Those who are blessed with the most talent don’t necessarily outperform everyone else. It is the people with follow-through who excel.
Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
Having a plan is the first step to seizing the day, but sticking to the plan is step two, and it is a challenge that we don’t always master well. There are probably very few people who have no plan at all. Most of us have something we want to do each day, but the thing that frustrates us is when we come to the end of the day and we know we have been busy all day and yet somehow we didn’t accomplish what we set out to do. As a matter of fact, we may not even be sure what we did, but we know that we were busy!
There are many causes for this lack of follow-through, and in this chapter we will deal with three ways to accomplish our goals.
Having a desire to accomplish something is noble, yet procrastination tempts us and it is very deceptive. When we procrastinate, we never say to ourselves, “I am not going to do this thing I need to do!” We merely tell ourselves that we will do it later, but very often later becomes later and later until the thing never gets done. It is rather natural to want to put off doing less enjoyable things in favor of doing the things we do enjoy, but it is not a character trait of a successful person. Successful people have an ability to stay focused and get the task finished.
We all procrastinate to some degree. I doubt that there is any person on the planet who does everything at the moment it could or should be done, but for some people (I’ve heard about 20 percent of people) the problem is so severe that it leads to other, even more serious, problems, like passivity and laziness. Procrastination reflects our struggle with self-control.
A person may think he or she is buying time today by procrastinating, but it is like using a credit card. It is fun until you get the bill. The procrastinator will ultimately be confronted with the non-activity and all the problems it has caused.
When we procrastinate, we are in danger of forgetting what we were supposed to do altogether. At times, when I have given someone a task to accomplish and I have to go back to him and ask if it is finished, he says, “I was going to do it but I just have not gotten around to it yet,” or “I have been busy, but I am going to do it.” That may be the case, but it is also likely that the person procrastinated and then forgot the task completely. If this is the case, then the procrastination led to a bigger problem, which was that the procrasinator didn’t tell the truth about why the job wasn’t done.
The famous Nike shirt that carries the saying “Just Do It” is seen around the world. I have been in remote villages in faraway places and seen poor children wearing it. One child, when finally on his way to America, said, “Now I can find out what this saying on my shirt means!” It makes me wonder how many people wear that shirt and have no idea that it is a personal message to them that they are ignoring.
Perhaps you have heard the saying, “The best time to do what needs to be done is now,” and that is certainly true. Whether it is paying the bills that are due or picking up the little piece of paper you dropped on the floor—the best time is now! The ability to move oneself to immediate action in dealing with what needs to be done is the trait of a successful person.
The ability to move oneself to immediate action in dealing with what needs to be done is the trait of a successful person.
It is amazing how difficult it is for some people to take action to do some very simple tasks. We use the last of the toilet paper on the roll and when we think about replacing it now, our next thought is I will do it later. Later comes, as it always does, and then we or someone else is stuck with going to the bathroom and having no toilet paper. The same thing happens with the last Kleenex in the box, or the last paper towel on the roll. Why don’t we just do what needs to be done? No good reason; we just procrastinate because we have never formed a strong habit of doing things as soon as possible! I just walked by the clothes dryer and thought, I could get the clothes out now and hang them up, but then I thought, I will wait until later. There was absolutely no reason to wait, and, in fact, had I waited I might have forgotten and then found a clothes dryer full of wrinkled clothes that would have created more work, so I decided to follow my own advice and not procrastinate!
This tendency to put things off for no good reason at all must be an inherent trait of the flesh. It is just plain laziness, I suppose, unless it is controlled. No wonder God has given us the fruit of self-control, and if we want to be successful in life we will need to use it numerous times each day (see Galatians 5:22–23).
We subconsciously think that if we do all the things that need to be done now, we won’t have time to do the things we want to do, but that isn’t true. We will actually have more time to do those things, and we will be able to do them peacefully, without low-level guilt over our procrastination.
I was talking with a man recently and he responded to a question I asked with a giggle and the statement, “Yes, I am a procrastinator.” He obviously was not aware of the danger or he would not have giggled! Procrastination is a bad habit, and the best way to overcome it is to form a new habit, a good habit of doing things as soon as possible. Don’t waste your time fighting with bad habits, but instead use the biblical principle of overcoming evil with good (see Romans 12:21). Focus on “just doing it,” and you will soon be free from procrastination.
To interrupt means to stop or hinder by breaking in. For example, “He interrupted the speaker with frequent questions.” It means to break the uniformity or continuity of, or to break in upon an action.13
I can become easily frustrated when people interrupt me while I am talking (which is most of the time), writing, studying for a sermon, watching a good movie, or talking on the phone. I guess I just don’t like to be interrupted! Should we become frustrated with those people and things that interrupt us, or should we find ways to protect ourselves when we are doing things we don’t want interrupted?
