The Attitude Challenge: Day 30 and Counting

OK Tomorrow is the first day of the challenge and I'm excited but a little nervous: Excited about the possibilities but nervous about the commitment. Before we get started, I think there are a couple of things you should know.
First, this isn't mind-control, a get rich quick scheme, or something I just made up. The principles behind this 30-day challenge are based on knowledge, insight and results that credible people of influence have learned over time. Those references include: Earl Nightingale, Norman Vincent Peale, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Jesus Christ. (If you are under the age of 40 and reading this, do a google search on those names and you will learn who those people are. You may be more familiar with someone like John Maxwell who also written books that are supportive of this concept.)
Second, I am using the book, "The Strangest Secret to Success" by Earl Nightingale to guide me through this challenge. Therefore, throughout the next 30 days I will quote, reference and/or paraphrase various ideas from the book. I will acknowledge that source every time I use it. I will share my thoughts and experiences through this process with you. The intent is that both of us can benefit by experiencing and successfully completing the 30 days together. This book is available through Amazon.com as a kindle download for $6.00. It is a great resource and I would highly recommend it. However, you don't have to have a copy to go on this journey with me.
So, join me tomorrow and I'll layout the structure for the 30 days. Bring a 3x5 note card with you on Monday. You'll need that to begin the challenge.
"When I was a child, I talked like like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a woman, I put childish ways behind me." My goal is to achieve the potential of this child--yes that's me--and put childish ways and attitudes behind me.

Take the 30 Day Challenge to a New Attitude

If you read this blog a few days ago, you know that I saw the movie Julie and Julia (and loved it!) Well that movie has sparked an idea. Before I explain the "idea" I need to fill you in on what happened two weeks ago. I was at a conference and heard the speaker talking about the importance of attitude. As he spoke I realized that if I was ever going to be achieve some of my goals I really needed to change my attitude. So, when I left that conference I made a commitment to change my attitude. I came home knowing that some of my thought patterns were limiting what I could do. I started off great. I accomplished a lot on Monday. I was enthusiastic and energetic. That enthusiasm lasted several days. But, by the end of that week, I was tired. So, I took a day off. Then I took the next day off...and you know the rest. By the end of this week I was stuck.
Now, let's fast forward to today because by now, I am frustrated with myself: my attitude is bad, I've lost confidence in myself, and everything feels like gloom and doom. So, after I wallowed and bellowed for a few hours, I began to pick myself up. That is when I started thinking about Julie and Julia. Julie is stuck in a job she doesn't like. She wants to be a writer but she has never been able to stick with a project long enough to finish it. Julie is a good cook and often works out her frustrations with her life by cooking. As a result of a challenge from her husband, Julie decides to cook her way through Julia Child's cookbook. She announces what she is going to do on her blog and makes a commitment to make at least one dish every day for a year." Her blog becomes her accountability tool.
As I processed my "failure" this past week, I started thinking about Julie's situation. I decided it wasn't so different from mine. I need to change my attitude in order to get on the road to success. I'm betting there are plenty of other people out there who need to change their attitude, too.
So, YOU'RE INVITED TO JOIN ME ON AN ATTITUDE MAKE OVER There is a book I read that weekend at the conference that has a 30-day challenge to a new attitude that I will use as my guide. You'll learn the strategies as I share my progress and work my way through the 30 days. The countdown begins on Monday. I'd love to have you join me. We'll all benefit by helping each other develop an attitude that drives us to our goals rather than attitudes that wreck havoc on where we want go. See you then!

Julie and Julia "Bon Appetite!"

If you haven't seen the movie "Julie and Julia" yet, you are missing a real treat! Meryl Streep, as usual, is wonderful in the part of Julia Child. She is funny, eccentric, passionate and lovable. I remember watching Julia Child on TV cooking shows way before there was a "food channel" and celebrities like Emeril, Rachel, and the Barefoot Contessa. She was always funny and quite a character. Just as interesting is the story about Julie. A young woman who wants to be a writer but can't quite get her life together enough to make that goal happen. Encouraged by her husband to write about cooking on her blog; she becomes Julia's greatest fan. Through Julie's idealization of Miss Child she learns a lot about Julia and herself as well as she cooks her way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Both of their stories are fascinatingly revealed as the story moves back and forth between Julia and Julie. The movie is much like a perfect recipe, with all the right ingredients for a delicious slice of life: Two parts interesting lives, four people carefully blended, seasoned with humor and wrapped in love. The mixture is then set out so that the ingredients have time to bind together. The resulting dish is "Hmm Hmm Good!" And, as Julia would say,"Bon Appetite!" (Oh, and guys, this isn't just another chick flick. My husband enjoyed the movie, too.)

What if you had only one month to live?

One Month to Live is a book written by Kerry and Chris Shook. This theme will be the foundation of a church wide study in October at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, which is where I worship. I am in the process of writing the guide for this study. This morning I was listening to Tim McGraw's song, "Live Like You Were Dying." If you haven't listened to that song lately you should do yourself a favor and check it out. There is a powerful life message in the lyrics; lyrics that were inspired by a real life experience in the life of Tug McGraw, Tim's father.
I have a question for any of you who read this, "What would you do if you knew you had one month to live?" I really am writing a study guide on this topic and I would love to have all the input I can get. scroll down to the bottom to respond to the survey or just write your response in the comment box.
This study will draw insight from the book of Philippians and from personal experiences of people just like you. Tell me what you think.

Procrastinators! This is for You!

