A lot has been written about “optimizing our performance”. Training, skill-building, self-care, maximizing and leveraging our strengths, and several other modern buzzwords all grace the pages of written material and occupy airtime on podcasts and videos.

All good advice. But the one thing that stands out and encompasses all else is input. What are we not only allowing but deliberately putting into our body, mind, heart, and spirit? And once within, what is it doing to our ability to function well?

An experience I had a couple days ago reminded me of this: I had just loaded the dishwasher, opened the doors to under our kitchen sink, and reached for the dog food. Yep. Dog food. The container we keep there to have it handy lies next to the container of dish-soap pods. Three times a day I reach in to scoop out breakfast, lunch, and dinner for our dear furry family member. Contrast this with once every two days or more to extract a dish-soap pod to place into its section in a fully loaded dishwasher. With my mind on autopilot, the stronger, more ingrained, habit won out, and I filled up a scoop of dog food.

Of course, our dog was happy about that! Although he probably wondered why it was on its way to the soap-section of the dishwasher. No matter, he’d take it anywhere he could get it! Thankfully he never got it, because I caught myself in time, put it back, and replaced it with the dish-soap pod. Proper input in the proper place. Works best every time.

Imagine if the “kibbles” had made it into the dishwasher and I’d closed the lid and door and started to run it. The dishwasher, not the dog, would chew it up, and pulverized bits of dog food would ingrain themselves into everything inside—dirtying, not cleaning, every dish, every structural part, and every piece of machinery within. Nothing would be left untouched. If it didn’t destroy the dishwasher beyond repair, it could cause it to stop working until the culprit (dog food) was thoroughly expunged.

Now imagine ourselves and own lives. Each of us are designed to run on high-quality, appropriate, input. Our bodies need nutritious food without harmful ingredients for good cell growth, brain function, and fighting off destructive elements. Sometimes people treat their vehicles better than their own bodies, so their cars run well, but they “sputter”, get sluggish, and incur all kinds of health problems that keep in the “body shop”, aka the hospital.

Likewise, our minds need the right input to produce the best output. If we fill our minds with vacuous, “empty calorie”, junk food, we’ll remain shallow and lose our ability to reason well, think deeply, analyze accurately, and learn. Neuroscience has proven in recent years the “neuroplasticity” of our brains— i.e., that we’re all able to continue learning, growing, developing, and changing the way we think. In other words, we’re not “stuck”, and better yet, we don’t have to decline. For any of us at any age, this means don’t vegetate in what we read, watch, and do with our time, and mentally deteriorate as a result. Instead, keep challenging and building our mental capacity and content in ways that benefit ourselves and others, according to how we’re designed. Learn a new language, stretch and expand our tech skills, read deeper literature and material on beneficial areas of interest, take a course, etc. We need to exercise our brains in order to develop our thinking “muscles” and stay cognitively sharp.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Rom. 12:2

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” Prov. 4:7

Closely related, what kind of stuff are we letting affect our hearts? Negative media with plenty of contentious content? Binge-watching junk, or worse, stuff with hidden agendas? Listening to unedifying music with lyrics that influence us in harmful ways? Before watching, listening, or reading, ask yourself, “How is this making me feel?” I’m not saying that our goal is to always feel happy. But we do need to make sure we’re not taking in “vibes” that make us angry, jealous, hateful, fearful, depressed, anxious, hopeless, and other negative emotions. It doesn’t take a PhD in Psychology or Psychiatry to guess what kind of things mass murderers were watching before they went out and started shooting. It’s also why people have become a lot more divisive and uncivil toward each other, especially right before an election!

Don’t take in garbage or dwell on bad news, unless you want to be singing the blues! Conversely, we can intentionally fill our hearts and thoughts with things that lead to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

This is why the Bible tells us to “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Prov. 4:23

And “Whatever is true…noble…right…pure…lovely…admirable…excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” Phil. 4:8 That’s how we not only guard our hearts but fill them with emotionally life-giving feelings.

Finally, and as a composite of other areas of our lives, both leading to and resulting from them, there’s the spiritual aspect of our being. What we do to our bodies, minds, and emotions, all either draws us nearer to the Lord and strengthens our spirits or drags us away from Him and weakens us spiritually. Our spirits either grow, expand, and flourish, bringing health and optimum functioning to our whole lives, or they shrivel and shrink, causing us to fail in other ways as well. That’s because even though I described everything separately, we can’t separate them within us, because we can’t separate ourselves from ourselves. If someone has a noticeable problem, it may manifest more in one area, but solving it involves addressing everything—the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. At the same time, no one can truly live or function without the Spirit giving life to our spirits.

As Jesus declared, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Jn. 6:63

So, how to get the best input?  “…set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Col. 3:1-3

We also need to examine our sources— just like good fruit doesn’t come from thornbushes, good input doesn’t come from certain media outlets, sellers, or people. For example, don’t expect to find a book on how to keep the Ten Commandments at an “Adult” Bookstore (strange term). Likewise, watch out who we hang out with—how are they influencing us? “Do not be so deceived and misled! Evil companionships (communion, associations) corrupt and deprave good manners and morals and character.” 1 Cor. 15:33 (AMPC)

Put in whatever makes us work best. This goes deeper than just “Garbage in garbage out” That’s part of it. But garbage in also produces malfunction and destruction, regardless of whatever comes out. My dog would’ve loved for dog food to spray out of the dishwasher—he’ll take it any way he can get it! But it wasn’t good for the dishwasher.

That’s where the analogy breaks down, though, since what’s bad for one human is generally bad for all of us— mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and usually physically.

Thankfully, unlike a dishwasher, we have a choice and hopefully discernment about what we take in. How are you functioning these days? Examine your input if anything needs fixing.