Don Dudley

My basement flooded.

Somehow, water was coming up through the floor and destroyed the carpet. The main room that was flooded was our kids playroom. I was cleaning up wet toys everywhere in order to get to the carpet so I could rip most of it out. As I was taking towys out of the room, I placed them next to a bunch of stuff. It was at this time I noticed my family was not without things.

Things take up space which in turns takes up my time. Think about it. First off, we have to spend time pursuing and researching our things. There are very few times in my life where I make a purchase without first comparing items and reading reviews. After I purchase the item, I have to learn how to use it and discover all of it’s great features. Then, when I am done with the item, I have to make a space for it to rest. This might mean cleaning a room or a shelf in order to give this item a place to lay dormant. Finally, there comes a day when I have to remove the item from my house because either it is broken, or I have decided not to use it anymore. This comes after I have moved it from place to place a thousand times because it is “in the way.” This means, instead of doing the things I enjoy to do or I am called to do, I am rearranging stuff.

Not only does our “stuff” clutter our lives, we let events clutter our lives. One thing I learned early on in life was to learn to tell people the word “no.” All too often we let ourselves get sucked into doing things we either have no business doing, or that extend us beyond our reasonable commitments. We often lose out on doing what we ought to be doing because we are too busy doing what we have no right to be doing.

I am hoping to set some priorities over the next couple of months and getting rid of clutter; both in terms of things and in terms of time. Please do not be offended if I tell you “no” or if I try and pawn some of my junk off on to you

-Don-

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

In this installment, I will be answering questions from the end of chapter 4. These questions are about setting goals and taking action.

1. Are you a goal setter? Do you typically set goals at the first of the year. If not, why not?
   I am a goal setter.  I tend to set goals for everything. This goes with me being a spreadsheet guy as well. I love to map out plans and try and make achievements. In reality, when I do not achieve a goal, it tends to make me upset. I am pretty drive and it takes a lot for me not to do something.
   New years day tends to be a day I do think about what I want the next year to look like. Many of my goals are similar or superficial. I did spend extra time this year thinking about what I wanted this year to look like. I could write another, longer post on those goals.
   
2. How would you describe your current focus on work?
   I have started to come out of a time when I was not focused on the task(s) at hand. I experienced months of failures, one right after another. For a time last winter, I lost focus. I had no goals to reach for, nothing I hoped to obtain. I was frustrated and felt there was no real way out. For the most part, I really stopped focusing on anything. It was one of those times when I let life happen to me. I did not try to do anything within my calling.
   This has changed. By the grace of God I have discovered there are things to do, even if they are not how I envisioned them, to spread the Gospel.
   
3. What hobbies do you have? What other skills and interests do you have?
   My hobbies range from blogging (obviously) and writing, to playing my guitar, to reading. I also enjoy playing with IT and networking. My interests, which I am not as active in, include landscaping, hiking, and camping.
   As for skills, I honestly do not know if I have anything I really excel in. One area I do think I have gifting in is preaching, however, I do not know if I do it overly well. I have not spent enough time honing this skill. Other than that, I do not do a lot of things really well. This is not a “poor little ol’ me” sentiment, but I do not really do a lot of things well. You could say I am a jack of all trades, yet master of none.
   
4. How are you involved in community?
   I am involved with my church to a great degree. I spend time with my community group and some of the men at our church.  At times we take classes together or hang out. I hope to continue to grow with my community.
   
5. What was your father’s or mother’s attitude toward work and how has that affected you?
   I am pretty sure both of my parents were pretty hard workers. My dad is the kind of guy who takes pride in his work and has always done an excellent job. I believe my mom to be the same way. they both impressed upon me from an early age that I needed to work hard in order to be a productive member of society.

There you have it. I am a goal setter. I think at times I am too easily distracted from my goals. If I decide I am going to go for something, I will, with everything inside of me. If I get distracted in any way, I will usually put it (my goal) on hiatus. Setting goals is not the problem, I think at times I set too many. I need to simplify my life a little and make sure I am doing what God has called me to do, and not everything else.

-Don-

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

I took yesterday off because I was with my churches community group. Time to get back to work.

Day three of Dan Miller’s checklist asks that we recap our work history and compare it to the national averages for employment (2.2 years per job). We should also document the circumstances that lead to our job change. So, here is my employment history and the reasons for the switches. Just FYI, I am a little sketchy on exact dates, so I am working with months and years only. Here we go:

Bob Smoot Texture and Painting – Summer of 1995
I think we kind of got fired. We did a terrible job on a textured ceiling and were never called back for more work…

Pizza Hut – Sept 1996 – May 1998
I left because I was hired at Circuit City for $7 / hour which was a lot more than I was making at the time

Wendy’s – Sometime in the middle of my Pizza Hut employment.
Worst. Job. Ever.  I was held over to help close and often did not get home until midnight on school nights. I got tired of being half-asleep at school so I quit without notice and went back to Pizza hut. The extra .20 / hour was not worth it.

Circuit City – May 1998 – November 1999
I left them after we had a switch-over in management. The new manager was ruthless to some of my co-workers and would not work around my college schedule. I kind of wussed out and left without giving antiquate notice.

Best Buy – November 1999 – March 2000
Hired as seasonal and offered part time after Christmas. I was not making enough money to pay my bills when thankfully I was hired by Gateway.

