The More Things Change

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I decided that a trip to the overstuffed bookshelves in the Experiment House library was in order. I finally settled on my Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Workbook that I used during some training back in the summer of 2000.

I have a lot to do at work in the next two weeks -- which was probably the cause of my insomnia, come to think of it -- and I guess I thought that I could glean some wisdom from that great bald guru, Stephen Covey. What I found was quite something else entirely.

The workbook is really a summary of the best selling book, and is a great way to review its principals in bullet form. But it also has plenty of space to journal and write and it was amazing to see where my head was five years ago.

Some of my plans, like a regular date night with Lamont never happened. I was also surprised to see how positive I was about our old church -- I can’t think of the place without hurting now -- and it was fun to remember that ministry when truly anything seemed possible. I was also surprised to see the seeds of who I am today keep popping up again and again...

I couldn’t believe how many times I found myself writing about, well, writing! “What would I do if I could had all the time and money in the world...” etc. I honestly don’t remember writing being that much a part of my life back then, but I guess the desire was already there. I’m still working on acquiring the “all the time and money in the world” part, though!

The other surprise was my answer to the question, “What is the one most positive change you could make in your personal life?” I wrote down meditation of all things! Which is pretty amazing because I don’t recall knowing anything about meditation at all in those days. I don’t think I had even read any Richard Foster yet, let alone made regular trips to a monastery... but the desire for something that has become an integral part of my life was already there five years ago.

I also took a look at my mission statement -- too long to reprint here -- and saw how my life has changed in five years to really internalize its ideals. Maybe it’s time to write a new one to carry me through 2010...