Don't fill your day with five more just to stay busy or feel productive. Not doing something that isn't worth doing is a wonderful way to spend your time.

Yet somehow it's still frequently seen as heroic to sacrifice yourself, your health, and even your ability to do your job just to prove your loyalty to THE MISSION. Fuck the mission. No mission (in business, anyway) is worthy of such dire personal straits.

If you can't fit everything you want to do within 40 hours per week, you need to get better at picking what to do, not work longer hours.

When things aren't working, the natural inclination is to throw more at the problem. More people, time, and money. All that ends up doing is making the problem bigger. The right way to go is the opposite direction: Cut back.

It's the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what's truly essential.

So do less. Your project won't suffer nearly as much as you fear. In fact, there's a good chance it'll end up even better. You'll be forced to make tough calls and sort out what truly matters.

Is Jesus truly preeminent in your life? Is He number one? If He's "a good two or three," there will be nothing victorious about your experience. In this careening culture and in these perilous days, we must say as never before: "All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give".

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

The basic idea is to focus on the matchless worth of the Lord God and then get connected to him.

When you know that the kingdom is God's alone (though he gives it to us), that is the only thing that can lead to peace and rest. Owners are the ones who do all the worrying; stewards simply listen to the owner's desires and work to implement them. Owners are responsible for the outcome; stewards strive to be faithful.

But the point is that we live in a culture that idolizes happiness, and if we idolize happiness, it will always elude us.

Humans are needy by design. Will we abandon the myth of independence and seek God?