In a world that is inundated with the clanging noise of daily life, it can be easy to overlook the most important aspect of our being: our spirit. In the midst of the chaos, investing in our spiritual formation and well-being often takes a backseat. However, just as we invest in wisdom and in our physical health, nurturing our spirit is equally important.

The concept of spiritual disciplines is core to Christianity, and has been since the beginning. We must create and maintain practices and habits that cultivate our relationship with God, and help us to become more and more like Christ. Digging through the pages of the Bible, we can find several such practices, and three are worth mentioning specifically.

However, our spiritual formation is of such critical importance that I find it necessary to identify and inspect many more disciplines and practices. For some time, I have been working through many of these disciplines in a series of posts entitled “Establishing Spiritual Disciplines.” Many of these are found in Scripture, and several more come from the rich traditions to be found studying the history of Christianity. All of these can be assets in our desire for spiritual formation.

Prayer

In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul writes, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul prioritizes prayer, and informs us that God wants to hear from us. In fact, cultivating the habit of prayer leads to peace, even in the midst of chaotic life circumstances and the craziness that takes place on a daily basis.

Meditation

Psalm 1:2-3 provides an excellent illustration of the benefits of meditating on God’s Word: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” To engage in the practice of meditating on God’s truths found in Scripture is like a tree that is planted near a steady supply of life-giving water. A tree like that flourishes. When we maintain a steady flow of God’s Word in our minds and thoughts, we too will flourish spiritually.

As a child, my mother found some wall plaque with my name on it. Under it was this passage, reminding me to be like that tree, seeking the continuous inflow of God’s truth into my life. I still have that plaque, and it still reminds me to meditate.

Fasting

This is a discipline that many neglect, and in doing so, they miss out on a rich and meaningful spiritual experience. In Matthew 6:16-18, Jesus teaches, “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” What Jesus is saying here is that fasting is an opportunity to set aside the immediate pleasures of life, such as food, and deliberately seek a deeper spiritual nourishment that comes from a deeper connection with God. Fasting opens the door to a richer relationship that helps us grow spiritually.

There are more… Many more. Some can be found in the pages of Scripture, while others are simple habits that we can incorporate to help us make the most of these disciplines. One such habit that can help you make the most of all three of these spiritual practices is the habit of journaling. When you build this habit into your life and spiritual routine, you can document your prayers and reflections, helping you see the growth taking place in your life and see the answers to your prayers as God moves. You can list reasons to be thankful for what God is doing. You can jot down reminders of things that God points out to you in his Word. And you can keep track of insights that may come while focusing on God instead of merely physical things, through fasting. Writing these things offers a tangible way to process emotions, track your spiritual growth, and cultivate a sense of mindfulness.

Investing in our spiritual health through spiritual disciplines such as these is a necessity as we seek to navigate life with wisdom and endurance, and with wisdom and faith. Such practices can be transformational as Jesus uses them to conform us more and more into someone who looks like him in every facet of our being.

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Last year, I identified four areas in which we should invest in our lives, especially as leaders. The first area I identified was wisdom, which is the ability to gain knowledge, and then put it into practice. The second area where we should make an investment is into our health.

I have to admit, this is not an area of life where I excel. I often have good intentions, and sometimes, I follow through with them. Most of the time, I don’t. This is an area where I must become more focused and intentional.

Why? Because our physical health has an impact on every other area of life, and when we make our physical health a priority, the effect is almost immediate. Our minds sharpen, our strength grows, our emotions stabilize, our relationships gain strength, and our spiritual life is impacted as well. Taking the time to address this quadrant of life has a tremendous ripple effect into every other area. And frankly, that amazes me every time I stop to consider it.

But the opposite is true, too. When I either neglect my physical side, or when I work it too hard, all of those other areas suffer as well. Taking the time to invest in our health has to be a top priority.

There are at least three focus areas for the physical side of life.

