I am in a growth season of life. Part of growth is the fact that it includes short-term pain and that sucks. However, it’s worth the cost.
In this season, my focus has been on determining what the nuanced shifts are that are needed. When you first enter the growth mindset journey of life, the shifts are revolutionary, large, and clear. The difference between my son’s piano playing when he first started to now is astronomical to my ears.
However, the deeper and more mature you become at what you are focusing on, the clarity around the shifts becomes more elusive. One of the things that Dr. Ben Hardy shares is that the obstacle to the path of the greater goal is often the clarity of the path of the lesser goal.
When you are at an Olympian level of the skill that you want to master, determining the next steps becomes a greater challenge. Not any coach will do for Tiger Woods.
I’ve been in a season of solving what I call the 2% shift. There’s a lot that I am doing right, but if I want to be an Olympian in life, then I need to ask myself, “What is the 2% in my skillset of loving well and stewarding well?”
This morning, I received the gift of clarity. I’ve been developing a habit of reading specific adult books aloud to my son, Viktor. Usually, we go through 2-3 pages of easy yet thought-provoking books. We started with Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be by Steven Pressfield. Yes, I chose a book with swearing. I want to make Viktor comfortable with all words. Though he’s embarrassed to say “ass,” he’s proud to share what we’re reading with his caregivers.
I struggled to stick with the habit of doing this each day. The other night, after I finally remembered to do our reading, I said, “Yay! Glad we did that; it makes me feel like a great mom.” He replied, “You are a great mom.” Maybe I am trying too hard. But we problem-solved, and he suggested we try reading in the morning. So today, we experimented with a new format, turning reading short adult books into a morning gift.
This morning, we read the chapter, “A Lifetime, One Our At A Time.” It starts on page 58 of the book. Here’s the excerpt.
Can we put our ass where our heart wants to be if you’ve got a family, a job, a mortgage?
Yes.
The Muse does not count hours. She counts commitment. It is possible to be one hundred percent committed 10% of the time. The goddess understands.
James Patterson was creative director of J. Walter Thompson, the mega-ad agency of the fifties and sixties. His dream was to be a writer of fiction. He would come into the office every morning at six. He’d close his door and unlock it. For two hours, he wrote fiction. When the advertising day started, he opened his door and became a regular madman.
As of 2022, James Patterson’s books have sold three hundred million copies.
One hour a day is seven hours a week, thirty hours a month, 365 hours a year. Three hundred sixty-five hours is nine forty- hour weeks.
Nin forty-hour weeks is a novel. It’s two screenplays, maybe three.
In ten years, that’s ten novels or twenty movie Scripts.
You can be a full-time writer, one hour a day.
What is the key skill set of stewardship? Our relationship with commitment. Do not underestimate being an Olympian in the relationship of commitment. Showing up 100% in 2% moments over the years will create more momentum than we realize. Richard Foster said we overestimate what we can do in a year but underestimate what we can do in 10.
I got to teach Viktor what a mortgage is. Applying principles from the Opposite of Spoiled. We got to talk about practicing this 2-5 minute habit we are developing as an application of that chapter.
One of Viktor’s responsibilities in our home is to take care of the dishwasher. We discussed that it is more than just emptying and filling the dishwasher. It teaches him the habits of the consistent little things that will build a healthy and flourishing life like Daniel Son in The Karate Kid with waxing Mr. Miyagi’s cars.
I got to share how life is not all or nothing but little shifts and the both/and. I was inspired and gained clarity on some nuanced tweaks for my life. Including starting the disciplined process of writing down these thoughts versus just thinking them!
Let me measure my life by faithfulness versus success. It’s a more accurate way to gauge our lives. By that gauge, I am a good mom.
