I keep running into this quote from Samuel Johnson. It’s a powerful quote that reminds us that our problem isn’t what we know. It’s what we act on.

The more I dig into any area of my life where I need growth, I discover that I very seldom require additional information or instruction.

What I normally need are reminders and accountability.

You and I have little need for new information.

Sure, if you have to figure out how to run an analysis in Excel or are planning a trip to a foreign country where you must memorize a few key phrases in a new language, yes – you have to learn new information. A YouTube search or a foreign language mobile app will get you what you need.

But when it comes to things like how to parent, how to eat better, how to exercise, how to grow spiritually, how to save or make money, how to be better at your job…. you already know.

At most, you know how to find it via Google or reviewing a book you read 3 years ago.

Most of us have all the information we’d ever need in order to succeed in most areas of our lives.

What we need is a system to act on the information.

Every morning, during my journaling time, I rewrite, from memory, my personal mission statement.

Yet every day, my memory of that mission statement slowly leaks out and isn’t brought to bear on everything I say and do. It’s frustrating, but living from a place of mission is so important that I’m committed to doing this every single day.

If I still struggle, then I’ll bring in reinforcements in some other way.

I don’t need to learn anything new. I just want to find the right system to get after it and do it.

It’s the same thing as it relates to my connection to my faith, to my parenting, to my marriage, and to my health and wellness.

We all know. We might need reminders – over and over again.

But we procrastinate by thinking we need new information or to try some slick new trick – once we find it.

So quick trying to find new info. You don’t need it. Neither do I.

Remind yourself that you know what works. And start building the systems into your life that makes it easier to do that thing or those few things that will get you where you need to be.

One thing this pandemic has revealed is lack of margin. I don’t think it’s overstatement to say that our whole society has been shown to lack margin.

I’m hardly qualified to speak to lack of margin in our government’s use of resources, economic structures, and healthcare systems. But I can say a word or two about personal margin, something that applies to all of us in some form or fashion. 

Margin in health, relationships, and resources. 

If we’re hanging by a thread in any area of our lives, this current crisis has revealed exactly where and how strong or weak that thread is.

Part of stewarding our health, relationships, and resources well is building in plenty of margin in each of these areas.

Financial or Resource Margin

I’ve been annoyingly pushing my kids to handle their money with a ‘Give – Save – Live’ approach to the little bits of cash I give them. While this sounds good and holy (give first is pretty righteous, right?), I told them that one of the biggest reasons to do this is to give themselves breathing room. 

When you give 10%, save 10%, and only live on 80%, you’re training yourself to be better than 95% of human Americans (just a guess at the percentage). Most all of us either live or have lived at some point on 100% or more of what we make – through the magic of overextending ourselves with credit cards and other consumer debt.

Learning to give and save a total of 20% forces you to learn to live on less money than you actually have available to you. It builds margin. It allows you to weather a storm when the storm blows through your neck of the woods. 

Yes. COVID has hit some people in financially devastating ways that no amount of margin would have cured. But for many, it’s simply revealing bad financial habits.

Health Margin

Not to get overly serious, but how many people would love to have made good on a few of those promises to exercise or eat better 3-5 years ago? How many Type-2 diabetics, non-congenital heart disease sufferers, and others who battle preventable health problems are suffering from greater fear right now because they have no  margin in their health? 

They are the ones that are told to stay home and keep sheltering-in-place regardless if the general population is told they can pop out for groceries here and there.

Again, there are stories across the spectrum where margin or no margin, this disease has been fatal.

In the end, though, we all would love to make sure we’re taking better care of ourselves. My jogging shoes have been getting a lot more work lately. I still suck at eating, though. I gots to work on that.

And Relationship Margin…. 

How many wished we would have taken more effort to nurture our marriages, relationships with kids, or even friendships before this thing hit? How many of us, now that we can’t as easily avoid the family or overwork or over-commit outside the home, would love to have had grown more skin over those last nerves everybody’s getting on? 

As I’m writing this, I’m getting a little sad. It’s not meant to depress you or me. It’s meant to encourage us to learn. I use ‘us’ because I’m learning harcore right now.

