#89 Live with Less

Why have a set of antique China dinnerware that you never use?   Why have fourteen pairs of shoes?  Why buy or build a 4,000 square foot house if the two or four or six of you with the kids can live contently and sufficiently in a 3,000 sq. ft or even a 2,000 sq.ft.?  What's the motivation behind buying or building a big house?    Why go shopping for more clothes if your closet is about to burst with dozens of clothing and what not?   Why go on a shopping spree on things you don't need?

Longing for happiness, joy, peace, and a rich and satisfying life is normal.  But those things aren't found in stuff.  Some people try to find fulfillment in new adventures, new hobbies, new friends, vacations, purchases, keeping up with the Joneses, but there's no ultimate fulfillment in stuff.  A new toy or a new experience may give you a temporary high in this illusion of fulfillment, but within days or weeks, you'll be left with that sense that something's still missing.

The more stuff you purchase and collect, the more time, energy, money, stress, it will take for you to maintain or repair or secure those things.   What's the difference between a family of four roughing it in a tent or camper for a week vs. the same family of four living in a big house?   Going camping requires to bring only the essentials, allowing you to actually spend more time with each other -- the important stuff.  Living in a big home makes each person to live more isolated from one another, with more responsibilities to maintain and repair things such as garage, sink, security system, computers, floor, heating or A/C, lawncare, and tons more.  More stuff means you have to work more to afford the lifestyle that was unnecessary to begin with.  People brought on their own stress.

Here's a few ideas.  What about giving away just a third of your closet, a third of your utensils, a third of your whatever, to other people?   Start with your bedroom or kitchen first.  Grab a big box, fill it up.  It's actually nice to have a closet with plenty of room.  It's much nicer to give those things away.  What about investing more?   If instead of buying a 3,000 sq.ft house, you instead live in a 2,000 sq.ft house, the difference in your monthly payment, in 25-35 years will be about one million dollars when invested. So, would you rather live in a simple sufficient home and have a million dollars to retire on, or would you rather spend more to show off to others people (who most likely don't give a darn or worth a darn) and have nothing to retire on?   A few people have asked us why we still drive our 2003 little Toyota Echo with 150K+ miles on it instead of getting and driving a much luxurious vehicle.  Well, for one, it's still working just fine with 35-38 miles per friggin gallon.  Two, ... why?   For what purpose?  To impress others?  Hah  :)   Dave Ramsey wrote, "People buy things they don't need with money they don't have to impress people they don't like."  LOL.

There's nothing inherently wrong with stuff, with having a big house, nice toys and gears, etc, but exactly, what's your focus on earth?  Can you imagine Jesus having to stress out about dozens of clothing items or the latest toys or what people think?   

Ecclesiastes 4:4 - "Most people are motivated for success because they envy their neighbors.  But this, too, is meaningless --like chasing the wind."

I Timothy 6:6,8 - "So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.  True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth."

#88 Delegate

When you have the courage and faith in delegating tasks to others, then you are a hundred steps ahead of everyone else.  If you ask your mom, she'll tell you that I'm a perfectionist by nature.  I'd spend hours and days on a project to make sure everything was right and perfect.   I would then review the final project over and over again until it's perfect.  When I worked on any patient, I would make sure every little detail got fixed just right, then double and triple checked, which often made me spent extra time with patients, which was a good thing, but made other patients waited longer than necessary.    Thankfully your dad learned about delegating tasks early on (a few years into it :) in his career, from the coaches we hired.

See, in my mind I always thought that "I can do it better myself, no one else will do it right, or I don't want to inconvenient others, or it’s faster to just do it myself."  I painfully learned that these were all just myths.  If you carefully select and hire the right person, train them well, empower them and trust them, and train them again, and then train them again, it will also save you time, spare you a great deal of stress, allow you to spend your time on other more important things, boost the overall productivity, allowing you to reach and exceed your goals in less time, with less effort, and with much less stress.

