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Holidays are great for all kinds of reasons: get to spend time with those you love; get to do things you wouldn’t normally do; get to be lazy for a change. However I think one of the beiggest benefits is that they give you time to think.

We nearly all find it hard to find time to think. If you are always on the go you probably find that the end of the day (the traditional time for doing your thinking) is just the time when you don’t have any energy for thinking. I like to put my feet up like anyone else and I know that the T.V. can take over when things have been tough in the day.

So holidays give you a real chance to stop and do some thinking and this thinking time can be really important.

Here are some things you might like to think about:

• What makes me happy?
• Where do I want to be in five years from now?
• What is my purpose in life?
• How do I want to help others?

Of course you probably have your own things to think about as well.

This thinking phase is very important and I think should be done before you write any goals.

What do you do if you don’t have a holiday coming up – find some time to do some thinking anyway. What about taking a day off and going somewhere quiet (in the past I’ve found churches or monasteries to be excellent places for this)? What about taking a few hours over the weekend to do some thinking? But I’d recommend getting this into your diary to make sure it happens.

Call me old fashioned but there is something about a hero that I like. I think we need more heroes and less villains who amuse us. Heroes are the people who make this world a better place to be in. Yes they have flaws and they make mistakes but we need heroes to make the world better.

Who is your hero? I guess we could get a very long list of very worthy people if you answered. But I want you to make sure there is at least one name on your list. That name should be your own.

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Taken from the book 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People this list represents what scientists have discovered about successful people.

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Quote:

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
Henry Ford

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Overview

What is it about “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” that makes you want to get up and help someone and how do they manage to achieve so much in so little time.

Introduction

Have you ever watched “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”? They build a house in record time to help a family in trouble.

I used to work in the construction industry so I know how hard it is to achieve what they do. It’s not just down to the numbers of people who work on the project – although this will help. It’s down to the way they get motivated for a project.

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One of those things that Jesus once said and I’ve always found quite a challenge in his advice about time management:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matt 6:34

It’s not that I’m prone to worrying but that it would be easy to believe Jesus was saying that planning ahead was a bad thing to do. I don’t think that this is what Jesus meant us to believe. Why would Jesus expect us not to make plans or have dreams about the future? Surely this is part of being human and something that is impossible to achieve. What business would every survive without a plan for the future? What family would ever manage without a calender and forward planning?

What I think Jesus meant was for us not to WORRY (e.g. get stressed about for no good reason) about tomorrow because if we take care of today tomorrow is already taken care of. If we do what is right today – if we make our plans and get ourselves organised and give ourselves time for what is important today then there will be no need to worry about tomorrow.

However working out what is right to do today is a big topic that can’t be addressed in just a few words – other than Jesus summation of the task of course – “Love God, Love your neighbour as yourself” (my paraphrase).

So if Jesus were leading a time management seminar He would point out the importance of getting the right things done today while planning for tomorrow so tomorrow takes care of itself.