I’ve published 150 Pieces in the Past 18 Months

1. THE COMPOUND EFFECT

“‪You either listen to the world or you listen to God. You can’t do both at once.‬” — Harrison Wendland

The compound effect at work. Almost a full year beginning each and every day in God’s Word. Almost 2 full years of a morning prayer journal. Almost 3 years of a morning reflective journal. I’ve now written 150 pieces of writing for Medium since Thanksgiving 2018 plus 81 others based on books I’ve read and another 10+ that have yet to be published. Wow. It was day by day by day by day. Little by little and moment by moment. Word by word I got it done. This piece was initially going to be fairly brief but as I put the finishing touches on with these sentences here, I’m almost to 2,000 words. I’m in awe of myself. Looking back, I took breaks and refocused myself on classes and on the job hunt but I always returned. Now, I spend my Saturday evenings writing and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is the first piece because it’s my favorite. It’s about compounding and it’s something that I strive to live out each and every day. I know who I am, I’m learning more about myself every single day because God is teaching me.

“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” — Émile Coué

2. TRUST

“Actions show, words tell. Actions speak, words whisper. Actions prove, words argue. Actions are, words could be.” — Harrison Wendland

Who do you trust the most? And who do you trust the least? Were you either of those people? Sometimes, I’m both. I don’t always trust myself but when I do, I trust myself more than any other human on earth. I trust God. God leads. God fulfills all 3 levels of trust naturally, it’s who He is. There are not a ton of humans who consistently put your interests above their own. Sin blinds us and tricks us into believing that the world revolves around us. Honestly… it does not revolve around us — the world revolves around the sun. We should be aware of what others are truly asking of us. I have noticed that people are pitifully terrible at asking the questions they truly want answers to. They will ask things and then get frustrated when the answer doesn’t make sense to them. It’s up to us as people to look deeper. We should strive to do what is best for others before ourselves — it’s the example Jesus set for us.

3. PERSONAL COMMUNICATION

“Comprehension is the most integral part of listening, if we are not able to understand and then absorb what the speaker is saying to us, why are they talking at all?” — Harrison Wendland

Nonverbal communication is much more important than verbal communication. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Talking to Strangers, he emphasizes that while people think they are being emphatic and displaying emotion clearly, oftentimes we really are not. The 7–38–55 rule is something that has been explained over and over and over. Albert Mehrabian’s 7–38–55 Rule of Personal Communication is something that has been shared and examined and taught frequently. We need to continuously be aware of all facets of communication — not just words — or we will miss out on the full picture of what is being communicated.

4. PEOPLE IN THE SURROUNDINGS

“‪If you don’t challenge me, it’s not a challenge to forget you‬.” — Harrison Wendland

Why are the people around you around you? Everything in your life is 100% up to you. Take extreme ownership for the reason that you are where you are. There are not many people with well-defined goals. Honestly, most people don’t even have their goals written down!! It’s a simple first step that each of us should most definitely take. We need goals written down and we need to continually evaluate our surroundings. Are we in the right position to advance to achieve our goals? Why haven’t we achieved our goals already? What needs to change? Act, evaluate, change, continue. Rinse and repeat.

5. INNER POTENTIAL

“You’ve already won. You were born a winner. Consistently executing at your true best will ensure success.” — Harrison Wendland

God empowers us. If you want to know what your full potential is, the best thing I can ever suggest is to simply ask your creator. God knew you before He formed you in the womb. Every single part of you is there for a reason. Every strength — and every potential strength — and even every weakness is there for a divine reason. The sooner that you’re able to understand who you were created to become, the sooner you can live out your purpose.

6. THINK and GROW RICH

“Our minds focus on things that enter them for a reason, identify and understand that reason.” — Harrison Wendland

I love learning from others. Often, the people that I aspire to learn the most from I cannot directly speak with. Because of that, I have a mastermind group that I go through for myself. I guess you could call it a type of meditation. I study these individuals and then go into a deep conversation with myself. I pray that God will guide the conversation that I visualize and lead me to a greater understanding of what it is I am seeking. I strive to reach and tap more of the knowledge that I already have in my mind. These thoughts are often not anything new — just things I didn’t know that I knew! As my Dad loves to say, his father used to say, “I have great ideas that I haven’t thought of yet!”

7. PEOPLE

“‪Withholding your truth in the hopes that someone’s feelings will be protected is‬ selfish.” — Harrison Wendland

In the simplest terms, as Jim Rohn said, we become the average of the 5 people around us. David Burkus said it differently,

“You’re not the average of the FIVE people you surround yourself with. It’s way bigger than that. You’re the average of all the people who surround you. So take a look around and make sure you’re in the right surroundings.” — David Burkus

And that’s the truth. It’s not just about the people around us, it’s about the people around those people and the people around those people. We can be around some people at work who work hard while they’re there but if they spend the weekends going out partying while we prefer to spend our weekends beaching it and reading books, that might not work out in the long run. Eventually, we’ll likely fold or compromise one way or another — it’s human nature. We need to stay aware of who’s around us and what purpose they’re serving us, as well as what purpose we’re serving them.

8. TRUST

“Trust is like a salary. It’s given but then you have to EARN it every day or we’re going to have to let you go.” — Harrison Wendland

This was a very very short piece but one that I hold close to heart. I live by “trust but verify” and wanted to express that. It’s not about what people say but it’s about what people do. If you tell me one thing to my face then turn around and switch up on me, I’m not going to tolerate that. You lost all credibility and that’s just how it is. I realize that people have their own agendas and I take that into consideration when I am living out my life.

9. TIME AND MONEY

“We can have more of everything in this world, but we will never have more guaranteed time.” — Harrison Wendland

What’s more valuable to you, time or money? For me, it’s time. I can always make more money and many of the people I value most say the same thing. Time is limited. There is nobody on earth who hasn’t died. We all have an end on earth. But money is unlimited. It’s not ours — it’s God’s. Same with life. Our life ends here on earth so that we can be reunited with our heavenly Father. I know that my time will run out eventually but it’s imperative that I do all I can to make every moment matter for a purpose greater than myself.

10. THANKSGIVING

“The holidays are a great reminder but, in my opinion, gratitude, love, fellowship, and reflection are all things that need to happen daily, in a very intentional way.” — Harrison Wendland

This was the first “real” piece of writing that I put up on Medium for myself. I had written a few pieces prior to this for the purpose of a company I was working on with a few friends but that didn’t pan out. I was at home on Thanksgiving Day in 2018, it was just me. My two roommates were both with their respective families and I thought it would be nice to have the time to myself. So I was in the house by myself and I thought that maybe I would have something worth writing about. Turns out that I was able to whip up a piece I was passionate about fairly quickly. And that’s what started it all on Medium — and soon my own website — one piece of writing.