I believe that most everyone is familiar with the story of Daniel and the lion's den. If you're not, the story can be found in the Bible. For those of you that don't believe in or read the Bible, stick with me. There's a small detail in that story that I think you'll appreciate. If you have no idea what the story is, I'll cut to the chase. The Bible tells us a Jewish, God-fearing teen named Daniel was a trusted adviser to a Babylonian King named Darius. However, Daniel refuses to pray to King Darius and King Darius reluctantly throws him into a lion's den. Daniel prays that God will save him from the lion's and that's exactly what happens. King Darius then throws the advisers into the lion's den that tricked him into implementing the 'praying law' in the first place because they were jealous of Daniel. (to any Bible scholar out there, please forgive me for such a casual description of this historical account).
That said, there is an important statement prior to the story that gives Daniel such unyielding commitment and I think it is an amazing lesson for those us that want to be committed to anything.
'Daniel resolved in his heart...'
That statement found in Daniel 1:8 describes Daniel's mindset as he his taken as a prisoner of the Babylonian kingdom prior to his ascension as a trusted adviser. Daniel made the choice of what he would and would not do prior to even being faced with the choice. He prioritized and committed.
And there it is. The secret to one of my favorite mantras: NEVER MISS.
Before I describe the in's and out's of the Never Miss mantra, consider how priorities and commitment lay the foundation for it.
Priorities - there are so many priorities in our lives and some, maybe even most, are worthy of our time and energy. Since we can't attend to them all, I would encourage you to really think about your priorities from a 'death bed' perspective. When you are lying on your death bed after a long life, what will you think about? What will you want to say? Who will you want to say it to? What do you not want to regret? Now work your thoughts backwards from that moment to today and that will give you a clear picture of what should be the priorities of today. I'll also add that you can use the same line of thinking to focus on skill or career development. Ask yourself the question, 'what would be a really valuable skill, experience, certification, or degree that if I added would have a big impact on where I'm headed?' Once you've settled on an answer to that question, decide what you can do today to move closer to that.
Commit - Once you've gained clarity on some of these priorities, commit to take a task on them. I'm going to suggest daily or weekly action. Anything longer than a week and it'll be really hard to be consistent. And inconsistency would be a violation of the 'Never Miss' mantra. And remember this about commitment; commitment does not become committed until you don't want to be committed and then it becomes commitment. Another way to say it, you have not demonstrated commitment until you don't want to be committed. This is why you're going to 'resolve in your heart'. You're going to make the decision to follow through so that when you don't feel like following through you can simply ignore that because you already made your decision.
So what is it that you would like to 'resolve in your heart' to never miss?
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That said, there is an important statement prior to the story that gives Daniel such unyielding commitment and I think it is an amazing lesson for those us that want to be committed to anything.
'Daniel resolved in his heart...'
That statement found in Daniel 1:8 describes Daniel's mindset as he his taken as a prisoner of the Babylonian kingdom prior to his ascension as a trusted adviser. Daniel made the choice of what he would and would not do prior to even being faced with the choice. He prioritized and committed.
And there it is. The secret to one of my favorite mantras: NEVER MISS.
Before I describe the in's and out's of the Never Miss mantra, consider how priorities and commitment lay the foundation for it.
Priorities - there are so many priorities in our lives and some, maybe even most, are worthy of our time and energy. Since we can't attend to them all, I would encourage you to really think about your priorities from a 'death bed' perspective. When you are lying on your death bed after a long life, what will you think about? What will you want to say? Who will you want to say it to? What do you not want to regret? Now work your thoughts backwards from that moment to today and that will give you a clear picture of what should be the priorities of today. I'll also add that you can use the same line of thinking to focus on skill or career development. Ask yourself the question, 'what would be a really valuable skill, experience, certification, or degree that if I added would have a big impact on where I'm headed?' Once you've settled on an answer to that question, decide what you can do today to move closer to that.
Commit - Once you've gained clarity on some of these priorities, commit to take a task on them. I'm going to suggest daily or weekly action. Anything longer than a week and it'll be really hard to be consistent. And inconsistency would be a violation of the 'Never Miss' mantra. And remember this about commitment; commitment does not become committed until you don't want to be committed and then it becomes commitment. Another way to say it, you have not demonstrated commitment until you don't want to be committed. This is why you're going to 'resolve in your heart'. You're going to make the decision to follow through so that when you don't feel like following through you can simply ignore that because you already made your decision.
So what is it that you would like to 'resolve in your heart' to never miss?
BLOG BIO
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read about it more here.
Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader and Director of Athletics at The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida. He’s earned a few degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school sweetheart and they have three teen age children. Life is messy and complicated most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.
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