Tim DeTellis

Welcome to a side of my brain that is all about music.

Three facts about Endless:
1. Improvisational music (no pre-planned or pre-written music)
2. Instrumental piano
3. Continuous playing, no stopping between each piece.

Why did I record Endless? For the experiment of what it would be like to sit down, start playing and see what happens. I began and stood up 51 minutes later. What a thrill and amazing journey of musical discovery. It will never happen the same again!

Would you like a free copy of the Endless piano CD? Become a raving fan today! Email tim@timdetellis.com to receive your free copy, for a limited time.

Enjoy the music!
Tim

She did it! She has turned 90 and is as sharp as ever. Perfect hearing, great attitude, and energy like a bee. Learn with me the 9 lessons from my 90-year old grandmother.

1. Pray for others. For as long as I can remember my grandmother always had a prayer list. Not only with all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, but friends and people she may have only met once.
2. Give generously. A little secret many do not know, is that my grandmother has always given more to others than to herself. It’s true that you can measure the heart of a person by their calendar and check book register.
3. Be a faithful spouse. Not only has health been good to her, but she has been faithfully married for 71 years! She loves and adores her husband Charles. I always was impressed with his tender humble spirit and now I know it’s because she loves him so much.
4. Study the Bible. Grandma would have magazines and the Bible on the coffee table, as long as I can remember. Each day she and her husband would reach each other scripture.
5. Have friends. If there was a women’s group at church, my grandmother was there. She loves conversation and spending time with people.
6. Collect something. My grandmother collects dolls. Not little dolls, but large beautiful dolls. The joy is that throughout her life, people caught on to her collection and began giving her dolls and each came with a precious story.
7. Have a hobby. My grandmother enjoys tatting and sews little decorative boarders around the edges of towels. She can take the most original towel and turn it into something extra special.
8. Whistle. This is something that I have personally adapted in my life. I whistle often because I grew up hearing my grandmother whistle like a bird. For some reason, when I whistle, it seems like the worries of the world fade away.
9. Eat healthy. No donuts for you! Grandma is one healthy person. She cooks without salt and my favorite is her homemade lentil soup. Last Christmas my wife and I visited her and we had lentil soup making lessons. If there was something she made that was defined as unhealthy, it was the pizzelles (Italian cookies). Then again, for an Italian, those are required for living, so they are somewhat healthy in our minds. Grandma also does not like restaurants. She prefers to cook at home.

Personally, I am thankful for my grandmother because she has been a life-long example of a person who loves family, friends, and her faith is the foundation. I remember staying at grandma’s house and playing board games together like Sorry and Aggravation. Back then, she lived on a lake in Sterling, Massachusetts. It was in that lake that I learned to swim. Thank you grandma for your love and example! I look forward to your 100th birthday celebration.

~Timmy (that’s what grandma calls me)

Are people showing up to your meetings late? Do you have a tendency to be late? Here are my 5 reasons for going the extra mile to be early.

1. Respect. If my time is important, then the time of others is even more important, therefore, I respect their time by showing up on time or early. This is a great way to serve others by respecting their time.

2. Energy. If I’m early, my mind is ready for the meeting. I’ll be more alert and engaged versus rushed and delayed.

3. Consistency. People will remember you more by what you do often, than what you do once in a while. If I’m early or on-time, then they will be too.

4. Professionalism. Nothing speaks I’m a professional than being early. If you show up late, it’s like saying, what’s the big deal anyway? Whatever!

5. Being lost. I’m terrible with directions. If I did not have the map on my iPhone, or printed directions, I’d be lost and late. That’s my personal pet peeve: being late and lost. I work toward being early because I don’t want to get lost.

Please, make the best effort to be on time or early. You will serve yourself and others well by doing so. Most importantly, lead by example. Your consistency either way will pave the path that others will follow.

What motivated me to write this blog post was the experience I had when attending a seminar for non-profit leaders and a third of the group showed up late. I was shocked.

Are you driven to be on time or early? Why?

Continue on!

Tim

For the past five years I have carried a journal almost everywhere I go. My friends have nick-named me “the scribe.” I have used one of three journals the entire time: Ampad gold fiber, Moleskin, or the black croc leather journal.

Here are a few journal entries:

11/27/2007, meeting with Kris DenBesen at Mimi’s Cafe, he shared with me about his sales team and their 14 store managers. The score card system was explained to me that his company used for sales, parts and service within their tractor business.

8/8/2008, meeting with Bill Webster at Starbucks, he shared with me about www.ning.com and www.wordpress.com and how online marketing is all about eyeballs and not technology.

11/9/2008, listening to Pastor Tim Grosshans as a guest speaker at Dover Shores Baptist Church, sharing on the topic: What is your heart’s desire? Philippians 3:10&11.

10/27/2009 breakfast with Doug Dees at Einstein’s Bagels, we talked about singular focus, multi-site church models and how emotion does not always translate.

The history is fascinating while the capturing of ideas have been enjoyable. I’m now moving away from my days of journal holding. Why? Here are my five reasons:

Five Reasons I’m Saying Goodbye Moleskine Journal
1. My filing system has changed. I am going 100% digital. This is the biggest reason. By making all my journal entries in my Awesome Note app on my iPhone, I can categorize my entries and retrieve them faster for better use and productivity.
2. I do not want a library. I now have just one digital journal. Many days, I found myself back at home, looking through old journals trying to find that note or reference to an idea. I have stacks of journal books and I’m sure I could have indexed my entries better, but now I can search on my iPhone or open the specific folder where that subject is filed under.
3. My meeting notes are now on my calendar. The biggest reason I used a journal book was for meeting notes. Now, I can take my meeting notes right in the appointment on my calendar, therefore the meeting notes are always where and when they happened. This is also where I store the agenda for the meeting which provides me a better management tool during meetings.
4. I’m tired of running out of pages. I mentioned in #2 about my freedom from having a library, yet the ending of a journal was a greater challenge. On many road trips, I found myself shopping for a journal because on the airplane ride, I began to download ideas and planning notes then quickly used up the pages in my journal. Then what? I had to buy another journal, which leads me to number 5.
5. I find myself taking more photos and they are value for my journal. It’s hard to print and tape the photo inside my paper journal. With Awesome Note app I can add a photo to a note. Super simple and then I have the moment archived for future reference.

The downside to this new direction of a digital journal are back-up concerns. Therefore, I have engaged two redundant systems to archive all my journal entries. Google docs and Evernote. All the entries I make in my Awesome Notes app are automatically backed up to these two separate platforms. My calendar entries sync with my .mac account and back-up on my computer which back-ups to my time machine external hard drive. Wow, maybe paper was not that bad. Well, I’m still walking away from the journal book.

One day, long after I’m gone, maybe someone will find one of my old journals with drawings, notes, and crazy “my impossible list” goals in the back, but until then, I’ll just carry around my iPhone. For certain, in a decade the iPhone will be replaced and maybe I’ll find myself back to the old faithful paper journal. I’m sure there will be days of withdrawal and I’ll miss it.

By the way, on my desk I still keep a large spiral white paper journal to storyboard ideas. Mostly because I like to use visuals to think and explain. Maybe I need to replace that large drawing journal with the iPad. Time will tell.

Do you journal? How? Why?

Continue on!
Tim