When I was teaching I had a warm up assignment for my students most days called the 5 minute drill. The idea was taken from one of my art teachers.

Can you create something in 5 minutes... [that is shareable]

The last part is the key. It has to be something that is shareable. I taught a variety of classes so what we created was always unique. I found the exercise fun so I often played along. So what does this have to do with The Minute? That is beauty of the format. Each video/audio will be no more than 1 minute in length. Some will have common themes but not always. I hope that they bring you some value.

They help me to kick my day back into gear.

Eventually this will make itself into the main Life in the Clouds Podcast Feed.

When doing a retro you ask yourself these questions.

1. What Went Well
2. What Needs Improvement
3. What Needs to be Added Specific Goals

Personal Retro

What's Working Well

1. Creating a new rhythym even with the many changes
2. Healthy Sleep patterns
3. Podcasting
4. Immediate family relationships

What Needs Improvement

1. Prioritization
2. Nutrition
3. Exercise
4. Additional Income Stream

Goals Met

1. Complete MS Degree
2. Preached/Spoke at 4 events

Goals Not Met

1. Bike to work > 1 times per week
2. Write Book

Specific goals for next period

1. Write Book
2. Lose 50 pounds
3. Earn additional $500/mo

Professional Retro

What's Working Well

Individually

1. Good Team
2. Writing Code Again
3. Mentoring

Corporate

1. Communication
2. Growth
3. Corporate Atmosphere

What Needs Improvement

Individually

1. Find a new challenge
2. Data Science Opportunity
3. Additional Stream of Income

Corporate

1. Still looking for unclass development and telework
2. Paternal Leave is still important to me. New baby in December.

Specific Goals for Next Period

Big 3

Near: Contribute to an Open Source Project

Mid: Utilize my Data Science Skill set

Long: Developing a SpinCo

Image Credit: Deidre Walsh Blog

Nothing is more frustrating to me than seeing things I procrastinated on, or worse yet things I was afraid of flourish. I had 2 of these very things hit me in the face in the last few weeks.

NO MORE

My prayer for all of us is that we would stop being irrationally afraid. Count the costs and DO IT! There will always be course corrections. There will be plenty of things that die on the vine. Learn from the failures and Go GO GO!

