Make it Happen March: Stop Talkin' and Start Baby Steppin'

This month I have been prodding people more than usual about what they are working towards in their lives. A lot of people have a lot to say. What was interesting to me, though, was the fact that the most productive people spoke the least. I'm not sure if this was a coincidence, but to me it seemed like the productive people (the one's who are making it happen) were the people who had a few clear resolutions and who were taking a few clear and solid steps toward each goal. 

Those who seemed the least productive or successful were those who had  a lot of big ideas and a lot of big sentences to describe them. And many were hard to follow.

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In focusing in and making things happen in my own life this month, I have realized how little use there really is for an excess of words. Shakespeare suggested that we should "Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest" and  Mark Twain concurred saying that it is  "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt".  I can't tell you how many times I have removed people's doubt by over-talking and under-doing. 

As it turns out, when you use less words, you leave room for more action. And, since actions speak louder than words, you're really saying more with less. Whoah. The more words you use leads to greater risk of speaking excuses or describing why you can't do something. Or describing things you should be doing. Or worrying about what might happen with what you are trying to make happen. People can have a hard time following your words, but they will not have a hard time following your actions. 

Because this world is full of words, people seem to be impressed and surprised when actions are taken by big-talkers. I have found that to be true this month. It has now been 28 days since I have consumed an animal product, which only leaves 18 more until Lent is over. People are now starting to believe I can do it. 28 days. 4 weeks. And now it's possible. I've also gotten this response with running. I am now up to four (grueling) miles. I still haven't found that runner's high that runners brag about, but I just keep on going towards the 10K goal for May.  

"We got your runner's high right here, man."

So, now I am having people tell me "Oh, I couldn't be as self-disciplined as you." or "Well, you're a really disciplined person so you can do that kind of thing, but I can't." This is hilarious to me. Seriously. I have never been, nor am I sure that I ever will be "a disciplined person". In fact, my natural tendencies are quite lazy, to be be honest. But I am doing disciplined things. And now people are seeing me as a disciplined person.

This got me thinking- nobody is born a disciplined person. Maybe all of these people we look to as "having it all together" or "disciplined in reaching their goals" are just people who are taking action instead of talking about it. And being consistent in it. It takes a while to see results, and in this ADD, download-it-right-this-second culture, consistency is often scarce. 

Wait, you're saying this doesn't work?

There's nearly two weeks left of Make it Happen March. Still time to begin becoming "a disciplined person".  You don't have to talk about it much, just start doing it. All it really takes is baby-steps. 

One small, practical goal at a time. Eventually, you will be making things happen that you never thought you could. And people will be impressed, surprised and encouraged. And so will you. 

Make it Happen March: It's Hard to Make it Happen Alone

I would just like to say that it has been over two weeks now that I have not consumed any animal products. How people can do this for their entire lives is a mystery to me. I have also been consistently running, making myself into what most sedentary people would call "a runner" and most runners would call "Oh, that's cute." 

If you told most people in my family (or even told me , as a matter of fact), that I would one day be (even temporarily) a vegan runner, they would have asked you what you were smoking. Seriously. 

This got me thinking, what gives?

Well, besides the fact that it is Make it Happen March of the Year of Dreams, the key to making things happen is in the shape of community. 

I have found this to be especially true this month. Each night at around 11:45 my roommate and I give ourselves a loud round of applause for making it through another day of vegan-hood. This is usually followed by a way-too-serious discussion of how hard or easy our day was, detailed descriptions of the dishes we will eat once this is over, arguments over who is the most vegan, and/or victories of will at restaurants or parties. To be perfectly honest, it helps. A lot. I was recently at my cousin's 18 birthday party when one of her friends asked me why I wouldn't eat the gourmet cheese they were serving after I had gone on for the last 20 minutes about how much I love cheese. I responded, "because then I couldn't do the round of applause!"

As trivial as this vegan experiment is, it seems to point to a truth that is consistent in the Life experiment as well. Life is a struggle. In whatever you are trying to make happen, there are a million varieties of things that can cause you to stumble. Resisting them and persevering anyway is made easier when there are people to celebrate victories and sympathize in the struggle with. 

We are genetically programmed to need people. As far as I know, nobody has come out of the womb and said "It's cool, I'll take it from here". In an unbroken world, that reliance on people is a positive thing that produces joy, growth, and success and security. Perhaps it is meant to be a physical picture of what reliance on God looks like. However, the world is broken and, unfortunately, many of us are taught by bitter experiences with reliance to "take care of numero uno" because "you can't rely on anybody but yourself".  I know from experience that it is very difficult to make anything significant, worthwhile, or meaningful happen in that frame of mind. 