Eat Well

First of all, we need to check what we put into our bodies. Our culture seems to push unwholesome foods at us that are highly processed, or filled with sugars, preservatives, or other unwholesome ingredients. Addressing this isn’t difficult. It can be as simple as shopping around the edges of the grocery store and avoiding the stuff in the aisles for the most part. In other words, fresh produce, or other foods that are closest to their original state tend to be healthiest. Will this be a little more expensive? Probably. But the impact on our bodies will be worth it.

Several years ago, one of my doctors recommended I eliminate all wheat and dairy from my diet. After some careful thought and prayer, we decided to give that a shot. The results were immediate and very significant. I lost more than 65 pounds, my blood pressure stabilized to levels low enough I could stop taking medication for it, my sleep apnea disappeared and I was able to stop using a CPAP machine. My moods changed, my energy levels increased, and much, much more.

I’m not suggesting you try that. Talk to your doctor before you do. Or do your research. But you’ll be surprised at what changes will take place when you eat healthy.

Move Around

Next, exercise is an important addition. A few years ago, I joined a gym. I use it occasionally. I must become better at using it frequently. Consistent and regular exercise has an impact on multiple areas of our lives, just as eating well does. You don’t have to become a bodybuilder and become the biggest guy flexing in the mirror at the gym. But getting your heart rate up and doing so consistently will have a pretty big impact.

You could go to the gym. Or you could go for a walk. Or you could join an exercise class, or buy a bike, or any number of things. Investing in your health means investing in your physical body.

Stress Less

Again, this is an area where I consistently have to remind myself to take a step back and take a deep breath. Life is not as complicated as I tend to make it, and I suspect you are the same. When I refuse to allow stressful things to impact me, I’m much more pleasant to be around, and it also has a chain reaction into other areas of my physical and mental health… as well as my spiritual health.

What can we do instead? Take a walk. Go watch the birds for a few moments. Turn to a familiar and favorite Bible passage to reset your mind. Pray.

Investing in our physical health can have an incredible impact on every other area of our lives. But I suspect that there are many like me who have ignored this investment for too long. It’s time to take better control of this aspect of life and invest in our health.

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The past several weeks have been difficult for our nation, and even our entire world. COVID-19, the Coronavirus, has brought us to our knees and complete disrupted our lives in almost every single area. And finally, it seems like it may be time to start opening things back up. To that end, here is our proposed plan for Parkview.

We heard it from every avenue: the Center for Disease Control, the federal government, the state government, our own county health officials and city leaders. Stay home. Close down anything that isn’t essential. Stop the spread. Flatten the curve.

As a church, such restrictions are extremely difficult. The church is designed to be in community, not isolation. And we have been apart for almost two full months. That has been hard.

Now, with Missouri’s governor opening things back up, albeit slowly, and our own local authorities doing the same, we have a plan for how we will reestablish our physical services, with a strong eye towards the safety and security of everyone.

In doing so, our leaders have weighed three equally important truths: the call from God to meet together (Hebrews 10:25), the requirements given in Scripture to obey our government (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17), and the safety and security of those people under our watch (1 Peter 5:2).

To that end, we have developed a plan for reopening and meeting together as the body of Christ. Our target date is this Sunday, May 24th. But in order to make sure our services are as safe as possible for those who are at a higher risk, or for those who are more worried about the state of the pandemic at this time, we are taking every possible precaution and safety step that we can, and we are asking a few things from our church as well to help us out.

What We Will Be Doing:

Parkview will host three service opportunities: 8:30, 9:40, and 10:50. These services will be abbreviated a bit to help prevent the spread of disease and germs. Because singing can project particles further than expected, we will have some worship videos playing on the screen as people enter instead of our normal congregational singing. These songs can be used as an opportunity to prepare our hearts for worship. After a welcome and announcements, we will move directly into the message. Communion and a time of prayer will close out the service. Individually packaged communion supplies will be available upon entering the auditorium, and an offering basket will be available at the exit.

Sunday School classes, Children’s Worship and Nursery services will not be available. Social distancing is more difficult to maintain in these settings. These opportunities will be opened back up as safety and health become more apparent.

