At the moment of inspiration you have a choice. Make the right choice.

The world will tell you many things. Your inspiration means nothing.  It will help no one.  It is an idea, a farce- nothing more.  This is what the world will say.

Should you listen? You can do whatever you want.  It’s your choice.

What if you don’t listen? What if you believe that inspiration could do something?  Change something?  Someone?

It could. Just under a year ago I was inspired to write.  The world said no, my mind said no.  My heart said yes.

So I started to write. Here was my first post.  Since that time, this blog has grown some.  It’s still a small blog, but nearly every day I get a note from someone who has been touched, inspired, changed.  Thank you for the notes!

So here’s the deal. At the Moment of Inspiration, you have a choice.  You can listen to what the world says (your inspiration will lead to nothing, go nowhere) or you can make a another choice.

The choice to do what you know is right. The choice to go against the odds.  The choice to believe when you can’t see.  You can make the choice to follow your gut and go down a different road.

I don’t know what this looks like for you. Maybe its something like this.  Probably its something different.  Whatever it is there is a moment that you have a decision to make.  At The Moment of Inspiration, you have a choice.  Make the right choice!

Thoughts?  Love to hear in the comments below.  Why it is so difficult to move past the moment of inspiration and so easy to listen to the voices of the world?

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First there was 29 Signs You’re Having a Love Affair with Twitter (or Facebook).  Now this…

Little Timmy Tweets a lot, tweet, tweet, tweet
Tweeting in the shower and tweeting in his sleep
Tweeting cause his broccoli is green, green green
Tweeting when a song makes him sing sing sing

Little Timmy Tweets a lot, tweet tweet tweet
Tweeting on an ice cream run, sweet sweet sweet
Tweeting while he’s walking cross a busy street
Tweeting cause it makes him feel oh so neat

Tweeting in the morning, tweeting at lunch,
tweeting bout the waffles that he ate for brunch.
Tweeting in the evening, tweeting at night.
Tweeting bout the dude that he thinks he can fight.

Little Timmy Tweets a lot, bout to take a nap.
Start to get sleepy so he tweets about that.
Nap ends early, so he tweets that too.
Little Timmy, what would Twitter do with out you?!!

Know any Little Timmy Tweets a Lots?  Let us know about it in the comments… Are you one?  Let’s get a confession baby!

New to TheWayItCouldBe.com? This is a site promoting cultural impact through personal and spiritual transformation. Post topics include creativity, family, faith, culture, social media and leadership. Feel free to browse around by category. If you dig the site, you can subscribe for free email updates by simply entering your email address in the sidebar out to the right.

In Eastern Europe people of all walks of life live as though it could be their last meal. Thousands walk the streets in search of belonging and surviving.  It tells us of the injustice in our world, that even kids could be born into poverty and not have a chance really.   Even in my city, little ones might not be warm enough at home or have food every day, so their education becomes an afterthought, survival takes a front seat.  Others are strapped with diseases, addictions, hardships, you name it.

What does the church do about it? For some, a lot.  A sad thing in the past is when churches say this:  “We will pray for them and preach the gospel.”  Man, I don’t think prayer is bad at all.  In fact, I believe it is the starting point and everything hinges around that very thing.  Still, if the effort stops there, it seems like we fall short.  I don’t think preaching the gospel is bad either.  In fact, I believe if we’re not doing that, we are still falling short and missing the point.  Seems to be a third ingredient missing though….  Maslow may have been on to something when he said people have basic needs that must be met before they can worry about other needs.  Not sure.

There is a school I know of with a huge church next door.  We asked the school what the church has done to reach out to the school and they said basically, “come in and preach the gospel to the kids, then roll out.”  Really?  Again, its not that doing so is wrong or whatever, it just seems incomplete to me.