I also know from experience that breaking from that self-reliant chain, although it takes persistence and an exercise in trust, is one of the most fruitful, rich and worthwhile things you can do. Community is a beautiful thing and, when operating under God and in love, amazing things can happen. 

At my college graduation, I focused my speech on community: 

For many people I know this word [community] is a bland, tepid one. It means the place in which they live or the people who they live near. It is characterized by city-lines rather than relationships. For me, in my life and in my college career, this could not be further from the truth. 

It is community that pushed me through. 

It is community that encouraged me, supported me, prayed for me and helped me hear the heart of God when my ears were plugged with my worldly woes.

It is community who made me laugh, made me dinner,  and made me a part of the family.

It is community who challenged me to a higher calling, which sometimes just meant helping with the dishes.

It community who held me when I needed holding and kicked my butt when it desperately needed kicking.

It is community who shared in my difficulties, my defeats and also my victories.

People are key. Community is key. Whether it's something as grand as getting through a tragedy or as trivial as not consuming animal products for 46 days.

Not only for support, but for gaining wisdom and insight as well. We are all a collection of experiences. Our own experiential lens on life can be pretty limited and cause us to miss out on adventure until we connect with and walk with other people. 

By making things happen in in life by connecting in community, you can also be giving as much as you are getting. Whether you are sharing in a struggle, being a friend, or allowing someone to be a friend to you. Because living in community is how the system is supposed to work, fruit can't help but grow from it. By isolating yourself and trying to make things happen on your own, not only are you robbing yourself of blessings, but you are robbing other people of what you have to offer. 

"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"

People help people make things happen. It's a beautiful and sometimes messy cycle. But worth it. 

The most brilliant modern philosopher of our time summed it up best in his acceptance speech for his Lifetime Achievement  Award at the 1997 Emmys:

And God be with you, neighbor, as you make it happen in March.

Make it Happen March: Ambition for Submission

Humans, by nature, are ambitious creatures.  Sometimes, like when I am celebrating the success of watching all of the tv shows that have been backlogged on my Hulu queue, I wonder if ambition is something that will eventually atrophy and disappear from lack of use in our culture. 

However, since the invention of the wheel, it seems that human ambition is an unstoppable force.

Well...most of the time.

Since it is Make it Happen March and since I have been trying to keep my mind off of how badly I would like to bite into something made of or produced by animals (an entire wheel of cheese, perhaps?) , I have been contemplating why some human ambitions seem to come to fruition so easily and why others seem to be met with obstacles at every turn.

I have come to two separate conclusions: Practice and Pride

I recently found my old yellow Gameboy Color in my aunt's garage. I turned it on and proceeded to make good use of my time by playing Super Mario Bros. for the next two hours. In the game, your ultimate ambition is to protect the kingdom by defeating the big boss, Bowser, by jumping on his head three times (the goal) . However, you don't get to fight Bowser until you have first defeated all of the other, lesser, bosses (the obstacles). Each of the lesser bosses prepares you in a new way to successfully take on Bowser and save the Super Mario kingdom for all time. I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty intense game and you have to be pretty skilled in the Gameboy arts to defeat it (this is not true). 

It's also a good picture of "Practice". Humans learn by experience.  If we are trying to make something big happen or defeat a big problem in our lives, we will be wildly unsuccessful without hands-on training. Even David faced a lion and a bear before taking out Goliath. God directed the stone that took Goliath out, but David was given the confidence in himself and the confidence in God that was needed to face the Giant during the practice rounds with the lesser beasts.  It seems as if physical muscle and faith muscle are equally important when it comes to making things happen.

Another object I found in the treasure trove that is my aunt's garage was a magnet set from some science kit I had in middle school. I don't even want to reveal to you how long I was entertained by those things. I sat there for longer than should be allowed for an adult attempting to make two magnets with the same polarity meet and connect. It never worked. No matter how loud I yelled at the magnet to "do my bidding!", the weaker magnet would always eventually slip out of my hands, flip around and stick to the other one. 

After telling a friend about spending valuable time playing with magnets (yes, my life is so exciting that I play with magnets, then tell people about them), it struck me that this is actually an interesting picture of "Pride". The magnet of God's will has a singular polarity. If you are trying to make something happen in your will that is outside of God's, you will be met with a tremendous force pushing you away from it. 

Think about the ambitious undertaking of the Tower of Babel. Not even the sky was the limit in their minds. They came together to make a name for themselves- maybe instead of being content with the name and situation that God had given them (pride). Obviously the tower, while it would have been an impressive tourist attraction, was not in God's will. I guess they finally got the memo that it wasn't a good idea when they couldn't even pronounce the name they were trying to make for themselves because their languages got all mixed up.

