Time Management Fundamentals

Years ago, I had a young guy working on a team of mine who just was not cutting it.  His excuse for all his missed deadlines?  I didn’t have time.  I remember telling him, “Everyone in this world, from the President of the United States to a homeless guy on the street, has the exact same amount of time in the day and decides how to use that time.”  He didn’t get it.  And he didn’t make it on my team.

It’s one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves.  “I didn’t have time.”  If you believe it, you’ve sold yourself a bill of goods.  If you catch yourself saying it, stop immediately!  There is a fundamental problem that has worked its way into our culture and you have the responsibility to keep it from taking hold of you.  The problem.  You feel busier than you ever have while accomplishing less and feeling less satisfied by all you’re doing.  The solution.  That’s what we’ll talk about here.  Here are 3 questions you can answer to help you manage that time well.

1.    When am I most energized?  All hours of the day are not created equal.  Have you noticed that sometimes you get incredible work accomplished and sometimes it’s like you’re pushing against a brick wall?  What’s the difference?  Well, it may have some to do with the type of work you’re doing, but considering you’re doing work you’re suited to, it probably has much more to do with when you’re doing it.  Are you taking advantage of your natural rhythms or fighting against them?  Are you a morning person?  Are you an evening person?  Does the afternoon feel like a burst of energy or a crash?  You should figure these types of questions out for yourself.  If you know you have a time of day that you know is going to be ultra-productive, why not schedule your most important tasks then?  If you have a time that you know is going to be sluggish, why not do the mindless or menial tasks then?  Don’t just plug tasks into any old time of the day.  Know your rhythms and plan accordingly.

2.    What am I doing with my downtime?  First lesson.  You have way more natural downtime than you think.  What do you do during the two hours before work?  Is sleep the answer?  What about the four hours after work?  Is that your “veg-out” time?  That’s great if your goal is to be a vegetable.  But, if your goal is to live out your God-given potential and dreams, you must look at your downtime as opportunity time.  We’re talking about hours each day that you’re just giving up because you’ve told yourself you need all that downtime.  The truth is that you need some, but probably not as much as you’re taking.  Examine your patterns and make some changes.  Plug in productive work into some of that excess downtime.  There are many people who have started profitable businesses in their downtime.  It’s not a myth.  It’s about intentional discipline.

3.    How might I be wasting time every week?  How much television do you watch?  How much time do you spend on social media?  How many YouTube videos do you watch each week?  These questions could go on and on and the answers, for most of us, are embarrassing.  The point is that you are wasting a tremendous amount of time during any given week.  What if you got intentional with 30% of that wasted time?  Identify it and schedule it.  You won’t believe the results.

You manage your money carefully.  Your time is a more valuable commodity.  Why not manage it too?

5 Reasons You Should Reconsider Your View Of Millennials

I'm 44 years old.  I'm a solid Gen-X-er.  Now that the Baby Boomers are retiring in droves,  my fellow Gen-Ex-ers and I are taking firm hold of the power structure in our nation.  It's true in businesses.  It's true in politics.  And it's true in the church.   Now that the platform for my generation is growing, I'm hearing an awful lot of complaining about the Millennial Generation.  You know, millennials, those born roughly between 1982 -2000, depending on which researcher you choose to cite.  That means they are somewhere between 17 and 35 years old.  If we split the difference, we're talking about a person who's about 26 years old.  

But, I'm not writing to just define an age-group.  Rather, I'm writing to pose a question to my fellow Gen-X-ers and the Baby Boomers ahead of us.  The question is, why are these twenty-somethings getting so much grief from us?  Honestly, I think I see an article every other day about how entitled and lazy and irresponsible this generation is.  And the worst part is that it's my friends and colleagues writing and sharing this all over the internet!  At the risk of sounding over-dramatic, I would like to say to my friends and colleagues who are doing this, respectfully, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.  If you have jumped on the anti-millennial bandwagon,  I want to offer you five reasons you should jump off ASAP.  

