Spence Smith

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing a few things around the house and had the TV on an Indiana Jones Movie Marathon. One of my all time favorite movies is Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As I watched, there was a scene where Indy was in a major fight where his hat was knocked off his head. As he typically does… he wins the fight but just in time to go save the day. Just before he exits the scene to go be there hero, he picks up his hat… (as if to say I can’t do this without the hat) puts it on with that Indiana Jones confidence and runs off to save the day.

When he put the hat on, I realized… Everything about Indian Jones is wrapped up in that hat. It’s a great representation of who he is. Bold, confident, classy, gritty.

It’s as if he can’t be Indy without the hat. Just like Superman can’t be Superman without the cape.

When I saw this I wondered…

What does the hat mean to you? Or better yet… What does your hat look like? Is there something that you can identify as uniquely you? Is it something others can identify about you?

Any time I receive a tour schedule from a manager I work with there’s always a line at the bottom that reads… “Schedule Subject To Change”. Which means… The schedule you see before you might change… so be willing to change dates or cancel if need be… or simply put…

Sometimes Plan A turns into Plan B…

Well… that’s kind of where I am right now.

As I have come into 2011, I’ve realized that 2011 is going to be a really busy year in my personal life and professional life. As I look at the bigger picture, it has become very clear that an attempt at Ironman race number 2 would be a too much to handle. Training for Ironman requires a significant amount of time, which is turning out to be something I’m running short on.

However, I do plan on running a couple of half marathons and a few Olympic distance and sprint triathlons and will be in decent shape to do a Half Ironman race. All of which are just fine for me and won’t take a huge toll on my time. This will allow me to focus on my personal life as well as my professional life this year and feed my passion for triathlon.

I think the lesson for me here is – knowing when to say “not now… maybe later or next year” or “knowing when it’s time to get more focused and shore up some important parts of life”…. Or sometimes just saying… “No.”

So… Here’s my question…

When it’s time to step up to the plate in life, how do you do it?

How do you focus on what you know is important and walk it out?

What are you willing to give up in order to do what you know you need to do?

Whether I’m in Franklin, TN or traveling elsewhere, as long as there is a sunny day, I know there’s a good chance I’m going to get to see the sun set. When I know the setting I’m in is going to be perfect for a sunset, I will wait… and wait… and wait… until that last little bit of orange and yellow fall into the dark blue sky.

I will milk a sunset for all it’s worth, given the chance.

If I’m up early enough, I will bask in the awe of the sun as it wakes up the world around me. I’m truly amazed by the sun and how it affects me.

The other night, I witnessed yet again another amazing sunset. Sitting at a restaurant called Splashes in Laguna Beach. That is where I took the picture in this post. I felt like I was standing on the edge of the earth.

All I could think is this… Every time I see the sunset like this, it’s as if God is showing off a bit. Giving us the coolest HD experience of color, sound, and smells. It reminds me that every day ends the same way… the sun goes down and the stars come out.. and tomorrow, it all happens again.

The sunset locks me into my life. It reminds me to keep dreaming, wanting and desiring life to be all it can be… for me. The sun locks in on me as if God is saying… I’m done here for the day, shining my big bright light on you for the day. Now take the evening to think through your day and dream about what tomorrow may bring.

What does a sunset do for you?

What do you think when you experience one?

Are you taking time to watch the colors of the sky change?

When I was in high school my basketball coach, Bruce Davenport, told us something I have never forgotten. He said, Boys…this is how the play works, stick to the play…and if the play isn’t working…play the game and remember…don’t let the play get in the way of the game, because no matter what… we are here to win the game.

I have used that analogy so many times. I can’t tell you how many times this situation comes up in everyday life experiences and in relationships… especially in the work place.

In our fast changing culture of new media and new ideas…if you always stick to the play book or the rules or guidelines or whatever you want to call it…you will loose the game at some point.

One of the things as a marketer I know is you MUST have the ability to change and adapt quickly and go with your gut for what the situation dictates.

When we were playing basketball, we could execute a play over and over and over again and it would work every time…until that one time where it was not working…as soon as we would see the play wasn’t working we stopped the play and just played the game…time to focus on the basket and go for the best shot, the best way you know how. It’s that simple.

If you always play by the rules without knowing how to play outside the rules then you or you business will be viewed as old fashion, obsolete, not up with the changing market, etc…you will get passed by, over looked and the little guy in the corner that is flexible in his approach will win every time. But remember, it helps to know the play or rules in order to change at a moments notice.

Does it mean you abandon the play or rules every time? No…you have to have a foundation that you know works. I’m saying that it might not work every time. You have to know when to change and adapt so that you can play the game in order to get the desired result.

Experience and maturity help in knowing the bigger picture of how your game is supposed to be played. Just don’t forget to play with lots of energy. Experience and maturity combined with energy leads to powerful knowledge that will get you through your game of business in the best way possible.

Where do you sit in the game? Are you so ridged that you ALWAYS follow the play or are you flexible enough to change to get the desired end result?

