When I started this blog, I made sure I was very intentional about what I wanted this blog to be. I even dedicated the title of this blog to that idea. LYEATT: Leave Your Ego at the Threshold (Door). I don’t know everything. Heck, I don’t know a lot of things. In all the time I have spent thinking, I have come to only one single idea that should be universally embraced by everybody: we, individually, have no way of possessing all the knowledge in the world. That may seem obvious, but I’m convinced that this lies at the heart of almost all the world’s problems. Our narcissism leads us to craft our own narratives and focus on that which appeals to and feeds that narrative. If you think I’m talking about religion or social matters, you’re only partially right. But really, this applies to everything. It is EXTREMELY applicable to the business world, too. Because what happens when we fixate our minds on a single idea?

One of the things I hear most often in the Christian community is about “God’s plan”. Stuff like… This went well because it was in God’s plan. I’m not doing this or that because I’m waiting for God to reveal his plan for my life. My parent getting cancer and dying must fit into God’s plan. We act as if God has laid out a single track for our lives that we are supposed to follow. That, somehow, he will divinely inspire us to follow this single track, and we will live happily ever after. The end. But how right is that thinking?

I’ve not let on in any of my posts so far, but I am a big tech fan. I own pretty much every piece of technology you can think of, and I also regularly follow technology blogs and tech YouTube channels. (My favorites include MKBHD, TechnoBuffalo, and The Verge. Check them out!) Just earlier today, Apple sent out invites for their next keynote event where they will most likely unveil the next iPhone. The most daunting prediction is that the next iPhone will do away with the 3.5mm headphone jack, and a lot of people have mixed (read: negative) feelings about that. I’m not here to give my own opinion on that specific rumor (partially because I don’t have one). More so, people have been critical that Apple has not been innovative with their product lines recently, especially when compared to other companies like Samsung. But the underlying idea behind this criticism is that people are expecting the next big thing to be another iPhone. Well… it won’t be. And here’s why.

For those of you who haven’t known me that long you may not know I have not always been as thin as I am now. From January 2015 to May 2016, I lost 100 pounds. The picture below is me before and me after. I can literally do that thing where people put on the pants they were and hold them out to show how obnoxiously big they are on them now. (I should go look for those pants…) If there’s one thing I’m proud of, it’s this. Sure, I have a Master’s degree and a billion (read: 5) certifications, but academic things are much more my strong suit. This was NOT an easy journey for me. Here was my life prior to my weight loss journey: eat snacks, drink a ton of Mountain Dew, eat a ton of pizza and cheeseburgers, play video games, work, sleep, repeat. No working out, and apparently I was allergic to healthy eating. The academic life was very forgiving of my former lifestyle. I didn’t have to eat healthy to read a book. Losing weight was a total lifestyle change for me. (And NO...

For those of you unaware, Frank Ocean dropped his new album, Blonde, independently, free from record labels as he has done in the past. Moreover, Ocean has made an agreement that the music streaming service Apple Music currently has the exclusive rights to stream the new album. As The Verge is now reporting , one of the most major record labels, Universal Media Group (UMG), is now reporting that they will no longer allow exclusive deals with any music streaming services. The Verge ends their article with a very appropriate question since it was one I was asking myself the entire time... Why do recording artists even need a label anymore?

Hey folks. Short post today, but it's something that's had the gears turning in my head all day. I was listening an older episode of The Tim Ferriss Show  podcast with guest Seth Godin. (You can find it linked here or on iTunes.) The whole episode was really great and well worth a listen to. There was one quick metaphor that Seth brought up mid-conversation that really stuck with me. I can't remember it word-for-word, so I've paraphrased it below: As an experiment, anonymously place a $10 bill in your neighbor's mailbox today. Do the same thing tomorrow and the next day and the next day. After a few days, go ring her doorbell and reveal you've been the one leaving the $10 bills in her mailbox each day. Then, offer to sell her another $10 bill for $1. If you had gone up to her to her and tried selling the $10 bill for $1 on the first day, she probably would not have purchased it. But since you have established already that you're crazy enough to ...