1. They're kids.  So was I.  So were you.  I can't speak for you, but when I was 26, I was an idiot.  I didn't know squat, but I thought I knew it all.  Thank God for people in their 40's and 50's who took me under their wing to show me better ways to live.  Thank God they didn't write me off.  Neither should we write off a generation.  They need us to take them under our wings and show them better ways.
2. Not all of them are idiot kids.  Many are light years ahead of where we were at their age.  I want to brag on a millennial friend and colleague of mine.  Mitch Little is a 22-year-old associate student pastor at Solace Church and the guy is literally years and years ahead of where I was when I was his age.  My sons look up to him and I trust him completely with the influence he has with them.  Sure, he may not know some of what I know now, but I'm twice his age.  By the time he's my age, I can only imagine how far he will have gone.  Mitch is an exceptional man, but he is not the exception to his generation.  There are plenty of Mitch Littles in this millennial generation.
3. You're vilifying an entire generation.  I know you've had bad experiences with millennials, maybe especially in the workforce.  I have too.   But is this the only generation you've had a bad experience with?  The whole truth is, we could vilify any other generation in history if we chose to focus only on their negative traits.  Why are we choosing to cast a negative light on an entire generation because of some bad experiences we've had with some individuals in that age-range?  That reflects much more poorly on us than it does on them.
4. They're your kids, so it's your fault.  Let's do some math.  If someone is 26, that means their parents are anywhere from their mid-forties to late-fifties (roughly).  Those are the exact people I see doing the bulk of the complaining.  Hey, if they are our kids, and they are exhibiting poor character traits and a poor work ethic, who does that reflect on most?  Maybe we should have skipped some of those "everybody plays, everybody wins" sports leagues.  
5. They will be handed the keys, regardless of what you think about them.  More math. We're going to be retiring and dying before they do.  If they will be holding the responsibility and authority of our nation in the future anyway, doesn't it make sense that we should dispense with the complaining and lean into the mentoring?  

So, where does that leave us, who are in our 40's, 50's and beyond?  I think it positions us with both a great responsibility and a great opportunity.  Sure, generation gaps are real.  But contrary to what we want to tell ourselves, they are generally created and almost always precipitated by older generations who want to dismiss the younger who are simply exploring their own identity just like we did!  The Baby Boomers said Gen-X were a bunch of negative cynics.  Gen-X says Millennials are a bunch of entitled sloths.  Is any of that helpful?  Of course not.  But beyond that, I would argue that, by and large, it's also untrue. 

If you've read this far, congratulations.  If you're offended by this, I'm sorry.  If you disagree, I'd love to hear why.  It's very possible I'm missing a facet of the reality.  If you agree, please share this post. Whatever your stance, the millennial generation is here to stay and they will assume more authority and responsibility, as time goes on.  How we work to mentor, challenge and build them up between now and then is completely up to us and vital to our future and theirs.

If I Could Share Just One Message With You . . . This Is It.

You can tell a story with your life that's worth celebrating.  The question is, will you?  This is a message I shared at Solace Church last year and I believe it accurately reflects what I believe to be my life's message.  I'd encourage you to take the time to watch it and allow it to sink in and begin to affect change inside of you.  You can tell a story with your life that's worth celebrating.

"This is My Story" Jeff & Tawnya Jackson from Solace Church on Vimeo.

Please, please please don't squander the life you've been given by just "getting by".  That's no kind of life to live and there are too many people you can affect for you to just get by. You can tell a story with your life that's worth celebrating.

You can get started living out a great story right here.

LifePlanning is for you!

The LifePlanning process is coming back this Fall and will be better than ever.  The details are still coming together, but the one-day workshop that kicks off the 6-month process is tentatively set for October 13, 2018, at the Courtyard Marriot in downtown Tulsa. 

Who is it for?  

This is for you if you are dealing with . . .

