I heard a quote recently from Edgar Cooper, “Busyness is a result of vanity or laziness.” When I heard this I immediately tried to shoot it down.

I know I’m not a lazy man and I cannot stand arrogance or narcissism. I can’t stand it so much that I go the opposite way. My nature is to turn away any acknowledgement or appreciation for something I’ve done. So am I lazy? As a business owner, husband, father, farmer, minister and author, I can’t be lazy, can I?

I went through a 6 week course with Paul Martinelli in which he would speak to business owners who called in asking for advice. As I was listening to one such conversation, the caller was commenting on how compliments make him feel uncomfortable.

The caller shared that in Sunday Bible Class, he would get compliments from attendees. But he would wave them away and only remark on errors he made in his sermon, making comments like “even a blind squirrel finds a nut.”

This really hit home with me because I make comments like that all the time – this is the exact thing I’m struggling with!

Paul told this man to respond to compliments with, “Thank you that means a lot.” Then, shut up! Don’t beat yourself up or downplay the effort you put into the sermon. Accept the compliment and move on.

Since hearing this advice, I’ve tried to follow it, but it’s hard to keep the little voice inside me quiet.

Now that my book is nearing completion, I’ve signed with a publisher, Morgan James, and will begin training with a Public Relations Coach, Speech Coach and Graphic Artist to prepare for the book launch in May of next year, with the hope of getting on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Even that is a difficult pill to swallow!

It’s hard to imagine any TV and radio program wanting to do an interview with me. But, through all this, I have to be okay with someone saying to me, “I read your book and I loved it.” I have to respond with “Thank you. That means a lot.” I know God has been building me and doing things in my life to get me ready for this time.

Getting back to the busyness quote, I’ve concluded that I must be lazy. I’m not prideful and I’m not vain.

So am I lazy? Unfortunately, my answer has to be yes.

I procrastinate until something is a bigger job than it has to be. If I would’ve spent 20 minutes on it 3 days ago, I wouldn’t have to spend two hours on it today. If I believe in this statement and really try to understand how it relates to my life, I begin to realize I’m lazy. I am lazy in a strange way. I overextend myself in many areas of my life, but hold back in others. I pass off tasks to others because I’m just so “busy.” I think we could all use a little less busy in our lives.

In your busy life, which area are you struggling with? Laziness or vanity?

As you may or may not know, I’m writing a book based on my life and lessons that I’ve learned. I was speaking my coach recently expressing my fears and concerns about this book. While writing a book is exciting and something I’ve always wanted to do, it’s also frightening.

Once this book is complete, it’s out there. It’s set in stone. I can’t defend myself. If someone reading my book disagrees with one of my thoughts, I can’t defend my stance. They can stop reading all together and write me off as a loon. They’ll carry that impression of me for the rest of their lives.

As we’re talking through this, my coach says, “You realize it’s all sprinkles from here, don’t you?”

“What?”

My coach explained, “Most people spend their lives saying ‘someday I’m going to write a book.’ You’ve written the book. You now have ice cream. Everything from here on out is putting sprinkles on your ice cream.”

I love this concept! I’m a visual person and I need pictures to remind me of things that are important in my life. So I stopped by a home decor store to get a picture of ice cream with sprinkles. I must’ve walked three miles in that store trying to find anything with a image of ice cream on it. As I’m leaving the store, I see a picture of Snoopy and Woodstock that says “It’s all about the sprinkles.”

I bought every copy and sent one to a few other people who I felt would enjoy the picture and the reasoning behind it.

The cool thing about the idea of sprinkles is that it’s so applicable in many different situations. If you get married, it’s all sprinkles from there. You have a kid and everything else is sprinkles. You become self employed or establish a career you love, it’s all sprinkles.

How much ice cream do you have in your life? Did you ever stop to consider the sprinkles?