Conference swag

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, I’m at the Texas Music educators conference. I’ve been to my fair share of conferences and this one is huge! Especially the amount of vendors. And I can remember in the past leaving with a ton of stuff from vendors. It’s overwhelming. And much of it, I just threw out.

So, now with a minimalist mentality, how have I approached this conference differently? Simple. I structured my time at the conference to only have about 2 hours in the vendors area yesterday. While in the vendor area, I had mentally targeted specific vendors to visit. And that’s exactly what I did. Primarily I went to the chocolate fundraiser booths, as I told my girls I’d bring them back some chocolate.

Today and tomorrow, I’m focused on different sessions and getting information and learning instead of getting stuff. This will make my haul back home so much lighter and easier.

So how about you? When you go to conferences or places where there are giveaways and stuff to take home, do you grab handfuls? Or are you more meticulous and planned out? Comment with how you approach this.

Social media

Today is Ash Wednesday. Many Christians practice giving something up for Lent. Today, I’m choosing to give up social media. And I want to spend a little time talking about social media and the benefit and the time sucker it also can be.

What are the benefits of social media? You can keep in touch with people that you haven’t talked to or seen in years. At a glance, you can keep up with lots of people. You can get exposure to lots of ideas and insights from others.

Why is it a time sucker? Well, it just is. The keeping up with others, the “conversations” or arguments that go on can suck so much time. And there are many, many other reasons.

So why am I giving it up for Lent? Well, I’ve spent January focused on eating, I’ve spent the end of January and February focused on exercise, and social media is something that I’ve let distract me from lots of things in life.

The “experts” on blogging would say that it’s pretty silly for me to start a blog in December, and about 2 months after starting it, basically quit the one form of getting the word out about it for 40 days. But after thought and prayer, I feel that taking a break from social media is what I need to be able to gain focus in my life. To be able to really start honing in another aspect of discipline in my life. So, after I share about this post on Facebook and Twitter, I’ll be logging out of them and not posting until after Easter. What will I gain? Obviously discipline. Focus. Time. Happiness. Figuring out what’s most important. And those are things I look forward to.

So I’ll still be blogging every Monday, Wednesday and Friday....but I won’t be sharing it on social media. So please do keep checking out the blog and share about it!

Week 6 check in

Wow! Here we are, 42 days into the new year! Only 11.5% of the year has passed! So how are you doing? I did one monumental thing for me at least, and had a couple of major realizations. So let’s dive in.

My monumental thing was that I participated in a 5K. This was my 4th ever, but this was the first time I picked a 5K because I wanted to do a 5K. The others were supporting an awesome ministry called Coreluv, which does great work with orphans in Haiti. So why did I randomly pick a 5K to do? I’ve set a goal of doing 4 of them this year. But here’s what happened. I ended with my best per mile pace ever, my best 5K time ever. I finished 169/175. The guy who finished first had a 15 minute and change 5K. I mean, the guy finished in 15 minutes. I finished in a smidge under 45 minutes. In fact, the majority of the people finished in 20-30 minutes. I did some jogging and the rest walking. I’ll be doing my next 5K in 2 months and I’ll be running it. I’m doing really well with the Couch to 5K app, and the best part is that my boxer/lab pup who has been going with me has only tried to cut in front of me about 3 times.

Now to the realizations. And they tie together. The first one happened Saturday afternoon. After my 5K, my oldest asked “why does daddy do 5Ks?” My wife started to answer, and she said because I want to be healthy, get exercise and I chimed in with “they’re fun!” But she noticed. She’s almost 9. And then she said the thing that got me. “I want to do a 5K with daddy, too!” There’s the realization that I’ve known since I became a parent, but I get those hit over the head moments as reminders. What I’m doing is being noticed. I’m setting an example for my girls, something that I didn’t always have the healthiest and most positive set for me.

And then the second realization happened yesterday while hunting for a book that my oldest daughter couldn’t find. What ended up happening was I was supposed to snap a picture of a page for my wife and send it to her (which I did), but I didn’t return the book to where it was supposed to go! But we’re looking everywhere in my daughter’s cluttered room. Then we looked under the bed. And the piles of stuff that came out from under that bed! It was a mess. But then the realization hit again. Not only am I being watched for the good example, but the bad examples are being picked up as well. My wife and I don’t always put things away like we should. And we don’t always make our girls pick up their stuff. So, when they see that example, they follow it. So I spent the afternoon focused on cleaning up the kitchen. And tonight, I’ll focus on another room. And another...and you get the point.

As a parent, it’s not easy. But when you’re honest with yourself and your children, and you work on consistent discipline for yourself and your children, you all win in the long run. That’s the word that I’ve always struggled with my entire life. Discipline. And it’s something that’s really hard to pick up when you’re 40. The good news for me is that I’m realizing it is possible. It’s hard, but it’s possible.

How much do you need?

I’m a musician. That’s my job. But I’ve recently been asking myself the question....how much music do I need? Sounds strange, right? Well, considering my organ music as an example. I have over 3,500 titles cataloged, and that’s probably not everything I own. Through the years, I have inherited organ music from family members, had my dad purchase music for me, and I purchased music for myself. I will typically play about 5-7 preludes on a Sunday morning, as well as a postlude. Even going with the high side, of 8 pieces a Sunday, playing everything I currently own, even just focusing on Sundays, without repeating, I’d be looking at about 8 and a half years before I’d need to repeat something. Now, much of my music is seasonal, but still, that’s a lot of music. And so, I’ve purged some. And I’ve also gone through music that I’ve never touched and I’ve found things that I want to work on, things that are fun, and things that I don’t even want to try.