• A major life transition
• A move from success to significance
• Yearning to know what God has prepared you for next
• Burn-out and losing passion for your work
• A desire to find a healthy life/work balance
• Increased fulfillment and meaning in life
• Alignment with who you are and what you do
• True success in your most important life and work priorities

Where In The World Are You Living? (Living in Alignment - Part 5)

Here we go again!  Let's pick up this conversation about alignment again.  Just to recap, the main idea is this.  When we are aligned in various areas of our lives, we're going to be healthy, when we're misaligned, we're going to be unhealthy.   Think of your car. If the wheels are aligned properly, the ride is smooth and you get maximum life out of your tires. If the wheels are misaligned, the ride is rough and your tires wear out prematurely.  Misalignment = pain.  Alignment = full functionality.  If you have not yet read the previous posts in this series, take a few minutes and do that now.  I'll put links below:



        Living In Alignment (Part 1)
      Living In Alignment (Part 2)
      Living In Alignment (Part 3)
      Living In Alignment (Part 4)





So, here we are in part five.  We've talked about alignment in our personal, vocational and family lives, but I bet you've never considered this one.  How about alignment with where you live?  Yes, I mean geographically.  Never thought of it before? Neither had I, until recently.  But as I look back over my life, I can see seasons in my life where I've been aligned and where I've not.  

Let's face it, we live in a really big country, a big world, for that matter, and many of us move around for all kinds of reasons. But have you ever considered that you could move someplace just to live in that place?  I had a friend who moved from Tulsa to Destin, FL a little over a year ago.  Granted, he wasn't a close friend and there may be more to the story than I know, but when I asked him what was there (work, family, etc?), he said they just loved it there.  That was it.  It really got me thinking.  And I hope this will get you thinking today.  I have two simple questions to ask you about where you currently reside. I'll let you draw your own implications from your answers.  

1. Why do you live where you live?  Is it where you've always lived?  Is it where your family wants you to be?  Is it where your job transferred you?  Do you wish you were someplace else, but you're scared to explore what that even means?  Here's my opinion and you can take it or leave it.  Too many of us are living where we live because some external circumstance dictated it and we've never thought about what kind of geography actually feeds our soul.  That brings me to the next question . . . 
2. What kind of geography feeds your soul?  Think about it.  If all regions are the same and it doesn't matter where we live, why did God create this world with so many different climates, topography and seasons?  Doesn't it make sense that some people are going to feel much more at home in the woods of the Pacific Northwest while others are going to sit in those same woods and dream of a Southern California beach? All regions are not created equal just like all people are not created equal.  No person or no region is better than another, but I bet there's a certain region that matches your temperaments and the season of life you happen to be in.  Just think about that a little bit today.  What kind of geography feeds your soul?

Am I suggesting you move?  No.  I'm asking you to think through a question that I don't believe many of us ever consider.  It may mean nothing to you today.  Or it may mean something much more. I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Leave a comment here or on Facebook.

5 Ways To Love Your Family This Holiday Season (Living In Alignment - Part 4)

Hey, we're deep into the Christmas season and you know what that means.  You're either going to be surrounded by family you struggle to tolerate or you're missing family who is far away. Today, as we continue the conversation about alignment, let's focus on loving both of those types of family members.  Just to review the idea of alignment:  When we are aligned in various areas of our lives, we're going to be healthy, when we're misaligned, we're going to be unhealthy.   Think of your car.  If the wheels are aligned properly, the ride is smooth and you get maximum life out of your tires.  If the wheels are misaligned, the ride is rough and your tires wear out prematurely.  Misalignment = pain.  Alignment = full functionality.  I think all of us can say we have some family relationships that contain some pain and dysfunctionality.

Disclaimer:  I'm not great at this and I don't always do what I know is right.  These are just some principles I've learned through trial and error - mostly error.  I hope they are helpful to you.  One more thought for you too.  If you read all these and automatically come back with, "Yeah, but you don't know my family", you've totally missed it and you're more of the problem than you can imagine.  All of these principles are about taking responsibility, not casting blame.  Enjoy. 

