Several Ideas to Face the Daily Challenge

I've been in a reflective mood and maybe it comes from passing another birthday this coming week. As I grow older, I begin to understand why the Bible calls that our days are fleeting. Each of us have the same 24 hours in each day. The key detail is how we use this time. 

As I think about the challenges of each day, I understand several facts:

1. Everyone has interruptions. Yesterday I spent several hours at the Apple Store because my wife's iPhone 5C was having screen problems.  At the store, we upgraded her phone to an iPhone 7 Plus and it took several hours that I was not planning on spending. These types of unexpected situations are part of our life. Yet do you wisely use the time which you do have available to you?

2. Not everything gets done. Yes on the surface I may look like I get a lot done. I do tweet almost 14 times a day with great content. Also I have over 100 new followers a day on Twitter. Yet the bulk of my day is spent as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, talking with authors, emailing authors and others about their books.  Despite the things I accomplish in a day, I know and understand that not every email is answered. Not every phone call gets made or returned.  As an editor, I work hard at customer service, answering key concerns and returning calls—but there is still more to do.

I have magazine articles to write and books to finish and websites to update. If I paused to make a list, it would be endless and to be honest I'm assuming that you have a lengthy list of things to do as well which and while you chip away at it, everything does not get done.We have to live with this fact.

3. Use the right tools to have the best results. Through trial and error, I've learned to use different tools on my phone, different computer programs and other ways to cut down on time and get things done. For example, when I travel, I continue to write on my AlphaSmart 3000 which I purchased years ago on Ebay for about $30. The AlphaSmart is not connected to the Internet, runs on batteries and holds large volumes of information with a full size keyboard. This tool is not right for every writer but it is one that I've used repeatedly to get my writing done.

Are you experimenting with different tools and programs to see if they help you get more done in a shorter amount of time?

4. Balance is important. Every one of us need to have a certain level of balance in our daily lives. Have you listed your key goals and priorities? Just the act of writing these goals can be a great first step. Then have you broken those goals into small steps that you can accomplish? 

As I think about the big picture of my own life, I have a number of things which are a key part of my day. I need Time for Faith (reading the Bible and prayer each day). I need Time for Family (the connection to my wife and children—even if they are grown children). I need Time for Work. I also need Time for Health ( and I build exercise into almost every day). I need Time for Relaxation (yes some of you may find it hard to believe but I go to movies, I read for fun and I watch television). Finally I make Time for Friends. Admittedly some of my days are out of balance but it's part of the way I'm wired and working to attempt to have some level of balance in my life and work.

These are my ideas to help you face the daily challenges of life. Are they helpful? I hope so. Do you have other ideas? Tell me in the comments below. 

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Terry Whalin Writes a Billy Graham biography . . .Twice!

Recently my friend Diane Huff Pitts interviewed me about my Billy Graham book and a number of other great topics. The interview is located at this link.

I'm letting you know about it in this article so you can click over and read my interview. She is publishing it in two parts. 

Just to give you a taste of what it contains, here's her questions:

About my Billy Graham Biography

HC (High Cotton): Terry, what instigated the Billy Graham biography? What has to happen to get a book like this sanctioned by someone so famous?

Faith Impacts Whalin’s Work

HC: In “Two Words That Changed My Life” you introduce visitors to your initial faith walk. How has faith impacted your job in the publishing world?

Networking and Educating Writers

HC: Was there anything in your writing career that gave you a heart for championing new writers?

My answers form the article. Hope you enjoy it and learn as I'm learning.
 

Facing Rejections

Editor's note: I rarely have guest bloggers but today I'm using an excerpt by my friend Cecil Murphey from his new book, Making Sense When Life Doesn't, The Secret of Thriving in Tough Times. This article is particularly valuable for writers.

By Cecil Murphey

“Don’t take this personally,” my friend said.

I stared at him and wondered how I could not take the rebuff personally. It had happened to me. It seemed easy enough for him to talk like that because my crisis didn’t affect him. I was bleeding emotionally, and he was telling me how not to feel.

I had been rejected. It wasn’t the first time in my life, but that fact didn’t make it easier to accept. And it’s probably true with most of us. Rejections aren’t new to any of us. We experienced them the day Mom took our favorite toy and gave it to our sibling, when we were the last one chosen on the playground, and when we applied for a job and the human resources person smirked at our résumé.

I’m a specialist in rejection because I’m a professional writer. Part of the job description includes learning to accept rejections— many rejections—and most of us never get beyond that. That’s true with anyone in sales, and in one sense, I’m in sales.

For any of us who sell books, real estate, clothes, or insurance policies, the principle applies. None of us wins every time. Sometimes the customer says no. Or we don’t get the promotion we’re convinced we’re owed. Or we hear the buzzword downsize, and it means, “I’m out of a job.”

How can I not take that personally?

I’ve read dozens of articles and books and heard many lectures about rejections, but they haven’t helped a great deal. When someone says no to me and it’s something I want, it is personal.

As a writer, I came to terms with the despised word by telling myself jokingly that I was selling a product (my book manuscript), and the editor wasn’t bright enough to sense the value of my pristine prose. That helped me objectify the situation.

Even so, it took me a long, long time to be able to depersonalize a refusal. Part of that was because I was trying to make a good living from my craft, and to receive a non-acceptance was like a major detour off the highway I wanted to follow.

It is personal. What happens when the rejection is something that affects your livelihood? What happens when you need a loan and the bank says, “Sorry, you’re not qualified”? Or how do you take it objectively when your spouse, whom you love, wants to leave?

I don’t know the answer to those situations, but I can share my insights in dealing with them.

It’s all right to wallow in pain, hurt, anger, depression, or any other emotion you feel. It’s all right—for a while.

What’s wrong with feeling those things that hurt us? Real living means being honest about ourselves.

In the middle of the pain, talk to a few friends—the right friends. Find a shoulder or two on which to rest your head. A hug. A word of encouragement and empathy.

When someone says no to me and it’s something I want, it is personal.

The time comes when we need to move beyond self-pity (and that’s what it really is). We’ve admitted we failed or didn’t get what we wanted. Now what do we do?

I can respond in two ways.

First, because of my faith in God, I realize I’ve been in situations as bad or worse, and my faith has pulled me through. I made it in the past, I can make it in the present.

When my life doesn’t make sense, I have one statement that I say to myself, and it works: “Who am I to think that I should be immune?”

Some people seem to think that if we believe in God, that separates us from others who have misfortune. Or they assume that if we’re morally upright, we won’t face injustice.

I don’t agree with that attitude. My faith is in a God who doesn’t shield me from chaos but who is with me during the chaos.

Second, I can turn to my experience. If I survived rejections of the past—and I have—I can survive this.

In the past it may have started with not getting the part in a play or losing an election for class president. In our teen years, the one person we wanted to date turned us down—perhaps even laughed at us—but we survived. We can do the same now.

 

Surviving rejections and failed plans in the past assures me that I can handle them in the present.

Real living means being honest about ourselves.

Excerpted from Making Sense When Life Doesn't, The Secret of Thriving in Tough Times page 47–49 Used with Permission.