Rescue Mission Blog

Summer Blogging Break

Friends, Every so often you gotta take a break from the ol’ blog and refresh the little grey cells. While I’m still plugging away here at the Rescue Mission preparing for the opening of our new Adams St. Family Campus, I’ll be taking a break from Blogging until Sept. 1.

Please don’t panic, there are other interesting things to read on the internet…so I’m told.

David

Step Back, View Yourself from a Distance

With as much time as most of us thinking of ourselves, it’s amazing that our self-perception is so often wrong. In my opinion, truly healthy people seek to see themselves accurately. To do this, you need to step every once in a while and try to view yourself (actions, motives, words, performance, emotions, etc.) from an distance.

How was is the gap between the way you see yourself and the feedback you get from others?

Often when we are thinking of ourselves we are using “explanatory theory”. We are explaining our actions to ourselves. Usually in the most complementary terms. This kind of rationalization often sounds like this: “You deserved to go off on that person”, “Yes, you were short with that person, but you are busy today”, and so on.

Are you letting yourself off the hook for bad decisions? Are you explaining away rudeness, anger, addiction? Do you justify poor performance at work, or lazy leadership with mental excuses without even realizing it? Do you explain away your faults, giving yourself maximum grace while holding people to unrealistic standards?

It’s not unusual to get caught up with your own mental rationalizations, we all do it. Yet to be healthy, happy people, we have to be willing to face reality, even when reality means that we’ve been wrong.

Faith & Social Services

With the approval of the $350,000 federal HUD grant for the Adams St. Family Campus,the case is apparent closed on the complaint filed against the Rescue Mission by the Americans for Separation of Church and State. The complaint suggested that because TRM is a faith based organization that we violate the federal statutes by accepting money for the housing project, in that it amounts to promoting a specific religious creed. Here’s a link to the News Tribune article on the complaint.

We are careful to follow the rules regarding such things, and here is how we look at it, in accordance with the law.
1. Any faith services are open to all and voluntary.
2. There is no faith requirement to enter (or graduate) any program or to receive any service.
3. Any faith services are held in buildings/spaces not associated with government funding. (since its only a portion of our funding and directly related to housing units this is easy to determine and verify)

This all begs the question, “how is your Christian faith seen in action in your services?”

1. it’s the “WHY”. We believe God created everyone with value and that God loves the poor, hungry, hurting and addicted. We want to show them the love of God through our service.
2. It determines “WHO” we serve. Jesus called his followers to serve the poor, to care for those who have been treated unjustly, those who are vulnerable and oppressed. He told us to serve and protract the children. This has been formative in the development of our services over the past hundred years.
3. It determines “HOW” we serve. We want to serve in a way that reflects Gods love, grace and forgiveness.

We have always and will always be a Christian humanitarian organization. We hope to always uphold the reputation of Jesus, even though we are all flawed people. The fact is that many we serve are hurting, broken people who society has given up on. They have many social needs; hunger, housing, mental illness, employment, education and more. We provide these these critical services. But most of all, they suffer from hurt beyond those physical needs. They’ve been raped, abused, used, and thrown away. That hurt is emotional and in their spirit. You cannot heal a spiritual hurt with a physical solution. You must offer some spiritual and emotional support for those types of challenges. Here’s a link to an earlier blog on why we focus on the mind and spirit.

David

Encouraging Greatness

How can you bring out the best in yourself and those around you?

What do they enjoy doing?

How can your gifts and talents compliment each other?

What can you do to bring enjoyment to your tasks and work?

What are they doing that is worthy of attention and praise?

How are they best rewarded?

How are they gaining a sense of significance in their work?

How are you challenging them to expand in the area of their giftings?

David Curry

The Way We’re Working…(Book review)

Some years ago I read a great book called the Power of Full Engagement by Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr. It was one of those books that you could read over and over, it was so full of good reminders. Well, Tony Schwartz has a new book out, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, and it’s another great book that is full of good thoughts, great reminders, and an outline of how to expand your capacity, build good routines and habits, and have a more balanced life. The book builds on some of the thoughts from his earlier book and gives a good, practical plan to being more engaged in your work and at home.  It challenges the conventional wisdom that putting your head down and grinding out long hours is the best way to accomplish tasks.  Instead it challenges you to find the way you work best and to create natural rhythm in your life of pressing hard and recovery.