This morning I read a post that was on my sister's blog about discipline. This is the response I made to her blog. Discipline is never easy. I have spent a life time being very good at procrastinating and equally good at working under pressure. I began to try to change this about 15 years ago when I realized that sometimes my procrastination was really a way of letting my mind mull something over until it was ready to "go to work." I came to realize that there were two different types of procrastination. The first type is when you just don't want to do something; like exercise, cleaning out a closet, or some other activity that you don't enjoy. That is negative procrastination and nonproductive. This type of procrastination requires discipline. I am now much more aware of those things that I don't want to do and try to put a plan into place so that I get them done sooner. Sometimes, I do one of those activities first thing in the morning and then do something else afterwards that i want to do. Sometimes I tell myself that I'm just going to do a small part of it today and the rest of it later in the week. I often find that once I start on that project, it isn't as bad as I thought and I go ahead and finish the whole thing. Either way I feel good and energized and get a lot more accomplished that day.
However, procrastinating on projects that require "brain power;" such as a school assignment, solving a problem, or writing a lesson is actually beneficial if you learn how to use it. Now, whenever I have to create something or make a major decision, I have a "mental" conversation with myself. I tell myself what it is I need to do and then I forget about it. I let my mind go to work while I do something else. My mind will send me mental "alerts," which come in the form of an insight or new approach to the project. When I get one of these, I think about the project again to see if my mind is ready to go to work. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. In that case, I wait for the next "alert." The discipline part of this is that you can't start thinking about it the day before you need it. You have to start the thinking process far enough out to give it time to incubate. This works for me because it allows me to do what I do best...work under pressure. Only this pressure is positive. This pressure is the energy that comes from the processing that has been going on in my mind; so that when it is ready to go it is like hearing the starting gun at a race, and I am in position to get going!

Barbara-It's My Name!

It is my name, but it also belongs to a "whole lot" of other people, too. Just for the fun of it, I googled "Barbara's Blog" yesterday to see if my blog would come up. I didn't find my blog; but I did find that there are 44,300,000 people whose blog is also called "Barbara's Blog!" That just blew me away. How could there possibly be that many other Barbara's who have a blog and who decided to simply call it Barbara's Blog? Unbelievable! Out of curiosity, I decided to scroll through a few pages of the listings just to see what their blogs were about. I discovered that people named Barbara think they know a lot about a lot of things. I also discovered that most of them/us think other people are interested in hearing about their ideas and opinions. These "other" Barbara's provided information, opinions, and/or advice on food, cooking, relationships, religious practices, self-improvement, business success, education, child-rearing, and (literally) millions of other things!
I had two reactions to this amazing discovery. My first response was disappointment; I thought I was unique and now I have learned that there are millions of people named Barbara with a blog named Barbara's Blog. They all probably think they are unique,too. Now the truth is I am unique and so are they. Each one of us was created by God as a one of a kind, unique creation. If you stop to think about it that is a phenomenal concept. How can 44 million Barbara's be unique? I don't really know "how," I just know we are. Our problem is that we wrap our concept of uniqueness around our name because that is how we identify ourselves. When we say our name it isn't just a word; it is the sum of who we are and when we tell someone our name it is actually an invitation for them to learn about us and all that is wrapped up in that seemingly simple word.
So, on the one hand I realized that I wanted to be unique and was disappointed that I was just one of so, so, many Barbara's. On the other hand, I remembered as a young girl reading one of those books that lists the meaning of names, that my name meant "the stranger." I didn't particularly like that. I didn't want to be a stranger; I wanted to belong. I wanted to be a part of other people and feel included. At first it seemed somewhat contradictory to be disappointed to find out that my blog's name is not unique and to also be bothered that my name means "the stranger." So, I have been thinking about this, I realize it isn't contradictory at all. In reality, it really describes my life journey, and I suspect that it describes yours, too. We are all trying to be unique and, yet, we also have a need to belong. Sometimes, we struggle with those seemingly conflicting needs. What I have come to realize is that if I focus on the way God created me and allow God to develop the uniqueness of who He created, I come much closer to understanding that I am unique and that I belong.
However, since the goal of a blog is to spark interest so that people will find your blog, it does seem necessary for the name to be a little more unique. Thus, this blog is now "Barb on the Go." Let's hope this one is a little more unique!

Birthdays!

Birthdays have always been special to me. I remember as a kid I was always excited and really expected the day to be special. I could hardly wait for the presents and the cake and everything. It was also a big deal in my family. We knew we would have a cake and presents. And, when my sister and I were young we knew we'd even have a present as a part of the other sister's birthday celebration. That was my parents way of making sure we didn't feel left out. I carried that tradition into my family when our kids were very young. After a few years though we stopped doing that. To this day birthdays are special to me. I want presents on the "day of" my birthday and I really want something to be a surprise. In this way I'm still a kid at heart and probably always will be.

However, this "kid" will be the mother of a 40 year old daughter as of tomorrow. Lisa Kay (Condra) Roberts was born 40 years ago on August 10, 1969. Hard to believe, for us and for her, that the little girl we gave birth to in Marengo, Iowa, is now the wife of Mike, the mother of Kaitlin and Brayden, and a teacher. As a little girl she was happy, fun, cute and loving. Hmmm, she still is all of those things, but she is also intelligent, kind, hardworking, trustworthy and courageous. As a child she brought us joy and laughter. As an adult she she brings us pride and satisfaction. So, now in addition to getting to celebrate my own birthday with the heart of a kid; I also get to celebrate my kid's birthday with all of my heart as I see an adult who is someone to be proud of.