Stuff I Learned Yesterday
About Stuff I Learned Yesterday
Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a podcast that aims to encourage, inspire, challenge, motivate, and improve the lives of those who listen to it. Stuff I Learned Yesterday is released each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each episode ranges from 5-15 minutes long and contain short stories based on real events and lessons learned by the hosts. Friday episodes are called the Friday Forum and are filled with inspirational and motivational thoughts submitted by Stuff I Learned Yesterday listeners. Submit your story for a Friday Forum episode by calling 304-837-2278, visiting our feedback page, or click on the Send a Voice Message button on the left hand side of this page.
460- What Really Matters a Year Later
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If you’re struggling with perspective today I get it! If you’re too close to the situation at hand it’s hard to see other things that are happening and other people that are influencing you—or that you may be influencing.Read more…
459- Constructive Criticism
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Criticism can be an attack that tears you down or a method that builds you up. So much depends on how you take it and how you give it. You may remember, from one of my prior SILY episodes, I am someone who thrives on clear expectations and goals. But I am also not great at making my own. So I welcome others setting expectations and goals. Based on that, you would think that I would thrive with constructive criticism. Well not really. Read more…
458- Putting I Before Team
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Long time listeners to this podcast know that I am not athletically inclined at all. As a youngster playing t-ball I was sent to the outfield where I’d have the smallest chance of messing things up, as an 8th grader I made the football team but was deep on the roster, as a 9th and 10 grader I never made the varsity basketball team and only made it into the junior varsity teams if the game was a blowout and there was less than 1 minute remaining.
I’d like to tell you that it didn’t bother me but that would be a lie. Both my brother and step-brother were very athletic so it bothered me a lot. On top of that, I saw the way athletes were treated by everyone at school, and I was jealous. I was a geek before being a geek was cool. I was the guy that girls called sweet and told to never change. It stunk. Read More…
457- Friday Flashback: Calculating New Route
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Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a Friday Flashback. Friday Flashback episodes feature some of the most popular episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Today we take a trip back to an episode that we ran last December after Kari and I attended a MUSE concert in Dallas. It’s an episode about taking time to evaluate the course you’re on, remember where you started, remember where you’re headed, and make sure you’re still on the right path to reach your desired destination. It’s Stuff I Learned Yesterday Episode 374- Calculating New Route. Read More…
456- I Don’t Care What People Think
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In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share my advice about being yourself no matter what people think. Sometimes it can be difficult to turn off the feeling of being judged all the time. Whether you have a scrutinizing mother-in-law or a micro-managing boss, there are plenty of people in our lives who we feel are watching our every move. I can’t tell you how many times my wife has told me a story about some drama that happened at work in which she used the phrase, “And it made me look bad when I didn’t agree.” Now, it would be easy for me to say to her, “No one is judging you for going against the grain,” or “Who cares what people think anyway?” but it’s not that simple. Because the fact is it’s hard to rise above the opinions or indifference of others. Read more…
455- View From Down Here
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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Emilee O’Leary, I am a big fan of the NWSL, or the National Women’s Soccer League, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson I learned after taking a picture of a dandelion field. Read more…
454- Saying Thanks to the Forgotten
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One of the things I enjoy most about our church is something we call church without walls. Church without walls is a day where we meet at the church for a brief time on Sunday morning and then head out into the community to help people. We’ve done things like go to 3 different laundromats around town, hand out laundry supplies, and pay for the laundry for everyone for a few hours. We also go to some of the retirement homes around town and hand out flowers and chat with the residents, do yard work and other outdoor maintenance for a neighbor currently receiving cancer treatments, and doing interior repairs and painting for an elderly woman. Read More…
453- When Your World Turns Upside Down
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We’ve never been promised that life will be easy in this world. There will be times when your world turns upside down. Either for you or a loved one. It can be a divorce, a serious illness, a terrible accident, a death. When this happens, and it will, each of us needs to make a personal choice – will I let this defeat me or will I fight it, will I survive it, will I find a new path, will I let others help me, will I learn how to live with these new circumstances. Read more…
452- Friday Feedback
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Today I’m starting a new episode format called Friday Feedback. I don’t know how often we’ll do these, but after the feedback we’ve received this week, I’m hoping we’ll get to do this more often. So what is the Friday Feedback? We often as for you to participate in Stuff I Learned Yesterday by sending in a contribution to the Friday Forum. We love your Friday Forum submissions and I highly encourage you to share your stories. However, I think it’s also important to give you the opportunity to simply share ways that Stuff I Learned Yesterday is impacting your life. So the Friday Feedback is an episode dedicated to sharing the feedback that we’ve received from you about recent episodes. We’ll also include sharing recent iTunes reviews in these episodes. Read More…
451- Leaping Into the Unknown
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I have been involved with church music practically from birth. My dad was a song leader in his church, so I grew up listening to his music and going with him to his church practices. It’s no surprise that because of this influence, I too became involved in music from an early age.
I started piano lesson on November 14th, 1988. Don’t ask me why I remember the date so clearly, but I celebrate it every year with a shout-out to my first piano teacher on Facebook. I sang in the children’s choir all through grade school, which included changing schools in 7th grade when my school closed. I played handbells for a few occasions. In high school, I joined the adult choir and started helping out the choir director when I was off school. We formed a very close friendship, one that was maintained for many years after she left the position. I started as a song leader with the children’s choir and eventually became a full-fledged leader with the adult choir. I started organ lessons and continued them through high school and college with a few teachers. Read More…