Are you on the path to failure?

Posted on January 27, 2014January 27, 2014 by Carl Streck in Faith, life lessons, Uncategorized No Comments

Trajectory.

Over Christmas I was putting together a little car for my 2 year old. As I followed my way through the included directions I found myself getting frustrated with the pictures of nuts and bolts that I knew were different but all looked the same on the piece of paper they provided, and regardless of which way I turned the directions I couldn’t figure out how to put the axle on right.

Needless to say I began going with my intuition of where things should go, and about 45 minutes into the project I was finished.

One minor problem. The steering wheel didn’t turn. No big deal I thought to myself. He’s only 2. He wont even turn it anyway.

Reasonableness finally set in and I took the whole car apart and began again. The right way, and Christmas morning that steering wheel turned.

This lesson in frustration reminded me of the concept of trajectory.

tra·jec·to·ry

trəˈjektərē/

noun

noun: trajectory; plural noun: trajectories

1.

the path followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of given forces.

“the missile’s trajectory was preset”

While my life is not a projectile object (typically) I believe the concept of trajectory is ultra important.

I think we all should look at the path we are currently traveling on and consider what this path will produce over time. Where will this path end up if you continue on it.

In a lighthearted way that car I was putting together would have been rendered useless if I never fixed it and my 2 year old was still trying to turn the (non-working) steering wheel at 3 or 4 years old.

In a more serious way I consider things like:

Your Health:

I have had high blood pressure my entire life. When I discussed this with my doctor a few years ago he told me I should consider medicine to keep it low. I asked him what would happen if I never took medicine. He said I would be fine for 20 or so years, but may have problems in my 50’s.

Trajectory.

A problem not dealt with over time creates a big problem. The gap continues to widen over years.

So what about other issues.

Many people are talking about weight-loss in the new year. I am not opining either way, but I beg you to consider what if you didn’t change anything about your eating or excersise? What would your life look like in 5 years? 10? 20?

What trajectory is your health on?

Your Faith:

I consider the my relationship with Jesus. A relationship is neither built nor lost over night. So I consider the time I am spending with the Lord every day and wonder what will my relationship with God look like in a few years if I continue having (or not having) daily time in the Bible and worship?

Or maybe you’ve never considered the concept of faith. I challenge you to consider your current beliefs and thoughts on eternity, and what trajectory you are on. I challenge you to consider the fact that many die without having the opportunity to thoughtfully consider and seek out answers to their questions about eternity…a very dangerous trajectory. Check out this video on God’s love for YOU.

What trajectory is your faith on?

Your family:

I love Andy Stanly’s sermons series “Choosing to Cheat” and his introduction to the concept of daily giving your spouse a rock to hold till you get home. Sure one day you work late, or have a difficult season of business, but what type of trajectory are you on? In the sermon eventually his wife drops the rock after being told time and time again to keep holding it more and more because she just can’t hold it any longer.

The fallout is bad and hard to fix.

But it didn’t start overnight. It was on a crash course, a trajectory, that was bound to fall apart.

Your Finances:

I look at spending. Is our current lifesyle, spending habits, views on money sustainable? What type of trajectory is that on? Is it one that ends with good stewardship and faithful giving or one that ends in financial hardship and ruin?

Again, it is about daily choices. Trajectory.

Challenge:

My challenge to you and to myself is to look at the trajectory of your life, choices, activities and see where they will put you in 5, 10, 20 years. What type of trajectory am I on if nothing changes?

The beautiful thing about trajectory is that the slightest thing can change its course. A little wind can cause something in flight to end up thousands of miles from the course it was headed to over time. A small nudge today can change the course of something in the future.

Consider this:

Faith: What if I spent 10 minutes reading the Bible every day?
Health: What if I cut out one coke a week?
Family: What if I spent 15 minutes without tv or phones and talked to my kids?
Finances: What if I saved one dollar a day?

Here’s what those small changes can do to a trajectory:

Faith: 10 minutes a day and you will read the whole Bible in a year.
Health: Cut out one coke per day and loose 10 lbs in one year.
Family: 15 minutes a day would mean you got 4 extra days with your kids (without taking vacation)
Finances: 1 dollar per day is 14,000 saved in 20 years.

My point is not that this is the plan you should take, or that this is the way to know God or loose weight. The point is that small changes over time make big differences.

So where are you headed? What’s your trajectory?

How to stop worrying about money

Posted on January 10, 2014January 10, 2014 by Carl Streck in Faith, life lessons No Comments

For most of my life I have been worried about money.

When I was a kid and my parents got divorced my mom took on a few jobs to make ends meet. I distinctly remember her walking into my bedroom and telling me that she was going to have to file for bankruptcy(which she never had to do). For an adult this was a legal way to stave off your creditors, but for me, as a kid this meant we were broke.

Circumstances like that set off a fear of not having the means to make ends meet.

While on vacation last week I found myself feeling a myriad of emotions surrounding the cost of the trip. The emotions ranged from guilt to worry to depression. Keep in mind Anna and I had planned to take the trip, and were paying cash.

Nevertheless, I found myself haunted by these feelings.

During the trip a friend of mine shared the devotional by Andy Stanley: Be Rich. While reading through the devotion I found myself convicted by my views on money in a way that was foreign to me, and in a light I haven’t heard discussed much.

What was revealed to me is that over the past few years is that I had replaced my reliance on the Father for reliance on financial security and essentially made money my god.

Not in a materialistic way, or in a covetous way (which is typically how I hear it discussed) or even in a greedy way, but I had quietly replaced the trust and hope that only God provides for the false sense of security that money provides, and my anxiety and guilt that I have carried since I was a child found its way into my life in a way I had never known.

