In the Loop with Andy Andrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on balancing between our work lives and family lives.

Sometimes to get a balance in your life, you have to fall out of balance a little bit.

• You’re going to have to go over to the other side to get it balanced.
• Don’t be afraid to move swiftly and make things happen quickly.
• I see just as many families knocked out of balance by little league, basketball, and soccer as I do from Dad working.
• Answer the question, “What do we want to happen?” Define what you’re after. What do we want it to look like?

When Austin was playing baseball, it was hard for all four of us to get together.

• A lot of people would say, “Well, are we not going to let them play this? All their friends are playing. Everybody is playing.”
• Let me remind you what your momma used to say. “You aren’t everybody.”
• The end result of what everybody is doing can be a pretty average result.
• If you think that allowing one child to play one sport is worth scattering your family to the edges of the earth for the majority of the year, you’re not doing anybody a favor.

When you figure out what you want to be, you can get clear on your priorities.

• My family knows they are my priority.
• Sometimes, for a week or so, the priority is to lock myself in a closet and write, but that is only a means to an end and not the end.
• In almost every area of life, it’s the communication that is the key.
• You can intentionally engage your time and energy to create who you are to your family and create what they remember.
• Because you can create who you are, and because you can create how they remember, you are creating who they will become.

Tune in to hear examples of how we set expectations during family time and how you can clearly communicate when exceptions must be made.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on beating depression and making the choice to be happy instead.

I think a lot of people have been depressed, and a lot of time for good reason.

• Even though something is very real, how we deal with it beyond medication is also very effective and real.
• If you understand that you can make choices that will lead you down a path of disaster, you can also understand that choices can lead you to great places.
• Choices come from your thinking, and you have been created with a will that is stronger than your emotions.

How you act has great bearing on how you feel.

• If you don’t believe it, go sit in a chair by yourself, stare at a wall, let your back slump, take shallow breaths for an hour, and see how you feel.
• There is one thing that I want to make sure my boys are good at before they leave home, and that is for them to understand they can choose how to act—despite how they feel.

Tune in to hear specific ways you can start making yourself feel better from the moment you wake up in the morning.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on why we push people to succeed when failing is what leads to learning.

Success is your destination, but we should also create value from every part of the journey.

• My smart-aleck answer is that you push people to succeed because you don’t want to push them to fail.
• What we want to do is reach a destination defined by a successful conclusion to something.

However, there is value in getting lost along the way.

• There is no weaker leader than someone who has only succeeded in certain things and has gotten to where they are relatively easily.
• A strong version of leadership enables a person to say, “I know how you feel because this happened to me, and this is what came about because of that.”
• The ultimate goal isn’t to focus on the failure but to make sense of it and gain proper perspective.

Most people travel through their lives along the path of least resistance.

• There is a push for success that can make people fearful of any kind of failure.
• A balanced approach is to let people know that anything worth doing is worth struggling to get better at.
• In our culture, to struggle at something reveals weakness when it should be seen as honorable.

Tune in to learn the difference between how our culture and some Asian cultures approach struggle while learning in the classroom, and how struggle can really open up more paths in life.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• E-Mail: [email protected]
• com/AndyAndrews
• Tcom/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on how I come to a decision when there are many different determining factors to consider.

There are three questions that I ask to determine major decisions.

• Is this something that will be good for God?
• It cannot be in God’s will for me to do if it’s not good for God.
• Will this help people who are hurting?
• My mission in life is to help people live the lives that they would if they only knew how to do so. People who are not living the life they would like to are hurting, frustrated and stressed.
• Will my take on it be unique enough to make a difference for people?

Smart people can’t help but play a little chess when they are having a conversation or being asked for advice.

• Most times when I’m seeking wisdom from a person, I don’t ask the question straight out. I ask around it.
• I want to find out what they think about certain areas and give stories of their experience in ways they’ve used to make decisions like this.
• Your bottom line is you are seeking wisdom.
• Ultimately when you’re talking with other people, reading, or praying—you are seeking wisdom. And seeking wisdom is work.

In the full episode you’ll hear the very first teaser for Andy’s new book, the “most direct” book he says he’s ever written!

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• com/AndyAndrews
• com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on allowance, tithes, and savings.

You should become a person who studies parenting whether you have kids or not because it has to do with employee/employer relations, sales, and almost every form of society.

• Parenting is the fulcrum that society tilts upon.
• If we want our children to achieve great things as an adult, we must be responsible, calm, and able to provide an understanding of how things work.

We don’t give the boys money for anything.

• They do chores and their reward is they get to live in our house. That is being part of the family.
• We sometimes give them gifts, but if something is not taken care of, it’s not just about the money, it’s about what the money represents.

God commands us to give.

