Canceling MySpace

I just canceled my MySpace account. Did you feel the earth tremble?

No, I didn’t either.

I hadn’t logged in for at least a year. Every so often I’d get an email telling me some doorknob from a “cutting-edge” hip-hop/emo/jazz/metal band wanted to be my friend. Other than that, it was off my radar. I initially created a Myspace back when it was THE thing for musicians and bands. But since then, I’ve shifted my focus and Myspace tanked - the perfect combination to warrant an exit.

There are a couple good principles here:

1. What’s tanked in your worship ministry that needs to be cut loose?
The choir? Certain songs? Someone’s attitude? Some conference you go to year after year?  Every earthly thing will deliver ‘diminishing returns’ eventually. Who’da thought we could ever get sick of Shout to the Lord when it first came out? The diehard proponents of tanking things are emotionally invested, so that makes change tough. But at some point, everything needs to be tweaked, overhauled or dumped.

2. Has your focus shifted right, but your practice still to the left?
To give you an example from my own life: at one point, I tried to focus on pursuing professional songwriting, blogging/writing, teaching and developing seminars/workshops, dabbling in some graphic design, teaching private guitar lessons and being a gigging musician. Oh, and a worship pastor and husband/father.

Outside of my family and ministry job, I decided to shift my focus to only blogging/writing and seminar/workshops. It’s been tough to say ‘no’ to the things I like to do. And when I have a “moment of weak-yes” to the other stuff, I get twitchy in the middle of those projects as I realize how much time I’m robbing from my primary objectives.

So much of being able focus and find success isn’t in working harder. It’s in ruthless eliminating the bottom two-thirds of our “What’s Important” list. Just make sure the right stuff lands in the top third.

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