Certain rows will be roped off for social distancing measures. We are asking those who attend to not remove these boundaries, and only sit in open rows. Be sure to maintain six feet from other families in the same row. At the end of each service, ushers will dismiss row by row to help maintain distance as well.

What We Are Asking You To Do:

For those who plan to attend Parkview this weekend, and for the next few weeks, we ask you to please make sure that you are healthy. If you have a cough or fever, or if you feel sick in any way, please stay at home. It would be better to wait another week or two instead of taking a risk. We now have the equipment needed to live stream our services to our YouTube channel. Our tech team is working hard to make sure it is up and running in time for the 24th. You can also find past sermon series, along with sermon notes and discussion questions on our website. 

If you feel more comfortable wearing a mask, please do so. We will have several handmade masks available for anyone who desires one.

Use hand sanitizer or gloves in order to prevent the spread of germs. We will have hand sanitizer available in the lobby. Other simple precautions can be taken as well, such as washing up before leaving the restroom.

Please do not touch door handles, hymnals, bulletin or handouts, and communion supplies. Doors will be opened for you, and other items will be handed to you by volunteers wearing appropriate safety apparel.

Please do not shake hands or hug one another. We realize that this may be hard for some, but contact should be limited between people.

Please RSVP by email or by phone to let us know which service slot you will attend. This helps us ensure that we are conforming to the proper amount of people for our building size. We will be striving to keep our numbers in the lowered occupancy range per service based on Missouri State and Pettis County Health Department recommendations. Your help in knowing what to expect in each time slot is appreciated.

After the service, please exit the building quickly, in order to give us time to disinfect the worship area, and to allow the next group to enter.

We are looking forward to getting back together, and we know you are as well! As we do so though, our primary concern is that you stay safe and healthy, both physically and spiritually. We are doing everything we can to ensure the best possible opportunity as we resume our services. Your cooperation, along with your continued prayers, are very much appreciated.

For those of you who do not attend Parkview, I simply hope these guidelines might be helpful for your own church as you take steps to begin meeting together again, whenever that may be. My prayers are with you, and I ask for your prayers for our church and leadership as we strive to lead our church wisely and safely.

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Things change. They just do. And sometimes that change can be hard to understand, and even harder to view with the proper perspective, a Kingdom perspective. But that’s something that we have to strive for continuously.

In early October, I spent a week outside of Colorado Springs at Bear Trap Ranch. This is an annual event that I utilize for my spiritual life as sort of a “spiritually fiscal review” of my life for the past year, and for the year to come. This is a cornerstone event for me, impacting my spiritual growth in ways that I cannot even fathom sometimes.

God uses that literal mountaintop experience to help form a spiritual mountaintop experience that helps me navigate through my life and ministry in the months to come.

It’s not the only thing that I intentionally plan through out the year. I also incorporate single day retreats, called Personal Retreat Days, to review my life and ministry, spend time in prayer, and seek God’s continued direction. I strive to do this at least every six to eight weeks through the year. And it helps, being built upon the foundation of the week in Colorado, to maintain a Kingdom perspective.

That was the theme for Wilderness this year. We looked deeply into the Sermon on the Mount, seeing how God is calling us to be Kingdom oriented people. He didn’t call me to “do” ministry. He called me to “be” a Kingdom person, in my life, in my family, in my ministry, and in every other aspect of my life.

Conceptually, that’s pretty easy. I can conceive what that looks like in an academic fashion pretty easily. But when the rubber meets the road, when life throws some things my way that don’t fit into my routines, that don’t align with my regular, day to day, life flow… Then what? How do I keep a Kingdom perspective in the middle of things like that?

Let me give an example of what I mean. My church is in the beginning stages of a staff change. After returning from Wilderness, our youth minister announced his resignation. He has accepted a new position, in more of a leadership capacity, in his home church.