This morning I was writing and in deep thought when Dave, who was in the kitchen, got a phone call. He was making corrections to an article he had written for our magazine, and I felt mildly irritated because his voice was interrupting my train of thought. I tried to continue for a few minutes, but finally decided I should be the one to take action. So I got up and shut my door. An amazing thing happened: no more interruptions!
We cannot expect the rest of the world to stop functioning because we don’t want to be interrupted, so why not be proactive and make arrangements to be where your interruptions will be fewer?
Getting away by yourself to finish a project, or shutting a door, or even telling your family and friends or co-workers that you need not to be interrupted for a specific amount of time could save lots of frustration later. My daughter frequently tells me that she is going in her office without her phone to work on a project and that if I have an emergency I can call her husband or leave a message and she will call me later. She acts proactively, and, by doing so, she avoids interruptions she would surely get if she didn’t.
By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.
Christopher Columbus14
Another way to minimize interruptions is to learn to manage them quickly. Don’t let yourself be dragged into a problem that you really don’t have to solve right now. It is permissible to say no to people if their timing isn’t good. When we do get interrupted, the shorter it is, the less long-term damage it will do to our focus. I have had to admit that I often create my own problems by getting involved in things that I truly could stay out of. Someone may interrupt me, but I can quickly deflect it and get right back to what I am focusing on if I choose to, but many times I make a choice that I know isn’t the best when I make it, and I get into a discussion about a subject that is going to require much more time than I currently have. Why? Curiosity or perhaps an unbalanced need to be involved may be the culprits, but I am learning to be responsible for some of my loss of time. The only way things change is if we take responsibility to change them. In learning how to seize my day and get the most out of my time, I will need to overcome these temptations, and so will you.
The only way things change is if we take responsibility to change them.
We do, of course, need to be able to discern between unnecessary interruptions and God-interruptions. When Jesus came to Martha and Mary’s home, Mary stopped what she was doing and sat at His feet to receive teaching. She considered Him not an interruption, but an opportunity she was not going to let pass her by. Martha, on the other hand, didn’t stop her work and actually became frustrated because Mary did (see Luke 10:38–42).
Sometimes we make plans and God laughs because He has other plans for us that day that we don’t know about yet. Some of the greatest events of all time began in the form of an interruption. Mary was interrupted by an angel with the news that she would give birth to the Savior of the world (see Luke 1:26–31). Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was on his way to persecute Christians, and he was interrupted by Jesus, who changed his life in an instant (see Acts 9:1–9).
I have heard that the average office worker is interrupted seventy-three times every day, and the average manager is interrupted every eight minutes. Interruptions include telephone calls, incoming e-mail messages or other forms of electronic communication, and interruptions by colleagues and crises. Once there is an interruption it takes an average of twenty minutes to get back to the same level of concentration that we were at prior to disruptions. We can easily spend our entire day dealing with interruptions and get nothing done that we planned to do. We cannot eliminate all interruptions, because some of them are very important.
I think it is polite to form a habit of not interrupting someone who seems deep in thought unless we have no other choice. Perhaps we could write down things we may need to ask the individual and then find a time to ask them all at one time. Perhaps if we sow good seeds of not interrupting others we can reap a harvest of not being interrupted so often ourselves.
Technology has given us many gifts, and among them are dozens of new ways to grab our attention. It is hard to talk to a friend without at least one call coming in on our call-waiting feature. You may check your Facebook or Twitter a couple of times while trying to read a chapter of this book. It is common now when I am teaching in my conferences to have people listening and then texting their friends about comments I have made while teaching. I often wonder how much of what I am saying they miss while texting about the last thing I said!
What is a distraction? Do these types of things qualify and, if so, how do they affect us? Researchers say they are making us dumber. They feel quite certain that all the multitasking is deteriorating our mental capacity. Most of us realize that if we try to do two things at once, they both suffer to some degree, but in today’s fast-paced society we continue doing it. It seems as if we are on a treadmill that is going so fast we cannot find a safe place to get off.
Alessandro Acquisti, a professor of information technology, and Eyal Peer, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon, were commissioned to design an experiment that would measure the brainpower lost when someone deals with interruptions.15
The test involved three groups of participants. Group one answered 136 questions with no interruptions. Groups two and three answered the same questions with two interruptions. Then groups two and three were tested again and told they would be interrupted. One group was interrupted, but the other group awaited interruptions that never came.