I think back to the story where Jesus is teaching thousands of people out in the countryside and the people are so into what he is saying that they are there all day, with no food.  His team comes to him and says, “lets send these guys away so they can go eat.”  Jesus looks at them and basically says, “you feed them.”  They take what small resources they have, pray about it, and next thing you know every one gets fed. Is he saying that the people have a physical need as well as a spiritual need? Looks like it.

Three ingredients seem important:  sharing the good news of the message of Christ, praying and meeting people’s physical needs.    Take out the gospel and you just have a social service.  Take out prayer and there is no power or often even provision.  Take out the physical need and we totally miss it.  It’s like in high school when I tried to make cookies and didn’t have flour, they just don’t taste the same!

So what does this look like in life? I’m not sure really.  But it could mean the guy at the bank whose marriage is falling apart may need help with his marriage.  The single mom down the street may just need someone to help her with her car so she can get to work.  The kid in the neighborhood may need a coat to make it through the cold night since his parents can’t afford to turn on the heat.

What can you do this week to help meet someone else’s need?  What if you prayed for a way to multiply the limited resources you have?  What if a door was opened up for you to then share the hope of Jesus?

Love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Caption please?

This picture of my little girl needs your caption in the comments!

New to TheWayItCouldBe.com? This is a site promoting cultural impact through personal and spiritual transformation. Post topics include creativity, family, faith, culture, social media and leadership. Feel free to browse around by category. If you dig the site, you can subscribe for free email updates by simply entering your email address in the sidebar out to the right.

Jesus was in reality the perfect expression of God on earth. To get a picture of who God really is, we can look to the life of Jesus.  On the contrary, many of us look to a variety of different places to form our view of God: who our parents told us He was, our past religious experience at church, our perceptions of weirdo Christians. 

This is totally normal for us to look to these authority figures to shape our views on God.  Tragically, when we look to these places to form our beliefs, many of us around the world are extremely let down by what we’ve found. Hear are a few words to describe the God some of us have found by looking around: Hateful.  Racist.  Boring.  Lifeless.  Unjust.

If you find yourself in this boat, you probably got there for a good reason. Perhaps someone or some group of people misled you, mistreated you or basically misrepresented who God really is (all people are imperfect)!  Or maybe you just haven’t yet met the real God.

So you have a few choices: One, believe that this (your current experience with God) is in fact who God really is, and go on with your life.  Hold on to your disappointment forever (like this) and risk being the bitter old person so many of us know.  Two, take another look.   If you decide to take another look and move past your previous let-downs, I would like to suggest that the real Jesus will not let you down if you truly seek him out with an open heart!  Take another look at Jesus, and you may just come to know the real God. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind:

He loves you regardless of your past mistakes. There is absolutely nothing you can do to make him love you more.  Nothing (Why I’ll Never Be a Super-Christian)

He is passionately pursuing you, like a father seeking out his missing child.  He won’t make you choose him (that wouldn’t be real love would it?), but He awaits for you to turn and come home to him.

He wants a new life for you.  Not one of rules or empty outward acts, but rather a passionate life of purpose, relationship and meaning.

He wants all of you. Surrendering your life to Jesus involves submitting your whole  self to him, bad habits and all.  Ask him to heal you and help you.   Ask Him to take all of you.

He wants you to be real with him. Confess your frustration and ask him to forgive you.  Maybe you need to forgive whoever it is that rubbed you wrong.  Maybe you are really mad at the person that represented God in your life (Tips For Forgiving Your Father).  Address Jesus as you would a person and he will make himself known to you when you come with a humble heart.

He expresses himself in the context of community.  Ask him to lead you to other believers that will encourage you.  Keep asking and step out in faith and look for a local church where you can really connect into community.

He is revealed in Scripture. Take a real look at the life of Jesus.  Most of the bad expressions of who God is today are contradictory to the Scriptures.

He is not religion.  He is not American cultural Christianity.  He is not dead (Jesus Goes Jogging). He is the son of God and he is the perfect expression of God on earth.  He has completely transformed my life, hundreds of friends lives and millions of people around the world.  He is ready to transform you too!