The Wikipedia Definition of SideBar goes like this… In publishing, sidebar is a term for information placed adjacent to an article in a printed or Web publication, graphically separate but with contextual connection.

For those of you who need an example of a sidebar, then look to the left of my site. There’s a column with my pictures, ads I support, blogs I like, my flickr acct. See it? That’s the sidebar.

On most sites like mine the sidebar rarely changes. No matter what post you click the sidebar content is always there… in the sidebar… and over time, content in the sidebar gets switched out or updated.

It’s that piece of information I always want you, the reader, to have access too. It’s that part of my life that I want you to see… this is just PART of who I am or more importantly, this is just PART of who I am with my blog.

This all leads me to think. What is it in my real life that my friends and family see that is in the sidebar of my life? What is the constant thread they see in me as I walk through relationships, conversations, work life etc…?

When people look at you… When they are in relationship with you… what do they see in you that is always there? That piece of you that you carry with you everywhere you go. That part in your life that helps define what you are about and who you are and what you want people to see.

The sidebar on my blog does its job. It directs people to what I am into and who I am into.

Does the sidebar of your life do the same? Does it enhance the relationships you have and the experience others have with you?

I’m asking you these questions because I just realized, I need to take a deeper look at me and ask myself the same questions. What does the sidebar of my life say about me?

Hmmm… ok my friends… Lets talk about this one. What does this look like for you?

Over the past few months I’ve been taking some time to figure a few things out and get some parts of my life recalibrated so that I can take care of my life in a more manageable way.

Truth be told… over the past year I’ve been working on a few areas of my life that I knew I needed to shape up a bit. In the process, I realized I was going to have to let some areas go from time to time. One of those areas is blogging.

When I started blogging, I was so into it I wrote almost every day. The problem was some days were consumed by just my blog. I love blogging. I really do. But I have way too much going on in my life to just blog all of the time and over consumption of any kind isn’t good for you… right?

So I took a break. I didn’t care if I wrote once a week, once a month… or whenever.

The great thing is twitter and facebook are great to stay connected to community when the blog isn’t that active.

So… I’m back. Life is prioritized and I’m very focused on what is ahead of me.

What is ahead of me? Oh… you will find out soon enough.

The next 12 months are going to be an adventure!

So here’s the question: If you have a lot going on, how do you prioritize where your attention goes?

This past week has been a whirlwind of travel. It actually started on Wednesday with a flight to Toronto to meet up with Michael W. Smith and his band of merry men for the start of his Canadian tour. I’ve never spent any time in Toronto or Montreal, which was day two of the tour, but I loved both cities and the French side of Montreal was awesome. The food was great and the city… WOW! clean and super efficient.

But I experienced something I know I will have a hard time truly painting the right picture with my not so grandiose use of the English language. But I will try…

During the first night of the tour I was standing near the front next to a row of people who were all confined to wheel chairs. These sweet people couldn’t talk and if they could, it was merely noises of communication. They hardly had any control over their bodies and I suspect they have been this way their whole life. They were also at the show with their families.

You know how when you observe people confined to wheel chairs – how even though they have a hard time communicating or moving around that you know they know exactly what is going on? And when it comes to their belief in God – you can sense their love for God is more pure than you could ever imagine? Well… this was exactly who I was watching.

There comes a point when Michael W. Smith goes into this worship moment and sings “I’ll stand… with arms high and heart abandoned…” and there I am… watching this whole audience transcend into this place of worship that I could only explain as holy. I don’t comment much on the corporate worship moments I see, but this one was an experience for the books. (or blog)

And then I saw it… a sister of one of the boys in a wheel chair leans in and grabs her brother (who would be about 5’8” if he could stand on his own) and lifts him up from under his arms. His legs were bent and provided absolutely no support for him to stand up so she held him up, her arms wrapped around him tight so that they both faced forward. She did this so that she and he could stand together… with arms high and heart abandoned.

He LOVED it… she gave him that moment to stand with everyone… and with every ounce of energy he had in him he worshiped…. with arms high and heart abandoned.

So that nothing could get in his way of expressing himself… with arms high and heart abandoned.

Just like everyone else in the room… with arms high and heart abandoned.

Even now as I write this I’m tearing up at the vision of pure love that was wrapped around that whole moment.

And for that moment… for me… all was right and perfect in the world.

It’s a sweet, sweet reminder that I desire a child like faith. Pure, Simple and Loving… with arms high and heart abandoned.

As you go through out your day, what are those unexpected moments you experience that remind you how sweet life is?

I was having dinner with a few friends a couple of weeks ago. One of the women in our group was talking about a dear friend of hers who had passed away.

She said…

“my only wish for my friend was I wish she had pursued her worth with great diligence.”

I just can’t get over what a heavy and needed statement that is to hear.

It’s a statement that makes me check myself to make sure I’m pursuing my worth with great diligence and living my life in a full and redeeming way… as I have written about here on Justin and Trisha Davis’ blog, Refine Us.

My question is what does this statement mean to you? What do you think it means to pursue your worth with great diligence?