Heck, right now as I’m writing this, made a snarky remark to one of my kids about spilling milk from his cereal bowl on the way up the stairs… “Surprise! You tried to eat while you walk up the stairs again and made a mess????” This is the very type of comment that my daughter confronted me about yesterday. It becomes old and rude and makes them feel bad. I’m stressed, so I quickly get into snarky dad mode. 

Hopefully, as you’re in a position to simply learn from this pandemic vs. being seriously financially or physically damaged by it. If so, I hope you’ll join me in working this margin angle.

Are you “flush with cash”?

The best mental picture for margin to me is the individual who might have been flush with cash when the real estate market crashed back in 2007 and 2008. That dude – he could have bought up whole city blocks. He had margin. He wasn’t riding the same waves up and down as everybody else, living right on the edge or above means. The crisis came and it became an opportunity vs. a problem.

That’s what we want to be. “Flush with cash” in as many areas of our lives as we can be.

Where do you need more margin? Where are you thin on resources or in your health or in your relationships?

Currently Reading: The Vision Driven Leader – 10 questions to focus your efforts, energize your team, and scale your business. Just starting so I can’t give definitive feedback, although everything Mr. Hyatt puts out is well-thought out and actionable.

During the current pandemic, when someone on the phone asks me the question “How are you handling things?”, I immediately go to how I and my family are holding up under the COVID-19 ‘shelter-in-place’ circumstances.

I list what we’re doing, our emotional state, and then make jokes about snacks and Netflix. You probably do the same thing.

But “How are you handling things?” could mean something entirely different.

The question could actually be asking how I am stewarding things.

Like when your boss asks you, “How are you handling the ACME account?”

Or your teacher asks you, “How are you handling your coursework?”

Stewardship (defined in my quick Google search: the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property) is all about how we handle what is in our care.

There are 3 categories that we steward, generally:

1. Our health
2. Our relationships
3. Our resources

Nearly everything – and I only say “nearly” because my 10th grade civics teacher always told me not to use “unprovable absolutes” – falls into these three categories.

Regardless of our circumstances, we are always navigating our handling of these three areas in our life. How well we steward each, affects the others and while I list them in a heirarchical way (health then relationships then resources), we all know that relationships can screw with our health and how we handle our resources can sink relationships.

Right now, most of us have an amazing opportunity to focus in on stewarding the most important of each of these areas. Some of us are actually being forced to steward each in ways we’ve never dreamed of. Some of us are being lazy and not stewarding them at all – despite the fact we have this amazing opportunity

Health

Many of us have more time than ever to focus on our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health. We have time to exercise (even without a gym), time to read, time to pray, and time to study. We have an excuse to cook more in the house (which I’m discovering isn’t always the key to weight loss!).

Relationships

I realize some are in isolation, but most of us have unprecedented time to spend with our families. Even if you are in isolation, you have time to reach out to, call, Zoom/Facetime with, and write letters to (a lost art) people you care about. In some ways, it might even be an easier time to lean in since you’re not running hither and thither, wearing yourself out.

Resources

I’ll tread lightly. I have no clue where you might be financially. You might be stewarding hardcore right now because you have no choice. You lost a job and you have to make every nickel stretch. You’re struggling and this is affecting everything else (from your relationships to your health).

For others, the shelter-in-place time can be a wonderful opportunity to save and develop a renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility. Many are seeing this as an opportunity to tackle long-awaited projects, stewarding their homes and cars and yards.

Use the Circumstances You’re In

Ultimately, you cannot completely control the circumstances you find yourself in. There’s no reason not to steward as well as you can what you have at your disposal right now. You have the choice either to lean in and do the best job you can or you can use the circumstances as an excuse. And every circumstance comes with an excuse.

May you and may I come out of this situation better than when we went in. If you’re reading this some time in the future when the circumstances are completely different, use them – whatever they are – to steward well your health, your relationships, and your resources.

In the end, you only have all three for a short while. Make the most of it.

Currently Reading: Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons From the Great Antarctic Explorer (affiliate link – i.e. if you buy this book or perhaps anything else when you click it, I will get a really tiny commission. Thanks for the support).