I Need a Miracle . . . just a small one.

I've had a pretty rough week. 

I'm going on little sleep. I haven't been to the gym once. My eating/diet has been less than stellar.  My job has not been very fulfilling. I've been questioning where I am, what I am supposed to be doing with my life and trying to figure out God's plan for me – if He has a plan. 

But today, something interesting happened to me.  My 3 week old son smiled at me. 

I touched his cheek and he smiled.  It was amazing! 

I looked down and saw this toothless grin pointing at me for no reason besides my touch on his cheek   At that moment I was quietly reassured that in the end, everything was going to work out the way it was supposed to.

It's incredible where you can find peace and solace.  It amazes me when something as little as a smile from your child can melt away your fears and worries.  When I see that smiling face I know in my heart that there is something greater in this world then me and my problems. 

I don't know what it is, but I know it's there.  Perhaps it's God.  Maybe it's love or fellowship.  Maybe it's charity.  Maybe it's all of the above, who knows.  As a believer, I choose to believe that it's God and His love for us.  I think of it as God's road map to finding Him.  I say this as a believer, but I also say it as a human who loses his way all the time and someone that sometimes thinks that these reminders can be hard to see. 

While we are trying to stay "on track" it is important to look for these tiny signs/miracles and not take them for granted.  If you think about it they are all around us.  The flower that blooms and lets off a beautiful scent.  The good song you've been waiting for comes on the radio just when you need it.  The hug from your friend that you needed when you were down.  Or perhaps that smile that came to you when you were filled with doubt.  These tiny miracles are out there and all around us.  We just need to open our eyes, mind and heart and be willing to accept them.

On a side note, not only should we strive daily to look for these tiny miracles but we should also try to be an example of them.  We can try each day to be a small miracle.  You never know when someone else is needing our smile – or our embrace, compliment or affection.  So I think today we should challenge ourselves to wear our smile with pride.  To be an example of all that is good in the world and not bad.  Give it a try!  You never know when you will touch someone's soul with something as basic as a smile.

.:BM

Hulk's Knees

    The other day, I was watching a  biography on Hulk Hogan.  A hero of the 80’s to many kids (myself included) and a world class entertainer.  He worked and drove his body to the limit night in and night out.  For 30 years he has been a standard of American pop culture and an idol of many children.
    As the program evolved, Hulk told the story of his broken and beaten body.  How his neck and back, knees and joints ache with severe pain.  And at one point in the show, he said that every morning, as he goes to get out of bed that he routinely moans, “My f’ing knees” as he tries to limp out  of bed each morning.  He then goes on to mention how his current fiancée scolded him when she heard this, saying “The first word out of your mouth in the morning should be a word of thanks, not a complaint.”  I got to thinking about this and thought that she made a lot of sense.  
    Everyday millions of Americans roll out of bed with a complaint.  “I hate my job.  My back hurts.  I slept like crap last night.  The stupid pets have to get fed, etc..”  And that’s OK, because we are human.  We are not perfect, in fact we are the furthest thing from.  We are complainers; it’s what we do and we are good at it!  Think about it.  How often do we meet up with family and friends to complain?  I bet we complain five times more frequently then we are thankful.  And who can blame us?  With all that goes on in the world, all you have to do it turn on the news for one segment and you hear enough bad news to make you sick.  Plus, we are imperfect beings.  We are sinners.  We are predisposed to see the negatives in life.
    So here is what I propose.  Why can’t we make a valid attempt to be thankful?  For just four minutes a day, lets give thanks to God for life.  How about the first two minutes in the morning and the last two minutes before you fall asleep.  Lets thank God for something…anything.  Be thankful for the fact that you actually woke up.  That you were given another chance to make a difference.  To be a positive influence on someone, to smile one more time, or you can even be thankful that you have one more day to complain.  I don’t know, anything that crosses your mind.  And at night, as you crawl into bed, take two minutes to be thankful for that day you just had.  Thank God for making it one more day and for that chance to be the person that God created you to be.  Life is a special gift that we all take for granted and I think that we could all benefit by taking those four minutes to be thankful.  Look at it this way, you’ll still have 23 hours and 56 minutes to complain the rest of the day.  
    Give this mission a try and good luck.  While it seem simple to achieve, it won’t be easy.  But maybe, just maybe by giving thanks first thing in the morning and lastly at night, we may begin to see the good in our life as opposed to the negative.      And isn’t that the whole idea behind “On Track Daily?”  To make a small change and have a large effect.  It can happen, you just have to do it.
.:BM

Crunch

“Hello my name is Matt and I love potato chips.”

I feel so guilty every time I buy potato chips in the store or munch at them when they inevitably arrive with a sandwich when I am out to eat.

At the store I try to hide the bag under lettuce or behind the toilet paper. That way when I get to the check out line I can look at them like “How did those get in there?” I look forward to the day when I have kids with me at the store and can say that Junior must have put them in the cart when I wasn’t looking.

Once I have kids I can then stop justifying it to myself that we are having people over this weekend and they might want to have some. Or, I don’t feel like walking to the back of the store to return them so I should just buy them. I can blame it on the kids.