5 Ways to love those family members, both near and far:

1. Put yourself in their shoes.  Here's the problem.  We get so annoyed by those insufferable family members because we filter all their behavior through our own situation.  We think, "I would never act like that."  Well, you're right.  But you're also not in their situation.  Try imagining what life is like for them this Christmas.  You might even ask them about their situation and try to understand.  Imagine that.  I heard John Maxwell say years ago, "Hurting people hurt people."  Do you really think your relative who deals out pain like second nature is doing it so you can have an unpleasant time?  Isn't it more likely that they are hurting and you might be able to help?
2.  Think of yourself less often.  St. Francis of Assisi brilliantly prayed, "O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be understood than to understand."  This plays off the one above and could be a brand new way to relate to your family.  I understand where you are because I'm the same as you.  I go into almost every relationship, family or otherwise, with the filter of how that peson is efffecting me on.  But, what I've learned is that is the wrong filter.  You should learn this too.  The more you go into your family relationships thinking about yourself and how it all makes you feel, the more frustrated and unfulfilled you will be.  That is a fact and you can't change that.  What you can change is how you look at those family relationships. Change your thinking.  How are you making them feel?  Not how are they making you feel.  
3. Limit the visit.  This is purely practical.  Even if you masterfully employ #'s 1 & 2 above, things don't become magically perfect.  Why?  Beceause you can only control 50% of the people in every relationahip you have.  There is still the variable of that family member you're having trouble with.  So, let's get practical.  If you know someone is tough for you to handle, limit the visit.  Three hours is going to be a better experience than eight.  If they are far away, a two day visit is going to be better than five.  You can set yourself up for success or shoot yourself in the foot.  Which one sounds better?
4. Invest in the connection.  These last two are about those far-away family members we miss so much.  My wife, Sara, has really taught me this lesson and I'm so grateful to her.  When we moved to Oklahoma seven years ago, that put us anywhere from 1200 to 1600 miles away from all our family.  I assumed that meant that we would be mostly relegated to phone conversations.  Here's what Sara has shown me and what we've done.  We've invested significant time and money into keeping those relationships alive, in person.  For seven years now, almost every single family vacation and break has been one that involves significant travel to visit family.  I'm talking abut six of us in a minivan covering 4000 plus miles in a 10-16 day time-span!  I haven't loved every minute of it, but I've learned that the payoff is worth the cost.  Giving up your time and money to be wth your far off and beloved family is worth all you'll spend.
5. Move.  Not possible?  I beg to differ.  Like I said, seven years ago, we moved to Oklahoma.  Six years ago my parents did the same.  Yes, they moved 1200 miles to be near us.  They gave up jobs and sold two houses - one they lived in and one investment property - so they could be near us.  It wasn't all roses.  They've had some significant personal challenges along the way, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard them say (my dad, especially) something like, "I'm so glad we moved here.  I just couldn't bear to be away from you guys."  We live in a huge country, but it's a free country.  You are free to move if you choose to.  It's not an impossibility.

Family is tough, isn't it?  I hope these thoughts on family alignment are helpful to you this holiday season.  What else would you add?  I'd love to hear your comments.

Living In Alignment (Part 1)

*This is the first of several pieces I plan to write here on my blog which may also appear on the 320 Coach blog.* 

Living in Alignment - An Introduction

A couple months ago I was in a fairly serious car accident.  My son, Colin, and I were at a near standstill in rush hour traffic when we were rear-ended by a Ford Fusion at about 65 MPH!  It felt like our whole car exploded.  As we were almost instantly sent flying into the car in front of us, our front airbags deployed and we did a one-eighty.  Within a half-second, we were left facing backward on the highway, car filled with the dust from the airbag and the horn blaring continuously.  It was pretty much like a scene out of a movie. Thankfully and miraculously, neither Colin nor I were seriously hurt.  I had some bruises and a weird burn all the way down my left arm and was extremely sore for a few days and Colin hurt his thumb.  I think his airbag caught it on the way out.