What step can you take today to get past the past and move on towards a life-changing relationship with God?  Do it… Why are many of us are let down by our past experience with God?  Love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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When I was a kid, I built forts- inside, outside, underground, you name it. I’m not sure what I thought I needed protection from; no one was invading our neighborhood or anything.  I think I just liked to build them and be creative.  We built them in the woods behind our house and would spend days cutting branches, moving limbs and building.  I would go out there and read books and hang out with friends and daydream.

Once we built a fort underground in my friends backyard. We dug this giant pit, then laid boards over the top and basically made an underground cave.  We called ourselves the “Gophers” and made shirts and everything.  It was a pretty exclusive club; that’s about all I can tell you about it.

Its just funny thinking back at all the crazy stuff we did, most of which came out of our right-brained creativity.  I think a lot of us lose that as we get older.  We develop a lifestyle that costs a certain amount, then we have a job to try to pay for that amount.  Its pretty basic, and it’s the way of life.  I just can’t help but wonder what would happen if we allowed that right brain creativity to come out again.  If we led other people to dream as well, hearing the things from our Creator that may not normally make sense to us.  Being like Him as we also create, build and venture out.

Could it be that life and to-do-lists have quenched that right side of your brain? Think about it.  What if you allowed your creativity to have a little more room?  What if you led other people to do the same thing in your place of influence, giving them a chance to dream a little?  What would this look like for you in real life?  Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

This was pretty stinkin’ funny…

Career Dancer? Thoughts?

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Comments? Why is it so easy to let time go by without doing something special for those we care the most about? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below…

New to TheWayItCouldBe.com? This is a site promoting cultural impact through personal and spiritual transformation. Post topics include creativity, family, faith, culture, social media and leadership. Feel free to browse around by category. If you dig the site, you can subscribe for free email updates by simply entering your email address in the sidebar out to the right.

I started blogging consistently in January of 2010, with a goal of becoming a better communicator over the course of the year. I still have a LONG way to go, but have picked up a few tips along the way. Writing is a skill that can be developed significantly over time with intent and a little bit of practice.

If you are a casual writer, author, blogger or maybe you just journal or dream about writing, this post is for you!  Here are 8 Things You Can Do Today To Be a Better Writer:

Write. Just write. Even when you don’t feel like it. Even when you don’t think you have anything to say.  You think pro athletes feel like working out every day?  Heck no, but they do it anyway, even when they don’t feel like it!  Writing is the same way.  Sure, you will have moments when you are completely inspired to write, but probably not every day.  The best way to get better at writing is to…write.

Get a platform. Find a way to get your writing out so that others can read it.  Start a blog, join a writer’s group, utilize social media.  Once you have a platform, you can truly begin to have fun and grow as you write more and more (Check out Why I Blog- a short video from Seth Godin on blogging and growing as a writer).  When you get a platform, your audience and their level of interaction will help you determine the level of effectiveness in your writing.

Clarify your values and write from these values. Planted deep within you are certain values.  These values affect your decisions, relationships, and how you decide to spend your time here on earth (An example of a value- family.  Family is the most important thing in the world to me.  If I succeed at everything else in life, but fail my family, I consider my life a failure. Therefore, my value of family affects the way I view the world and the way I write).  Some of your values have been there a lifetime, others you have developed over the span of your life.  Identify these values and allow them to serve as a backbone for your writing. Here is a post on identifying values.

Tap into your passions. Passions and values overlap.  Values are the non-negotiable, most important things in your life. Passions are what you love to do.  What are you most passionate about?  Write about that.  Wind sailing?  Photography? Investing in leaders?  Write about your passions (Ex. If one of your core values is family, and you love photography- perhaps those are connected.  You can capture families with your pictures. I know a guy that recently quit his job to focus on his photography business, so he could spend more time with his family).  Whether it’s photography or anything else, write about what you are passionate about!

