that taking a week to learn from someone more successful will more than pay for itself in the time that is invested into you. Many people may not be able to fit something like this into their schedule, but for those who can, it just might be an incredible asset.

Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 27:17

What are some other factors that you would recommend?

Who is someone that you would like to shadow for a week?

Great Service

I was reading a tweet the other day where someone asked the question: “Why is it that Chick-Fil-A is known for their service, and the church is not?” It made me think about it, but I was not reminded of that thought again until I met David today. Katie and I joined Pastor Rick and his wife Laura for lunch today for some Soup and Salad at the Olive Garden. Overall, it was a wonderful dining experience, but the best part was the service. I have been to the Port Charlotte Olive Garden many times, and the service has always ranged from barely acceptable to mediocre, until today. David was our server. He was absolutely great! David was versy professional, very courteous, and very efficient. The first thing that captured my attention about David was that when He walked over to our table, the very first thing that He said was a compliment about the waitress who had helped us just before He began to serve us. He made sure to point out what a big help that she was. I thought that was very impressive. David went on to take our order, bring our salad, soup, and bread sticks, all the while serving us with a great attitude. Honestly, I ate at the five star restaurant,  Five Sixty, by Wolfgang Puck, in Dallas, TX three weeks ago, and the service that we received today was just as much a “fine dining” experience. Our party was so impressed that we asked David how we could recognize him for his great service, and He said, “Just telling me is enough, you made my day”. We went on to fill out a comment card, but sadly, I doubt that David will receive the recognition that He deserves. Frankly, If more servers served like David, people would be far less likely to complain about the prices of the food, because service like that is worth it. Anyway, I put my blog address on the comment card, so that maybe David would have a change to come and read this post and be encouraged. David, if you do read this, thank you for great service and a wonderful experience. My wife and I both said that we wish that we could just request you as our server at whatever restaurant we decide to go to that day of the week. Thanks again for remarkable service. At the end of the meal, David forgot to bring my pregnant wife her small Ande’s chocolate mint candy, and before we knew it He brought us a whole cup full of mints to make up for it. Dave went the extra mile to serve his customers and I was so thankful for the opportunity to be served by him.

Now back to that first tweet. Here are a few quick lessons that we can learn from David on how to serve better. Whether in our church or at home.

1. Look for ways to build others up.

(Encouragement takes minimal effort and it goes a long way. You never know who is one encouraging word away from quitting, or simply giving up.)

2. Be Friendly, but get the job done.

(Have you ever had a server who was all about being friendly and not about getting your food? Have you ever had the opposite? We need to find the balance, and maintain friendliness and productivity. David mastered this!)

3. Some people will give you a hard time, just keep pressing on anyway.

(One table nearby kept sending David back and forth for softer bread or this or that, but He kept on keeping on without a negative attitude)

4. Don’t get distracted

(At one point during lunch there were actually a few servers getting into a little verbal scuffle. One server said to another: “stop acting like you are in High School, and start acting like you are at work” David wasn’t even phased by it, he would not allow himself to get involved with the drama going on all around Him)

5. If you make a mistake, fix it in a big way, and then move on.

(David handled that perfectly! My wife loved the extra chocolate… ok, I did too)  🙂

If the people in church would serve like this, we would see some amazing things happen. Don’t get me wrong, many servants are doing this, but what if we all did. It would change the dynamic of the entire church. Jesus was the greatest servant of all, and we should live to be known as great servants like Christ was.

Thanks David! If you are still reading this… come check out our church one day! Suncoast Baptist Church Our desire is to serve you and your family the way that you served us!

Avatar

Last night my wife and I and a few other people went to see the movie Avatar. I thought the movie was incredible in many facets, I thoroughly enjoyed the cinematography,the effects and creative genius was very entertaining. The new technology that was used was mind-blowing. I am very excited to see how that kind of technology will be used in future filming.

If that were all of my thoughts about the movie, then I would have to tell you that I loved it. But there were some things that I did not enjoy that I could not overlook.

First of all, what does it take to classify a movie as “R” rated anymore? Only blatant nudity and the “F “word? Here is what plugged in says about the Language alone: ” About a dozen s-words. Also, 10 misuses of God’s name (including six or seven pairings with “d‑‑n”) and three abuses of Jesus’ name. We hear roughly 20 other profanities (“h‑‑‑,” “a‑‑,” “b‑‑ch,” “b‑‑tard,” “p‑‑‑”) and three crude references to the male anatomy (“d‑‑k” among them).” It is extremely disheartening to see how standards continue to dwindle. Where do we draw a line? Seriously? Think about it… Where is your line??

Second, does anyone realize that the enemies in this movie are humans… people like you and me. We are the bad guys. The humanistic, environmentalist agenda in this movie is very disappointing. The moral presented is that if you are not a “tree hugger”, then you are a right-wing extremest that doesn’t care about life or the planet we live on. One quote about the movie said this:

“Humans, he (Jake Sully) angrily declares, have already wrecked their own planet through their greed. “There is no green” on their “dying world” because “they have killed their mother”. Now we land-raping humans plan to wreck Pandora, too, with our “shock-and-awe” bombings, our war on “terror” and our genocidal plans to destroy the Na’vi and steal their lands. So complete is Cameron’s disgust with humans – and so convinced he is that his audience shares it – that he’s made film history: he’s created the first mass-market movie about a war between aliens and humans in which we’re actually meant to barrack for the aliens.”

Some people have said, Come on, it is fiction. Oh yeah, well if it is only fiction, then keep the agenda out of it. Listen to this audio clip from plugged in, where the director himself explains the message that he was trying to convey through this movie.

https://leetomlin.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/avatar-plugged-in1.mp3

also there is an incredible article about Avatar at this link:

The Herald Sun

I wish that there really was a planet called Pandora where we could send all of these Hollywood, Humanistic agenda pushers 🙂  Now that would make a good movie!

Learn to Discern!

What is an RSS Feed?

Although RSS stands for “REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION”, it seems like there is nothing simple about it, at first. But I want to take just a second and explain it to you very basically. This will not be a thorough explanation, mainly because I don’t know a thorough explanation, but I will share with you why RSS Feeds are important and how you can get set up with one right now.

 

Every morning, I can walk outside and get the newspaper that has been freshly printed and freshly delivered to my house. It is really simple, I just walk outside and get it. A RSS Feed is basically the same thing: It is a delivery system for your favorite blogs.

Whether you read family blogs, friend blogs, mentor blogs, waste of time blogs, or any other kind of blog, through the RSS Feed system you can go to one place (whether it be your iPhone, your Kindle, or your google home page) every day to read all of those blogs, where they have been freshly delivered to you.

It is not necessary if you do not read blogs, but if you have more than two blogs that you find yourself checking a few times a week, it will save you a little bit of time to subscribe to their RSS Feed, so intead of you going to someones blog, their blog comes to you.

I am a huge fan of several different blogs, and every day I go on my iPhone to my Free RSS Reader app where I have 22 different blogs delivered to me daily (or whenever they are posted). Some of my favorites are: Perry Noble, Steven Furtick, Deadly Viper Blog, Greg Peters Live, Brad Cooper, Ben Jennings Blog, Lifechurch.tv, and The Batterson Blog

Well, if you have any other questions then I recommend Wiki or Google

Look to the right of my blog and you will see other RSS feeds that you can subscribe to, and don’t forget to click on that RSS Symbol at the top of this page 🙂