Hey You! Scatterbrain!

AI Generated Transcript (I only fixed the mis-spelling of my name and added ONE paragraph break - I left the rest of the mess just the way AI delivered it haha):

Have you forgotten who you are? Welcome to Jon's Voice Notes, where I ramble on about whatever it is I'm thinking about today, whatever I want to talk about, stream of consciousness style. My thoughts are quite scattered today, so I thought, you know, why don't I just start talking about that and see what happens?

So if you're ready for that adventure, stick around. I'm at my favorite little Jon's Voice Notes spot. It's an absolutely beautiful but cloudy day. Refreshing, kind of cool but not cold breeze. And as always, everything's green. The signs of things having been mowed now. But you probably don't want to know any more about that, do you? But this is what I want to talk about today. It's my turn. So Scattered Thoughts.

So I don't know about you, but...

I find that my smartphone is ruining my life. Okay, that might be an exaggeration. But boy, am I having to learn to manage that thing. It is just right there all the time. I have made myself dependent on it by putting my alarms on it, my calendars on it, my to-do lists are on there. There's all sorts of things that I legitimately need around me in some form. So it's always around. And boy, oh boy, what are they saying on Facebook right now?

Or what about on Twitter? I don't do Twitter as much. Or what about my emails? Surely somebody in the last two minutes has sent me an ultra-important email. I turned off my notifications for many things a long time ago.

But that just makes me keep looking. I keep looking just in case, right? So I'm having to figure out how to manage that. And boy, what a boring topic. Everybody's talking about that, right? However, here I am. That's what I'm thinking about.

I actually have found more than I ever needed in the past, although I did need it in the past in different ways. Well, here, let's go back into the past. I was the leader of a program in YWAM, and at times I was in high demand. Everybody needed something from me. So just walking, we all worked on one big campus. Many of us lived there, not everyone. And just walking across the campus was like a hazard to

of how many people that have been waiting to talk to you. It's going to be almost impossible to get along, to get past. So there was incessant demands and needs from other people, many of them legitimate, some of them maybe not so much. And I always tried to be an approachable leader. It's a value I had and still have. I don't want people to be afraid to feel like they can't talk to me because I'm some kind of leader.

But I remember, and my to-do list would be insane sometimes, you know, like, just like crazy. Like, how can any human being do this? And, you know, I used to just go for these walks. I would just walk away, just go walk down the road, just kind of disappear for a while, just to let my mind settle. I had to try and force transition times.

where between events, you know, meetings and different things, I would have, like, make sure I had 15 minutes to go sit somewhere and just think. So this is all like an earlier, a pre-smartphone version of the same thing. Now imagine all of that is in your pocket. So no matter where you are, it's there. You don't even have to be walking across the

But I'm finding I'm increasingly trying to take those moments. I've been working through the full focus system, full focus planner system, goal setting and life direction setting and lots of things. And boy, have I learned a lot. I would highly recommend these resources. But one of the things I do at the beginning of the week is I plan things.

Some really important things that I don't have time for, but I make time for, like maybe try and meet a friend for lunch or go out to a park for an hour instead of just a 10-minute break for my mind, just to sit. And I've discovered, and boy, I feel like I'm not saying anything new, but it's new to me. It's new for me to actually experience some of this. Sometimes the problem I've been trying to solve

or a decision I need to make. That's maybe some, there's some challenges. It's not an easy decision. Sometimes I just go away and just sit there and the right, the right decision just comes. It's just without any effort. It's like my mind is still working in the background somewhere, but my front focus is just relaxed. But this happens to me, um,

More frequently. I use this brain.fm app. I have to skip all the new agey weird sounding ones in there, but a lot of them are not that. And there's a setting for focus music. There's a setting for meditation music, which I use more to chill. There's actually a setting for like to chill. I get motivated, so I don't always use it, but sometimes I'll do that.