I always would have said I trusted in God and had my faith in him during bad times and times of trouble. I, oddly enough, found it easier to trust God during time of struggle. But today, I have an income and I don’t feel the same daily financial struggles that I had earlier in life, but I have found myself un-trusting in a new way.

So I wonder if there are any of you that share my experience. I wonder if you have been trusting the god of money.

The deception of the world is that money provides stability, but the Truth was revealed to me in the parable about the Rich man and his barns is that all of this is out of our control.

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

What a deception the world has today that if we work hard enough or save well enough we can achieve financial security. The reality is that just like the farmer relies on the rain or the weather to yield a good crop all we are given comes from the Father.

So the challenge to myself, and you is not to Tithe more, or spend less. I would say I am a giver and a saver.

The Challenge is

Challenge your fears: Are they really rooted in a lack of faith and trust in God?
Be a good steward: Recognize that just like the farmer in the parable all things can come to an end in a flash.
Ask for wisdom: What are those other areas of your life, like mine, that sin is hiding?

I am so grateful for the freedom and truth found in these scriptures and that the teaching of Jesus are alive today just as they were 2,000 years ago.

What do you struggle with in your faith? How have you been set free?

What if this picture was your last?

Posted on January 2, 2014January 2, 2014 by Carl Streck in Fatherhood, life lessons No Comments

My two oldest kids are headed off to their grandparents for the weekend while Anna and I head to California for the Auburn game.

They pulled out of the driveway an hour or so ago and I just opened my phone and pulled up my photos. This was the last picture I took of my kids before they left with their friend at my office.

We had a great morning playing together at “daddy’s office”

While I am sure, God willing, they will return home safely on Tuesday the thought crosses my mind that “what if they don’t”. What if that picture, this day, was the last I had with them?

I am sure I would hang on to that picture with my life. I am sure I would recount all the things we did and said to each other all day. I would replay that “goodbye” a million times.

I would wonder what I would have done differently.

Thankfully as I sit here today I can honestly say I don’t regret anything from our last 12 hours. But 24 hours? Possibly. 48? For sure.

So who’s to know when that last photo will be. Who knows when that last word will be the last word.

I know I have no idea which words or acts will be the last. So for the sake of sparing you the “live every moment like its your last” comments I simply remind you and myself to slow down and enjoy it because eventually tomorrow won’t come for all of us.

What if your last actions are your final chance. Would you be proud of them?

How to quit your job

Posted on December 28, 2013December 28, 2013 by Carl Streck in life lessons No Comments

A friend of mine quite his job on a whim.

Photo courtesy of banspy

No planning, no fall back, no safety net. He worked for a boss he hated and one day he walked in and was tired of it and he quit. He is 40 years old and he quit. He isn’t some silver spoon boy from a well-healed family. He didn’t have a job making a ton of money. He was just a normal guy that was tired of it. So he quit.

I went to high school with a pretty neat guy, Dan McLaughlin. While I haven’t spoken to Dan in years I have been inspired by his story. A couple years ago he quit his job to prove a point. With 10,000 hours of diligent practice you can become an expert at anything (almost). According to his website Thedanplan.com :

On April 5th, 2010, Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer and began The Dan Plan. Having never played 18 holes of golf in his life, Dan started the 10,000 hour journey with just a putter. After five months of putting, he received his second club, a pitching wedge. Just before the first anniversary of The Dan Plan dan took his first full-swing lesson. After 18 months he swung a driver for the first time. On December 28, 2011 he played his first full round with a full set of clubs. Since then it has been off to the races.

Logging in 30-plus hours a week he will hit the 10,000 hour milestone by December 2016. During this time, Dan plans to develop his skills through deliberate practice, eventually winning amateur events and obtaining his PGA Tour card through a successful appearance in the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School, or “Q-School”.

I realized a few years ago that my political science background really wasn’t that marketable during the “great recession” and the skills I had learned in real estate development and finance weren’t in high demand since banks were going out of business and failed developments were everywhere. Dusting off my resume wasn’t really a winning strategy for me. What was in high demand was an income from me to support my family.

In my early 20’s it was so easy to get out of college and enter the working world and start earning money in amounts (even small ones) that were greater than the tips I got from waiting tables or tending bar and thought I could do anything I wanted to do within my new found (small) wealth. So what did I do? I began spending money as quickly as it came in. Thankfully for a variety of reasons this did not last long for me.

What I do see as epidemic though is the amount of college grads that get out of school and begin living a lifestyle that spends every dime that comes in the door because “i’m young, right? I’ve got all the time in the world to save”.

Unfortunately that lifestyle begins to be something that increases as your pay does, and unknowingly you have a pair of golden handcuffs on you forever and your ability to take risk, follow your dreams, or pursue your passion is hamstrung by the salary that you must have to pay your bills.

So what do these three stories have in common?

The concept of “margin”.

Had my friend not been diligent to live below his means, had Dan not saved since high school, and had I not consistently put money away none of us would have been free to pursue our dreams, or take advantage of an opportunity.

For me, my dream was to build a company and because, through the grace of God, I was able to stay in the game MountainSeed was born.

This has become my number one piece of advice for recent college grads. Create Margin. As much as you can.

So, to the recent college grad, to the millennial, to the entrepreneur in disguise; create margin for yourself in your personal finances. Live (well) below your means. Store away while you are young so that when you want to (if you want to) you are free to take a leap to something new.

I love the quote from Dave Ramsey “Live like no one else so one day you can live like no one else”

Have you ever taken a risk because of your margin, or wished you had? Let me know your experiences below.

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