Episode 838 Spend Time Growing
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 838 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm
[00:00:08] Shelly Lombard: [00:00:08] Shelly Lombard, founder of Millie money. Learning how to invest. We'll give you options for your future and to help others get inspired. One way to do that is to listen to this podcast. Inspired stewardship with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:26] Scott Maderer: [00:00:26] is this kind of growth is often ignored by adults. We don't think of it as growing ourselves when we're doing those little things that we really need to concentrate on and do well. We don't think of that as useful ways of spending our time. And yet the truth is. That often is the most useful way of spending your time and staff, what we think of.
[00:00:53] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly [00:01:00] desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself.
[00:01:12] Invest in others and develop your influence so that you impact the work.
[00:01:19]In today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why it's never a waste of time to grow your talents. I shared several dozen ways you can grow yourself. And I also talk about why this is so often ignored by adults as we talk about stewarding your time.
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[00:02:06] One of the things that's interesting about the world today is. Most of us studies show we'll have several different careers or jobs throughout our life. We'll go from task to task or job to job that were used widely different skillsets. If you talk to people, the number of people that are still doing what they actually started doing when they graduated college is very few.
[00:02:33] And what's more, the work that we're doing requires more and more that you have a diverse set of skills. When you come to that job, that you're able to work with people you're able to cooperate with teams. You're able to actually work on technical tasks. You're able to think and problem solve. Many of these are skills that we aren't regularly taught directly in school.
[00:03:00] [00:03:00] And I would say it's never. A problem to constantly be focused on growing your talents. So back at the beginning of the pandemic, you probably saw a ton of posts about how, when you come out of this period of self isolation, you better have learned a new skill. You better have developed a new technique.
[00:03:20] You need to have learned a new language or done something else in terms of your work and your effort. But the truth is. That a lot of times that was almost guilt, shaming people. If you don't do this, then you're not very productive. You're not a good person. And yet a lot of times people were dealing with trauma.
[00:03:39] They were dealing with change. They were dealing with worry. And sometimes not doing anything for a period of time is what they needed to do. So I'm not using this as an opportunity to say, if you're not doing this right now, you're a failure. No. Instead my point is to always have a focus of [00:04:00] what can I be doing to continue to grow my talents.
[00:04:04] One of the things that I say is I work with people on productivity and I work with people on money management, but the truth is. Both of those really have to do with self-management. The truth is the only thing I really coach on is talent. It's leadership. It's your behavior. It's how you think it's your limiting beliefs.
[00:04:22] It's these things that hold you back or lift you up. And so it never, ever is a bad thing to be growing in these things, whether you're working in a stable job, whether you're self employed, whether you're a stay at home parent, it doesn't matter. No matter what you're doing, you constantly need to be focused on growing your talents.
[00:04:44] But when I say that, it's interesting because immediately people usually jump to huge things. I need to learn a whole new set of skills. I need to change my entire life. I need to do something completely different than I've ever done before. [00:05:00] And sure that could work and that could be beneficial. But sometimes the changes that I'm talking about are actually.
[00:05:07] Small changes. They're not necessarily as big as you might think. So for example, get dressed in the morning. If you're working from home now, and you've been working in sweat pants and t-shirts all day long every day, actually get dressed. Like you're going to work, actually change your physical environment and your.
[00:05:31] Actual attitude and how you interact by changing your clothes. Actually eat breakfast. Don't just snack all day long. Put something on your list that you can get done every single day, even a small task, even something as simple as putting one piece of clothing away helps you make progress. As part of that.
[00:05:59] I don't know [00:06:00] if you've seen it, but there's a university of Texas commencement speech from 2014 delivered. By a Navy seal, he's the U S Navy Admiral. And he's a seal. And in that speech, he says, make your bed. That's one of the secrets to his success. The idea of getting up every morning and doing this one small task, but doing it right and doing it well and doing it with quality so that, when you go out into the day, that day, you've already succeeded at something.
[00:06:33] And what's more, if you have a terrible day, when you come home at the end of the day, you see that reinforcement of the fact that you did something already today, you've already achieved something. Even if it's something small, like making your bed. And that has a lot of power. Put some time into the day for some exercise, for some physical activity.
[00:06:56] This is what I've been failing on here lately, because I've had a lot of [00:07:00] things going on and a lot of work. And I haven't been carving time out for exercise. So personally, this is one that I'm putting in this list for myself as well. And it doesn't have to be major exercise. It can even just be one short walk or just doing a few pushups.
[00:07:17] And as part of that, Use some of that time to actually get outside and get some nature, get some air. You don't want to put yourself in a hole and stop paying attention to the rest of the world. But you also don't want to spend all of your time bingeing on negativity and news. You can also reach out to other people, call your mom, your grandparents, your friends, talk to people that are outside of your house.
[00:07:43] Reach out to your neighbors. And make a connection with them. Now do it in a safe way. If you're still in a situation where maybe you're at risk of COVID or they're at risk of COVID, but do it anyway, find a way to connect with other human beings. There's power in [00:08:00] that connection. Even if you're an introvert, you can find ways to connect with others, develop some ways that you can give back to other people, continue to do your regular routine, including things like journaling, reading.
[00:08:14] Studying, but also find ways that you can do and payback to others in a generous way. Not necessarily with money though. It could be, but make sure that you're finding ways to help those around you. And then of course, there's always learning new skills. You can learn online around science or language or coding or whatever, learn how to build a website.
[00:08:40] You can find the skills that you're already doing for your job and get better at them. If you use Excel every day or word every day, go take a course on getting better at that. And then of course, make sure that you're continuing to take breaks and take rest time because the truth is that's one of the problems sometimes with working from home, is [00:09:00] it blends into the day and if you're going to work right now and you're one of the people that's able to leave right now, it feels like there's a lot of pressure to get a lot more done.
[00:09:09] And that's just happening more and more in today's world. So make sure you're actually taking your vacation time, taking breaks, taking time off and doing those things that you need to for self-care as well. And then of course, there's also making sure that you're doing things that include your hobbies, that include music and include pets and those things that are around you.
[00:09:34] That just bring you pleasure, but don't stay up late. Skip meals, obsess over every little detail. Instead focus on what are the smallest actions that I can take that continue to grow me and my skills and my talents and my mindset and my ability, the truth is this kind of growth is often ignored by adults.
[00:09:59] We [00:10:00] don't think of it as growing ourselves when we're doing those little things. That we really need to concentrate on and do well. We don't think of that as useful ways of spending our time. And yet the truth is that often is the most useful way of spending your time. Instead, what we think of. It's the fact that now we've graduated, we're out of school.
[00:10:24] We don't need to continue growing. We don't need to continue developing that. We've learned all we need to learn. It's this false hood that we tell adults that somehow or another magically you'll reach adulthood and you'll know all of the answers. You'll know all of the secrets to the universe.
[00:10:40] You'll have it all figured out and we all seem to fake it and pretend to each other that we've got it all figured out. And I'll tell you what, I'm 52. And I'm still figuring it out each and every day. And my mother is about to turn 80 and she's still figuring it out each and every day. That's part of the [00:11:00] secret of adulthood is recognizing the fact that we don't ever get it all figured out.
[00:11:05] And because of that, we've constantly got to grow. Thanks for listening.
[00:11:11]Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up
[00:11:33] for
[00:11:33] Scott Maderer: [00:11:33] our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.
[00:11:56] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures [00:12:00] develop your influence and impact the world. .