Call Yourself Out

photo © 2009 pastorbuhro | more info (via: Wylio)
I have a confession to make. I despise resolutions. Ok, that's not much of a confession.

Here's a better one. I don't like making plans. I do them. But I don't like it.

So in my New Year's post, I might have been telling myself more than anyone, PLAN IT.

I think the other thing that needs to be added to that- either a carrot or a stick. It's true, if we don't like doing something either we need to find a reward or punishment that will get us that next step over the hump.

I am going to try a reward system (what exactly I don't know, told you I don't like plans). But until then, I think punishment or avoiding it works too.

At the beginning of the year, I made plans - not resolutions. I've done OK on them. The one I realized that I slacked off in was reading. I do like to read. But I got away from reading a variety of things. I think I wanted to blame it on a variety of things. Partially that I read a lot online, but I needed to be doing more straightup BOOK reading.

Well, I have finally. It took about a month but I am back to being the serial abuser of the library that my wife disdains (not for reading but for forgetting to return books on time, planning!).

So, I call myself out. Todd, you slacker, do better!

What do you need to be called out on today?

New Life

It's weird, sad and slightly freeing. I've been headed towards a completely different life for a lot longer than I even knew. It took me a while to catch up to realize it was happening. Thankfully, I was cognizant enough to see it finally and mostly ready for it. It's amazing when you have the rug completely pulled out from underneath you. The adjustments are jarring. I made mistakes, but like most I learned from them, adapted, and tried my best to do better. The reason you see that truck next to a storage place? That's the sum of my life right now. Never take for granted that you will work hard for something or someone, and it will end up meaning very little. You are guaranteed nothing, owed nothing, promised nothing. Anything and everything can be taken away in a heartbeat. I wrote this to my kids a while back: I tried to be the best father I could be based on what I knew when I knew it and how I could. One of the lessons for your life needs to be: you n...

Guiding Light

Most folk who know me, know I lost my father when I was 14 years old. However, before he passed, he shared a timeless secret with me—a practice that would shape my life in ways I could never have imagined. He didn't teach me meditation in the traditional sense, with incense and crossed legs. Instead, he showed me how to meditate by gazing at a lone light on the ceiling. When I was very young, I had night terrors that would wake me in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was terribly frustrating to calm a child from that. But my father had the way. I never understood how he came to the practice. But over the years, I've come to understand that my father's unique approach to meditation was, in fact, a profound lesson in mindfulness and presence. In a nearly pitch black room, he would tell me to find a speck of light, not unlike a star. Then focus. He would say, "Just watch the light, like you're watching a story unfold. Be the observer, not the thinker." I...

Check out my appearance on the The Toddcast Podcast

Click and watch the podcast recording of my appearance on the Toddcast Podcast Such a fun time!

Todd Lyden

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