And sometimes, for me it's often a Sunday afternoon or evening, I just have to take many hours. It always helps me if there's no scheduled end to it. That's not always reality, but it helps me if I can kind of stay as long as I want. Or I'll go out to a park with a lawn chair and a little table, put my notebook and my Bible on there, and just sit in the breeze. And sometimes it takes me a long time.

to simmer down. In fact, I feel immediately pressured to rest. It's like, what? Yeah, I feel like I gotta rest. I gotta focus on resting. I gotta chill my mind. But sometimes it's like I just have to let it run for a while.

or maybe deliberately think about something. In fact, this brings another memory that relates to this. In one of my most crazy seasons of life, 1994, I showed up in YWAM in January, like literally, like almost the first of the month, 1994, and I did a school called the School of Worship, Intercession, and Spiritual Warfare.

And it was an intense YWAM school. And while the school was still going, I got recruited the staff to be a staff member of a discipleship training school. So there was a couple weeks near the end where I was doing both at the same time. And that was six months long.

And before we went on three of its traveling, which is pretty intense and with people all the time. So before I left for the trip traveling to Mexico, we went, I was recruited to staff the very next DTS after that.

So I came back from the trip to Mexico and almost immediately went on staff for another DTS with another leader, with another leadership style. And he was like a DTS leader times 10 as far as how much he had planned for us. Because we went on a road trip during the lecture, the teachings, and I got picked to lead an outreach, which I'd never done before.

So I went on that school. And sometime before I went and led my first outreach, it was a high stress, because I was learning. I didn't know what I was doing. It was a high stress environment in that sense. But it was a wonderful, positive experience. It was a high stress, positive experience in Brazil. Before I had left for that trip, I got recruited to staff the next school in the beginning of 1995. So...

I went straight into that one, and then I'm trying to even remember where we went on the outreach for that. Boy, that's so long ago. Oh, yeah, I led the outreach up to Alaska. We went up to Alaska. That was a stressful school because the leader was, once again, a totally different leader doing things very differently in ways that I didn't understand. We got along. We didn't fight or anything, but we did not think or work in the same way at all. Very stressful school.

Did all that. And at the end of that time, so after being at a... Boy, this is way more information than you want. But it's my audio blog where I say whatever I want. I went all year, intense, and then half a year. So a year and a half without any kind of real break. Running at an incredible pace.

And I realized I'm, you know, going nuts. And then I was going to have some time off. I scheduled about a week out in the wilderness of eastern Oregon. I met a family that had a cabin out there, which was really more of a shack.

And when I say out there, this is one of the most wildernessy out there places I've ever been. Out in the middle of nowhere in eastern Oregon, there was still snow on the ground and I had to hike in for an hour with all my stuff. And I did not have hiking equipment. I got stranded in my car, slept in it overnight in the cold and the mud on the side of a...

Mud road. Quite an adventure. Stressful to get there, in other words. I hike. I get there. I settle. I finally sit there. I'm in this cabin. I don't remember how long. I don't know if it was a whole week or five days or whatever.

But I sat there and just started to weep. Not the weeping like something's wrong. You know, like grief. I still can't explain it. I just started weeping. And it took me several days.

of just making my food, figuring out how to take a shower outside in the cold. They had running water from a spring, a spring on a hill, but ice cold running water, figuring out how to take a shower, figuring out how to make this wood furnace work that was in there. You know, it was just surviving for just a few days, figuring out how to live in this cabin. And it took, I don't even, it was several days before I even started to kind of calm down.

Happened to find the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer on their shelf, and I read that. Had an awesome time with God. But that was probably my first lesson about the need to chill, to rest, to stop. I remember I used to, when I would lead YWAM outreaches, almost like clockwork in the middle of the outreach, like right in the middle,

Because they're very high demanding on the leader. I would hit the wall and usually do or say something rude to my students or do something that I ended up having, say something I had to apologize for. Like in one of the last ones where I started to learn this lesson finally, I remember I went up to a meeting on the roof of our hotel and nobody was there on time. And I just flew into a rage, went to my room, closed the door.

