All Around Growth — reflections on faith, freedom, and finding purpose through Orthodox Christian living, formation, and the long work of becoming. Earlier episodes available to supporters.
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The first 60 minutes of each day will set the stage for watt that they will hold. Be very careful how you start your day. In those first few minutes you’re planting the seeds for your effectiveness, influence, health, and spiritual vitality for that day. If you get up late, grab a cup of coffee and a Twinkie, rush to work fighting the idiots in traffic, and drop down exhausted at your desk 10 minutes late, you have just set the tone for everything that will happen that day. Every task will seem like pressure and your best efforts will be greatly diluted.
Join Rob as he returns to the road on this throwback episode to wrap up the week!
Well, hello there, and welcome back to another episode of the All Around Growth Podcast. My name is Rob Kaiser, and I am your host. Today is Friday, July 22nd, 2022, and this is episode number 384 of a show that provides insight and tools to build the life and homestead of your dreams. And as you heard from the ignition of The Truck, we are on the road again with an episode today that's going to harken back to the days of the past with an episode that brings us back to the rudder of the day. And what is the rudder of the day? It's the first 60 minutes. And the first 60 minutes of each day will set the stage for what that day will hold. Be very careful how you start your day. In those first few minutes, you are planting the seeds for your effectiveness and influence and health and spiritual vitality for that day. If you get up late, grab a cup of coffee and a Twinkie, rush to work fighting the idiots in traffic, and drop down exhausted at your desk ten minutes late. You have just set the tone for what that day will hold. Every task will seem like pressure, and your best efforts will be greatly diluted. You can change that by reading from Rudder of the Day, which is what I'm going to read from today. The title of today's Reading is a Man with a Toothache. Meaning simply that the attention demanded by the toothache doesn't allow that person to notice anything other than his pain. In working with people going through job change, I often find Freud's principle to be confirmed. I see grown men ignoring their wives, hiding out to avoid seeing their friends, watching too much TV and eating foods that blunt their minds. I see women embarrassed about yet another layoff, stop going to church, spend money they do not have, read romance novels rather than inspirational material, and snap at their kids when asked an innocent question. The pain of the job loss seems to mask the health, vitality, and success they have in their other life areas. Quote Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. Yes, Elliot. Yes, the crisis will scream for our undivided attention. However, diverting your focus may be in fact part of the solution. A couple of years ago, I worked with a young man who had just lost 3.2 million in a business deal. He was totally in the tank financially and in his career. But rather than fretting about that, I prescribed that he would go to the YMCA each morning for two hours. His intense focus there initiated the vitality and creativity that allowed him to quickly spring back to success financially as well. Going through an unexpected or unwelcome change in your life provides a great opportunity to take a fresh look at success in other areas. Make additional deposits of success in your physical well-being. The energy and creativity that can come from a sharp mind and body can generate the very ideas you need at this time. Organize a potluck with a group of your friends. You'll be surprised how many of them are going through a similar experience. And providing one dish will cost you no more than eating your own meal. Pick up a great book to read. If you read only 10 minutes a day, you can read a new book a month. And that can transform your insight and preparation for new options. Stay connected spiritually. You'll realize that in the scope of eternity, this new event is probably a tiny spot on the timeline. Quote: What a new face courage puts on everything, close quote. Ralph Waldo Emerson. And before we ask ourselves a couple questions and provide some direction for today, we're gonna take a quote from the Bible from Psalm 58, verses 6 through 8. Break the teeth in their mouths, oh God. Tear out, oh Lord, the fangs of the lions. Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted. Like a slug melting away as it moves along, like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun. What is the truth in your life that is demanding your undivided attention? And how can you continue being successful in other areas of your life? Alright, those are a couple good questions to ask, but as we hit the road, I'm going to reflect back on this reading. And the reason I chose this reading today is because it is one that has been bookmarked and dog-eared by me and read time, time again. A man with a toothache cannot be in love. That's a simple kind of statement. But basically, what we're looking at here is the attention demanded by that toothache doesn't allow the person to notice anything other than his pain. And that we go through some sort of experience in life, some sort of big transition, say the loss of a job for whatever reason, or the death of a loved one, or the death of a pet, or I don't know. You know, any kind of big thing where something has been a part of your life for more than several years, and suddenly that thing no longer is. So what do we do? Well, you know, a lot of people, like Dan wrote, end up hiding out to avoid seeing their friends, watching too much TV and eating foods that blunt their minds, or drinking beverages that, you know, also blunt their minds, or smoking things that blunt their minds. Whatever. It's a failure to address the root cause. And