Welcome to this month's edition of the Nancy Ray Book Club, where I choose 12 books to read in a year, and I invite you to join me in reading them, and then I share my takeaways in the book of the month every month. This month I am thrilled to be talking about Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.  He argues that social media is crazy, it's out of control, it's addictive, it's unhealthy, and yet it's a very real part of our lives. We have got to learn how to live with it and not just live with it, but to live well with it, which in a big part means limiting it.  Digital Minimalism is an answer to this daily, sometimes hourly, struggle that we all face and feel. And honestly, I'm really excited about this episode, and to dive in to my three big takeaways from Digital Minimalism.  For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/88.   Resources from this episode: Nancy Ray Book Club Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport Episode 012 - 3 Habits to Put Social Media in its Place Episode 083 - Book | Rhythms of Renewal Episode 045 - How to Journal Episode 079 - Why I Have a Business Journal Episode 042 - Book | Switch on Your Brain Hands Free Mama, by Rachel Macy Stafford The Tech-Wise Family, by Andy Crouch The Social Dilemma (film) Freedom Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

Work and Play with Nancy Ray

088 - Book | Digital Minimalism

I've decided to take the first month of this year and focus on relationships. Just focus on my relationships: my relationship with the Lord, my relationship with my husband, my kids, my friends. Relationships are gold in life. They're so valuable. And one of the best resources that I found on relationships last year was a talk given by Brené Brown. It lasts I think 24 minutes-ish. And I'm just going to go ahead and tell you now that her talk is far superior to this podcast episode. And I hope by you listening to this and catching some of the main points of her talk is that you'll take the time and go listen to it from start to finish and take notes. Her talk is called the Anatomy of Trust, and it's all about how to be a trustworthy person. It breaks down—she's a researcher—she breaks down trust and what that looks like. It's full of beautiful illustrations that are so powerful. And I promise it's worth your time. Today I'm going to be sharing with you seven ways that you can build trust with those around you and how I'm going to be working on that in my own life. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/97.   Resources from this episode: Anatomy of Trust video by Brené Brown Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown   Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

097 - Being a Trustworthy Person

It's hard to know exactly how to approach 2021. 2020 is going to be a year we remember and refer to for the rest of our lives. I mean, even our grandkids and history books, they're going to analyze and discuss how we handled 2020, and this pandemic, and the racial tension and the election, and everything crazy that has happened. And I'm going to be honest, I have been tempted to, on January 1st, 2021 say, "Check, done. 2020 is behind me. It's over, it's time to move on to a newer and brighter year and future." But more recently, I've kind of caught myself because I don't know that that's actually the wisest way to approach looking into the future. Today, I'm going to talk about how we don't actually know what 2021 is going to hold, but how we can approach it with wisdom. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/96.   Resources from this episode: Join the 2021 Contentment Challenge (starts Jan. 10!) Episode 003 - The Contentment Challenge Episode 002 - Rule of Life From Good to Great, by Jim Collins Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson My earpods

096 - A Wise Approach to 2021

Sometimes when I'm going about my life, I want to pray, and I just don't have the words to say. Does that ever happen to you? Like, you know it's a really important day, or you know that you want to pray for your children, but you kind of run out of what to say. Or you just can't put words to how you're feeling. Or you want to connect with God personally, but life is busy and you don't know what to say. You don't know what to say or how to pray. Today, I'm going to share three extremely simple prayers that I pray. You have my full permission to take them with you and use them for the rest of your life, and I hope that they bless you. For the full show notes, visit nancyray.com/podcast/95.   If you're interested in joining me for the 2021 Contentment Challenge, learn more & sign up here: nancyray.com/contentmentchallenge.

095 - 3 Prayers to Take With You

Welcome back to my conversation with my dear friend, Reagan. Since we are so busy in the season of Christmas, I decided to split our chat into two different episodes so it'd be a little bit easier to digest in the midst of the holiday season. If you're tuning in now and you missed last week's episode, head back to Episode 093 so you can get the full context of what Reagan and I are talking about. Because she and her husband took the Contentment Challenge, which is something I created many years ago, to the next level and they decided to give up shopping for an entire year in pursuit of a more content and debt-free life. It's just an amazing story. I won't leave you hanging any longer. Let's get back to my conversation with Reagan.   Resources from this episode: Episode 093 - A Year of Contentment with Reagan Reynolds, Part 1 Join the Contentment Challenge Episode 033 - The Contentment Challenge Women of the Word, by Jen Wilkin None Like Him, by Jen Wilkin Brim pour-over coffee pot Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

