Methodology

This post is a follow up from Monday’s post—“Nobody Likes a Chameleon” Thanks to all of you who gave me feedback that led to this impromptu follow-up post. Monday was one of the busiest days my blog has seen yet, and I appreciate all of you who said to your friends, “Check it out! This is good stuff!” or “Look at this! What an idiot!” Either way, much appreciated. I apologize for not being clearer in my post on Monday. I’m going to take this time to sort out exactly what I was getting at (because I did a poor job of that in round one). After looking back, instead of trying to be trendy and clever, I should have simply called Monday’s post “Don’t Be a Hypocrite.” I think the extra bit of frankness would have alleviated a whole lot of issues. For my ambiguity, I apologize. Nevertheless, here’s my follow up. ...

Are you overwhelmed with fear? Fear of natural catastrophes? Fear of the unkown? Fear of life after death? Max Lucado’s latest piece of outright artwork, Fearless, gives you reason to cast away your fears. In the book, fear is exposed what it really is: an opportunity to strengthen your faith and overcome the unwarranted sensation that makes us check under the bed for the boogie monster. Lucado maneuvers you through the world of fear like a guide on a jungle safari—showing us how to hack away at the unjust emotion in front of us so that we can face each day without worry. ...

There is now a follow up to this post that clears up some ambiguity here–”Nobody Likes an Ambiguous Blogger“ Yesterday I was asked the question, “So do you party at night and then get up for church the next morning? Because that would be tough.” I responded by saying, “I don’t, but people do. I don’t recommend it, and I certainly don’t wish that upon anyone.” Tough is such an understatement, my friends. ...

I’ve learned that in distance running, you can always go a little bit further. When I’m running on the street I say, “I can make it to that next mailbox…to the light pole…to the stop sign. Just a little bit further.” Before you know it, you’ve strung together a couple dozen “just-a-little-bit” furthers, and you’ve got an extra mile under your belt. It’s undoubtedly easier to quit. You can say, “Well, look how far I’ve gone already.” You might have pushed yourself hard—gone further than you ever had before, but you didn’t go as far as you could. You had more in the tank. You were complacent with very good instead of great. You copped out because you were looking back. You were looking at what you had done instead of seeing the potential in what you could do. ...

I have been blessed to be surrounded with absolutely incredible, Grade A, fantastic people in every city I’ve been in over the past year. Today, I’m saying goodbye (for about the 20th time) to those I’ve known the longest. After a whirlwind adventure from Athens to Columbus to Akron, I’m going back…home. It’s true—there’s no use in pretending any longer. My home is in Athens, but don’t think my heart isn’t still in The Rubber (and also the Capital) City. ...

Growing up as an only child, I didn’t have anyone comparing me. I never heard, “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” or “Your older sister wouldn’t do that.” Nevertheless, through some birth-order anomaly, I became super competitive. I was constantly comparing myself to others. They had better grades than me or a nicer car. They had more Pokemon Cards or a bigger Power Ranger collection. I was never content when I was looking at what others had or what they were accomplishing. ...

We are bombarded with advertising from all angles every day. Television. Radio. Billboards. Magazines. Web. Our lives are saturated with messages telling us what detergent to buy or why we need a Snuggie (for our dog). In his book Purple Cow (which is absolutely filled with truth and will certainly be mentioned in many posts to come), Seth Godin points out that advertising today isn’t as effective as it was 30 years ago. Marketing an ordinary product with tons of great ads doesn’t cut it any more. ...

If you’ve never worked out before, you are not going to go crank out 5 miles on the treadmill or be able to bench 300 pounds. You haven’t trained yourself for that. You haven’t started. Anytime I coax a friend who isn’t much into fitness into joining me at the gym or going for a little jog (that’s a soft “j”, I believe—pronounced yog), I often hear him say, “Well I won’t be able to run that far or lift that much.” My response is always the same: “You’ve gotta start somewhere.” ...

It’s the eve of my last day as a Columbus resident. Even in this megapost, I can’t fully explain to you the amount of growth, enjoyment, and learning I experienced this summer. I heard good things about the state capital, but I couldn’t have predicted the pure joy I would end up having here in the ‘bus over the past 11 weeks. I’ve decided to give a shout out to some of my favorite things that made totally blew me away here in Columbus. I’d love to give thanks to all of my 614 friends, but the list is too long, and I couldn’t do you all justice in a single post. Quite frankly, friends, you were too good to me, and I was so blessed to have you around. ...

If I had a list of books that should be required reading for all human beings, How to Win Friends and Influence People would be at the top. It’s been over 70 years since its first publication, but Dale Carnegie’s timeless gem is still providing insight in the 21st century. Carnegie created the content for the book by giving talks in New York about public speaking. The talks evolved into how to deal with people in different circumstances. As Carnegie began providing more and more insight (and realized how little people really know about talking to one another) a publisher convinced him not everyone had time for a 14-week course on his valuable information. So a stenographer took notes, and the book was born. ...