Gateway Computers March 2000 – March 2002
Started out as sales, became a technician. Gateway was a great company when I started working there and slowly went down hill. After I survived several rounds of layoffs and pay cuts, they ripped me off of about $500 worth of commissions I was owed. I was walking past the managers office when I heard him on the phone. He said “If i have to hear one more thing about Don’s missing pay, I’m going to fire him.” I beat him to the punch and put in my two week notice.

Home Depot – Summer 2002
Great job, great pay, love them as a company. I was working around 35 hours a week to start. Unfortunately, I was part time and the three of us in our department were splitting 15 hours a week by the end of the summer.  Not exactly paying the rent there.

Execudine Catering – Summer 2002 – Summer 2005
Wow. I worked there forever.  I left only because I found a higher paying job in computers.

Manatron
I was on a contract to help beta-test software used in tax appraisals. Learned a lot and made decent money. I left because our contract was up and I was about to get married and wanted steady work.

Winton Woods City Schools – July 2005 – July 2010
I was a network technician for the district. I loved it there, but it was a 45-minute drive everyday and it was not paying enough for our family to achieve our goals. We wanted Jill to be able to stay home with the kids and we could not survive on one pay, especially if I was going to be losing $125 / month just in gas.

Gravity Church / Church of the Broken – Jan 2009 – November 2009
Mama says, if you can’t say somethin’ nice…  Seriously, there were a lot of issues ranging from my pride to a group of people who were not really interested in planting a Gospel-centric church.  I could write a ton of posts on what happened here…but this is neither the time nor the place…

Current Job – July 2010 -Pres.
I’m still employed there and thanking the Lord!  Now, let’s pray the current state education cuts don’t force me into unemployment!

It appears I have longevity.  I can keep employment for longer than the average. Most of my changes have been income driven.  I tend to be a person who does look for the next best thing. Part of this is because I want to be able to provide for my family and also because I want to give more. I really do want to be radically generous. I could get into another post at another time on that.

-Don-

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

Day two involves reading and answering some questions. Before the reading, Miller asks us to answer two questions:

1. How do we define work (currently in our lives)?
   I believe the answer is multifaceted. I think it looks differently for different people. Miller tries to lead us to believe we are all entitled to do work we love to do, but I may be too cynical to agree. I think some of us need to do things we do not want to do. In my mind, work brings home a paycheck for some, and provides emotional satisfaction for others. Others still are blessed to do what they are best at.
2. What are we born to do?
   I was born to glorify God. How this plays out in the work I do, I really have no idea. There are many times in my life when I feel this tug to plant a church. This is not something someone can just go out and do. There are more factors at play than just a person going out and planting a church.

Miller writes more questions at the end of the chapter:

1. Who gave you your first job? What kid of job was it? how much money did you make?

   I got a job at Pizza Hut. I applied to a local one where a friend worked and she sent my application to one across town that was hiring. I cooked pizza and took phone orders and made ten cents above minimum wage.

2. From looking at our work life so far, what has been of the greatest value or worth?

   I think the friendships I made over time have provided the greatest value. It was through one of my jobs that I met a local youth pastor who first encouraged me to go to the church where I was saved. Every job I have had, I have been blessed to have good co-workers and have been able to build good friendships.

3. If your job changes, does your purpose change?

   No. My job is just that, a job.

4. Do you think your current job will exist five years from now?

   Not at all. The state of computers is always changing and is currently headed toward a tablet craze. My job will drastically change. In turn, school districts are losing money fast and my position is already threatened. I do not feel confident I will remain gainfully employed.

5. What would be the key characteristics of an ideal job or career?

   I would be in a position where I am teaching people through both writing and spoken word. Ideally this would be as a pastor at a church.

6. When you daydream, what do you see yourself doing?

   Preaching and writing. It’s as simple as that.

7. What have been the happiest, most fulfilling moments in your life?

   To be honest, most of them involve being with my family or loved ones. I rarely think of this in terms of work.  To go with the theme of “doing what I love to do,” I love it when I have a blog post that does well and gets comments. Every time I have preached, even when I did not do well, I have felt alive. I love the study and preparation that comes with writing a sermon or a blog post.

8. If nothing changed in your life in the next five years, would that be OK?

   Nope.  I often have times when I feel bored and like I am missing something. I would lose my mind if this is still happening five years from now.

So, some of these may have been a little more candid than I would have originally liked / thought. But my goal is to be as honest and transparent as possible. So, there you go.

Have you thought about many of these questions? What kind of answers would you have? Do any of these stand out to you?

Let me know,

Don

Yesterday, I explained my employment situation. I also let you all know I was going through Dan Miller’s book 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal.

In the book there is a checklist of things to do over 48 days to help you realize your potential with the end goal of getting a new career.  I am going to do the checklist over the next 48 days and blog about it. I invite anyone who wishes to join me to do so.  The only requirement is that you buy the book (click the above link to get it from Amazon).

Dan does offer the checklist for free which you can download right here. There are many things you can do without having the book, but it might be a little difficult to get the most out of it.

I will be starting tomorrow (March 28th) with the first item.  If you wish to see how my progress goes, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed or to keep checking this site to see the changes.

Have a good rest of the weekend!

-Don-