094 - A Year of Contentment with Reagan Reynolds, Part 2

My friend Reagan has a heart of gold—you'll see in our conversation, just how amazing she is. She lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina, not far from me, with her husband of 10 years and two young boys. And the whole reason I interviewed her is because she took the Contentment Challenge to another level. She and her husband, Jeremy gave up shopping—get this—for the entire year of 2020 to pursue a greater life of contentment and eliminate debt. I think their story and how it all turned out is going to inspire you like crazy. Her days are spent navigating busy mom life and a modest career at an innovative tech company. She has devoted her life to being an earnest disciple of Jesus Christ. In her words, “if my life is solely an experience of God's endless love and mercy upon my undeserving soul, that will be enough to call this run at life a success.” Today, you're going to hear all about their year of contentment. Now, if you're new to this whole Contentment Challenge thing, I want to leave you two quick resources so you can find out more about it: First, Episode 003 of this podcast—a very, very old episode. It dives deep into my first Contentment Challenge, how it was born, what it is and how you can do it too. Second, if you go to here, you can sign up and download a free guide to the Contentment Challenge and get it instantaneously. So I hope that those two resources shed a little bit more light on where the Contentment Challenge came from, what it is. Finally, I just want to invite you, come do the Contentment Challenge with me, pray about it. As we talk about in this episode, I'm going to be doing the Contentment Challenge January through March. Like, I do pretty much every year because it has been that life-changing for me. I just want to invite you to do it with me, to pray about doing it and seeing what God does in your heart, in your life. Listen, we are in a fight for our contentment. I feel it every day. I mean, whenever I walk through Target or scroll through social media, I feel a battle for my own contentment. More than ever, I believe we need to be crazy aware of the battle we are in. My prayer, and I know Reagan's prayer, is that this episode inspires you to make whatever changes you need to make to live the content life that you were meant to live.   Resources from this episode: The Contentment Challenge Episode 033 - The Contentment Challenge Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

093 - A Year of Contentment with Reagan Reynolds, Part 1

Today, I'm going to set a record for my shortest podcast of all time and I'm totally okay with that. I hope this encouragement is just what you need today.  Before I jump in, I wanted to remind you about two things.  Number one, the Nancy Ray Book Club 2021 is live! You can click here t0 see all of the books that I am going to be reading this year, and I am inviting you to come along and read them with me. I do a podcast episode about each book that I read every month, and I'm really excited about the lineup for next year. I think it's going to be really good.  The second thing I wanted to let you know is my Contentment Challenge is starting in January. You can find out all of the details by going here. This I think is going to be my sixth or seventh time doing the Contentment Challenge. I hope that it's an encouragement to you. If you decide to do it with me, a lot of people have done it several times over, and it's just a time to give up shopping and to give up a focus of all material things so that we can recenter our hearts on the thing that is most important, which is the Lord, the relationships in our life, and cultivating a grateful heart and an attitude of contentment with all that we have. Today, I am simply going to read to you an email that I send to everybody in my email family every single December. It's the same email every year. I've been doing this for probably five years and every time I send this email, I get emails back with “thank you”s and tears and “I needed this.” So, I've kind of decided to make it a tradition here on the podcast just to read it to you, to speak it over you at the end of this year, as you prepare for the holidays as you close up the year. And just so you know, you can always join my email list if you want to be added for weekly inspiration, podcast episode reminders, and practical tips. So today this is for you, and I think these words are particularly needed this year. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/92.   Resources from this episode: Sign up for my Emails Nancy Ray Book Club The Contentment Challenge Bread & Wine, by Shauna Niequist My joggers Target bra Deebot Savor, by Shauna Niequist Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

092 - Finish Strong

Today, it is a privilege to share with you one of my favorite books of all time. It's called the Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I was introduced to this book in my 12th grade Bible class believe it or not, in high school, and it opened my eyes to the depths of Christianity, friend. And I don't know about you. I'm tired of surface, trite, make-it-what-you-want-it Christianity. I want the real God of the universe. I want what he has to say, even if it's hard to hear it. This book showed me the practices that we can do as believers to welcome Jesus into our very real lives and to hear his very real voice a little bit clearer. I'll be honest. These disciplines, they aren't easy. They are not for the faint of heart, but they are good. And they have changed me. Also a little PSA on the side. This is the 11th of 12 books we are reading this year in the Nancy Ray Book Club. I'll do a podcast about the 12th book, Parenting With Love And Logic, in January, as we're still all in the middle of finishing reading that book. But I did want to let you know the new 2021 book club list is live! You can see all of the books that I've chosen to read in 2021 by heading here. I'm really excited about the lineup. You're always welcome to join in for as few or as many books as you want. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/91.   Resources from this episode: Nancy Ray Book Club The Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

091 - Book | The Celebration of Discipline

Today, I'm going to be sharing all of our favorite Christmas traditions. And sharing this is really just to encourage you to make time for the most important things, and hopefully just to invite you into our family for a little bit in sharing how Will and I have brought our different sets of our own family's traditions and made them our own. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/90.   Resources from this episode: All Nancy Ray Courses (Foundations are on sale!) Sign up for my Emails The Giving Manger Minted (where I get my Christmas cards!) The Song of the Stars, by Sally Lloyd-Jones The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