And when people were knocking on my door saying, hey, because they all showed up late, you know, where are you? We're here for the meeting. I'm like, the meeting already happened and you all missed it. Childish behavior. Burnout behavior.

So I incorporated an idea the next time I led an outreach that had two wonderful benefits. There were two wonderful benefits. I had picked a co-leader, another staff member that I was intending to train as an outreach leader to co-lead with me. And then halfway through the outreach, about that time, I would always hit the wall.

And I told them I'm going to do this. I went away for like four days. I went and got a hotel room away from all the stress. And I said, you are going to be leading this team for four days. And I said, but I make sure, you know, here's my number if you have an emergency, but not just you don't know what to do. You have an emergency, you know, call me, but I'm just going to go away. I'm going to just relax, read my Bible, write my notebook.

And it had the wonderful effect of I came back afterwards refreshed and ready to lead the second half of the outreach. But I always led the second half less than I led the first half because I now have a leader that has four days of experience and is ready to step up more. And usually by the end, the next time, they're ready to lead the outreach.

So I guess I'm talking about ways I've learned how to collect my thoughts and get the rest that I need. Pause in between things. I'm just realizing how important it is for me to get out to a park as often as possible. Even sometimes when it's illogical. Like, there's no time for this. I do it anyway. Helps me collect my thoughts.

And I had a long season where I wasn't quite as busy as I was when I was younger. But as of late, it's starting to pick up again. I'm increasing my activities in a number of areas and responsibilities. And I'm needing to learn it again. But luckily, I remember from the past, I'm reading this book, Full Focus. Or no, Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt. I'm often reading books like this.

And he's talking about the key to productivity, which in my life I've been replacing the word productivity with fruitfulness, which that's another topic. But he talks about how the goal is, he said, what is the goal in productivity? Is it to be more, is it to get more done? Is it to be more successful? I can't remember the other one.

And he says it's actually to become free. Freedom is the goal. To do what you really want to do. And the key, and I haven't read the whole book, but the key appears to be to focus on the right things. So rather than spend all your energy, how do I be more productive? How do I schedule my time better? How do I figure out a way to do all this stuff? It's more about figuring out how to do the right things.

And so instead of doing everything right, it's doing the right things. And I kind of already knew that, but he's putting it in words that are helping me sort it through. How to focus on the right things. The things that are what you're supposed to do in this world. And I could go on and kind of teach what I'm reading from the book, but look it up. The point is I'm learning already. I've gotten involved with so many things, I'm already thinking...

Is there anything here? Like today, I decided I can't go to this, ironically, Michael Hyatt webinar. He sent me a replay so I could watch it when I want.

But I really like going to those. But I was like, you know what? I got too much on my plate. I need to chill from something. I had to cancel a phone appointment. One that's easy to cancel. It's not consequential. More of a relational phone appointment. But I'll be talking to that person on Friday. So it's all good. But I've just had to learn those things again. So how did I start this? I try to remember the words I used. Is your brain going to explode? That's one I thought about using. Your mind all over the place.

I don't know. I'll have to read it. I'll have to listen to it myself and see what I said. But it was about scattered thoughts. I just wanted to ponder scattered thoughts today, and I know that I need time. I'm an external processor, so I'm practicing on you right now. I practice what I'm thinking about to sort through my thoughts. So I need time with friends. Also, I need to make those things a priority. I burned out after...

I'm trying to remember how many years it was. It was seven or eight years of ministry. I was burned out. I had to go away, step out for a while. I don't want to do that again. I want to learn the lessons. Self-care. So I know, not original. Everybody's talking about this sort of stuff. But that's what I'm thinking about today. So welcome aboard if you want to hear it. But...

I hope that had some use or encouragement for you. Thank you for listening. Jon Davis and Jon's Voice Notes signing off.