I have been in my position as the lead minister here for a year. I still feel like I don’t have my feet under me completely yet in a lot of ways. A change like this at this point could be a major source of stress for me. But it really isn’t.

Don’t get me wrong. I would rather not have to work through all the details of a ministry change, saying goodbye to a coworker and a family that I love dearly, and then working through the specifics of maintaining his areas of ministry, while seeking for the person that is being led by God to fit into the ministry here at Parkview. Those things have the potential to be overwhelmingly difficult, on all fronts.

But a Kingdom perspective helps me to hold on to the bigger picture through all of this. Our youth minister has clearly and relentlessly sought the Lord’s leading in this, and both he and his wife have come to the conclusion that this is God’s direction for them, and for their new church.

For that to be the case, a Kingdom perspective requires me to have faith in the fact that God is working on all fronts of this situation, and not just theirs. A Kingdom perspective means that, since God is leading that family to a new location for ministry, then he is also already working things out to bring a new person and family to Parkview.

There are a lot of elements here that we simply can’t see yet, but are critical to the overall picture. There’s the spiritual health of our youth minister and his family, the health of the church he’s going to, the health of our church, the health of the church a new guy may be leaving to come here, God’s work in that person’s life and family, and on and on and on.

How often do we just look at the details that are specific to my own life, in this moment? A Kingdom perspective helps me to see more of the bigger picture, and it helps me to trust in the fact that God is already in the midst of this situation.

That’s just one example. Since I returned from Colorado, I have seen this perspective shift in my own mind, in a situation I am dealing with in my family, in other aspects of the ministry at Parkview, in the life of a family facing some significant challenges, in the life of an older couple in our church as they head south for the winter, and so many more.

A Kingdom perspective helps me see all of this in a new and clearer light. And a Kingdom perspective helps me to hold on to the fact that God is right in the middle of all of these situations, so why should I worry?

In Matthew 6:33, right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In the context of Matthew 6, Jesus is speaking about our basic needs, such as clothing and food. He encourages us to rely upon God for even these things, and not to worry about them. A Kingdom perspective realizes that God is concerned for even the small things such as these. And if he will take care of these, he is definitely in the middle of those bigger issues that we face that seem to weigh us down.

A Kingdom perspective helps us to see that God is right in the middle of it; already there working things out for our good, and for the good of his Kingdom and his own glory.

Lord, help me to keep a Kingdom perspective in all these things!

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I have always seemed to struggle with keeping a calendar consistently. It has just seemed to be an area where I could not maintain any continuity, and every system I tried failed. Until now.

Keeping a calendar has always been hard. I started off in college by using the DayTimer system. I initially used the small, pocket sized planners. But eventually I “upgraded” to the Desk size, and purchased a few different leather covers to go with it over the years. It was a good system, but I struggled to keep it with me, and found that when I needed it, it was either at home or at the office… wherever I wasn’t. And, over time, I just stopped using it.

I moved to jotting things onto a wall calendar, hanging by my desk, and then to a deskpad type calendar. Those seemed to work for a while, but I ran into the same problem. I never had it with me when I needed to check something.

When I got my first BlackBerry, and then later moved to an iPhone, I thought my problems were solved. I started using the calendars on those devices, eventually settling on Google Calendar, which synced across all my devices. This seemed to be much more effective, but I had one small problem. I love writing, especially using pens, and specifically, using vintage fountain pens. While Google calendar was effective, I still struggled to use it. I just forced myself to use it, because what other option did I have?

And while Google does a great job of keeping my appointments, it doesn’t help much at all with my tasks or goals. It still wasn’t fully what I needed.

Several months ago, I discovered a new planner, a paper planner, and a full-feature planner. I was intrigued, but skeptical. So I started digging. I found others who used it, and looked over how they implemented it. I watched videos about it. I read blogs about it. Finally, I decided to pick one up and try it out.

The planner I am talking about is the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt. I have been utilizing this planner in sort of a hybrid fashion, in tandem with Google Calendar and Todoist. It has been amazingly effective for achieving my goals, keeping my priorities centered, and making sure I not only get things done, but get the right things done.

