I’ve had moments of pause. Moments when I thought, “Why am I here?” or “What am I doing?” I have had to rethink and reformulate where I was going and who I wanted to become because I didn’t like who I’d become. I’ve recognized along the way, I did not have the right systems and habits set in my life so that they would lead me to a place I was proud to be.
As I looked at other people whom I admired and respected, I recognized that behind the scenes, they were doing things no one else saw that moved them in the direction they wanted to go. After all, successful people do consistently what most of us do occasionally.
Most of us want to do well but there are some things that create an unsuccessful attempt to be the people we are hoping to live like. One of those things is that we tend to focus on the “what” rather than the “how. James Clear says in his book, Atomic Habits, “Winners and losers generally have the same goals. Goals don’t determine success. Systems determine success. You don’t rise the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.”
So think through it a moment: you want to be a better friend but you don’t consider all the small things needed to accomplish that. You want to lose 20 pounds but haven't considered the need to change eating habits and working out.
We also don’t see progress fast enough so we don’t think those small things matter in life. We wrongly conclude small good decisions don’t much matter so we give up on the small habits that will eventually make us successful.
The truth is, life is the sum total of all the small decisions you and I make every day. Rarely does one decision wreck our life. But those small, everyday habits…those small daily disciplines give you the edge to become the person you want to be. It’s the things that no one sees that bring results everyone wants.
So, who do you want to become? I’d love to be a real solid man of God…a Proverbs 31 woman…a Godly spouse…an incredible parent to my kids…financially free…radically generous with my resources…physically fit…a bold witness for Jesus at work and in my neighborhood. See, our identity shapes our actions and when we discover who we are, it changes everything.
Paul tells us in Romans 6 that in Christ, we are redeemed, forgiven, new, adopted, children of the Most High God and that we can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength. See, a healthy identity creates the positive habits that bring us closer to God and closer to the person we really want to become.
As you create those positive, Godly habits one by one, know God will empower you to accomplish and become more like his Son, Jesus, everyday. Blessings on the journey.