New Metrics: Friends, Adventures, Flow and More

After reading about circling in Mark Hatmaker’s¹ Weekly Newsletter — it’s the the natural tendency of human beings to walk in circles — it occurred to me that I’ve been “circling” in terms of my personal goals and creative projects.  So I added some new metrics to my productivity tracker.

New Productivity Metrics

1. Number of books read.  This one’s pretty simple.  I read a fair amount for seminary, but I don’t read near enough and I haven’t been working on my reading speed which is lackadaisical.
2. Number of Holy Communions attended or performed.  Once a month or so I celebrate the Eucharist with the seminary and I perform Holy Communion at home most Sundays.  That’s not enough.
3. Number of new friends.  I love meeting new people but somehow this always gets put behind work, study, etc.  This includes both online and IRL.
4. Number of adventures.  I spend far too much time pounding the beaten track.  I need to get out there and explore!
5. Number of days spent living in the Kingdom of God (Luke 1720-21).  I too often let myself get tangled up, stressed out, and turned around.  I need to breathe more, relax, and walk with God.  Some folks would call this being “in the flow,” being “mindful” or “in the zone,” or perhaps sati or a Zen state.  Call it what you want, but that’s where I need to be more often.

Further to #4, Number of Adventures I went shooting for the first time in 20 years.  Took my son with me, and boy was it fun!  I’ll be doing more of this — I’m way better with hands, feet, knife and tomahawk than with gun, and that’s unacceptable for a rough ‘n’ tumbler!

¹ I’m an Affiliate Coach of Mark Hatmaker’s Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts program.  Rough ‘n’ Tumble is a martial art incorporating the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912).  Click the photo to get started learning Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble today!