Why Feb 1st is when you should make your New Year's resolutions

Many people fall into either one of three categories when it comes to New Year's resolutions. 

There are those who year after year enthusiastically commit to various audacious goals only to experience failure a few months in. The meant well, but it just didn't come together. "Well, if the Cubs can try again next year so can I" is the annual attitude.

There are also those refuse to set resolutions. "No one ever sticks with those. Who wants to feel like a failure?"

And then, similar to the existence of Big Foot, there supposedly is a group of people out there who indeed do keep resolutions. I always wondered if such people were successful because they set goals like, "I'm going to make sure to breath every day this year." But if the resolutions are actually more challenging then this, then I need to meet the Sasquatch so I can ask him what the secret to success is.

To set goals is a good and necessary endeavor, a discipline of the successful and prudent. I'd like to offer the suggestion that maybe the reason some fail at keeping resolutions is tied to when they are made: New Year's Eve. 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Just heard that Stephen Covey passed way today at 79. He was the author of many books, but two that I feel are must reads for anyone really but all leaders for sure: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8th Habit.

The 7 Habits are:

- Be proactive

- Begin with the end in mind

- Put first things first

- Think Win/Win

- Seek first to understand, then to be understood

- Synergize

- Sharpen the saw

As a student leader at Moody we read the 7 Habits together and it was incredibly impacting, becoming one of my all-time favorites. Even typing them out I want to go back and again reread the book.

If you've never read these books just go to Amazon and get them NOW!

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• The 8th Habit

This is a video clip of Stephen Covey teaching on "Do the Big Rocks first" - a concept from the Put First Things First habit. One of my favorites:

Did you fall for yesterday's Back to the Future scam?

Oh Back To The Future.

You are up there with Ferris, the Breakfast Club and Ghostbusters as movies that inspired my generation's mindset (probably explains a lot about my weirdness). You also inspired us to skateboard more than Tony Hawk ever could and to play guitar before we ever heard of Guitar Hero. And though hardly any of us had ever seen or heard of a DeLorean before you (just admit it), nothing can take your place in our minds when that word is by chance uttered.

So yesterday was a big day.

It started slow but then grew like wildfire on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Yesterday was the day that Doc set the time machine to in Back to the Future II:

Obviously anyone who grew up with these movies would get instantly excited and then share the big news. I did. It was like an instant reaction: BOOM! RETWEET! RESHARE! REPIN!

Thing is...it was a scam.

How to daily keep up on 125+ different blogs

Last week I shared a large list of many of the blogs that I follow on a regular basis. The type of blogs I peruse are normally in the topic range of ministry, tech, culture, leadership, art/creativity, theology/Bible, and then various people who inspire and challenge me. If you still haven't checked out Seth Godin's blog, you are missing out! He's had some real killer posts lately.

All in all, I follow over 125 different blogs, for the most part on a daily basis. It's not impossible, it's actually pretty easy. Here's how you do it:

Exciting new part of the Moss fam's journey

In the last couple "Week In Review" posts I've mentioned that big news was coming in regards to what's going on with our family. Well, here is:

No, we are NOT expecting another child. =)

This past Sunday at New Life's Lincoln Park campus, Pastor Mark announced that I would be stepping in to take over for him as Teaching Pastor.  Jeannette & I will be joining with Rick & Sylvia Allen to lead the location and bring the gospel to the Lincoln Park area. My primary responsibilities will include teaching/preaching on Sundays, but also to provide leadership in various areas of the church and to help build up the community.

We've been attending NLLP pretty consistently since February. To say it's an understatement that we are excited about this would be an incredible understatement. The people at LP are AMAZING! There are such great people serving and making things happen, and we are humbled and grateful to be able to join in with them.  

Yes, I'll still be working at Logos and teaching at Moody, to answer the expected questions. Logos is my primary job and I love it, being able to travel the country helping people get equipped for Bible study. I'm fortunate to be able to do both. Going into next semester I'm rearranging my teaching schedule at Moody to only be teaching one day (Mondays), so we're going to see how that goes. 

Because of a couple previous commitments in the church and other things, the official transition/start isn't until around Thanksgiving. Between now and then though I'll be teaching most evenings during the 5pm service and also a couple times in the 10am service. 

We are excited, pumped, freaked out, little nervous, but are so ready and anticipating great things to come!!! Without listing all the names here, there are so many people who have carried us through to this point in the journey. "Thank you" seems inadequate, adding "we love you" still not enough. But I feel both very deeply.

Thankful for yesterday, in awe of today, dreaming about the future.

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

It's worth your time to check these blogs out

Supposedly, there are 152 million blogs on the internet. "What in the world is a blog?" you might ask (please don't ask what the internet is). It is basically a way to share information. That's a pretty short, unsexy definition, but it works.  

Blogs can be a way for people to record their daily ongoings and feelings, or they can be a means for corporations to share about their products and vision. There's pretty much a blog out there for any area of life, and any nuance is passionately detailed and received by those who care. 

I follow about 135+ different blogs. Some are written by people that I know, most by people I've heard of. Some have to do with ministry, some with culture, some with techie news, and some are just for fun. Here's a breakdown of some of the blogs I follow that would be worth your time to check them out: 

Learning perspective from a 4yr old

Walking the Ocean City NJ boardwalk, Baylee and I were headed toward Wonderland at the north end of the dock. It's a kid's amusement type place. A local I'd met earlier in the day told me about it, but also said they thought it might be closed (does that even count as giving help to someone)?

Critiquing Criticism: a lesson from The Smurfs movie

Transformers. G.I Joe. He-Man. Mask (come on - who remembers Mask? It was a-maze-a-zing!). Thundercats. Voltron. These were my favorite cartoons while growing up. But I must be honest, I must confess: I also watched the Smurfs. Yes, yes I did. Papa Smurf, Jokey Smurf, & Hefty Smurf were my favorites. Smurfette was dumb and annoying (young guy's perspective). Yes...I am a closet Smurf fan.

The idea then of a live Smurf movie was a mixed bag for me. It could be cool or it could be horrible, there didn't seem to be a lot of room in-between. But, having a 4yr-old and a 2yr-old that can be taken advantage of to see kid's movies without losing my mancard, I was willing to give it a chance.

And then the early reviews came out.

Deeper Teaching/Preaching?

OK - returning to the world of blogging after an insanely crazy end of the semester.  Be forewarned.

I read a good blog post from Pete Wilson where he was asking people what they mean when they say/hear "I want deeper teaching/preaching."

I'm curious myself what people mean by that.

What to you constitutes "deeper teaching"?
What causes you to feel that you need to say, "I want something deeper?"

I'm really interested in this, so lay it on me in the comments box.

"Call me buddy"

The most read post from my blog this year so far as been when I wrote about Baylee not wanting to grow up.  This is another one of those "out of the mouth of babes" stories.

Yesterday I went out back to the garage to load the car with some things for work.  Coming back I heard a kid's voice calling me, "Are you Baylee's dad?"

The voice was coming from the second story of our next door neighbor's building.  I hadn't met our new neighbors yet, but this was one of their little boys.

"I am Baylee's dad.  My name is Bobby, what's your name?"

The Second Question (Processing 2010 - pt 2)

I wrote Part 1 of this post back at the beginning of the year.  Been sitting on Part 2 for over a month now. Guess it should be posted before 2012 comes around.

My 2010.

Wisdom from KISS

Interesting comments from Gene Simmons in the first 30 seconds of this video on CNN: