Blog: Top 7 = A life with no limits

The weekend (as I'm writing this, Sunday afternoon) means it’s time for the Top 7— my highlights from the previous week.

Even though we’re in a digital world, I actually use pen and paper for A LOT of things…

• I primarily map out websites and app adjustments on paper…
• I initially jot ideas for books and online courses on paper…
• I use a paper planner every single day.

The planner (Advance Planner) contains FOUR pages per day— two of which are for daily scheduling and two for journaling + future planning.

The journaling section contains a few questions— prompts to get you thinking about what matters most.

(I’d always been told I SHOULD journal, but even as a writer I had difficulty actually doing it… until we created this planner— which you can download FREE at www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF.)

Anyway, every day I write 2-3 things I’m thankful for— from that week. Then, I step back and look at them on Sunday afternoons when I do the weekly review. So, this post is really my weekly “highlight reel” of things I enjoyed over the past week…

As always, some of these are big and others are small… some are important, and some are just… well… reflective…

Here’s the Top 7 for last week…

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Fitness = Judah started wrestling.

I wrestled in high school, and Levi (now 15) started last year…

It was an incredible experience for me, which instilled in me discipline, confidence, and the ability to work with a team while ALSO taking responsibility for yourself— among other things.

This year, Judah stepped in…

And, of course, I was able to go to practice— something I’ll keep doing throughout the year (and, of course, you’ll find me in the corner during this year’s tournaments).

Coach Kevin White— at Oak Mountain Middle— does an amazing job leading the young team, letting them learn as beginners, and pushing them to new heights. And, he’s super-kind to allow dads who know the sport to jump in and help.

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Finance = More home repairs and updates…

Last week I posted about some of my “fixes” at the house— everything from carpet stretching to repairing the grill to planting some new shrubs outside the tiny house.

Someone asked me— when they heard I did some wiring— “How did you know how to do that?”

Here’s how—

You just take a picture of what you’re taking apart, then put it back together the same way. Turn off the power source (i.e., the breaker) before you do.

This was a repair I made to the sewer / septic / composting system for the girls’ bathroom— and the pic I took in real time, just as I was replacing the old fan with the new.

My guess is that by doing these repairs (and builds) we’ve saved $75-80K over the past year…

Really, everything you do is figure-out-able…

Try it.

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Family = G4 turned 18th + funeral for (Uncle) Ron…

Two big events this week.

Sunday, we celebrated Anna’s 18th. I’ve been super-proud of her progress over the past few years, watching her navigating the transitions through Covid, take on a new job, and work through the personal challenges that being a teen involves…

More on her another time.

Also, Thursday, we celebrated Ron’s life— my Mom’s brother-in-law.

Janet, my Aunt, gave Jason and Jacob— my cousins— almost complete control of the ceremony, and they did an incredible job of honoring their dad…

Through it I was reminded that Ron was the “cool” Dad (drove a Camaro, Firebird, etc., back in the day), that he was rabidly Roll Tide (played the Alabama Fight Song for the recessional), and that he was a tender man with so much depth…

It was a unique moment, that time in life when you begin seeing people pass whom you always thought would be around— but, in a real way, you know wouldn’t…

We’ve been blessed with an incredible extended family— one marked by overwhelming grace and compassion. It’s easy to just think those things are “normal” and that they’re experience of everyone.

But they’re not.

And people— though they last forever— aren’t here forever.

His funeral was a graciously sober reminder to love the people in front of you well, to continue making time for the things which matter the most, and to fight to push the clutter that matters less to the side…

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Field = the new LifeLift app is live!

(Learn more here.)

That’s a pic of a Zoom I had with the founder and one of the lead developers of the app company I’ve been working with to get this project together. In full transparency, their team dropped a few balls, and these two— Dan and Paul— jumped in on Zoom with me to acerbate a few things and get the project live in the app stores…

All the info about the app is at www.Jenkins.tv/LL 

Or, you can go straight to your favorite App Store—

• Apple App = https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/lifelift-global/id1590894501?l=en
• Google App = https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.p92joyt03vpp.pvbjuxih4app 

I’ll post more about this project over the next two weeks, b/c I’m about to release something new through it.

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Faith = Saturday visit with Northwood Church in Gulfport…

This is a pic of the gift box which was waiting in the room when I arrived at my hotel, courtesy of the team at Northwood.

Here’s the backstory…

My friend Shawn Lovejoy launched Courage to Lead several years ago— a forum to help church and marketplace leaders not only lead BUT lead at the next level.

I’ve been helping him on a new project, which took us to Jordan Ducote’s church.

Jordan happens to be a second generation pastor— of the same church his father led for about 30 years. The story is that his dad took a church that was dying…

… they had been using the baptistry for storage…

… they had taped off ROWS of seats in the back of the auditorium and didn’t even vacuum the floors there….

His dad took over THAT church back in the 80s…

… and emptied the “stuff” from the baptistry…

… and then untaped the seats and vacuumed the floors himself.

“Get ready for the harvest,” he said.

He was right. The church starting growing by dozens and dozens, now having four campuses with several thousand people.

(They even launched one campus post-Covid— back in January.)

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Friends = Hanging with the guys Tuesday evening…

Tuesday night, Randy and Paul and Cameron and me took a few hours (read: 3 or 4) and just hung out at the Black Market, a local dive at the Colonnade— about 2 miles from my house.

There was nothing spectacular about it…

Nothing revelatory.

Nothing enlightening..

Nothing earth-shattering…

But…

… and this is super-important…

It was incredible to spend unrushed, non-agenda time with some incredible men— guys doing their best to walk humbly in every area of life, each of them loving their wives and kids well…

It was yet another reminder to make time for the “non-productive” times like this, b/c they truly add some of the best perspective and value to life…

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Fun = Part of the fun… and it might SHOULD HAVE made my family list… was the convo I had with Salter + Beth + Mini + my parents on Thursday night.

Post-funeral, Janet and Ron’s church (Crosscreek, in Pelham, AL) provided dinner for our entire extended family…

Salter was concerned about something like Roblox— and getting to play.

He sat back after pondering it (i.e., was he going to get home too late or would there still be time), and offered, “There’s no limits at Dad’s house.”

No limits.

Not at Dad’s.

In his mind it wasn’t an excuse to “push it” or “get away” with something, it was just a realization that the #Hilltop is a launchpad— and that, from here, anything is possible.

No limits.

That’s a good word, and a great place to stop the Top 7 for the week…

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As always, I encourage you to download the planner— it’s been updated with completely NEW pages. You can have the ENTIRE thing free (as a download), or order the hardback and I’ll ship it to you today (shipping + handling = free), as well as…

• Equip you with the audiobook that talks through ALL of the Advance content (from which the planner was derived free)
• Or, buy 3 = get one free + the entire video workshop

The link to download is www.Jenkins.tv/FreePlannerPDF 

Or see your other options at www.Jenkins.tv/AP