Here’s a few of the great quotes from the book:

1. “Because the number of hours we work is easy to measure, organizations often default to evaluating employees by the hours they put in at their desks, rather than by the focus they bring to their work or the value they produce.”

2. “If you are not actively working to get better at what you do, there’s a chance you’re getting worse, no matter what the quality of your initial training may have been. As Geoffrey Colvin points out in his provocative book Talent is Overrated, simply doing an activity for a long time is no guarantee that you’ll do it well, much less get better at it”

3. “Human beings, on the other hand, need to meet four energy needs to operate at their best: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. By moving rhythmically between activity and renewal in each of these four dimensions, we fulfill our corresponding needs: sustainability, security, self-expression, and significance. In the process, we build our capacity to generate more and more value over time.”

This book is terrific for those who are seriously looking at trying to develop their own skills & capacity and to better manage the most important, and really the only person you can truly manage, yourself.

I’ll buy a copy for the first 5 people who post a blog, or a tweet to my account, letting me know “Why I’d like this book”. I can send you a hardcover from Amazon, or send you a credit to your Kindle. Either way, please leave an email where I can get your shipping address.

David Curry

As an extra, I’ve added this talk from Tony Schwartz.  It’s the full meal deal, so watch it when you have a few minutes:

Yes, I Nap! What are you gonna make of it?!?!

Power naps are the secret ingredient of many top performers throughout the world and through out history.  Lazy people also nap, and lay around a great deal, so there is much confusion about what constitutes a power nap and where you cross the line to a low-performing sloth monkey. (I’ve seen sloth monkeys up close in the amazon, they’re not appealing or cute)

Definition: Power Naps are short, strategic breaks between 5-30 minutes long, which break up a long stretch of work and refresh you for the second half of your day.

(Anything over 60 minutes and you start to get into a deeper sleep which is harder to wake up from, thus leaving you groggy and resetting your circadian clock)

The work world has always shunned those who nap, but the science is rock solid.  Memory, performance, attention, all improve with short naps.

Is it possible that you could find a way to take a nap, just close your eyes for 5-30 minutes a couple days a week in order to be a better, more refreshed version of yourself?

As the CEO of the Rescue Mission, I’ve made no bones about the fact that at least a couple days a week I will close my door for 20 minutes and rest during my lunch hour.  On those days I feel 100% better and have much a much more productive afternoon.  Interestingly, I always receive a fair dose of playful teasing about it, so I can imagine what would happen to those who aren’t in charge of their work environment.

Can you benefit from a short nap a couple days a week?  If you are a Rescue Mission team member, do you feel you have the freedom to do what you need to do to keep your performance at a high level?

David Curry

What if You Could Make Your Job Easier?

There are so many in-effective things that front-line folks are doing, things that they want to stop doing but Executive Staff won’t let them, that it’s scary.  What if you could make your job easier by eliminating one thing that was totally ineffective? Not eliminating something because you don’t like it, but because it just doesn’t work?  Would you have the courage to do it?  To speak up?  (Team members at the Rescue Mission, remember our “STOP DOING LIST”?)

HERE’S A GREAT VIDEO (JUST A MINUTE AND A HALF) ON ATTACKING YOUR OWN SYSTEMS

What is your “Default” mode?

We all have a “default” mode, that range of emotions and temperament that you fall back on under stress, when busy, tired, or when you’re not at your best.  For some that is a bitter, angry, critical person.  For others, it’s a sadness, self-pity, withdrawn, morose.

When in doubt and under stress, remind yourself of GRACE.  Always seek to cut yourself and others more slack when you are tired, stretched and anxious.  Our default mode isn’t necessarily the best – reprogram your heart and mind for Grace.