Although we were both alright, we wanted to get checked out.  We saw a doctor who thought we were fine, but he suggested we go see our chiropractor too.  The next week, we were at the chiropractor and Colin was asking how the chiropractor fixes your back and neck.  I explained it this way.  He doesn't actually fix your back or neck, he aligns it.  If it was truly damaged (broken bone, torn ligament, etc) you would not want him to touch it.  However, what usually happens is the vertebrae, which are pretty free to move and pivot, sometimes move and pivot in a way that gets out of alignment.  When they get misaligned, they put pressure on a nerve and this is where you get the proverbial "pain in the neck" or back or whatever,  So, as I explained to Colin, when the chiropractor realigns those vertebrae, it allows your body to achieve the natural state of health it was designed for in the first place.  Misalignment = pain.  Alignment = fully functional.

That conversation got me thinking about other types of alignment.  Shift with me now.  I'm no longer talking about physical alignment in your body.  Let's think bigger than that.  What other types of alignment are there?  What else needs to see proper alignment in order to avoid pain and be fully functional?  I can think of a few and I plan to give you some more specific and in-depth thoughts about what these particular types of alignment may look like and how you can achieve them in your life.  But those are in the future.  For today, let me just share with you the types of alignment I want to cover in the coming weeks.

1. Personal - Do you know yourself?  Most people don't.  Until you do the work to get to know yourself, you'll be misaligned in many of the specific areas we'll hit on in the coming weeks. 
2. Vocational - You are gifted and well-suited for certain types of work in certain fields.  If you hate your job, it's probably not because the job is so bad.  You are probably misaligned.
3. Family - Famiy dynamics are tough to figure out.  Most often, we assume our famiy members should be just like us and we try to fit them into that mold.  That's misalignment and conflict ensues.
4. Geographic - Do you live in a place that feeds your soul?  We don't think about this much, but I'm looking forward to exporing how geographical alignment can be a game-changer for you.
5. Spiritual - There are many different churches and communities of faith with many different doctrines and cultures.  If you're not in one that fits, you're misaligned.  You'll want to blame the church, but it's probably just a bad fit.

I hope this has sparked some new thoughts for you.  My plan is to write five more posts specifically exploring each of the five misalignments I listed above.  Are there other areas where alignment is vital?  I'd love to hear from you.  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.  

5 Steps To Deliver "Bad News" With Good (ok, better) Results

How do you deliver bad news?  That's a tough question.  My friend, Chris Colvin, and I did a short phone interview this week about just that topic.  Chris was asking me to share some thoughts about how I went about sharing some bad news several years ago with my church.  Years ago, and another lifetime ago, I was a church planter.  I started a brand new church from scratch back in 2010.  Well, a few months into 2012 I knew I was done.  I had to face a few hard facts.  I was not good in the role of lead pastor, things were going the wrong direction, and most importantly to my decision, serving as the pastor of that church was killing me and killing my family.  I had to get very real about the commitments I had made. While a number of people were counting on me, as their pastor, I had taken an oath to just one person.  That person was my wife, Sara.  When I boiled it down to that, it was the right decision to leave that church.

However, just because a decision is right, that does not make it easy to deliver the news of that decision.  Here are a few thoughts I shared with Chris about how to deliver "bad news", based on my experience leaving that church and letting people know what was happening.  I hope this helps you in your situation today.

1.  Ask yourself, "Is this really bad news or is it just surprising?"  News is just news.  Whether it's good, bad or indifferent news is determined subjectively by each one of us based on a dozen different criteria and circumstances.  So, don't assume news that you think might be perceived as 'bad news' is necessarily that.  Instead, go into it with the outlook that you're delivering 'surprising news'.  You might find that people already had a pretty good sense of what was coming, anyhow.  We like to think we hold our cards close to our vest, but our issues and intentions are usually more obvious than we like to believe.  Don't make the mistake of framing it up as bad news for someone else.