Pronunciation is key.

A modern Tower can be seen in the Titanic. In the Make it Happen March of 1912, people were getting ready to present a ship that "God Himself could not sink". **Spoiler alert** It sank. 

Well...maybe you're not.

The good news is that, once you figure out that what you are trying to make happen is outside of God's will and submit to what is inside his will, all you really have to do is let Him guide you. Once I turned the weaker magnet around to submit to the stronger, the strong one could bring the weaker one to it from across the garage. I mean, think about it- Noah and his possie built an ark a gajillion or so years before the Titanic. Before degrees in engineering and toy ships in bathtubs. Everyone thought he was a crazy hippie, taking on an insane and futile task. But his ambition to build the ark came from God. God gave him each direction and made the materials available despite the nearest Home Depot being thousands of years away. All he had to do was listen and follow God's direction and his ambitious project was made into something that was pivitol in the fate of the human race.

Noah > Super Mario. 

For me, it actually takes the pressure off of being significant in what I'm trying to make happen in my life. Each of us have talents that we are supposed to use to fulfill our Godly ambitions. In a way we are like Forrest Gump on the football field. We've got all of this God-given skill, but lack the God-given smarts to know how to turn it into a successful game. It's a good thing we've got God and (if we are lucky) a strong community to help tell us when it's time to "GO!" and time to "STOP!" 

As I'm striving to make things happen this Make it Happen March, I am also going to strive to be sensitive to make sure to stay within the parameters of God's will. And when I come across an obstacle (like free cheese samples) I am going to really seek and pray for the wisdom to know whether it is a manifestation of Practice to defeat future giants or a check on my Pride. 

And I will probably be spending more time in my aunt's garage. 

Make it Happen March!

When you finish school you come to a startling realization: in the real world, things don't just happen on their own. You don't just roll out of bed and into life bleary-eyed and wearing pajamas, expecting to have everything planned out for you so that all you have to do is follow along well enough to get by with a pass.

In the real world, productive things only happen by intention. Dang. That sounds like work that can't be done in my pajamas.

I have lived most of my life in theoretical future victories. Some are pretty outlandish (wait, you mean I probably won't be the mayor of Neverland?) and many probably are not in my best interest (so you're saying Gerard Butler wouldn't make a good husband?), but many are attainable victories if only I would get up, suit up and show up ready to take action.

 "Let's do this thing!"

So why haven't I taken Nike's advice and "just done it"? Well, I also have lived most of my life in theoretical future failures. I'll say things like, "I'd love to do that but I just don't operate that way". "I'll just give up halfway through so I might as well just accept that I can't do it now". "It's not worth the pain it takes to get there". 

All fears, excuses and lies rendering me inactive and ineffective in my life and in the Kingdom. 

February's theme was facing your fears. Half of that battle was giving them a name and identifying their source. The other half was dousing those fears in truth and watching them melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West (or at least begin to).

So now it's March...more specifically it's Make it Happen March!

It's the month where concrete, practical steps are going to be taken towards those "someday" , "if only", and "I'd love to" goals.  It's the month where all the lies of "you can't" or "you're not good enough" are given the spiritual middle finger (Philippians 4:13 and 1 John 4:10 are merely the nail-bed of that finger)  and success is achieved despite years of believing it was out of reach.

With God all things are possible. With community and support, getting there is a little easier.

Personally, here are some things I'm going to make happen this month: 

+I'm going to begin a TEFL class to get certified to teach English as a foreign language in case I ever decide to teach abroad. It's something I've always talked and dreamed of doing, but have never taken any steps toward. This is the month to make it happen. 

+I'm going to continue training for and organizing a team for a 10K race in May in honor of someone I love ( if you're interested in joining the race or checking out the cause CLICK HERE). 

In doing this, I am making myself into the active and  productive person that I never thought I could be.

+I'm going to nail down solid plans and reservations for my trip to Europe this summer, making something I have been dreaming about since I was 17 an absolute reality.

+And finally, I am going to Continue to follow through with the crazy commitment of consuming no animal products for Lent (what was I thinking?!?). In following through with this insanity, I will be making myself into a person with incredible will power. A person who follows through on their commitments, even when it gets hard. 

This is the month to begin the journey of becoming your someday self . To set goals and achieve them. This is the month to make things happen!

You can do it!

Don't take my word for it, but the word of a wise man at the top of his field.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." ~ Dr. Seuss

He's right. And you can trust him. He's a Doctor.