Dave Ramsey

I think I have been guilty of suffering information overload. Some of this information could be useful like being informed on issues being debated in DC. Some of it is not so useful like knowing that Taylor Swift is in The Hannah Montana movie with Vanessa Williams who is in Elmo: Escape from Grouchland with Mandi Patinkin who is in The Princess Bride with Cary Elwes who is in Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise who is in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon. Yes, I know there’s a quicker way to connect Miss Swift to Mr. Bacon, but that’s the point.
At one point I could have told you how many wins Tommy Bowden averaged per year in his 10 seasons at Clemson, but that’s a decade I’m trying to forget.
Here’s a quote I wrote down from the 4 Hour Work Week:

Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.

I know what you’re thinking.  Hey, Heath, don’t most youth pastors work 4 hours a week anyway?  Do you really need a book to tell you how to do that?  Ha Ha.  I get the joke and yes, I have lived that joke.  Sadly, the flip side is that many people are working crazy hours but accomplishing very little.  As I noted in this post, I am trying to be more effective and efficient.  Here is where my train of thought is going:

1.  I know that conservatives and liberals don’t like each other and go over the top in media to make their points.  Do I really need to check 8 different websites a day to confirm what I already know?  It’s not going to change my political persuasion.  Knowing all this stuff just allows me fodder for conversation.  I do have more important things to talk about so I will.

2.  I’m a slow learner so it has taken me a while to figure out that very little news happens between when I go to bed and when I get up in the morning.  Why do I default to checking all the news and sports sites first thing in the morning on my phone?  Can I rid myself of this burning desire to be “The Grapevine” and the first to know everything from what the Senate is debating to who Boston’s middle relievers are going to be to which pastor is going to what church and when in our district?  Would it be so bad to hear this news from other people instead?

3.  We had our cable TV cut off last summer because my family was going to be in Alabama for several weeks.  We never turned it back on to save money.  We are doing the Dave Ramsey thing now and downsizing from 4,000 channels to 12(depending on if the government mandated digital converter box is operating properly) has been a great decision.  I’m not checking ESPN news, FOX news, or TLC every 15 minutes.  I watch three shows a week:  Heroes, Survivor, and Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  I have almost effectively eliminated channel surfing from my life.  For me(the poster child for ADD) this was HUGE.  We get a lot of movies from the library so the kids watch those and PBS Kids.  Less TV has meant more rasslin in the living room with my children.  Put THAT in your talking points memo.

4.  Being on a budget has eliminated needless trips to Wal-Mart.  I love the deals, but we were spending time and money we did not have every time.  Going in to purchase dish shop(crud, we are out of that now) ended with a full cart, empty bank account, and a side trip to the Mcdonald’s that is conviently located inside the stored.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love me some Wal-Mart, but our family had to take ownership of our buying and spending habits.

I’m not going to pretend that this journey hasn’t been a struggle or that we have it all together now.  I just knew that something had to change.  I wasn’t at a crisis point, but I could have been.  I will leave you my favorite joke from Jerry Seinfeld.

People ask me what I’ve been doing since we ended the show.  I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing:  nothing.  I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking that you might like to try doing nothing yourself.  Well, its not that easy.  Because the idea of doing anything that could easily lead to something that would cut into my nothing and that would force me to have to drop everything.