2.  Do it in person.  If you're delivering any kind of significant news, especially that which could be perceived as "bad news", don't take the coward's way out and do it in an email or text message.  Pastors, don't do it in a video to be played to your church.  If you care about the people you're sharing your news with, you owe it to them to be present.  They need to see your body language.  They need to see your eyes.  They need to be able to ask you questions to begin processing.  Don't make the mistake of communicating your news when you're not present.

3.  Start at the top.  When you do determine that you have to share this news - good, bad or just surprising, start with those who are very closest to you because these are the ones who will be most affected.  In my case, the decision to leave the church I started was shared in concentric circles.  First, I shared with my wife.  Now, she was not shocked.  We had talked and prayed about it for several months beforehand.  But when the decision was made, she was the first to know.  My boys were very young at the time but had they been older and able to process it, I would have told them together with my wife. Next, I met personally with my closest leader in the church, Josh.  He was my number two guy and I wanted him to know where it was and where it was going.  I told him I was leaving and actually gave him the option to take on the leadership of the church himself or help me build a plan to close the church.  He chose to by my successor, although that's fairly irrelevant to this particular article.  Next, I shared the news with my leadership team at my church.  Since we were a small startup, I didn't have a paid staff, but for all intents and purposes, these people were our church staff.  Finally, and only after the closest people had been briefed, I shared the news with our church publicly.  Don't make the mistake of skipping key people before you make the big announcement.

4.  Communicate the why behind the what.  As I shared my news with each concentric circle in my world, I not only communicated "I'm leaving" but also why I had come to that decision. You will be amazed at how much more understanding people will be about news they don't particularly like if they understand why you made the decision.  And don't underestimate the other side of the coin, either.  If you don't give people the why they will make it up.  In my case, if I had not clearly communicated "I'm not cut out for this and I need to put my family first", it probably would have turned into "Pastor Jason is stepping down because he had an affair . . . with another man."  Nothing squashes the old rumor mill like the truth.  Share as much of that truth as possible.   Don't make the mistake of keeping the why to yourself, even in emotionally charged decisions.

5.  Communicate the news with a plan.  Imagine that I got up in front of my church and just said, "I'm stepping down as your pastor and here's why."  What would be the natural question every person would be asking.  "So, what does that mean?"  So, what comes next?"  Be a friend.  Be a leader.  Answer that question for the people you're delivering your news to.  In my case, the plan was my exit strategy and the transfer of leadership and authority to Josh.  I'm not saying the plan will make everyone like the news you're sharing, but at least it will be clear.  Don't make the mistake of sharing the news without telling those you share it with what comes next.

Well, I hope this was helpful to you.  I'm sure that whatever Chris releases on his website will be much better than this, but I wanted to share it with you today.  Who knows who needs this exact information today?  I would love to hear your stories of how you've gone about sharing "bad news", whether you did a great job or left a little to be desired.

5 Ways You Can Love Your Vacation Time

This is the first time I've written since July 6.  That's twenty-three days.  Of course, my Twitter and Facebook feeds continued to churn out links to previous posts.  That's the magic of HootSuite.  But, the reason I took a three-week break from writing is not because I got lazy or ran out of ideas (far from it - I presently have 54 ideas in development for future posts).  I simply took a vacation.  And even though blogging is not, technically, my "job", that doesn't mean I should keep doing it in the midst of a vacation.  In fact, I think our culture has a very skewed and unhealthy view of what vacation means.