090 - Our Favorite Christmas Traditions

If you have followed me for any amount of time, you know that I've always been big on having a morning routine and a quiet time and journaling.  To me, these have always been super important in my life: they ground me and anchor me.  So when I became a mom, during that newborn phase of life, it was very hard to determine which way was up or down. And the Lord taught me this simple practice. It doesn't take a lot of time, but still to this day, it speaks straight to my heart and it grounds me. It's simply focusing on one word throughout your whole day.  For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/89.   Resources from this episode: All Nancy Ray Courses (Foundations will be on sale!) Sign up for my Emails The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence Tweezerman Pointy Tweezers Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

089 - One Word A Day

Happy Election Day! Now, listen, I know tensions are running high. I know convictions and beliefs that we hold have been tried and tested in this year. And especially this election season, it's been heavy. It's been divisive and it's been really hard. I don't know about you, but I have been doing a deeper dive behind the scenes, listening to podcasts, reading books, having conversations with my close friends and family, to really answer the question: What are my own beliefs about all of this? What do I believe to be true? What do I believe is the best way forward?  In today's episode, I want to remind all of us of three things the Lord calls us to, in any and every season of our lives (three things that, if I'm honest, I feel like they've been pushed to the side). Three things that I believe were part of the founding of this country and three things that we absolutely must maintain if we are to move forward.  For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/87.   Resources from this episode: Framed for Posterity, by Ralph Ketcham  A quality American flag  Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

087 - Encouragement on Election Day

Okay, have you ever sat down and thought about everything you do in a week, all the work, all the things you're responsible for all the fun you want to have, all the exercise you need, all the sleep you need, and thoughtfully written out how you would like to live your ideal week? If you never have, I'm so excited for you to try this. And if you have done this before, I have found one of the greatest benefits of this exercise is doing it often, because guess what? Life changes. This week, we're going to be talking about how to get the most out of your week with the ideal week exercise. And you can do your very own ideal week exercise by downloading a PDF that I've made just for you at nancyray.com/idealweek. When you download and print the PDF, you'll be able to write in your own week and hours and things you do, and I promise you're going to find hours in your days and in your weeks. I do every time. Grab yours below. Free Ideal Week Download: nancyray.com/idealweek For the full show notes, visit nancyray.com/podcast/86.   Resources from this episode: Free Download: Plan Your Ideal Week What’s Best Next, by Matt Perman QALO Rings Episode 009 - The Secret to Success in Business Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

086 - Find More Hours In Your Week

Writing a five year business plan can feel daunting and overwhelming, especially if you don't even know where you want to be in five years, which is probably most of us.  Today, I'm going to break it down. I'm going to break it down for you in a way that is actually attainable. You'll be able to wrap your mind around it. And quite frankly, for me, it's really exciting to have that kind of a vision.  Let's take a few minutes to dream about life and work and lay out a game plan for the next five years.  For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/85.   Resources from this episode: Free Guide: Clear Your Phone Photos! Traction, by Gino Wickman Download the VTO pdf Episode 026 - My Favorite Business Book of All Time Rocket Fuel, by Gino Wickman Vitamix Blender Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

085 - How to Write a 5 Year Business Plan

This episode is the gentle reminder that Halloween is in two weeks, Thanksgiving is coming, and Christmas is on its way. The shopping, the planning, the decorating, the end of year celebrations, and parties, and whirlwinds, all of it is right around the corner.  Often times, this is the time of year where we go a little off the rails with our eating, our spending, with our planning. We just do too much of all of it.  So, my encouragement to you today is that if you want to finish this year strong, you have to start now.  For the full show notes, visit nancyray.com/podcast/84.   Resources from this episode: Free Guide: Clear My Photos! Episode 033 - Our Favorite Thanksgiving Tradition Episode 075 - A Vision For This Season Anthro Scrunchies   Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

084 - Start Now to Finish Strong

Today's book is Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons. And it's one of those books I just kept hearing about. It kept popping up on my social media feed or in a podcast or I saw a friend reading it. And after looking into what it was all about, I knew I wanted to get my hands on it. In it, Rebecca outlines four rhythms for a life of peace and purpose. I couldn't help but think back to my episode just a couple episodes ago on self-care, because I feel like this book is a deeper dive and how we can live out these rhythms and have a healthy, mature life as a believer. All in all, I love the book. I feel like Rebecca is somewhat of a soul sister and I can't wait for you to hear my top takeaways. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/83.   Resources from this episode: Free Guide: Clear My Photos! Nancy Ray Book Club Rhythms of Renewal, by Rebekah Lyons Deuter Kid Comfort Backpack Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

083 - Book | Rhythms of Renewal

Work and play with Nancy Ray is a weekly podcast all about learning to balance the two most competing areas of our lives: work and play. She’ll dive into topics like productivity, work life balance, leading a team, time management, contentment, play, sabbath, marriage, parenting, and rest, always pointing back to scripture, the ultimate guide for a life of faith. This is a podcast all about learning to work and play well, which ultimately leads to a healthy soul and a fulfilling life.

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088 - Book | Digital Minimalism

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