Have clear priorities. — It’s important for me to know what I am doing and why I’m doing it. This, I believe, is the “secret sauce” and it requires a measure of discipline. I have a white board hanging in my office where I write my ideas, so they stay in front of me. I review the items on the board often to assess what I am doing about each of those priorities. If I am unwilling to make time for them, they come off the list. If it is not important enough to make time for, it is not a priority.
As a part of my series about “How to Slow Down To Do More” I had the pleasure to interview Mike Ashcraft.
Mike Ashcraft serves as Senior Pastor at Port City Community Church and is the author of two books, My One Word and To Be Concluded, which is being released in March 2022. He’s married to Julie, his high school sweetheart, and lives near the beach in southeastern North Carolina. He enjoys family time with his daughters and son-in-law as well as surfing, the only hobby he needs.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this specific career path?
I graduated from college with a degree in architecture but as I started to pursue a career, I got a sense that something wasn’t right, that it wasn’t what I should be doing with my life. So, I began to pursue my purpose and process my faith. This led me to a career in the ministry. The process of formation has been a driving value for me personally, and for our church– our aim as a church is to reach people and help them walk with God.
In 2012, wrote my first book My One Word, which focuses on how we can choose and use “one word” for a year to position ourselves for our characters to be formed at a deep, sustainable level. I am looking forward to my second book, To Be Concluded, being released in March 2022.
According to a 2006 Pew Research Report report, 26% of women and 21% of men feel that they are “always rushed”. Has it always been this way? Can you give a few reasons regarding what you think causes this prevalent feeling of being rushed?
Most likely, what we would call an unhurried pace today would probably feel frantic in past times– but ultimately the feeling of being rushed is probably nothing new. However, what is unique to our cultural moment is the amount of information we take in and are exposed to has increased significantly. This contributes to our feeling of being rushed as we struggle to get a clear sense of who we are and what we are about. So, we are left chasing after whatever happens to grab our attention.
Based on your experience or research can you explain why being rushed can harm our productivity, health, and happiness?
There are some obvious answers. When we live in a hurry, we get sloppy and make unnecessary mistakes. But underneath the obvious, more is happening, and more is at stake. The fast pace at which most of us live makes it impossible to find and know ourselves, much less allows us to bring ourselves fully to the moments that matter. Instead, we continue to rush, chasing the next thing, the next demand, the next solution to find relief from the pressure we are under. We have the illusion that when this or that gets done, we will finally slow down. But we all know how that turns out. Ten years go by, and we are stuck in the same loop.
Accelerated pace ultimately affects our vision. Speed makes things blurry. There is an ancient Proverb that says, “Without vision, people perish.” The literal translation is that without vision, we cast off restraint. Without vision, we are scattered and left chasing whatever comes our way. So, what I have learned is that we don’t just need a vision for more balance in our lives, we need rhythm. And rhythm requires rest. Our circumstances are not likely to drift towards a schedule that makes rest come naturally. We must make rest a priority and set times to slow down. We must tend to our own souls and the relationships that are most important to us.
On the flip side, can you give examples of how we can do more, and how our lives would improve if we could slow down?
There is an underlying assumption that we should do more, and this is often the haunting sense that keeps us accelerating our pace. I have talked to a lot of people who are still early or midway into their careers who feel like they should have done more “by now”. And I always ask, what should you have done? And their answer usually is, I don’t know. This speaks to the assumption that more is always expected of us. But I have learned that just because we can, doesn’t mean that we should. It is more important to do the right things with focus rather than just keep doing more and more.
I want to finish each day knowing that I have been faithful with what I have been given while being confident that what I accomplished is enough. I have been a pastor for 22 years and every time I leave my office, there is always more to be done. But just because there is more to be done doesn’t mean that I have not done all that is required of me.
We all live in a world with many deadlines and incessant demands for our time and attention. That inevitably makes us feel rushed. Can you share with our readers five strategies that you use to “slow down to do more”? Can you please give a story or example for each?
1. Make time for reflection and preparation.
As a follower of Jesus, I call this my quiet time. This is time alone with God that both centers my life in relationship to Him and seeks to know His way. I often say, I do my quiet time as though my life depends upon it… because it actually does. One of my favorite quotes is “If you are too busy to spend time with God, you are busier than He intends for you to be.”
This is the way in which I arrange my life.
