If it’s true that you are what you eat and you become what you read, I may be in trouble! Or perhaps my eating an apple a day and the books I’ve been reading will help create a better me. I have no doubt.

I hated reading when I was a kid. As a matter of fact, I do not remember reading a complete novel until 9th grade which was The Pearl, by John Steinbeck. That book changed my whole perception of reading and I’ve enjoyed reading since.

Good books are those that help you in some way. They do not have to be best sellers. If you are feeling burned out, unmotivated, bummed out, find a book to read. It is one of the best steps to staying motivated and preventing being stuck.

Here’s my best reads over the last year:

• Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive by John Eldredge. Wow. One of the greatest deceptions today is revealed here. It is something I am still internalizing. I am re-reading much of it again as it has challenged a paradigm widely accepted as truth.
• How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gill. This caught my eye and found it interesting. It’s a quick read. I got the sense that the author really didn’t finish the story. I kind of had a feeling that maybe there will be another part to come. I have to wonder if Gill is still working at Starbucks.
• Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don’t by Michael Losier. I read somewhere that this book was one of the best at explaining what most of us by now have heard is The Secret. Definitely found this book beneficial. It best illustrates the truth that if you change your thinking, everything changes!
• Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! by Phil Town. I saw the author on CNBC and what he said about investing in stocks made huge sense. I’ve always had some money in mutual funds (bad idea), but always thought that investing in a great company (gooood idea) was too risky. Read it for yourself to find out why I will look for stocks to put my money in from here on out.
• The Tao of Warren Buffett: Warren Buffett’s Words of Wisdom by Mary Buffett and David Clark.
• When God Whispers Your Name by Max Lucado. Lucado is my author of the year. Better than any source I’ve known, his ability to take the Christian spiritual perspective and make it relevant is beyond any other I’ve read or heard. Read this book and be encouraged.
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Farriss. If you haven’t read this one, you certainly have probably heard about it. I saw him on The Big idea and his story intrigued me. Lots of good suggestions on simplifying your life and enlightenment on pursuing your passionate interests. But I find his minimalist lifestyle not to my liking.
• The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey. Possibly the best action you can take for gaining higher personal achievement is getting control of your finances. Dealing with debt is very important. I love Ramsey’s words he has become famous for, If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.
  

Each book has contributed new ways of thinking about things. I encourage you to pick out a book that interests you. Relax and spend a few minutes a day reading. It will make a difference.

Living debt free is a priority that has become a realization as the years have passed. Maybe more than anything else, keeping free of debt is providing freedom and peace. It was a difficult road getting there.

After graduating college and getting married, there was a desire to get “things”. I see this in young singles and married people even today. The first thing is usually the new car which is followed by things needed for the new car. Then comes the new home. That brings with it all the things you now have to have. New furniture, appliances, tvs, stereo systems, etc. This of course is often financed with credit cards and loans. It isn’t long before you wake-up a few years down the road and find that your debt has enslaved you. Worse yet, you experience a loss of a job or a divorce and the debt which allowed you to purchase these things that brought you such apparent immediate happiness is now bringing you lots of emotional stress and misery.

It isn’t like I wasn’t warned and advised to stay out of debt. The first poor financial decision made in my 20s was the trading in of a vehicle that was paid off for a new Jeep CJ5. The payment was $265 per month, which at the time was a big payment (1981). That amount alone, invested in a few stocks over the course of the loan, would have produced enough return to fund a retirement. All that was needed was an understanding of the principle of compounding interest and an ability to deny instant gratification.

In the last year, I read Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. I highly recommend it. It gives a great blueprint for getting yourself financially fit.

Here are four decisions I have made to help create a financially secure future and a peaceful way of life while getting there. I am encouraging my kids to do the same. You would be doing yourself a favor as well to at least consider these options for yourself.

1. Paying cash. Period.
2. Focusing on paying off remaining debt. Keeping this a priority is a key to maintaining peace of mind. I am finding increased freedom directly proportionate to decreasing debt levels.
3. Creating a fund for emergencies. Money Magazine reported that 78% of us will have a major negative event in any given ten year period. Most of us have some kind of minor emergency yearly! The initial amount is $1000.
4. Begin investing again, wisely. (I will be reporting what I am doing here, with results. Posts to come!)

