Snakes vs Mice
Snakes vs mice.
I take snakes...I don't necessarily like snakes, but I would take them over mice any day.
Mice freak me out.
Last week I flew back to Dallas from Denver. I got into my car and noticed a few sunflower seed shells on my passenger side floorboard. I also noticed, what appeared to be, small pieces of cushion in the passenger seat.
I broke out into a sweat. My first thought...MICE
I did some quick investigation but didn't see any of my seats chewed up. So I thought I might be in the clear.
As I was driving home, still a little freaked out, I thought that maybe the seeds were stuck to the propane tank that I put on the floorboard on the passenger side Monday night. I left my house Tuesday at 4:30 AM. So maybe they were there and because it was dark, I didn't see them.
Fast forward to Friday morning. I go check my car to see if anything else looks suspicious. And that is when I officially realized I had a mouse problem.
I had a pack of gum in my middle console and it was chewed up. There was also an empty bag of trail mix in my door trash can that was chewed up.
I had one goal...to ruthlessly eliminate these mice!
*Side note: About four years ago mice did around $500 in damage to my car's wires.
So I came up with a game plan to ruthlessly eliminate these rodents. Here is what I did.
I went to get some rat poison blocks and little mouse houses from Ace Hardware. I vacuumed my car out and then took it to the car wash, where I hosed down under my hood to either flood them out or at least get rid of any areas where they were nesting. Then I got one of those big rat hotels, put some poison in it, and set it under my car. And lastly, I got some mothballs and put them under my hood.
The next morning I went out to my car and...
I'll get to the mice in a minute.
Last week I talked about 'how we spend our days is therefore how we will spend our lives.' This topic has been on my mind a lot lately.
How many habits do we do that don't move the needle in our lives, that don't give us energy, that don't help us become the best version of ourselves, those things that dull us instead of sharpen us.
Zack Lassiter, AD at Abilene Christian, shared with me last week that he was reading the popular book by John Mark Comer titled "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry." I love the idea of 'ruthless elimination."
We too often recognize our habits that are not beneficial and try to somehow minimize them, or work around them.
Instead, what if we 'ruthlessly eliminated' those habits?
I want to treat my wasteful and bad habits like mice in my car. I want to go to war with them. I want to ruthlessly eliminate them. How much sharper and healthier would I be if I did that?
How about you? What habits are preventing you from being present with people, namely your family? Or more equipped in your job. Or closer to God?
Back to the mice. Today, Tuesday, June 4th, is day 3 of the ruthless elimination and no signs of mice. My ruthless elimination is working.
Go to war with your mice!
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One of my weekly disciplines is scouring the internet for articles/tweets I can learn from and/or use with those I work with. Below are two that I hope help encourage and equip you.
Article 1- Pitching an idea
Article 2- What do amazing bosses do differently
Podcast: Mike Hill. AD at UNC Charlotte. Stud!
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