Reflections on Anxiety

You're tuned into Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Justin Lester is an average guy who refuses to let Mondays control him. Justin is a husband, dad, pastor, student, and Jesus follower. He's done a lot, he's learned a lot, and he wants to see you at your best. Let's win Mondays. Hey, Justin. What's up?

Today.

This has been Made for Mondays with Justin Lester. Be sure to follow Justin online at MrJlester and online at www.jluster.com. see you next week. Go win. You were made for this.

Hey, welcome back into Made for Mondays. Let's jump into our time together. Originally, I had a title for today's discussion and I had a whole outline. But as I began to pray through this moment with all of you, as we joined back in, let me give you just some reflections, if you will. Last time we were together, I started a brand new series called Anxiety in youn. I wanted to talk about what it means to see your anxiety as your super strength, your superpower that you are superhuman because you have anxiety. And your anxiety is not meant to kill you. Your anxiety gives you hyper focus. Your anxiety gives you ability to like the sons of Issachar, to see around the corner. Anxiety can be your superpower. And most leaders, most great leaders that you see ever that really have existed all had some semblance of anxiety. Whether that's Winston Churchill to Martin Luther King to Mother Teresa, they all had some anxiety. Anxiety drives from the best sports figures and best leaders to think broader and deeper than the average person does. And so when I was ready to do this, the next week came down with the flu. The next week I came down. And after I came down with the flu, I was coming back from the flu. And then my allergies hit me like a ton of bricks. And then the following week I was just honestly overwhelmed with work that by the time I looked up, it was Monday because all the days were just blending all together. And it made me see something that I say in church that I also want to bring to you personally. Those of you who are church, those of you who are saved and believe in the prophetic, and those of you who don't, whenever you declare something is going to be tested, I made the declaration that I was going to lead other people to see that their anxiety can be a superpower. I made the declaration that you can utilize your anxiety to do amazing things. And in the moment, I made the declaration and began the journey of intentionally using my anxiety to be a liberating force for others. Man, my Voice, my body, my psyche, my mind was hit. Now, some things I do believe were actual sickness and some things I believe were actual anxiety. As I began to navigate through what are triggers, what is anxiety, what is trauma, what is hyper focus? Do I have an effective amount of moderate anxiety? And here's what I came on the other side of this to share with you today as you go into your Monday? Number one, how are you best taken care of? Not by other people, but by you? What do you need from you this week? One of the things I did over the course of the last couple weeks, I forgot myself. I buried myself at the whims and at the altar of success and transitions and movement and buildings and changes and vision and opportunity. I buried Justin. I sat and had a moment last Friday to check in with myself and to ask myself, how am I today? What is going on with you? What are you thinking as you work from home today? What are you going to accomplish today? What long term strategic decisions are you going to make? And as I finished my work for work, I had to ask myself, what am I doing for me? When I closed my computer for the final time, I had to sit there and think, what strategic decisions am I making for my health? What strategic decisions am I making for my future, for my own psyche? So let me ask you that same question. What strategic decisions are you going to make this week for you as you get out of your car and go into your workplace? What decisions? What opportunities are you going to take advantage of for you? How will you best serve yourself this week? Number two, who are the people around you that don't know how much you appreciate them? I'm in the middle of a series where we're walking through the book of Philippians and Paul at the end of Philippians, chapter two took time to celebrate Timothy and Epiditus. And he took time to just write how amazing they were that he told the Church of Philippi that when I hear that Timothy gets to you, it'll cheer me up. Paul took time to celebrate two people that meant so much to him, people that poured into him, people that were there for him. And he took time to appreciate them. Maybe what will cheer you up like Paul is by showing appreciation to somebody else. Who in your workplace, who in your family needs your appreciation, needs to know that their presence in your life means something, needs to know that their presence around you is impactful. Who in your life needs to know that they matter from you? Maybe the way that you receive it is by first giving it first. Lastly, not only Do I to take time to check with myself? Not only do I have to take time to consider how am I appreciating others and who I can appreciate, but lastly, what is really going on with you? Let's check in with you. You know, therapy wants to get to the past. Coaching wants to see the present and the future. It's amazing. You see no one on a basketball court and as they're playing basketball, the coach is coming to them. When they miss a shot, they come down and say, now tell me about your childhood experiences. Did you miss that shot because of some trauma you had as a child? No. The coach is coming to you saying, great, you missed it. How can we adjust because the game is still going on. Before you get out your car today, as you go to work today, I want to coach you. I want to remind you as a coach to check in with yourself. Hold on. Before you go to work this week, let's think about the meetings we had last week. How can we adjust our shot? What is the defense showing us? What did your emails teach you about you? What can you anticipate is going to come up in that staff meeting? What can you anticipate? What's going to come up in that meeting you have this week? What call do you know is already going to be difficult? What difficult decisions do you have to make this week not to overwhelm you, but so you can adjust your shot so it isn't difficult, so you can adjust your time so it isn't hard. Matter of fact, let me free some of us today. What meetings do you need to cancel because you know they're not going to lead anywhere? What conversations do you need to move from a phone call to an email? What meetings do you need to move from in person to online? And what online meetings just need to be canceled? Check in with you. I don't want you to miss three weeks of impacting others lives. I don't want you to miss three weeks of encouraging others. I don't want you to miss three weeks of not knowing you like I've done for the past three weeks. Whether it was sickness, frustration and life, I missed you all. So today I'm back. I'm excited to continue our journey together. Talking about a whole bunch of things. There's so many things I've read. I literally at one point in one week read a book a day. I literally was barely sleeping, just reading and soaking in knowledge. So there's so much that I've soaked in that I want to pour out to all of you because I want you to know that you are made for Mondays. Mondays don't own you. You own your Mondays. Check in with you. Who do you need to celebrate? Then recheck in with you again, and I promise your week will be better at the end than it may feel right now. Have an amazing Monday. God bless you.