Hiking Excursion

Here are some photos from my little hiking excursion yesterday.  To my surprise, it was a lot prettier than I expected during this time of the year.

Filed under: Nature , chinook, hiking, photos

2009 – A Year of Possibilities

I’ve read several posts by people with their thoughts, goals, and resolutions for 2009 and for the most part I have not taken part in any of those in previous years.  Sure, I have made goals and wondered what was going to happen, but I never really embraced the power of setting goals, writing them down, and actively pursuing them.

About a month ago, I started thinking about some of the things that I wanted to achieve in the upcoming year, and actually wrote them down this time so that I would not forget about them.

The first thing that I want to do in the upcoming year is to set a path for my career that would allow my wife, Jessi, to not have to work for a while when we decide to start a family.  I love the field that I am in and I should definitely be able to take it to the next level with some more training on my own.

The next thing that we want to do is to start saving for a house.  We would love to buy now when the market is low, but funds will not allow it.  We have both found jobs after graduation and it looks like we will be here for a while, and more than that, we’re getting tired of apartment life.

The last thing that I would like to do is to spend a drastic amount of time working on my relationship with Jessi.  This is the best time for us to get things lined out since we are just about a year and a half into our marriage (seems like just yesterday :) ).  I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do in our relationship through the minor details.

Maybe these things are more than I can focus on in one year, but this list is a start and everything on here is important to me so we’ll see what happens.  I intend on writing about these things as the year goes on and would welcome any comments or thoughts.

-Justin

Filed under: Life , 2009, career, goals, house, relationship

Personal Growth and In Relationships

Lately a lot of my thought has gone into how I can improve myself, my wife, and our relationship together.  I’ve realized that in order for our marriage to be as effective as it possible can be it takes a lot of effort.  Honestly, I’m a little nervous, I don’t want to screw this up.  I have to figure out what I can do to be as much of a leader and supporter for my wife and family that I possible can.

As with anything, there are going to be different approaches from different people, and I am working to develop some of my goals and methods in order to be the best that I possible can be.  A few things that I’ve determine so far:

1. I have to be somebody who is constantly working on their own integrity (thanks to Scot for this knock in the head last night at eXchange!)
2. In order for my relationship to be better, the first person that has to be taken care of is myself.
3. This is a two person team (for now) and teams have to have intense discussions sometimes to stay on the same track.
4. No matter what is planned God can still shake things up and shove you in a different direction.

That’s all that I can pull out right the moment.  I absolutely can’t wait to see where this goes!

Filed under: Leadership, Life , growth, marriage, relationships, work

And…it’s over.

We just finished 3 days of Christmas with our families.  It was a great time, spending some quality time with each of them.  We were also able to get some relaxation in there as well.  There were some great stories told and this year was definitely different, there didn’t seem to be the level of stress and confusion that there normally is.  There was some great food eaten, gifts given, and relationships grown.  It was great!

I’ve still got a week left until I have to go back to work.  I hope to spend that time getting some things together, and hopefully get outside and do some hiking.

There will be more to come later once I get some thoughts headed in the same direction.  Leave me a note and let me know how your Christmas went.

-Justin

Filed under: Life , christmas

Qualities of an Effective Leader

I’ve been reading (rather slowly), a book titled “Twelve Ordinary Men” by John MacArthur.  It outlines how 12 men who left normal lives and careers to establish the church.  I finally started to get into it about a week ago when I ran across a great chapter that had a few sections dealing with Leadership, and how it has been applied for ages.

Within those few pages I found some great material dealing with the personality traits that make a good leader.  These points illustrate the traits of a very effective leader, that can have the potential to have a huge impact on the people around them.

Inquisitiveness

Leaders ask questions, they have a desire to gain more knowledge, and to seek out the answers to their questions.  Asking questions is not the only part of this, they have ask the right questions.

“Leaders need to have an insatiable curiosity.  They need to be people who are hungry to find answers.  Knowledge is power.” Pg. 40

Somebody who is asking a lot of questions can come across as annoying, but sometimes it can really show their hunger to find the answers.

Initiative

Initiative is a characteristic that can often be seen in many people, without it a leader would not be effective in achieving their goals.  Having the initiative, drive, and determination to get things done is a must-have quality of an effective leader.

“A true leader must be the kind of person who makes things happen.” Pgs. 40-41

Involvement

The involvement of a leader is critical.

“People cannot follow somebody who remains distant.” Pg. 42

This brings to mind all of the many movie battle scenes that I’ve seen.  In these scenes, you never see the leader sitting back in a lawn chair directing people where to go, no, you see them leading his troops into battle yelling out commands and reacting to the circumstances as they happen.

I will add one more quality to this list:

Goal Oriented

I’m finding that setting goals often generates better results, without them we do not have any idea in which direction we are going, we are just going.  These are my goals, I want to apply these to my life and allow them to lead me into a better understanding about how to lead people around me.  What would happen if we strived to achieve these things?

Filed under: Leadership , goals, leaders, personality, qualities