First off, it’s a quarterly planner. As I started using it initially, that seemed to be a drawback, only having three months handy at a time. But I have come to realize that this is actually a great benefit, because it allows me to focus on what is immediate and high priority. Viewing my year as a whole often discourages me, because there is much to do, and the time frame is harder to visualize. Or I think I have so much time, I can procrastinate. Having only three months to view at a time helps me see the timing for things much more clearly.

And, for those longer range items, there are a few pages that hold “rolling quarters.” These are quick glances at the next four quarters, and they can hold the big items that need to stay on my radar that may be coming up.

Each day contains a timeline for my appointments and time blocks, and it contains a task list for the day, which I populate from my Todoist list. But each day also contains a Daily Big Three, three things that must be done that day to move my work and my goals ahead. In a like fashion, the end of each week contains a Weekly Preview, where I can review the past week, plan for the coming week, and identify a Weekly Big Three. This has been a game changer for me, allowing me to see what steps need to be taken for my goals to be achieved.

And that’s probably the biggest change for me due to using the Full Focus Planner. The first few pages are the goal pages. These contain my goals for the coming months, maybe even years. I have determined these goals from my Life Plan Reviews, and they are things that I want to accomplish in both my personal life and my professional life. The Full Focus Planner allows me to summarize each of these, identify the next action steps to move them along, and to incorporate those action steps into my weekly and daily plans.

I have never felt so organized and “on task” before. This planner has helped me to move forward in so many areas of my life that weren’t moving so well before. I don’t want to say that these areas were stagnant, but many of my goals for some areas of my life remained unchanged form year to year, simply because I had no way to see and measure any progress, or to be reminded to take the next actions steps in each of those areas. The Full Focus Planner has helped to change all of that.

I am so excited about the potential the Full Focus Planner has to impact my life and work, advancing my goals, and helping me to be productive and effective in my life and ministry. So I decided to subscribe for a full year’s worth of planners. Michael Hyatt Co. will send one out to me every 90 days, just a few weeks before my current planner runs out. That gives me time to get it set up and ready. I do this in conjunction with a quarterly Life Plan Review, taking a day or two away from the busy pace of life to refocus myself.

If you would like to try one out without a year long subscription, you can order a single planner from Michael Hyatt, or get one from Amazon.com.

Either way, I highly encourage you to check out the Full Focus Planner. It’s easily the best tool I have found for daily planning, as well as moving myself forward in achieving my priorities and goals.

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For the last few years, I have used an online task manager to keep track of all my projects, tasks, and other items to be done. But recently, I have made a switch that has helped tremendously.

Since 2011, I have used a task manager called Nozbe. Even though I have switched, it’s not because this was a bad product, or something I didn’t like. I have just found a few things that work better for me. Nozbe is a great product, and a great company. The only drawback in my experience is the expense. They are one of the more pricey task management systems out there.

A few months ago, I started using a new planner, which has become the most effective tool in that regard in my life. It has been a game changer. I’ll share more about it in a later post.

But, from that change, I also incorporated a hybrid task management system, with a fresh start in a new piece of software. I have made the switch to Todoist, and when paired with my planner, this has become a highly effective tool in my arsenal.

Todoist allows me to incorporate my task list into projects (Nozbe did as well, but Todoist seems easier to use). Those projects are the things that I need to get done to advance my work and my personal tasks and goals. I have set this up in almost every area of my life, from goals like growing in my skill as a guitarist, to weekly tasks, like sermon preparation, which contains several sub-tasks.

From there, each day as I review my daily plans, I transfer tasks to the planner. My planner goes with me everywhere, so I always have the ability to see my calendar, my goals, my weekly plans, and my daily tasks.

I have only been using this system for the past four or five months, but it has become a main part of my productivity and effectiveness in almost every area of my life. I am amazed at how quickly it has become a part of my routine, and how helpful it has been.

