It's 9AM

Do You Want to Try Something New?

When was the last time you tried something new?

I’ve shared before my days sometimes feel like Groundhog Day, the Bill Murray movie.

It’s get up, make breakfasts and lunches, go sit at the computer and create or market.  A lot of planning.

It’s routine.

I make fun of Les because when we go out to eat, she picks her same favorite places.

This despite the fact that a new place opens up every couple of weeks, and there are hundreds of tiny grills or café’s we’ve yet to frequent.

When I work out, I run the same route.

Grill the same food. Drink the same beer.

A life full of same, it feels like.

Routine is the key to success.

Have you heard that before?

I wear the same clothes so I don’t have to waste brainpower on what to put on each day.

Routine meals. Routine exercise. Routine writing.

For a million years, the expected kept us safe.

And I think routine allows for thinking outside of the box.

Again, it’s about energy.  The brain is designed to work on auto-pilot most of the time.

Ever drive to and from work and joke that the car could find it’s own way home you’ve done it so much.

Or you have done is so much you simply forget the drive?

That is energy conservation in action.

If your brain is not thinking about the drive, it’s free to think about other things.

Like solving big world problems or little world problems.

I run into this a lot.

All last week, all I could think about was moving immigrants from the border into Pine Bluff to shore up the tax base by increasing the working population pool.

My mind was stuck in that loop, working out the issues that an action like that would bring up.

Tracking, for one. ESL classes, job search and placement, housing search and placement, community engagement activities, cultural learning opportunities.

Documenting everything because I really think it could work, and not just for Arkansas’ tiny population.

In reality though, how many immigrants could we import that would make an impact at the border?

That’s the problem with big world problems.

When you get a chance to think about them, they are on the verge of being overwhelming.

Housing is a huge problem, and you can’t trust anyone who thinks they know about it.

Watch one news program and they’ll tell you we’re facing a critical housing shortage.

The next segment talks about a coming wave of foreclosures and another potential housing crisis, with empty homes in every neighborhood and millions of homeless Americans looking for rentals.

And no rentals on the market.

I have to wonder which is it?

Which is what I wonder about a lot of stuff going on in the world.

How can we have 50% of Chinese (half a billion people) that are obese, and the same number in America (half of a half billion) AND STILL have starving kids in both places?!?

Money doesn’t solve the issue.

Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife donated a billion dollars to charities last year, and the problems don’t get solved or addressed.

That’s because a charity’s first function is to make sure the lights stay on and their executives get paid, and then maybe help people.

It’s not just charities.  Churches have that same priority.

I sent a proposal to the Mayor and several Pastors about opening the doors of the churches in very poor neighborhoods to address a few issues.

It was a simple solution about community involvement and engagement.

The response was “Who is going to pay for it?”

I think that’s a routine response to most questions about problems.

Which is why the same old same isn’t working.

I’m not sure it ever did.

That’s my challenge to you and me this weekend.

Let’s think outside the box and solve some problems.

Doesn’t have to be big world problems, it just has to be a different approach to something you do.

Start with brushing your teeth with the other hand.

Try something new.

Eat out at a brand new place.  Go somewhere you’ve never been. Do one thing you have never done.

You know me, when the world problems seem so big and impossible, I like to focus on the one thing I can control.

Me and my reactions and my thoughts.

I can control those. I can go outside of those routines.

How about you?

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