Think about your favorite product. You know, the one you use every day. It might be your iPhone. Your car. Your favorite makeup. Your shoes. Now, grab a piece of paper. Spend a few minutes and write down everything you can think that would improve the product. What did you come up with?

Prayer is a weird thing. I don't get it. I won't pretend like I understand it. It's something I will probably always struggle with on some level.  When it comes to learning about and practicing prayer, I have done it all. I've tried prayer journaling in a physical journal, prayer journaling in a virtual journal, praying along with the saints like St. Augustine. You name it, I've tried it. Yet it's something I'll never stop doing.

When I got married back in 2012, I didn't have a whole lot of involvement in the planning with the wedding. My wife, Maggie, took care of everything. It was one of those situations where I literally did nothing but show my happy little self up the day of the ceremony.  It's not that I refused help or was asked to stay out of it. My wife had it under control. More accurately, I wasn't needed. Photography: Free. Flowers: Also free. Church reservation: Yup, free. Super nice five-tier wedding cake: Well... you probably get the point by now. After all was said and done, I think she effectively got half the stuff for the wedding for free. The most amazing part: she never even asked for these free things . These people willingly volunteered their time and resources. Of course, you don't just wake up one morning with a group of people willing to do amazing things for you at the drop of a hat. This took my wife her entire life to build toward, and it's ...

This has definitely been the summer that I got back into reading. Reading is a weird thing for me. I honestly love reading, but I am also a horrible reader. I tend to get distracted very easily, so I’m not ashamed to admit it probably takes twice as long for me to read a book as it does for a normal person. One quick recommendation before I get into the books I enjoyed reading this summer: if you’re into eBooks, consider getting a dedicated e-reader, like a Kindle. In addition to wanting a device I could easily lay out and read under the bright sun, I found myself getting super distracted by the other apps when reading off my iPad. I invested in a Kindle earlier this summer and have not regretted the purchase once. Here are the five books I enjoyed reading most this summer. In case you're interested, I've also placed a link to each book on Amazon. (Weird observation: Apparently I like books with short main titles and obnoxiously long subtitles.)

The next time you go to a church, sit toward the back. Or better yet, sit at the front of a balcony if the church has one. When the sermon begins, watch the people sitting around you. I can pretty well guarantee you’ll see people tuning out in various ways. People browsing Facebook on their smartphones. People napping. Even people just clearly staring off into space. Let’s be brutally honest: the traditional sermon model is broken.

A model passionately talking about her favorite make up in front of a white background. A group of friends laughing while taking a drink out of an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola. A sleek car gliding across a barren highway. If you’re like me, these are probably the sorts of images you think about when you hear the term “marketing”. It’s not an incorrect thought, by any means. These advertisements are a means of getting a product out into the market, so I’d be wrong if I tried telling you this isn’t marketing. But is this really all there is to marketing?

When you think about fear, you mind might jump to the things most people are willing to admit. Spiders, snakes, heights. These are things people are willing to admit easily because they are consistent amongst most people and don’t reveal the real nature of our core being. But what about dying alone? Not being respected by your coworkers? Difficulty losing weight? Being hated by a family member? Not knowing if God exists?

If you haven’t heard about No Man’s Sky, take a break from here and go watch any of the plethora of YouTube videos about it. Reviews of the game have not been kind, and frankly, I can’t blame them. From a gameplay perspective, it truly is a pretty repetitive game. At the time of this writing, I still haven’t finished the game, but I honestly can’t say I’ve found any of the story to be all that exciting either. Inventory management is a pain in the neck, and trying to manage recipes is just downright frustrating. Yet I love this game.

This is my third attempt at starting a blog like this. Each other time I started, I was so concerned about views. How many people read what I wrote? Did anybody express appreciation over it? Did anybody have any other thoughts to share about it? The truth is, I heard nothing. Seemingly nobody cared! Although… I should say that really didn’t give either much to gain traction. Each maybe had three or four posts before my self-consciousness got the better of me and shut them down. So why now? Why try again?