During the initial test where groups two and three received two interruptions, they answered correctly 20 percent less of the time than those who were not interrupted. The group that was retested and once again was interrupted improved by 6 percent, proving that if we experience interruptions that we were expecting, we can learn to deal with them better. The group that was told they would be interrupted but were not improved an amazing 43 percent. They even outperformed the group who had no interruptions. It was concluded that the participants in group three adapted to the interruptions and improved when they had none.
A Stanford sociologist named Clifford Nass, who conducted some of the first tests on multitasking, said, “Those who can’t resist the lure of doing two things at once are ‘suckers for irrelevancy.’” Some professionals definitely feel that those who are addicted to texting and tweeting are being robbed of brainpower. I guess we won’t know for sure until they are a bit older, but by then it may be too late.
What is the solution? I think once again it is balance that keeps us safe. Too much of anything, even a good thing, always becomes a problem. Use technology, but don’t let it run your life, or possibly ruin your life. We may need to multitask occasionally, but we don’t have to live that way. Some interruptions are part of everyone’s life, but we can learn to manage them better.
Use technology, but don’t let it run your life.
Beginning a project does not always require much of us, but following through and finishing it always does. Anyone can have an idea, thought, or plan for something, but only the diligent will be successful (see Proverbs 12:24).
Progress always takes time and commitment. It usually takes more time than we thought it would, and the cost of the commitment is greater than we thought it would be, if we even thought about it at all.
Too many of us start things or commit to be part of something without giving it much forethought. How long will it take? What will I have to give up to do it? What will it cost in money, time, or energy? Will what I get out of it be worth what I will have to put into it? These are all good questions to ask ourselves and think about.
One of the main ways that I have learned what to put my time into in ministry, and what not to put my time into, is to consider whether the fruit I will gain will be equal to the effort I will have to make. Not only do I do this, but we also do it throughout the ministry.
One of the big mistakes an organization or an individual may make is to keep doing something that was valuable at one time but is no longer valuable. Take a fresh look at what you are doing on a regular basis and ask if it is something worth doing.
I believe it is safe to say that one of the greatest needs in the church world today is a greater emphasis on discipleship. Jesus invited people not merely to come to Him, but to follow Him and be His disciple. To be a disciple of anyone, we discipline ourselves to learn his or her ways and follow his or her example.
From the moment people receive Jesus as their Savior, having made the decision to become Christians, it is important that we instruct them concerning the need for discipleship, and let them know that it will require some effort on their part. Our teachings and sermons to God’s people should include a great deal of teaching about becoming more and more like Jesus in all of our ways.
Jesus said that if we want to follow Him we need to be willing to persevere and carry our cross (see Luke 14:27). What does it mean to carry our cross? In short, it means that it will cost us some things that we might find difficult to let go of. Things like loss of reputation or friendships. It will cost time and effort, and we will need to be willing to learn, learn, and then learn some more. Being a disciple is about much more than simply going to church and having a fish emblem on your car.
The devil doesn’t mind all that much if you go to church, as long as you don’t learn much about discipleship. He doesn’t want people to be saved, but if they are, he really doesn’t want them to become like Jesus.
Jesus told a story to help those who intended to follow Him realize what they would need to do. He said if a man intended to build a building, he would first calculate the cost to see whether he had sufficient means to finish it (see Luke 14:28).
One of our daughters and her husband were once in the process of beginning to build a new home. They spent at least six months talking about it and thinking about it. They decided what they thought they could afford to build and sought out proper designs. They searched for a good builder and starting getting bids on what it would cost to finish it. As people often find, the cost was much higher than they had intended to pay. Then they had to decide if they wanted to build their home the way they’d planned, make it smaller and not quite as nice as they wanted, or not build it at all. When they decided they wanted it the way they planned it, they had to decide if they could, and were willing to shift other things in their life in order not to be under financial pressure to build it. They did all of this before they signed papers making a commitment to do it.
Whether you want to build a house, lose weight, get out of debt, get a college degree, clean the closet, or anything else, count the cost! Ask yourself enough questions to be realistic about what it will take to do it; otherwise you will make a plan and then not follow through!
• Self-control is an essential fruit of the Spirit to have in order to finish what you start.
• The best way to correct a bad habit is to form a good habit.
• Take action instead of procrastinating.
• Be proactive and make arrangements that will help limit interruptions.
• We should count the cost before making a commitment.
• Balance in life is important. Too much of anything, even a good thing, can become a problem.
• Beginning a thing is easy—following through takes perseverance.