David Curry

Tempted to Give Up on Someone?

Don’t give up on people, no matter how tempting it may be or how justified you feel you are in doing so. People are always capable of positive changes, even after years of going in another direction.  When you are dealing with someone who has years of drugs, alcohol or other types of abuse in their background, it sometimes feels as though they will never be able to break free from the negative patterns that have controlled them for so long.  They seemingly continue to go back to the old habits and routines which have been a part of their destruction, and it can be so frustrating to watch.  But don’t give up.

I’ve seen hundreds of lives literally transformed here at the Rescue Mission from habits and patterns that have controlled and destroyed for years.  Yet, when there is an internal change; a desire to get out of the rut, becoming sick and tired of being sick and tired, anything is possible.  As strange as it seems, a person can wake up one day and decide to go in a completely different direction, and start to build a life of success and happiness after years of pursing destruction.  The pages of this website are full of such stories, but it’s also true for your life.

Do you have habits or negative beliefs that you know are hurting you and holding you back from being all you could be?  Maybe you or someone you love is stuck in a destructive and dangerous rut and can’t seem to get out. Don’t give up.

1. Surround yourself with an environment of encouragement, inspiration, and information that will empower you in your life and in the changes you want to see happen.

2.  While you can’t make decisions for another, remain open to the possibility that someone can change, and begin a new way of living.

3. It’s not up to you if they change, but you can give a word of encouragement and let them know it’s never too late.  Don’t give up on yourself and don’t give up on others.  The future is bright.

David Curry

Update on Sound Transit v. Rescue Mission

Since news first broke of Sound Transit filing suit against the Rescue Mission I’ve withheld from posting many updates on how things are progressing in resolving the conflict.  Largely because there hasn’t been much movement towards resolution, but also because we were waiting for more professional documentation from the sound engineers that we hired to study the potential impacts on the Rescue Mission.

For those that need a quick update on the facts of the situation, here is a link the News Tribune article referring to the suit and the editorial from the Tribune on the same subject.

Here is where the situation stands today from the perspective of the Rescue Mission. (Sound Transit may characterize the situation differently, as would be expected)

1.  Impacts on the Building – Both Sound Transit and the Rescue Mission have hired  engineers to study the potential impacts the train will have on the services of the Rescue Mission.  Sound Transit engineers have recommended mitigation on a limited number of rooms on the north side of our building (the side directly parallel the tracks), while feedback from our engineers suggests that there will be impacts on our learning center, office/conference spaces, and dormitory.  Therefore we have requested that they extend their mitigation to include the additional habitable spaces in our learning center and offices, as well as the shelter dormitory.  This is essentially a restatement of our previous position, that every inhabited space that is in line with sound of the train be mitigated due to the proximity of the train line, and the 24/7 usage of the building, but augmented with documentation from the engineering study.

Sound Transit has now taken this data and is preparing a response.

2.  Property settlement

Sound Transit’s original offer for the property settlement was based upon an assessment of the property.  To confirm the value of the assessment we hired an appraiser to evaluate their proposal.  There was a gap between the two professional opinions which was significant, with Sound Transits offer only a third of what our appraiser recommended.  We forwarded this review to Sound Transit, which has thus far rejected the review.

Summary: Our desire is to see a swift resolution of these matters so that the impacts of delay on Sound Transit will be minimized.  Nevertheless, it is my responsibility to ensure that the Rescue Mission, both as a private property owner and a advocate for the vulnerable population that we serve on behalf of the community, is not harmed by the railroad extension.  There is no doubt we will be impacted.  It is our position that we can only respond to the offers that have been made thus far, which we have done with the augmentation of the aforementioned review of appraisal and engineering report.  Until counter offer that is fundamentally different from the first offer which was we deemed insufficient is made, we’re a an impasse.  If the impasse remains, unfortuntely it will have to be settled by a jury in a court of law.

Thank you so much to the many people who have been encouraging and are concerned about how the work of the Rescue Mission will be impacted by the train.

Questions: Write any questions you may have and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

David Curry