Life - The Way It Was Meant To Be Lived

Apr. 21 Life - the way it was meant to be lived

Stand up - close your eyes, point north - Check w/ compass

Today we will explore true north - life the way it was meant to be lived

Acts 2:42-47 Christians living the life Jesus lived, not knowing all the rules , Jesus was the truth

Important vs. Not important defined

Luke 10:42 - Urgent vs. Not urgent defined

What is needful? Urgent Not Urgent

Important Middle yr. Goals for age 70-90? 1 3 Meditation time Schedule action - follow up Most important Self control leadership

Not Important 2 The enemy of the best is the good. Tyranny of Urgent - to who, others? contributing consuming 4 Burnout couch potatoes

Covey’s grid

Compass

Direction Vision

Values - Mission

Dreams Goals

Sharpen

(all saw no sharpen makes life dull)

Clock

Action, movement spending, working achievement, calendars and commitments

SawThe clock & compass are great metaphors for life. What direction are you heading how do spend your time?

Important tasks often do not have to be done today or tomorrow and so we can put them off.

Urgent tasks cry out to be done immediately. So we do urgent things and leaving the important things undone.When Clock and Compass not in sync

Tension, Drift Crisis

(danger - opportunity - Hebrew Birthing Stool)

No one on their death bed wishes they had spent more time in the office.

And yet, almost no one is doing anything about the amount of time they spend in the office

Goethe - The things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

Don’t be so absorbed in climbing the ladder that you get to the top and realize that it is leaning on the wrong wall. When you feel the tension that is created by you compass and your clock not matching up. Don’t look for a quick fix or another thing to add to your clock that will give you a perk. But take the time to resettle your life, to realign it to make your clock match your compass. Most time management assumes that you really know what is good for you to spend your time doing and helps you squeeze it all in. When in reality there is a lot of things that aren’t worth doing at all and we need to fan it out and we will have more time than we really need.

Is the clock taking the place of the compass? Is the clock helping to fulfill the purpose of the compass?

Clock directs not compass

Aim at nothing and hit it

Drift Tons of time Unaccounted Life Unimportant things

Busy sounds important - Hogwash

Compass Directs

Say "No" confidently, no guilt

Sense of accomplishment

Life of value and satisfaction

Efficiency not goal - meaning is (how can you be efficient with your wife, hobby, God?)

Quality plus quantity

We control our choices, the things we value.

We don’t control the consequences.

Pick up one end of the stick the other end comes with it.

This important but not urgent area is an area that requires self-leadership, self-control and discipline to be active on and yet it is one of the most productive, probably the most productive area.

Take time to get centered and focused. What is important in my life and how can I move in that direction?

Self-awareness, conscience, imaginative creativity and an independent will, these help us determine what are the important things to do.

These four things are gifts from God. They give us the freedom to choose and be transformed and changed.

These four areas help us to align our life with the true north.

1. Self awareness is the ability to look at ourselves from outside of ourselves. To consider our own choices, our behavior and the consequences we will receive. Self Leadership

2. Our will is what keeps us from being victims of fate. We are able to act and change and redirect our course. It is one of the greatest gifts that we’ve been given. The best way to strengthen your independent will power, is to make and keep promises. Most people don’t want to make promises because they don’t want to keep them. So we live life as moral midgets and spiritual dwarfs because we are not willing to exercise our moral will power.

Intuitively we hesitate to make a promise because of the moral integrity we have we want to keep any promise we make. The solution is not to stop making promises but to rather start making promises and start following through on them. Don’t over promise, don’t under deliver. Allow a sense of honor to grow up inside you. An honor that others will recognize. His word is good.

3. Creative imagination, the ability to create a future in your mind and then pursue it. The ability to have a vision for something for something that doesn’t yet exist. These four traits set us apart from all other creatures.