This guy knows you can do and he believes in you. Go get it done!

~~~~~~

Tomorrow is the 16 of September and while that sounds like an unremarkable date it is really quite significant. On that day there will be exactly 100 days until Christmas. I love Christmas as I suppose many of you do. It is one of the things that is a holdover from my childhood that is still acceptable for me to go crazy about.

My parents loved christmas and went all out in celebration. My Mom insisted that we decorate, stringing lights both inside and outside of the house. The tree, the ornaments, everything about our house changed during that season. My Dad would grumble about going out in the cold to hang the lights but he enjoyed making my my mom, brother and I happy. I loved putting up those lights with him.

As I grew in my faith Christmas took on a even greater significance. Not just a time for being with family and celebrating our connection with each other, it was a time for celebrating the connection with our God. His gift to us being the greatest gift any could receive. Church services, filled with old hymns often ignored during the rest of the year come back. The atmosphere filled with the realization that Emmanuel was with us. Glorious

A group that I am a part of, Breathe University, is organizing a challenge across the next 100 days. Set a goal for one of these 4 areas:

• Faith - Strengthen your connection with God
• Family - Strengthen your connection to those important to you
• Finances - Strengthen your financial position
• Fitness - Strengthen your physical self

Having just finished up with a 30 day trial back in August I wasn’t sure I was going to jump into another. However after watching the other members of the group jump in with awesome goals I can’t help myself. Deidre and I are participating in the 100 Day Challenge. We want to give each other the gift of goals met and finish 2017 well. I hope that you can join us.

So what are my goals for the next 100 Days?

• Faith - Study the Scriptures Daily
• Family - New Baby New Baby New Baby
• Finances - Reduce my discreactionary spending by 50%
• Fitness - Keep my calorie intake below 2200 calories per day for days 1-30, add cardio (bike) 3 days per week for days 30-60, add strength training 2 days per week through the end.

Well you can once again mark me down as a participant of National Novel Writing Month, which is affectionatly known as NaNoWriMo. This will be my 12th year participating in this literary challenge. I took this on as a personal goal back in 2005 and failed miserably. Finally in 2009 I crested the 50000 word mark to get my first winner certificate. Since then I have continued to play this game. This year will be no different. Here is an info graphic showing some stats from my 11 years of craziness.

Everyone who knows me knows I love The Shawshank Redemption. It is one of my favorite movies and I can quote much of it. The story isn't terribly complex but the narrative is rich and engaging. And Morgan Freeman is awesome no matter what he does.

Today I want you to stop worrying about what obstacles are in your path. I want you to get started today. Even if you can only take one step today. Commit to that one step and do it.

Then set a goal to take another one tomorrow and take it. Every day commit to taking one postive step towards your dream. Let me know what it is and I will cheer you on.

It really does come down to making a choice. I want you to choose to get busy living. I will to.

Carlton

I have found that often we shy away from new or difficult things because they appear too complex. One of those things is sharing the gospel with another person. During our men's conference the speaker wanted to answer this question for the men, "What is one thing that men should be, know and experience during his life?" To answer this he reached out to other Christian men in his life. One of the response he shared with us was that every Christian should know the joy of sharing the Gospel with another person.

Here is something that has helped me understand and share the gospel with others. This comes from , "A Summary of the Gospel and How To Enjoy and Share It." from Desiring God.

Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

Here’s a summary of the gospel to help you understand it and enjoy it!
* God created us for his glory - (Isaiah 43:6–7) * Every human should live for God’s glory - (1 Corinthians 10:31). * We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory - (Romans 3:23). * We all deserve eternal punishment - (2 Thessalonians 1:9). * In his great mercy, God sent forth his only Son Jesus Christ to provide for sinners the way of eternal life - (1 Peter 3:18).

Continue to grow family

Sticking with the idea of being completely poured out from my last post. Let's look at what Paul told Timothy in Chapter 4.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. - 2 Timothy 4:6

Paul had lived and was changed for the glory of God in Jesus Christ. That meant doing different things. It meant getting outside of his comfort zone. It meant overcoming shortcomings and enhancing strengths.

I Can't Do That

Have you ever said that before? Are you saying it now? Let me encourage you to stop saying that. Better yet let me just tell you outright to stop saying that. There is very little that you cannot do. The reason that many of us say we cannot do something is because of pride. We have high opinions of ourselves and think we can do all things well. While you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, that doesn't me that you will do all things excellently. Especially in the beginning.

I mentioned in my video Stink First that you will have to be content crawling first. When babies are learning to walk they fall, a lot. With each fall however they are learning to move better. If you want to do something different, to change the way that Paul had to changed, to be poured first you'll have to learn the proper order of things.

1. Decide To Do Something
2. Do it Poorly - (Crawl)
3. Stumble
4. Do it Ok - (Walk)
5. Stumble Again
6. Do it Well - (Run)
7. Trip and play it off
8. Teach Someone Else to Do it - (Mastery)

Course Corrections

It is possible to decide once you get to Step 4 that this thing isn't really for you. That is ok. Not everything needs to progress past that point. However it is important not to quit at the stumbling points. Never let mistakes or failures make you quit.

Praise Report

I have been tired most of this week and it has been a struggle to get things done. In the midst of this God decided to bless me through the kindness of a friend. This care package was delivered to my house today.

Have a Good Weekend!

Titus 2:7-8 “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

My former Pastor told me that you are either a warning or and example to the people around. Most of our words forgotten before the conversation ends but our actions can last for generations. Are you both a hearer and a doer of the Word?

Jesus said that if you love me you will keep my commandments.

The question that I have for you today are you a warning or an example?

As you walk through this weekend. See who you can join up with. It will open your eyes and show you how God does things. He doesn't sit back and passively watch. He is an active participant. Read the words from Phillipians Chapter 2:1-7

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Have a great weekend Family.

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. - Matthew 23:5-7

Why Do You Do What You Do?

Are you recognition driven? If you are that is fine. Most people enjoy being recognized for their accomplishments. There is nothing wrong with it. The problem is when we begin to believe our own positive press. When our sufficiency is found in what we can do instead of what God has done.

This is from the book Future Grace by John Piper.

This empty craving for the praise of others signals the failure of pride and the absence of faith in God’s ongoing grace. Jesus saw the terrible effect of this itch for human glory. He named it in John 5:44, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” The answer is, you can’t. Itching for glory from other people makes faith impossible. Why?

Because faith is being satisfied with all that God is for you in Jesus. And if you are bent on getting the satisfaction of your itch from the scratch of others’ acclaim, you will turn away from Jesus.

But if you would turn from self as the source of satisfaction (repentance), and come to Jesus for the enjoyment of all that God is for us in him (faith), then the itch would be replaced by a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).

Find Your Joy in Jesus and Enjoy God As He Is.

Some Sundays are easier than others to get into the spirit of worship. The cold of winter contrasted against the warmth of my bed makes mornings like today move slowly. Like honey that has sat too long I have gotten a little crusty. I am hard to pour some mornings. ;)

So to prime the pump, so to speak, I let the word of God apply the right amount of heat to get me going. So when I opened my browser I saw the image in today's graphic. The picture comes from the artist Michael Bolognesi. As I thought about how God set the stars in the skies I was drawn to the Psalms where we see our scripture.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

God has called us back to himself. That is amazing to me. Why? He is self-sustaining, he is all-sufficient, there is no lack in him. And yet... He is mindful of me and you.

As you head to your places of worship this morning know that God is mindful of you. Read Psalm 8 and know your God.

O Lord, our Lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

God created us to be together. That means that we share the victories as well as the defeats. We spend so much time crafting a "beautiful" image online that we forget that what really builds community is a complete picture. The same goes for our health and well being. No one can help us if we keep our struggles to ourselves.

No one believes the facade anyway so you might as well ditch it and start being real.

Push on my friends.

Finding Contentment

Who reading this really loves cold weather? I don't mean chilly. I mean the kind of cold that whips through you and make you rethink your life decisions. We just had a few days like that. Negative temps with the wind chills made us talk about running to warmer climates permanently. The only problems with this is that we had the same thoughts in the opposite direction when we lived in the land of 100 degree summers.

Double Minded

The Bible says that should stay away from the double minded man. He is unstable in all of his ways. The challenge of these verses is that, if we are honest with ourselves, we are all double minded. When we are hot we want to me cold and when we are cold we want to be hot. When we were young we yearned to grow up but a soon as the realities of grown up life hit we longed for the good old days.

Enjoy The Season You Are In

My encouragement for you today is to enjoy whereever you find yourself. This is because, ultimately, your joy is not in any external thing. God has ordained a time and a place for everything. Is God enough where you are right now?

Carlton