A figure running on a treadmill that curves into a large wheel, resembling a hamster wheel and suggesting endless motion without progress.

Approval Addiction: The Performance Treadmill

Life, Principles, , , , , ,

Hi, my name is Justin, and I’m an approval addict.
There, I said it.

If you’ve ever found yourself rehearsing a conversation in your head for hours, wondering what someone thought of you after a meeting, or feeling inexplicably deflated when your work went unnoticed, you might know exactly what I’m talking about.

Some people call it people-pleasing. Others call it conflict avoidance. Some frame it as a performance treadmill. The hamster wheel. Different names, same thing: a deep, sometimes desperate need for others to validate that you’re on the right track. That you belong. That you’re wanted.

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The Stick That Stuck

Blog, Life, Principles, , , , , , , ,

What’s brown and sticky? A stick.

It’s a dumb joke, but it’s one of my faves. I am a dad after all.
It also happens to be the best metaphor I’ve found for something that has taken me years to name: the way our strengths and weaknesses are bound together, inseparable, like two ends of the same stick.

This post is a short introduction to the idea. My wife says I need to write a book, and she claims it will be a NYT best seller. She also married me, so her judgment is questionable. For now, a blog post will have to do. It’s a simple way to show how this little metaphor can help us live with more honesty, humility, and hope.

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Small Group Question Generation

Church, ,

This is me sharing a note of mine… forgive grammar/formatting or general lack of context.

Explanation thread:

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If he left the grave behind, so will I

Blog, Christianity, Faith, Life

If the stars were made to worship so will I
If the mountains bow in reverence so will I
If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I
For if everything exists to lift You high so will I
If the wind goes where You send it so will I
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I

My favorite part of that song.
The accurate depiction of the state of my free will combined with God’s sovereignty. If the oceans roar Your greatness, you can bet I will. If EVERYTHING exists to lift you high, that includes me.

…continue

Hurricane Florence webcams

My friend Brian Harden has some cameras streaming. This is within a mile of our house, if you want to see how things are holding up in that area.

http://www.happyhardens.com/

Kneeling – WWJD edition

Blog, Christianity, Principles, , , ,

First. I believe it is entirely possible to resent the players kneeling WITHOUT being racist. Many service men and women believe the flag is so much more than a symbol. And when the flag is “disrespected”, they may feel their service is disrespected. This is an extremely unfortunate side-effect of the protest, and I have never heard any of the players say otherwise.

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Goals, Shmoals

Blog, Life, Principles,

Howdy! Pardon me while I clear out the cobwebs in the blogging corner of this site.

Recently I’ve started following the work of James Clear. He seems to be (at least trying to be) a 21st century version of Stephen Covey or maybe John Maxwell. Coincidentally, today I came across this tweet:

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Plywood Poster Frame

Hobbies, Home Improvement, , , ,

I spent an amazon gift card to get this sweet x-wing schematics poster.

I didn’t want to hide the cool matte chalk-board-like finish behind a Plexiglass poster frame, so I built a plywood poster frame instead. Pretty happy with it, except I had to cut a half inch from the top and bottom of the poster to account for my mis-measurement. I measured once & cut twice. 😳🙄

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Pallet shelf with coat and key hooks

Hobbies, Home Improvement, Life As A Painter, , , ,

Another pallet venture. This is modified from some pictures we found on Pinterest. In those pictures, the ones that had coat hooks had them attached to the front piece of wood, but that won’t work for us since the door would open into them. Instead, we got some celing hooks to attach underneath, and a couple standard coat hooks to serve as decorative “key hooks”.

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