the focusing on, you know, the pain of that one aspect of our life, which undoubtedly was tied into many aspects of our life, does indeed mask other areas of our life. And you know, we read that Dan prescribed this individual who lost 3.2 million in a business deal to go to the YMCA for two hours each morning. Now, personally, I I have experienced some transition recently. Uh not quite to the tune of three point two million dollars in a business deal, but it's definitely something that's got me rethinking how I go about living this life, and you know, why I do the things that I do, then that is the loss of my job, and that's voluntarily. I've walked away participating in the great resignation because of the simple fact that I had taken steps in my life to prepare myself financially to move forward from a job where I quite frankly didn't feel respected and as though we were on the same page moving forward with the direction of the company. So I I don't know, I chose to move on, you know that and our own family business is blossoming and none of us are getting any younger, so you know a combination of all of these things led to the point where enough is enough. It's time to make some change. And for a couple of weeks, you know, I feel like I did the same thing. Diverting my focus was indeed part of the solution. I found myself engaging in some side work, doing some really physically laborious work for a couple of weeks, in addition to eating healthy and stretching and you know, so for a couple of weeks it was getting exercise, you know, just just just being healthy and distracting myself from the challenge. But that also, you know, being it in well, like we read, the intense focus there initiated the vitality and creativity that allowed him to quickly spring back to success financially as well. And I feel like that served as a springboard to get to where we are today. My oh my, what a beautiful sunrise, guys. As I drive up this uh road 83 to eventually get to a point where I can grab a cup of coffee before I continue on the path to my brothers, and that's where I'll conclude the podcast. I have a wonderful view of the sunrise. Heading northbound on Highway 83, State Route 83, if you're curious, right near Grafton, looking eastward over the fields, crop fields. But you know, so transition can be a good thing, but we need to know how to address the transitory phases in our life. And this book, Rudder of the Day, with these little vignettes, is a great way to help change our perspective. You know, we read about the wife reading romance novels and so on and so forth. Well, this is some of the inspirational material that we can read instead of romance novels. The 48 Days Eagles community is a great place to spend your time on a computer in a social media atmosphere instead of watching whatever you want to watch on the computer, wasting your time and blunting your mind. We have options, we have choices, and I think that when we experience some transition, that we do some things to divert our focus, because oftentimes those things serve as a springboard into the next chapter of our life, but we've always gotta have a plan as well, because we never know when this change might might happen. Sometimes it might happen sooner than you think, and oftentimes it does. Another reason to have goals. So I'll link to the 2022 goal setting workbook in the show notes as well. And it may take me a while to update the show notes because, like I said, I'm on the road, I'm headed up to my brother's place. Well, eventually technically first of all, I gotta run to the equipment rental place, pick up a skid steer, and then go over to his place and tear out a patio in preparation for my niece's birthday party. I don't know, that's that's that's the deadline. Um I'm just here to help because I've got a big truck and some muscles. So, anyways. You know, one other thing I'd like to say is getting active first thing in the morning just for a brief amount of time, and I talked about this in the episode just a few days ago in flexibility versus mobility. First thing in the morning does something to your mind. It gets the blood flowing, and if you compound that with a cold shower, yeah, I know this sounds like bro talk. Um you can forego the six pots of black coffee, but you know, a mobility flexibility routine, or you know, high-intensity interval training workout first thing in the morning, followed by a cold shower before any coffee, before any stimulants, before any devices can really change your life. So think about changing your habits to change your life. And also listen to the scroll marked one that you'll find in The Greatest Salesman in the World by Ogmandino, where he talks about habits and how we are a slave to our habits. And if we are a slave to our habits, then let us be a slave to good habits. Right? That's what life is all about. Understanding that we are indeed creatures of habit, acknowledging that we are just simple primates with large brains and larger appendages, but we're not much more advanced than a monkey or our own dogs that we keep as pets. So guys, in addition to you know, taking on some additional physical work, stay involved with your community, stay involved spiritually, read books, you know, ten minutes a day. Specific to personal development. And again, like Dan wrote, you'll realize that this event that you're going through, this negative event, is most likely just a tiny spot on the timeline of life. So guys, that's that's gonna be it for today. I think that's a good stopping point for today's episode. I appreciate you tuning in, and I look forward to updating the show notes when possible. For those listening today on the 22nd, it's most likely not going to be today, but for those listening in the future, definitely do check out the show notes, for there will be links to everything I discussed and more. This is Rob Kaiser, and thank you. I'll see you Monday, guys. Have a great weekend.
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