Answer away… I’d really like to know what you think.

It seems fitting to post something for the first day of 2010. For many of us, we want this day to be the first day of new beginnings. We want life as we have known it to be just a little different or for some… a lot different than 2009.

So let’s get to it!

I have a lot I want to accomplish in 2010. Here’s what part of my lists looks like.

1. Continue to train for triathlons and make improvements in my weak areas.

2. Finish out my race calender for 2010 which already includes 2 Half Marathons, 2 Half Ironman events, some olympic distance tri’s and a 10k at higher altitude.

3. Finish projects I’ve started.

4. Walk out some ideas that have been brewing inside me as well as ideas I’ve started with my closest friends.

5. Continue to grow my area of responsibility with Compassion International and help build some teams around some very important poverty issues.

6. Find new ways to inspire those who will listen to do something they’ve never dreamed possible.

These 6 items are just a few things in my head at the moment. There’s no doubt that i will do some planning and goal projecting in order to walk these items out… but there’s one thing about me that is most important no matter what plan is put in place…

Living Life To The Fullest…

My basketball coach told me something that has always stuck with me.

Never let the play get in the way of the game.

So no matter what your plans are… or my plans… life will happen no matter what the plan is, sometimes you ditch the plan and go where life is taking you at the moment, then jump back in with the plan when the time is right.

So…. What does 2010 look like for you?

Every once in a while when I’m training I’ll have a little bit of an injury to deal with. Most times I just modify my workout so that I can allow for the injury to heal but there are times where I just have to take a break completely so the proper healing can really take place.

During the times when I take a break to heal, I try to do things to strengthen growth to the injured area of my body.

Honestly, its never really fun and in fact sometimes it’s a painful process to go through but once I’m healed… I’m stronger in that area of my body and I know what to do to keep it strong and prevent further injury.

Currently, I’m nursing some soreness in both of my calf muscles and getting through it well, but in the process it got me to thinking again about the lessons to be learned here when it comes to everyday life.

I started thinking about the heart as a physical muscle that has to be worked out and strengthened to be a strong and healthy heart, but also how the heart is an emotional muscle that is more prone to injury.

I’m no expert on issues of the heart, but I do know any time my heart gets hurt, I take a break and find ways to strengthen my character and confidence so that my heart is stronger and grows through the process.

Honestly, its never really fun and in fact sometimes it’s a painful process to go through but once my heart is healed… I’m stronger and more confident with who I am and the direction I’m headed in that area of my life.

So the question for you is..

How do you heal the issues of your own heart?

Today I had breakfast with a new friend. Kyle Chowning. Our conversation was energizing and the ideas were flying as we talked about life, where we’ve come from and where we are headed. It was just my kind of meeting and for the record… Kyle is a great guy… and he is a dreamer.

Part of our conversation was around Help-Portrait.com, which was dreamed up by Jeremy Cowart. I had been watching people talk about Help-Portrait on twitter and then my friend Keely Scott told me more about it and what she did to be part of the 12/12/09 event in Nashville… A fascinatingly simple idea and one that Kyle gave me more detail about and how he was connected to the cause.

As Kyle told me about Help-Portrait, I started to think about this…

How many times have you had a simple dream that you thought would never be worth the effort?

How many business ideas have you had that seemed too simple to actually work?

Help-Portrait… One man’s dream…

1. Find someone in need 2. Take their portrait 3. Print their portrait 4. Deliver their portrait

Sounds pretty simple? It is. Watch this video.

But what is amazing is how this idea and event spread like wildfire. Four months ago the site went up and the idea went out on the internet with Twitter and Facebook carrying it’s message and guiding people back to Help-Portrait.com. I really think simple ideas have the most impact.

The main event happened on 12/12/09 resulting in massive coverage online as well as major news outlets and taking place in over 40 countries. At the end of the day, 12/12/09, with on 43% of the locations reporting there were 17,200+ pictures taken, 1400+ photographers 2720+ volunteers and a major show of support from Kodak. Folks… this was just 43% of what was reported and the numbers have gone up dramatically since not to mention everyone else who is planning their own Help-Portrait event on a later date. This was one man’s dream….

Go back to 1952 and the Korean War. Evangelist Everett Swanson goes to minister to the troops during the war only to be devastated at the site of all the children orphaned living in the streets.

His dream?

Start an orphanage for 300 children. Nothing more… Nothing less.

Fast forward to December 2009. Everett Swanson’s dream is called Compassion International. Today Compassion is in 26 countries and with over 1 million children currently registered in the program.

One man’s dream… A simple dream… Help those in need.

These are just two examples of simple ideas dreamed up by two different men who wanted to use their sphere of influence to make a difference in the world.

Oh… and by the way. Because the internet gives us tools to market ideas, Jeremy Cowart spent ZERO dollars to market his dream Help-Portrait.

You can do that too.

Every cause needs a champion…

Time to go dream a little.

UPDATE: New Help-Portrait Results!

38,761 portraits GIVEN
7,905 photographers and volunteers
532 locations
41 countries