• If we look at money as a blessing, giving the first of it is saying we trust there will be enough.
• I have lived very close to the bone a number of years and I must say that when Polly and I started tithing, it was really at the insistence of Polly.
• As I began to learn how to tithe properly, I realized we were never without.

Listen to the entire episode to hear about one of the proudest moments of Andy’s life.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on how to create a life by design based on the talents and gifts you’re given.

This question has an obvious answer that I overlooked for a number of years.

• Talents and skills are two different things. Josh Groban’s vocal gifts are a God-given talent. My ability to juggle is a skill I developed.
• It’s important to know the difference. And before you polish your talents or hone your skills…

FIRST look at where you want to go, THEN work with the talents and skills that will get you there.

• There’s not a single pathway you can take that will work like you want it to if you don’t know where you want to go in the first place!
• Even when you know where you want to go, the pathway will never take you to that destination in a straight line.
• We’re most effective when we’re flexible. Life’s pathways shift; you need to build muscle in different areas to prepare for those shifts.
• Then work with some faith and your end result in mind; once you know where you’re going, get on it—time’s a-wastin’!

Tune in to learn the insider details on how Andy’s longtime friend Dave Ramsey prepared his pathway to becoming the most trusted—and successful—voice on money in America.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on finding the right fit when choosing a school for your kids.

The 7th and 8th grade years are critical

• It’s when kids are really deciding what they believe and who they think is cool.
• There is not a more critical time to create a great relationship with your child.
• We homeschooled Austin in the 7th and 8th grade, and some people might say that homeschooling is not preparing someone for the real world.
• If you met Austin now, you might think that he seems more mature than some of his peers.

The social aspects of high school seem to be incredibly important to parents who look back on high school as being the best time of their lives.

• If everything was downhill from high school, you’re probably dying for your kid to go to every party and social event.
• However, you’re in high school a very short time; the rest of your life should be more important and get better and better.
• How do you want your kids socialized? Do you want them to adopt different standards?
• We were able to take Austin places and have him meet people and see how life goes on—he was socialized with adults.
• I will admit that at 16 years of age, he seems to be more comfortable in the company of adults.

Tune in to hear how Andy believes trust issues with teens are best eliminated, and more on how educational environments impact different kids in different ways, at different ages.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, we’re switching things up and discussing a few of the “Andy Hacks” I use to save time and money.

Tune in this week to hear about…

• The correct way to peel a banana.
• The story of cutting my own hair for the first time—and how and why I continue to do it for myself, the boys, and others.
• How Austin and Adam figured out how to peel pears with a power drill.
• How I created a pair of reading glasses when each eye has a different prescription.

We would love to hear some of your life hacks! Send them in an email to [email protected].

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question about dating and when it’s time to give your children “the talk.”

This week’s question is from a parent with two boys, so let me start by saying…

• I don’t think there’s anything more important in relationship-building than to tell those two boys how brothers act.
• Tell them your house is a laboratory they can use to become the kind of adults who can deal with all kinds of people after navigating through sibling disagreements.

There’s going to be plenty of time for boys to be wild-eyed about girls.

• 5th grade is not the time to press the dating issue.
• If your child has a friend of the opposite sex, don’t take them somewhere and tell them they are on a date.
• In my opinion, you are forcing something into this child’s head before it’s time.

You always want to have an open dialogue with your kids.

• I urge you to watch them closely, and watch the parents of your kids’ friends closely.
• Ask questions.
• Boys are much more comfortable talking while they’re doing something.
• If you can go throw the ball around or walk around the neighborhood—boys talk about these things much easier side to side than face to face.
• These activities give you a lot of time to talk, and you’ll be able to discern when the time is right to have “the talk.” The time is earlier rather than later.

Tune in to hear how Andy approached “the talk” with Austin, and how you can start influencing your kids’ decisions on finding the right partner for the future.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

On this week's episode, I answer a listener question on how to identify a principle and overcome the doubt of making it work.

A principle is something that works every time.

• It’s the foundational truth.
• It’s not just true. It is the truth.
• Principles work whether you know of them or not.
• You don’t have to understand or even agree with it, but ignorance of principle is no protection from the consequences of violating that principle.

If you took a blind person who didn’t have any idea what an elephant was and you said, “Here’s an elephant. Make your determinations…”

• Well, if they are standing in the front and the person touched the trunk, they would say an elephant is kind of like a snake.
• If they grabbed onto a leg, they might say it’s like a tree trunk.
• Everything they said is true—it just wouldn’t be the truth.
• The more wisdom you gain about principles and the more you align with them in your life, the easier your life will become and the easier it will be to have a level of belief about where you’re going and what you want to do.

Tune in this week to hear an example we can all relate to about why our will is stronger than our emotional state.

Questions for Andy

Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show!

• Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
• Twitter.com/AndyAndrews