Write about your struggles or interests.  If you write about something that you are genuinely interested in or concerned about, you will have a blast writing about it!  Also, your readers will sense your interest and stay engaged with you.  If you write about something that will help a lot of other people solve a problem, then you are really on to something!

Determine your intent. As you write through your core values and passions, what is it that you are hoping to accomplish? Are your writing to create awareness about a particular passion?  To earn an income and drive traffic to your blog?  To inspire others to action?  What is your purpose for writing?  Clarify your intent.  Beginning with the end in mind will allow you to gain focus and be a more effective writer.

Ask for involvement from readers. Don’t just write your opinions.  Engage people, ask questions.  Hear what people are saying and even give them a voice every so often by posting their responses.  You’ll gain an edge when your writing becomes about THEM, and not about YOU.  Ask for this involvement by seeking feedback and comments when you write.

Call for action. Write in way that calls people to action.  Challenge readers to do something as a result of what they’ve read. This is when your writing has the opportunity for serious impact.  Think about how your words can actually inspire someone to be different, to live differently- pretty powerful stuff!

Writers, which of these 8 things do you connect with the most? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments! I’d like to challenge you to pick one or two things to work on, then develop a few action steps that you can take to grow in that area.  What are other things we can do to be better writers?  Love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

We read a lot about the continued rising popularity of social media sites like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and how these ONLINE tools can be utilized for a wild variety of purposes.  We also hear the opposite- that social media can be a time suck for many and that we may even be in for a Social Crash at some point (Chris Brogan).

We know for some of us, time spent ONLINE can have little effect in our OFFLINE lives (or even a negative effect).  One argument against social media is that every second, minute or hour ONLINE on Twitter or elsewhere is a second, minute or hour we are not spending OFFLINE in our lives.

While I realize the dangers of living behind social media veils, I do believe we can learn to have a healthy ONLINE balance and even do some good in the OFFLINE world.  Here are 7 Ways To Turn ONLINE Influence Into OFFLINE Impact:

1. Create quality content. With literally millions of blogs and tens of thousands of new social media users each day, there is a lot of mediocrity out there and even more straight junk. Give people a reason to read your stuff over all the other content out there (the white sea of noise that is social media).

2. Create an audience. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Not in Social media! You can create all kinds of good content, but if you dont have an audience, the only one admiring your work will be your mom (cause she has to) and your cat (cause you feed her). Utilize your network of relationships to
build an audience.

3. Be authentic. In addition to good content, people want to get to know you. Use good judgment, but be honest about who YOU really are. Be open. Be you. Be authentic and people will want to mirror your example both online and off.

4. Engage your followers. At the risk of stating the obvious, your followers are real people. Real offline lives, real offline needs, real passions.  Talk to them.  Have a conversation.  Turn the mega phone around every now and then and listen to what people are saying.  Listening is one of the MOST important things you can do learn in regards to leading others!  Engage, engage, engage your followers and you will earn trust and make them want to respond to your calls for action.

5. Make raving fans. Add value to the lives of your followers by meeting a need that they may have.  Honor them by going over and above to give them killer quality experience when they engage with you online.  Make them laugh.  Make them cry.  Make them feel normal.  Make them think about life offline.  Make them raving fans.

6. Find offline opportunities for impact. Without real, offline opportunities for impact, you are simply spinning your wheels! Get out in the community, identify a need, then figure out what is needed to meet that need.

7. Give a call to action. If you want to have offline impact, you must give consistent calls to action. you Have to lead your online audience to take an action step and do something. Even if you are just challenging others belief system, always give some sort of call to action.

Ok, so here’s MY call to action: Use your online influence this week to have some sort of offline impact. It may be leading someone to help someone, treat a friend differently, create awareness around a cause, whatever. If you decide on something specific that you will do as a result of reading this post, drop a line in the comments and let us know about it!  What are other ways to turn online influence into offline impact?