Aside from work, we also delegate "mundane" things that will help us to focus on the main things in our life: raising you, serving God, serving others, and fulfilling the bucket list together.   We delegate cleaning the bedrooms, the living room, the bathrooms, vacuuming the floor, dusting,  etc. to a housekeeper.  See, it would probably take a few hours to do all these, especially the dreaded and least fun one of all: cleaning the shower stall and toilets.  Sharon, our housekeeper comes just once or twice a month.  When she comes and does her magic, it's an amazing space to live in again.  In between her visits, we do our own mini cleaning of vacuuming, etc.  It greatly reduces the stress level in the house.  We have more time to spend with you  and time to do other fun things we enjoy doing together.

We also delegate lawncare, ironing of clothes, and a few other things to other people.  These people were very grateful that we're using their services.  We were even more grateful.  See, when you delegate, you employ people.  You make more time for more productivity in exchange for your resources (money) to people.

#44 You Can Do Whatever You Need to Do In Life Through Christ

When you experience moments in life that make you want to say this like, "This is too hard,  I don't think I can do this," know that God will not call you to do anything He will not be enable and empower you to do.  God is love and He never changes.  J. Meyer observes, "Although God never authors bad things, He does use them for our spiritual growth.  For example, He may use a grouchy person to help us become more patient.  God did not cause the person to be grouchy, but neither does He remove them from our life when we asked Him to.  Instead, He uses them to change us!"

"I can do whatever I need to in in life through Christ." ~ Philippians 4:13

"Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us." ~ Romans 8:37

These shall be one of your morning and evening affirmations.

#24 Success and Happiness

Sweethearts, many people are so obsessed with these three things: money, fame, and power.  Greatness has nothing to do with being beautiful, being popular, or even being wealthy.

Imagine this.  Professional basketball players (NBA) make millions of dollars per year, which translates to over $500+ per hour income if they were to work a 40 hours per week  job.  Per hour!   If you put yourselves in their shoes, these pro players have everything that most people can only dream:  they are über famous with tons of die-hard fans around the world, they drive expensive cars, living in multiple mansions, fly private jets, wear designer clothes, many are good-looking, and many worked hard to get to where they are today.  Yet, many have broken marriages, committed suicides, involved in drugs and narcotics, broken relationships, depression, etc.

Now, there is nothing wrong with being wealthy, being popular, being successful, or being beautiful.  In fact, your dad always says that the only people who say "money can't buy happiness" are most likely people who are poor themselves.   Money is not the root of all evil.  The love of money IS.  If you are poor, you are a burden to others, but if you have money, then you can take care of your family, go on vacations with your loved ones, live comfortably, and have the opportunity and ability to help other people.

But what makes life miserable is when you ignore life's important ingredients.  The important things that make up a great life are peace of mind, pure joy, great relationships, love, the blessings of health, and especially being in good standing with God.

#18 Blame or Claim?

Some people choose to blame things in their life. Some people instead claim things in their life. They blame the government, the driver, the neighbor, the teacher, the doctor, the salary, God, the system, etc. It doesn't change things whatsoever, sadly.

Those who claim, instead, claim greatness. They take charge of their life and move on. They don't dwell. They are not stuck on the vicious cycle of blaming. They move forward and claiming more and more out of life's greatest joys. They claim their life back and make necessary changes.

So, think of three things you always put blame on, be it your performance at school or work, be it your relationships, be it your health, ...and ask these questions:
"So, what's next?"
"What three great things come out of these three things?"
"Where will I be one week and one year from today?"

#11 Be Unrealistic

Sweethearts, realistic people are human beings afraid to dream large dreams because they fear disappointment.  Your mom and dad admire the unrealistic folks like Ford or Disney or Gandhi or Wright Brothers who chose to ignore what others called impossible or unrealistic.

Set big goals - and then make them ten times bigger.  It's amazing how God has helped us put our dreams and goals together. Abram and Sarai had to faithfully believe in unrealistic things (they were really old when God told them that he would be the Father of the nations, and she would be princess, giving birth to a child soon) before they could see it happen.

Parting of the Red Sea? Unrealistic. Jericho's wall came down after circling it seven times?  Unrealistic. Solomon's wisdom and wealth?   Unrealistic.   A transportation thingy without horses?  Unrealistic. Human flies in the air? Unrealistic.  Female AND black with networth over $1 billion? Unrealistic.

Only those who set big brave unrealistic dreams have the privilege to have unbelievable life.

People with great dreams in their heart are so mightily scared by their great dreams that they have to kneel down and pray to God to give them strength and resources so that these dreams become reality.