The Axe is Sharpened!

A Quick Follow-Up

A few weeks ago I sent out a blog post about taking a break with my blogging and podcasts.

The month of April was fantastic. I had two preaching opportunities in Seattle Washington and Cary North Carolina. They both were refreshing, exciting, and helped me with my prospective of life and the wonderful blessings I have.

I experienced a ferry ride to Bainbridge island in Washington (the birthplace of Pickle ball). My son and I were able to play a few games while we were there.

My family and I went to the Space Needle as well, which was really cool!

We visited the Original Starbucks and the Fish Market and ate some great pizza while there.

I was able to train and run hills in Chapel Hill North Carolina and also visit the campuses of North Carolina and Duke University!

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A Wise Decision

I took a lot off of my table in April to focus on my preaching opportunities. That proved to be a great decision.

I have heard of people packing stuff up in their house into boxes and then seeing what they actually need to live and be happy. I feel like I have done this in the last few weeks. But it hasn’t been just recently, but also earlier in the year.

I have been off social media for over a month this year (Not Consistently) but at different periods.

My Linkedin account is now fully deleted. In fact, I had two and after trying to recover my first one it reverted to my second one which I was finally able to delete for good.

I experimented with SnapChat years ago (that lasted for a few days before deleting) as well as TikTok (deleted a few years ago) along with Twitter.

The latest to go is now Facebook. It’s been a long journey with Facebook, but with travel, exercise, being a part of two book clubs, and preaching, it has not been something I’m interested in returning to. It will be fully deleted in a few weeks (although I have an I Can Do Page that still remains that I can’t access). Oh well.

The Importance of Connection

But what keeps gnawing at me and catching my attention is my blog and podcast. I think it’s because of what they mean to me. I know people are reading and listening. I know these give me an opportunity to connect with people all around the world! While numbers are important, I’m seeing the benefit of having an outlet to share, communicate, encourage, without worrying about Algorithms.

Yesterday, I spoke to a couple in Las Vegas (who are going to read this)! The gentleman found me originally on our churches website (www.westmaincoc.com) and has since been following my blog and sharing with others. That was so cool and fun to talk to him and his wife.

The guests I’ve had on my show have been great as well. I’ve had 43 guests and the connections with them has been encouraging. I keep going back to the fact that Podcasting is a great way to meet new people, to be challenged, and to help others all at the same time.

I realize I can go back and forth with certain hobbies, habits, etc. Taking things away has actually been a great exercise, to see what truly makes me happy. I will not be able to pay the bills with this blog or my podcast (which is fine), but they are a very important part of me. Everything we do can’t be about the money. This blog and my podcast were avenues that helped me to overcome fear, to take action, and to see what was possible. So because of that, I will continue to write and speak, post and publish, and have fun along the way. I will know when to take a break and when to resume as well.

Appreciation and a Challenge

I thank you for taking the time to read these blogs and to subscribe! I very much appreciate it.

One last thought: The bigger culprit in what we’re facing with distractions, being pulled in a variety of directions may point back to the cell phone. During my travel, I would turn my phone off for hours at a time. It was amazing to have long stretches of quiet time. It was also interesting to see how my mind worked with thinking “You’re missing something, turn the phone back on!” When I did, there was rarely anything I missed.

You may want to experiment simply turning your phone off more during the day!

Or packing all of your stuff at your house to see what you really need and want.

Or just to put things away for a few weeks to see what truly is making you happy! Take the time to sharpen the axe!

The axe has been sharpened! Let’s keep moving forward.