Todoist is super simple to use, and I have no trouble syncing it across all my devices. With several of its other features, like alarms and notifications, to pre-built templates for projects, labels, projects, and filters, and even more, I feel like it is a change that will benefit my life for a long time to come.

In my desire to be as effective as I can be in my life and ministry, I am always searching for good tools to help me out. My biggest struggle is in not wanting to change something I have become used to. That has been the case more than once. And frankly, this change is overdue. My tendency is to stay with something once it becomes routine.

But this switch has proven to me yet again that occasionally, a change is needed, not simply because something is wrong or broken, but because something better has come along. I am reminded that it’s not a bad thing to step out of my comfort zone and give something new a try. And in this case, a blend of tech and analog is just the change I needed.

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Several years ago, I developed a Life Plan, outlining the most important aspects of my life, and what I wanted to achieve in each of those areas. Periodically, I take the time to review that plan, in order to make sure I stay on track.

I was first introduced to the idea of a Life Plan by Michael Hyatt, through his blog on leadership. At that point, he was the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and was striving to help others develop their leadership abilities on the side. Since then, he has made his leadership platform his main work, and has developed it into a full time business.

His blog and podcast are full of great leadership resources. Most of these are designed for the corporate or business mind, but there is a lot of overlap into the church as well. I find a lot of his resources to be extremely helpful, to the point of being almost invaluable.

One such resource is the development of my Life Plan. I initially wrote out a detailed plan for my life around 2011, identifying those areas of my life that were most important to me, and striving to make them the best that they can be.

I have written about this before, describing what a Life Plan looks like, and how I have fit it into my life.

But a Life Plan isn’t effective unless you refer to it, using it as a guide into the future. If you write it out and then set it aside, you have created a neat document, but one of little value. In order for it to be effective, you need to use it, refer to it, tweak it, and allow it to direct your steps into the future.

That’s why it’s important to review it regularly. I take the time to do this at several different levels in my life, in order to keep the priorities laid out in my Life Plan in front of me constantly. I do this in three different ways.

Annually

Each year, I set aside a day where I do nothing but review in detail my Life Plan. I go over it with a fine toothed comb, tweaking it to make sure it is as accurate and as practical as I can make it. In the annual analysis, I may make big changes, adjusting areas of priority to greater or lesser importance. Or, I may make small changes, incrementally tweaking it to make sure I am making forward progress.

Quarterly

Once a quarter, I read through my Life Plan completely, making sure I am still on track. This may take me a couple of hours, but I focus on each area, identifying two to three action steps that I want to accomplish in each area in the coming quarter. I jot these down in my planner, and keep them in front of me as reminders to take the steps that I have outlined.

Weekly

This is where the rubber meets the road. Each week, I will skim through each section of my Life Plan, but focus on those action steps that I outlined at the quarterly review. I make sure that I have these action steps in mind as I plan my week, so that at the end of the quarter, and even more so, at the end of the year, I can see how I have progressed.

Prayerfully and Intentionally

This isn’t necessarily a level of viewing my Life Plan as much as it is an overview for it all. I do nothing with this without prayer first. I want my goals and ambitions to be in line with what God desires for me, and in line with the vision he has given me for my life. So every time I open this document up, I pray over it, asking God to be clear in his guidance, and for my strength to be sufficient to follow.

I want my life purpose to be clear. I want my goals to be achieved. I want my impact to be meaningful. In order to do that, I must be intentional. Intentionality requires effort. And even though sometimes it feels easier to simply go with the flow, I know that won’t get me to where I want to be. Intentionality is key.

I encourage you to check out the concept of a Life Plan. I know you would benefit from it, and the intentionality and purpose it brings to your life are unmatchable. You can get started by reading Living Forward by Michael Hyatt & Daniel Harkavy. In this brief book, they outline the concept of a Life Plan, and help you get started living the life you’d like to have. You can pick up a copy on Amazon using the link below, and I’m sure you can get it from several other retailers. I highly recommend it.

And in the meantime, keep it covered in prayer!

