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.

616- Procrastinating Your Day Away
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Maybe we should start our own procrastinators anonymous group. They say the first step to recovery is acknowledging you have a problem so here goes: My name is Darrell Darnell and I’m a procrastinator. Feel free to acknowledge your procrastinating too if it seems fitting. For me, I find myself procrastinating mostly around one of two types of tasks. Those tasks are anything related to invoicing and anything related to writing.

615- Seizing the Incredible
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When we face uncertain times, we are wise when we tap into the experience of others who have walked down the road before. We have to face our fears and move forward. Once we make that decision to move forward, it’s best if we have a friend and confidant to hold us by the hand and carry us through. We don’t need to go through those experiences alone, and we’re much better off when we have that trusted friend to support us along the winding path that gets us to our destination.

614- Professing Your Faith
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In case you’re wondering if there was a time in my life when I was a pastor that I’ve not shared with you before, I have not. In fact, I have never been in full time ministry. With an episode title of Professing Your Faith, you might think that this episode is about how to tell other people about Jesus. Whether you think that episode topic is a good one or not, that’s not where I’m going today. Well, I guess I kind of am, but not really. You’ll see.

613- Monday Mailbag
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Today is Monday Mailbag day and I’m always excited to hear your stories and feedback. We have two contributors today: Jason and Andrew. Thanks to Jason and Andrew for the contributions. I appreciate your willingness to share your lives with us and you’ve made this episode a great one.

612- Letting Go of a Dream
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Back in episode 597 I mentioned that I sold my beloved 1972 MGB GT. For those of you who have followed me on social media for a while, you may have seen me first mention that I sold it back in February of this year, and a few days later I first mentioned that I’d actually purchased its replacement last October, fixed that car up, and had been driving it ever since. So WHY did I sell my dream car just a few years after buying it? Several of you asked me to share that side of the story, and that’s exactly what I’ll do today.

611- Beating Yesterday
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I think we’ve all been in a situation where either we as kids or when we were older with kids of our own ran into someone that we hadn’t seen in a while. Maybe it was a family member at a reunion or perhaps it was an old friend at the grocery store. Either way, that person looks at the kid and is surprised at how much they’ve grown. Even us as parents can have this experience with our own kids when we look at their first day of school picture versus their last day of school picture. We’re so close to them every day, that we’ve not noticed the small incremental changes that have taken place over time.

610- Field of Dreams
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Okay let me be real with you. When I put together an episode, I start with a moment from my life that has impacted me in some way. In the process of impacting me, I can typically look at it and see a clear, big lesson. This story is not like that. It’s obvious that the story I’ve shared with you today has impacted me in a deep, emotional way. But what is the clear, big lesson? I’m not sure. However, I do have a few things that come to mind as I ponder this story. Maybe they are big takeaways, maybe they aren’t. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

609- Campfire Encounters
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For today’s episode, let’s think about the disciples. If you were to gather up 12 of your friends for a meal, you can imagine the different characteristics and personality types that would be represented around that table. Jesus’ disciples were no different. Today we’re going to focus on one of the disciples named Peter. Before Peter encountered Jesus, his profession was a fisherman. He would have been educated at a young age to understand the Jewish laws and customs, but as he grew older he would have to have been selected by a rabbi to continue studying and learning the Jewish law at a scholarly level. If he was rejected by all possible rabbis, he would have had to enter a trade, most likely the family trade. It would have been a high and exclusive honor to have been selected by a rabbi, and the vast majority of people were not. Since Peter is a fisherman, we know that the latter was true of him. In fact, at that time his name wasn’t Peter, it was Simon.

608- Musings of a Wallflower
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I wanted to die. What was I supposed to do? Stand up and wave? Tell her thank you? Smile? I shrunk down in my chair, gave her a fake smile, and stared at my notebook the remainder of class. I still liked her as a teacher and found her class easy, but dreaded my seat and the attention she’d drawn to me. I appreciated the compliment on my work, but the whole situation just made me feel even more insecure. But I knew she meant well, so I didn’t have any hard feelings toward her.

607- Oh the Places You Will Go
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On business trips, business comes first. Whether I’m traveling on my dime or someone else’s, a business trip is for business purposes. Take care of business. But I also learned that it’s okay to get out of the hotel and enjoy the sights of a city while you’re there. I should have realized this by the behavior and encounters I’d had with my boss, but it took this encounter with Jim to help me fully realize it.