On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on balancing between our work lives and family lives.

Sometimes to get a balance in your life, you have to fall out of balance a little bit.

• You’re going to have to go over to the other side to get it balanced.
• Don’t be afraid to move swiftly and make things happen quickly.
• I see just as many families knocked out of balance by little league, basketball, and soccer as I do from Dad working.
• Answer the question, “What do we want to happen?” Define what you’re after. What do we want it to look like?

When Austin was playing baseball, it was hard for all four of us to get together.

• A lot of people would say, “Well, are we not going to let them play this? All their friends are playing. Everybody is playing.”
• Let me remind you what your momma used to say. “You aren’t everybody.”
• The end result of what everybody is doing can be a pretty average result.
• If you think that allowing one child to play one sport is worth scattering your family to the edges of the earth for the majority of the year, you’re not doing anybody a favor.

When you figure out what you want to be, you can get clear on your priorities.

• My family knows they are my priority.
• Sometimes, for a week or so, the priority is to lock myself in a closet and write, but that is only a means to an end and not the end.
• In almost every area of life, it’s the communication that is the key.
• You can intentionally engage your time and energy to create who you are to your family and create what they remember.
• Because you can create who you are, and because you can create how they remember, you are creating who they will become.

Tune in to hear examples of how we set expectations during family time and how you can clearly communicate when exceptions must be made.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on beating depression and making the choice to be happy instead.

I think a lot of people have been depressed, and a lot of time for good reason.

• Even though something is very real, how we deal with it beyond medication is also very effective and real.
• If you understand that you can make choices that will lead you down a path of disaster, you can also understand that choices can lead you to great places.
• Choices come from your thinking, and you have been created with a will that is stronger than your emotions.

How you act has great bearing on how you feel.

• If you don’t believe it, go sit in a chair by yourself, stare at a wall, let your back slump, take shallow breaths for an hour, and see how you feel.
• There is one thing that I want to make sure my boys are good at before they leave home, and that is for them to understand they can choose how to act—despite how they feel.

Tune in to hear specific ways you can start making yourself feel better from the moment you wake up in the morning.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on why we push people to succeed when failing is what leads to learning.

Success is your destination, but we should also create value from every part of the journey.

• My smart-aleck answer is that you push people to succeed because you don’t want to push them to fail.
• What we want to do is reach a destination defined by a successful conclusion to something.

However, there is value in getting lost along the way.

• There is no weaker leader than someone who has only succeeded in certain things and has gotten to where they are relatively easily.
• A strong version of leadership enables a person to say, “I know how you feel because this happened to me, and this is what came about because of that.”
• The ultimate goal isn’t to focus on the failure but to make sense of it and gain proper perspective.

Most people travel through their lives along the path of least resistance.

• There is a push for success that can make people fearful of any kind of failure.
• A balanced approach is to let people know that anything worth doing is worth struggling to get better at.
• In our culture, to struggle at something reveals weakness when it should be seen as honorable.

Tune in to learn the difference between how our culture and some Asian cultures approach struggle while learning in the classroom, and how struggle can really open up more paths in life.

Questions for Andy 

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• E-Mail: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com
• com/AndyAndrews
• Tcom/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on how I come to a decision when there are many different determining factors to consider.

There are three questions that I ask to determine major decisions.

• Is this something that will be good for God?
• It cannot be in God’s will for me to do if it’s not good for God.
• Will this help people who are hurting?
• My mission in life is to help people live the lives that they would if they only knew how to do so. People who are not living the life they would like to are hurting, frustrated and stressed.
• Will my take on it be unique enough to make a difference for people?

Smart people can’t help but play a little chess when they are having a conversation or being asked for advice.

• Most times when I’m seeking wisdom from a person, I don’t ask the question straight out. I ask around it.
• I want to find out what they think about certain areas and give stories of their experience in ways they’ve used to make decisions like this.
• Your bottom line is you are seeking wisdom.
• Ultimately when you’re talking with other people, reading, or praying—you are seeking wisdom. And seeking wisdom is work.

In the full episode you’ll hear the very first teaser for Andy’s new book, the “most direct” book he says he’s ever written!

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com
• com/AndyAndrews
• com/AndyAndrews