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I recently joined a book club designed for leadership building called LeaderBooks. The book selected for March was Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport. Here are a few of my thoughts concerning the book, and my reactions to it.

Our culture is noisy, and a voice of reason in the midst of that noise is needed. Cal Newport strives to be that voice with his book Digital Minimalism. The subtitle seems highly appropriate for the culture we live in: Choosing A Focused Life In A Noisy World.

The premise Newport begins with is that we have been hooked by the digital conglomerates that operate in our world, and we are no longer the user being targeted with need to fulfill. No, we are the product being sold, and our consistent tapping, clicking and swiping is an addictive habit that is designed to keep our attention focused in on the apps we use. Because, the longer we use them, the more money they make.

In response to this, Newport calls for a heavily moderated digital detox. His approach is simple. First, remove all optional digital use from your life for thirty days. After that time, as you allow certain products back in, evaluate just how effective they are at meeting your needs, and if there is a better tool, use it instead. Then, finally, you set the parameters that it can operate under. The digital product no longer has mastery; you do.

Through the book, Newport also gives several practical tactics for achieving these goals. One in particular stood out to me. It’s the practice of embracing Slow Media. This approach is not a radical elimination of all forms of media, just a slow and balanced approach to it. Of course, this is a vastly simplified description of the concept, and I encourage you to read Digital Minimalism to gain a better understanding of it.

The goal is to become more mindful of what we consume, and not just rush through an ever-increasing stream of clickbait and post comments that serve little to no purpose of achieving what we most want out of our digital lives.

Newport’s theories seem pretty drastic, but just like anything else in life, if you can’t control it, then it gains control over you. That cannot be more true of the digital reality we live in at the moment.

You may want to consider reading this book to see how it can impact your own digital life. You might even consider taking some of its practices and applying them to your own life. But even if you don’t, I encourage you to take a hard look at your digital use and take steps to ensure that you remain in control of it.

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I read a lot. I enjoy it, and it helps spark my personal growth in several different areas. I also review a lot of the books I read. But now, I want to review not just a book, but a book club.

I have been a follower of Michael Hyatt’s blog and his work as an innovative leader in the blogging community. When he branched out into the realm of helping others develop a platform from which to operate, I was intrigued, but wasn’t able to really participate. It was pretty expensive. One area which I did invest in was his presentation theme for blogs and websites. This website is built upon his platform, in fact.

Several months ago, he released a new program called LeaderBox, in which he curated and sent out two books on leadership each month, creating an online community where discussion could happen as people sought to grow through those books. Again, it was pretty pricey, and I declined to participate in it.

However, quite recently, he has revised that program into a new entity called LeaderBooks, and I decided this was a level at which I could jump in and participate. And I am glad that I did. (This is not an affiliated post in any way; I am simply passing on to you a tool I have found to be immediately helpful.)

Here’s how it works. LeaderBooks is a revision of LeaderBox, but much more simple and streamlined. Each month, Hyatt and his team select one book that they think holds the potential to be an asset to leaders across all walks of life. When you subscribe to LeaderBooks, you gain access to a community that reads that book together each month and discusses it, growing together. You receive a reading guide and summary of the book. And you receive some challenging and provoking questions and actions steps to take your leadership to the next level.

What you don’t receive is the book itself. You have to purchase that on your own. I like that, even though it means a little more expense. In this manner, you can choose your preferred format, whether that be hard cover, audio book, or a digital format.

This month’s selection is a new book called Digital Minimalism, written by Cal Newport. And although I’m just a few days into the program, I’m finding it especially helpful as I navigate the pages, making my own notes and observations, and seeing what stands out to others as well.

So, while I typically review and recommend selected books to you, in this case I’m recommending a book club to you. One that I think you’ll find helpful, especially if you are a leader in your organization, or want to grow in this area in your own life. It’ll cost you twenty bucks a month, plus the cost of the selected book, but I think that is well worth it for the growth you’ll see.

I highly recommend that you check it out.

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