Do or Do not

WWW.TheDavidAlliance.com

8-7-19 Wednesday

 

Hey you… you know what… sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. If you don’t do it, people are gonna start to talk. They will start to talk about you not doing what you should have been doing all along. they will call you a no good no doer who don’t do it. 

 

 

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Lets jump start today with a few verses

 

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

 

*sometimes we give up before we even start. 

 

James 4:17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

 

James is talking about procrastination… we know what to do, but we don’t do it… 

 

Prov. 10:14 Lazy hands make for poverty,

    but diligent hands bring wealth.

 

Lets talk about procrastination… maybe we should talk about it tomorrow… 

 

I don’t for a second think we are born procrastinators. Ever see little kids playing? They do not hesitate for a second… run after this, after that, speak their mind… and ask a whole lot of questions.

 

So what happens to us to make us procrastinators?

I believe the number one thing is that we never learn how to get started…- the proverbial DUH! 

 

Let me tell you a story.

When I was studying for my Masters in the last semester I had to write a 175 page dissertation. It seemed daunting, overwhelming and I was panicking when I first heard about it in my first year of the program… and it was still 2.5 years away. But the head of the program Dr. Joe said if we had a topic we could run it by him ahead of their and get a jump on this process. So I set up an appointment with him. 

He ok’d my topic and then asked me a question that would seriously change my life. He said How are you going to write this paper? I had not idea, I began to talk and just come up with ideas off the top of my head. He stopped me and said that won’t work. He then taught me the best process for killing procrastination ever.

He said you have a goal - boom. Great start.

Now you have to write down all the ideas behind that topic.

Now put those ideas into a loose outline.

Next you have to study on those ideas and keep notes. Then use these notes to add more points to your outline. Keep reading and taking notes.

Then put together an organized detailed outline. Now read each point and write down ideas and thoughts behind each point.

Here is an example:

Roman numeral point V. Youth Leadership in the home

1. The lack of youth in leadership
2. How youth learn leadership at home
3. The void of leadership in the home
4. The best home environment for teaching leadership
5. Current and past great leaders and their home life

Now under each one of these I would write other ideas and thoughts and things to study and research.

After Dr. Joe showed me this he then said “now write a goal to write 1 page per roman numeral, 2 pages per point and 1 page per points a. b. c. etc…

You do the math and you see that I have just written 30 pages on one roman numeral point. I can easily write a 150 page paper… and in fact I wrote almost a 200 page paper…and got an A.

 

So what am I saying… when you think of something to do: Mow the lawn, read and pray, learn Spanish, Clean out the garage or take your daughter to the mall to shop.

You simply break it down into steps in your head… but break it down into micro steps.

I gotta mow the lawn…

Step one get off the couch

Step two walk out into the garage

Step three check the mower for gas

See what I am saying? 

 

What we typically do is picture a freshly mowed lawn in our minds… and that is just to overwhelming sometimes. 

 

The secret is that once we make a plan it energizes us and we take the first step… and that energizes us to take the second step etc…

 

Now here is your back up plan… you make a plan and you still don’t act on it… I will now plant something in your mind that will motivate you to get started, and that is this: once you know what to do (wether you made a plan or not) you start a mental countdown of how far you would have been if you had acted immediately. Like our first example: I should mow the lawn… I stay sitting on the couch… after the first quarter of the game I ask myself “how far would I be” Probably done with the front lawn… a few minutes lates I ask myself how far would I have been now? and in a few minutes again… now that you know you will do this it will be a constant haunting reminder to start immediately. 

 

Look even God broke down creating the earth. Each day had it’s own assignment. 

Now trust me this works… in fact it is how I wrote 13 books oh and power washed the deck this week (which was actually harder)