I would have never thought that living a debt free lifestyle would be one of the beliefs found with the advent of turning 50. If I could just find a way to help my 20 year olds feel the same way!

Holiness in a Bathrobe by Max Lucado

When your world touches God’s world, the result is a holy moment. The moment might happen on a Sunday during communion or on a Thursday at the skating rink; by a burning bush or by a feed trough. When and where don’t matter. What matters is that holy moments occur. Daily. And I’d like to talk to you about the holiest of those moments. I’d like to talk to you about the holiest moment of your life.

No, not your birth. Not your wedding. Not the birth of a child. I’m talking about the holiest moment of your life.

I’m talking about the sacred hour. No, not your baptism or your christening. Not your first Communion or your first date. I’ve a different moment in mind.

It happened this morning. Right after you awoke. Right there in your house. Did you miss it? — (I’ll bet you did.) – Let me recreate the scene.

The alarm rings. Your wife pokes you or your husband nudges you or your mom or dad shakes you. And you wake up. You already hit the snooze button three times; hit it again and you’ll be late. You’ve already asked for five more minutes … five different times; ask again and you’ll get water poured on your head.

The hour has come. Daybreak has broken. So, with a groan and a grunt, you throw back the covers and kick a warm foot out into a cold world. It’s followed by a reluctant companion. You lean up and sit on the edge of your bed and stare at the back of your eyelids. You tell them to open, but they object. You pry them apart with your palms and peek into the room.

(The moment isn’t holy yet, but it’s almost here.)

You stand. At that moment, everything that will hurt during the course of the day hurts. It’s as if the little person in your brain that’s in charge of pain needs to test the circuits before you make it to the bathroom.

“Back pain?”

“Check.”

“Stiff neck?”

“Check.”

“High school football knee injury.”

“Still hurting.”

“Flaky scalp?”

“Still itching.”

“Hay fever reaction?”

“Achoo!”

With the grace of a pregnant elephant, you step toward the bathroom. You wish there was some way to turn on the light slowly, but there isn’t. So you slap on the spotlight, blink as your eyes adjust, and step up to the bathroom sink. You are approaching the sacred. You may not even know it, but you have just stepped on holy tile. You are in the inner sanctum. The burning bush of your world.

The holiest moment of your life is about to occur. Listen. You’ll hear the fluttering of angel’s wings signaling their arrival. Trumpets are poised on heaven’s lips. A cloud of majesty encircles your bare feet. Heaven’s hosts cease all motion as you raise your eyes and ….

(Get ready. Here it comes. The holy moment is nigh.)

Cymbals clash. Trumpets echo in sacred halls. Heaven’s children race through the universe scattering flower petals. Stars dance. The universe applauds. Trees sway in choreographed adulation. And well they should, for the child of the King has awakened.

Look in the mirror. Behold the holy one. Don’t turn away. The image of perfection is looking back at you. The holy moment has arrived.

I know what you are thinking. You call that “holy”? You call that “perfect”? You don’t know what I look like at 6:30 A.M. No, but I can guess. Hair matted. Pajamas wrinkled. Belly bulging. Dried out lips. Pudgy eyes. A face that could scare a dog.

“Anything but holy,” you say. “Give me an hour and I’ll look holy. Give me some coffee, some makeup. Give me a toothbrush and a hairbrush, and I’ll make this body presentable. Then take me to the Holy of Holies. Then I’ll make heaven smile.”

Ah, but there’s where you’re wrong. You see, what makes the morning moment so holy is its honesty. What makes the morning mirror hallowed is that you are seeing exactly what god sees. And who God loves.

No makeup. No pressed shirts. No power ties. No layers of images. No status jewelery. Just unkempt honesty. He doesn’t love your title. Your style; your accomplishments.

Just you.

“Love,” wrote one forgiven soul, “covers over a multitude of sins.” Sounds like God’s love.

“He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy,” wrote another. (Heb 10:14)

Underline the word perfect. Note that the word is not better. Not improving. Not on the upswing. God doesn’t improve; he perfects. What does the perfect person lack?

Now I know there is a sense in which we are imperfect. We still err. We still stumble. We still do exactly what we don’t want to do. And that part of us is, according to the verse, “being made holy.”

But when it comes to our position before God, we’re perfect. When he sees each of us, he see one who has been made perfect through the One who is perfect — Jesus Christ.