2. Make clear decisions
My pace is quickened, and my vision gets blurry, when I fail to bring a sense of closure to things. So, to prevent this, I begin by defining the decisions that need to be made by writing them down. This brings clarity. If issues remain vague, uncertainty builds and creates anxiety. When there is no clarity, we tend to exaggerate. Problems and pressure grow in the absence of clarity. It will drive you crazy as an individual and will destroy a team. Ambiguity leads to information gaps and people tend to fill in those gaps with assumptions. So, we need to define the issues and then decide on them.
If you have clear convictions and driving values, most decisions are already made. The only question is: Do I have the courage to decide? This is not an information issue, but one of integrity — will I do what I say and what I believe?
Having clear convictions and values sets up the next three…
3. Have clear priorities.
It’s important for me to know what I am doing and why I’m doing it. This, I believe, is the “secret sauce” and it requires a measure of discipline. I have a white board hanging in my office where I write my ideas, so they stay in front of me. I review the items on the board often to assess what I am doing about each of those priorities. If I am unwilling to make time for them, they come off the list. If it is not important enough to make time for, it is not a priority.
4. Be willing to say no.
Too often there are things that end up on my proverbial plate because I said yes when I should have said no. In fact, sometimes I didn’t say yes at all, I just didn’t say no. Then the natural drift is for me to take care of it. So, my personal vision and values serve to determine how I choose the things I will do, the things I will delegate, or the things I will decline.
5. Every idea is not a thing to be done.
I have learned to separate “incomplete’’ from failure. I am not suggesting that we just give up or quit when things get hard. But we must give ourselves permission to acknowledge when something is no longer a priority. This also gives us freedom when we have said yes to something when it should have been a no.
Also, I actually have a file called “Screwball Ideas” that simply catches all the crazy things I dream about. Rather than taking space in my priorities, they live in a place where they can be considered until they become important enough for action.
How do you define “mindfulness”? Can you give an example or story?
Mindfulness is when we pay attention with intention.
Henri Nouwen, a writer and theologian, is famous for comparing his mind to a banana tree full of monkeys. So, I have learned ways to wrangle my own mind monkeys. I keep a journal and work to develop a discipline of thought. Our world is full of things that lure us and entice us and what catches our eye will ultimately capture our hearts. Our attention comes with a price, so we must be intentional.
We need to know that we have a say in what we pay attention to.
Can you give examples of how people can integrate mindfulness into their everyday lives?
There are no shortcuts. Paying attention means to pay attention. We need to establish a baseline for the condition of our soul. This means we must make time for reflection and meditation. We can use this time to center ourselves and frame the criteria for how we will live our lives each day. We need to understand the implications of what we bring to the world around us. Having a clear purpose helps not only to frame our day but serves to recalibrate and recenter us throughout the day.
For a simple exercise, I suggest a quick thought inventory. Take note of what you think about when you wake up and what you think about when you go to bed. This information alone is so telling about our mindset and our capacity to improve our own mindfulness.
Do you have any mindfulness tools that you find most helpful at work?
Journal. Journal. Journal.
This is probably the single most life-shaping discipline I have developed. When I journal, I am not merely recording what has happened during the day, it is also where I think. In my journal, I see what I am thinking without being blinded by what I am feeling. Writing my thoughts by hand slows the rate of what is racing through my head to a pace that makes it possible to process. I sort my thoughts and take those captive that go against the vision and values I have for my life.
It is also amazing to look back at my journals and see the change, slow and sure, but also to observe my difficult circumstances as well as victories in my own handwriting. Journaling serves as a reminder that I am still becoming who I am created to be.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to use mindfulness tools or practices?
As a pastor, the Bible is the obvious answer. I read widely, including favorites like Simon Sinek, Caroline Leaf, and Carol Dweck. I also enjoy the writing of Richard Foster and Eugene Peterson, but perhaps the top of the list would be Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You can think your thoughts.”
I spent too many years living at the mercy of whatever popped into my head. Then I realized that just because something popped into my head didn’t mean that I believed it or that it was true. This led to the idea that I needed to think about my thoughts. I have a choice and the freedom to decide whether to assign weight to my thoughts according to what I value.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Who you are is more important than what you do.
Most people spend a lot of time considering what they will do and making a list of those things. While most people have a “to-do” list, we don’t have a “to-be” list. At our church, we have ditched New Year’s Resolutions and instead, pick ONE WORD to focus on for the entire year. The beauty of this exercise is that it helps us to focus on who we want to become. Another Proverb says, “Above all else, guard your heart, because your entire life flows from there.” Who you are is what you bring to what you do, so it would do us all good to pay attention to who we are becoming!
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
Mike Ashcraft of Port City Community Church On How To Slow Down To Do More was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.