It seems like we default to either working at home or going way overboard on entertainment when we say "vacation".  I say it should be a restful intermission from life as we know it. How many times have you anticipated vacation for weeks and months only to get back to normal life more tired and worn out than when you started?  Our family took a Spring break trip to Daytona Beach this past March.  While there were aspects of it that were fun and enjoyable, a 9-day trip that consists of 4 days of travel in a minivan with 4 boys ages 12 and under is not exactly a recipe for rest and relaxation.  I have some good friends who just returned from a Disney vacation. Thier main feedback.  We paid a lot of money to stand in lines.  Where's the magic in that?  Maybe you can identify? I say it should not and does not have to be this way.

Last week, I finished the best vacation I've had in well over 10 years. Actually, it was a "staycation" and I'd like to share with you a few things I think I did right that facilitated my "vacation success".  My hope is that some of these ideas can help you have better vacation time, in the future.  But, before I do that, please don't hear what I'm not saying.  I'm not saying Disney or the beach are evil.  I'm not saying don't do anything.  I'm not saying don't have fun.  All I am saying it that you should carefully consider how your vacation plans intersect with your stage of life and plan wisely.

Here are 5 things I believe helped me have a great vacation.  Some intentional, some accidental.

1. Unplugged (Intentional) - Sara and I both deleted social media and email apps from our phones.  We did stay somewhat connected via computers, but it was more like once a day or every other day, not 5 times per hour.  Now that I'm back to normal life, I'm not planning to put the Facebook app back on my phone.  It's more of a time-waster than anything else for me.  I also set vacation responses on all my email accounts and did not check email once for 18 days.  The world did not stop.  
2. Punched the calendar in the face (Intentional) - I'm a huge lover of calendar planning and schedules, but for most of those 18 days, I did not know what day it was and I'm saying that is a good thing, periodically.  If your normal life is governed by heavy schedules, it may be good to get off schedule.  One of our biggest stressors is getting our kids ready and moved from this event to that.  It was great letting them sleep as long as they wanted, play with their friends all day and shower only when they seemed especially nasty.
3. Tried something new (Accidental) - In the early part of my vacation, I was reading a book by one of my favorite writers, Don Miller, (for personal enjoyment, not necessarily for personal growth) when he mentioned bicycling through Joshua Tree National Park.  That prompted me to look the park up online.  That caused me to see all the fantastic hiking & biking trails. That lit some kind of internal desire to want to go hiking.  I've never really hiked trails before, but while I was on vacation, I did 3 different short day hikes - one alone and two with some of my sons.  Not only were those great times, but hiking has become a new hobby for me.  Once I get some money together for a bike, I'll add that part too.  And I'm a guy who's always struggled to have hobbies and enjoy life.  This was a wonderful and unexpected piece of vacation, but I'll go into future vacations looking to try something new from here on out.
4. Saved my money (Intentional) - It's not absolutely necessary to spend thousands of dollars everytime you have vacation time.  We probably spent less than $300 outside of normal living expenses.  I doubt anyone will call that anything but a win.
5. Did something meaningful (Intentional and Accidental) - The only two things we scheduled in our 18 days off were a day trip to Oklahoma City to the National Memorial and a day to Safari Joe's H20 here in Tulsa.  Safari Joe's was really fun and we built some good memories, but it's what you'd expect - waterslides, wave pool, lazy river, and snowcones. It was great.  But, the experience of going through the interactive museum at the OKC National Memorial was much more than we expected or were prepared for.  It's one thing to see daily news stories about a bomb exploding and some people being killed someplace far off.  It's quite another to sit in a mock-conference room and hear a real-time audio recording of the explosion that destroyed the Murrah Building that day in 1995.  It's quite another thing to see the twisted steel and shattered concrete on display right in front of you.  My youngest son was so emotionally affected by it, he felt like he was going to pass out and had to sit down for a bit.  That doesn't bother me. I want my boys to feel the weight of something like that.  I believe it is healthy and it was a very meaningful experience for our family.  Certainly, it's something we'll never forget.

I hope some of these thoughts can inspire you to have great vacations that are not just exhausting entertainment, but truly meaningful and restful intermissions from day-to-day life. What have been some especially positive pieces of vacations for you?