I sheepishly add them to the conveyor belt where all my purchases stand to be scanned by the cashier after being scanned by the eyes of other shoppers who must be secretly judging me based on my purchases. I bury the incriminating bag deep in my shopping bag. I quickly walk out of the store avoiding the stares of the other shoppers as they scream “Hypocrite!” to me. I preach healthy eating and living but am brought to my knees by thinly sliced spuds fried and seasoned.

I rush to the car and in my hurry, the potato chip bag just happens to land next to me. They taunt me. “You’ve had a bad day, try me.” “You just had a harrowing experience at the grocery store, take comfort with me.” Sometimes they get angry, “Eat me!” I give in, I have to taste them for freshness after all don’t I?

I arrive home in a shame spiral. Greasy crumbs on my face and a tattered shiny bag (empty of course) on the floor mat.

I walk into the kitchen and fall to my knees in anguish and slightly because of the stabbing stomach pains that follow eating an entire bag of potato chips. I look up to the ceiling and scream: “Why!?!?” Exasperated, I wonder how these potato chips have gained so much control over me. Why do I always succumb to the temptation? I clench my stomach and fall to the cool linoleum.

I know how I ended up in this state. Curled on the kitchen floor with grease stained fingers and sweat on my brow. It’s the salty crunchy delicious ease of the potato chip. It’s a quick snack with everything our bodies crave – fat and salt. For me, it is the added benefit of the crunch. I love it! I have always enjoyed crunchy foods – nuts, pretzels, and of course chips.

There are healthier ways to get the necessary fats and salts we need in our diet. In fact, in the standard Western diet we have too much of both. I need to focus on the other elements of the potato chip - ease and crunch -  to get over the sirens song of the rustling potato chip bag.

My answer comes in an unexpected way. In my collapse to the floor, I placed the bags on the counter and they have now toppled because of how they were precariously perched. A giant bag of carrots falls to the floor in front of my face. The answer has arrived.

I pick myself up from the floor, dust myself off and raise my hand triumphantly that I shall overcome the potato chip obsession. I reach for a knife and cutting board to cut and trim all the carrots into bite sized sticks to keep in a bag in the fridge. I now have a healthy crunchy snack that I can easily munch on when the urge hits.

Now the only bag in my cart when I go to the grocery store is a gleaming bag of orange carrots that I can proudly put on the conveyor belt at the store as I whirl around to wave to the applauding onlookers confirming my healthy purchase.

.: MF

Resolve to do less, so you can accomplish more.

This time of year everyone is talking about their resolutions. This is the year they are going to create the best version of who they are. They resolve to eat better, lose weight, go to church, recycle, save money, organize, get a new job, quit a bad habit-- the list goes on.
I don’t doubt a person’s resolve to do these actions. I firmly believe everyone who starts the new year with resolutions is motivated to do them. However, I believe there are two obstacles standing in the way of most people: 1) time and 2) follow through

1.       Resolutions = More Time

We are all busy. There are very few of us who are looking for things to do. We may be looking for things to do that are more fun, challenging, or exciting, but we still have the everyday things to do that take time and are less than thrilling.

However, we enter into the new year after leaving a state of euphoria. We have spent the past few weeks with family and friends, enjoying long hours of socializing and relaxing. There has been no one around the office so it has been more relaxed as the year comes to a close. The weeks have been short and the weekends longer. You are full on good food, seasonal treats and countless sweets. It is no wonder you enter the year optimistic and motivated! You feel great!

Our best intentions and motivations meet their first obstacles early and often. Our normal life kicks back into gear. You are down a few people at work and that work gets piled onto your desk. The decorations really need to get put away. The car needs work. Bills have to get paid. The cold mornings make it a little harder to get out of bed. Where did all this traffic come from? Who has time to make dinner? Sound familiar?

You probably have even more!

So, we are all pressed for time and we enter the year adding more to our plate. We are setting ourselves up for failure!

That is why I think we should resolve to do less.

Now, I don’t mean “I have so much to do already, I can’t exercise too!” Yes, you can. There are plenty of small ways you can exercise throughout the day. Exercise doesn’t have to be done at the gym for an hour a day. It can be done in small doses throughout the day, as we’ll show you.

When we make the resolutions or the goals to improve our life, we need to determine what the obstacle is that has been preventing us from doing it in the first place. Maybe it is too much time in front of the TV. Maybe it is running around to stores or picking up the kids from practice. Maybe it is the pint of ice cream that just happens to be in the freezer.

So, whatever your obstacle is, you need to resolve to do less of it. If it is watching too much TV, resolve to watch less or only do it as a reward once you have worked out. If it is eating the sweets that tempt you away from your goals, resolve not to bring them into your home or not go to places where they are sold. I think you get the point. Otherwise, your pre-resolution life will slowly dominate the new life you are trying to create. Once you restructure your time there is only one more thing stopping you – follow through.

2.       Follow through

This is where we come in!

We may have some creative ways to budget your time better over the coming months, but where we really can help is the follow through.

We have stated that people often set vague goals – lose weight, exercise more, eat less, eat better, pray and reflect more,  save more money, spend less money, help the Earth, be kinder, etc.

All of these are noble pursuits, but are lacking the detail and the action steps to make it possible.

We have taken all of these big goals mentioned above and broken them down into small actions that can be accomplished daily. Over a period of time you will see results as you work toward your goal one day at a time, always mindful of the larger goal.

Resolve to follow us so you can follow through.

What are you resolving to do more of, or less, of this year?

.:MF