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Please don’t miss the impact of this verse. When God sees us, he also sees Christ. He sees perfection! Not perfection earned by us, mind you, but perfection paid for by him.

“For God caused Christ, who himself knew nothing of sin, actually to be sin for our sakes, so that in Christ we might be made good with the goodness of God.”

Note the last four words: “the goodness of God.” God’s goodness is your goodness. You are absolute perfection. Flawless. Without defects or mistakes. Unsullied. Unrivaled. Unmarred. Peerless. Virgin pure. Undeserved yet unreserved perfection.

No wonder heaven applauds when you wake up. A masterpiece has stirred.

“Shh,” whispers the stars, “look at the wonder of that child.”

“My!” gasp the angels, “What a prodigy God has created.”

So while you groan, eternity gasps in wonder. As you stumble, angels are star struck. What you see in the mirror is in reality a morning miracle. Holiness in a bathrobe. Go ahead and get dressed. He has already seen you as you really are. And in His book, you are perfect. The holiest moment of your life. Those other moments are special. They sparkle with reverence, but they do not compare to this one moment.

*****************************************************************

This is Chapter 25 in Max Lucado’s book, In the Eye of the Storm. I think it has been one of the best I have ever read. Maybe because it is so relative to things I have been thinking about over the past few years. Religion was missing something to me. My beliefs were shallow.

As a matter of fact, stuff like this made me feel uncomfortable. I ignored it. It seemed fake. Lucado has an uncanny ability to enlighten scripture and God’s truth and make it applicable to life here and now.

Here’s the point. I’ve found that my previous beliefs and perceptions regarding religion and spirituality were really far from truth. Kind of like the story. God’s view of our lives is vastly different than our own.

Could our beliefs be clouded in other areas as well? Our understandings misguided too? They were for me. They are for me. Max Lucado’s writing is clarifying. I’ve never quite understood Biblical writing in these realistic perspectives.

Keep this in mind tomorrow morning while you get your first glance of your mug in the mirror. What you see, what you understand may not be as it really is.

I read this book by Ken Blanchard many moons ago and to this day, I believe it to contain the secrets on how to be the very best manager. It is a very quick read, but the contents will take much longer after finishing the book to digest. I might also add that its principles suggested for managers are applicable to being the best parent, friend, co-worker or person as well, thus being an interesting and beneficial read for all.

Amazingly, it was first published in the early 1980s. (This was described in the historic time period known as an Old School decade by those that have lived in the time period I call Pampered. (And they wore them too.) So it’s not like a new, fangled idea. And I am here to say from personal experiences, it has not been accepted or implemented in many of the businesses I have worked for or my friends have been employed by….and worse yet, when I had my own business, I often fell short on too many occasions with the simple principles. While they may be simple, they are hard to do!

Here’s an example that often (still) prevails today:

He had seen many tough managers whose organizations seemed to win while their people lost.

Sometimes, the bottom line is the bottom line. That seems to be the foundation of most management teams. Raises, promotions, pats on the back, kudos, etc. all too often are directly tied to the manager’s handling of his bottom line, which is the company’s profit.

Unfortunately, the manager is too often being evaluated by an upper management that fosters a win/lose management style. They are often being placed in situations where if they do not get their people to produce immediately, their jobs are lost. They take the easier ways out and manage from a power, threatening position.

My belief is when this is happening, we often judge them as an uncaring, less than fair supervisor, described often with colorful adjectives added with the use or mention of their names. In most instances I think most bosses are good people. The problem is they are good people under tremendous stress.

There are a few companies that have found the secret, the real deal, produces a win/win style:

Effective managers manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence.

The One Minute Manager lays out the blueprint to accomplish this. In my opinion, the foundation is layed with the following One Minute principal:

FIND THE GOOD AND PRAISE IT!

What? That’s it? Sure is. But try to do this under stress. That’s where I’ve fallen short.

It’s so simple and it works powerfully. Instead of pointing out the areas where a team member is falling short, spend most of your time catching them doing something right, and you will begin to understand the secret. Watch your son or daughter and praise them for doing good! Teachers, spend your day looking for anything your students are doing that is taking them in a successful direction. It yields powerful results.

Reading The One Minute Manager should be required of all high school grads, teachers, MANAGERS, Senior managers, VPs, owners and parents. It’s a book I plan to look at again. It’s a great lesson that will improve you as a person.