Maybe you’re not a musician. Maybe you’ve got a bunch of something specific. Maybe it’s books. Or CDs....or something else. Do you read/listen to/use all of it? Or is it just taking up space? Maybe it’s time to review what you have and figure out if it’s needed, or remind yourself of why you got that thing in the first place.

It’s easy to collect things. It’s not always easy to review how necessary those things are. Maybe all of them serve a purpose. Maybe not. Or maybe there was a purpose, but now that purpose has changed. This has to be an ongoing process. That’s one of the harder things to do. We can get motivated to go through and determine what the purpose of things are, but does that purpose change in 6 months? In a year? And how do you figure out the purpose? In the past, I’ve gone through our CDs and movies. Honestly, I haven’t put a CD in a CD player in a good 2 years, but I still own CDs. Why? Some of them are autographed. Some have special meaning. But there are many I can do without. Same thing with our DVDs. We stream most everything, so we don’t really need the physical things. However, last week, my wife and I wanted to watch “The Goonies”. It wasn’t streaming, so we played the DVD. It served a purpose.

What is it that you need to determine the purpose of? How are you going to do it? Comment with your feedback.

Week 5 check in

I could subtitle this post “The new me”. Or I could subtitle it “You’re not defined by your mistakes”. Read on and I’ll explain. I blew it last night. I ate horribly. I’m guessing many of you are waking up feeling that way. The “old me” would have wallowed in self-pity, made excuses and ate some more. Most definitely wouldn’t have exercised. Today, I got up at 4:30, walked the dog, ran a bit, and have been drinking water. While yes, I didn’t eat great for 1 meal....it’s just that. 1 meal out of 21 for the week. See, this is where my thinking has radically changed. I had eggs for breakfast yesterday, I had a salad for lunch. I budgeted to eat badly. And I did. But, that doesn’t define my week. In fact, it pushes me to be even more on track. I had my meal of overindulgence. It was good. Now back to eating right.

So how about you? Maybe January wasn’t the best. Or your February isn’t off to the best start. You can fix it. You can start now. Because it’s about the choices you make.

I realized I didn’t share with you my goals for February. So my main goal in January, the Whole30, was a success. My goal for February is to continue to follow the guidelines, eating right and trying to add in more exercise. I started the couch to 5K app last week and while I’m doing a 5K on Saturday, I’m not going to be able to run all of it, but my main goal is to run the 5K I’m doing on April 7th. That’s one I’m working toward. My other stuff goal is two fold. I didn’t quite finish in the garage in January, but our youth at church are having a garage sale, so I can take stuff up there. Along with that, I want to tackle the office. It’s a mess. So that’s my 2 main goals for February.

So where are you at this week? Has your 2018 been off to a great start? We’re only 5/52 into the year, so you’ve got time. Get after it!

Oh, something random I decided to do last week. I recorded some music I’ve been working on and uploaded it to Noisetrade.com. You can listen to it for free or download it for free there. http://noisetrade.com/craigharmann/lent-and-easter-demos

It’s up to you

As I’ve spent the last couple of days reflecting on a productive January and a success at Whole30, I was reminded of a truth that I forget all to often. Whatever your situation, you can make choices to change the circumstance. I was very, very, very unhealthfully overweight. I still am. But I am less overweight because I have changed my circumstance. I started focusing in on what I’m eating, exercising and there are results happening. As for the stuff around our house, there is less clutter and that is progressing daily.

Now this can absolutely seem overwhelming, right? No doubt about it. We see “quick fixes” sold all the time in regard to health. “Drink this shake 2 times a day and you’ll lose the weigh. Oh, did we mention that each shake costs $12.50?” There’s no quick fix. None whatsoever. It’s much easier to put weight on than to take it off. It takes intentionality to lose the weight and even more intentionality to keep it off. But it’s possible. So do you go out, get a gym membership, throw out all the unhealthy food in your kitchen and get to work? Well, that’s a little drastic. Baby steps are the way to go. Anytime you try to do too much at once, you’ll get overwhelmed. Start this way. Instead of 5 sodas a day, go to 3. And incorporate more water. Or instead of trying to find the closest parking spot somewhere, park farther away. You’ll get more exercise in. Starting with little steps changes your mentality and creates new habits. Or (GASP!!) instead of 4 cups of coffee, have 1 and maybe 2 cups of green tea. You get the point. Little changes make a huge difference.

The same thing goes with your stuff. You may feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. That’s OK. It’s up to you. You’re in charge. Maybe it’s just starting by cleaning off your kitchen counters and keeping them clean for a week. A small habit, then you add to it. Then you take the next step. That could be books, CDs, clothes, whatever it is where you feel cluttered. Go through and ask, “Do this have a definite purpose in my life?” And if that answer is no, get rid of it. If the answer is I’m not sure, put in a box and put the box aside for a while. If you don’t find yourself needing it or thinking of a purpose for it, get rid of it.

Little steps are the biggest way to make a change. It’s up to you. You can do it!