Today Can Become a Masterpiece
How would you describe your life? Are you achieving what you desire? Are you accomplishing the things that are important to you? Do you consider yourself a success? How do your prospects look for the future?
If I could come to your house and spend just one day with you, I would be able to tell whether or not you will be successful. You could pick the day. If I got up with you in the morning and went through the day with you, watching you for twenty-four hours, I could tell in what direction your life is headed.
When I tell this to people at conferences, there’s always a strong reaction. Some people are surprised. Some get defensive because they think I would be making a snap judgment about them. A few get ticked off because they think my claim sounds arrogant. Others are simply intrigued and desire to know why I make such a statement.
The Advantage of Today
The answer lies in what I mentioned in the previous chapter. The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. If you make a few key decisions and then manage them well in your daily agenda, you will succeed.
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. You see, success doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life. For that matter, neither does failure. Each is a process. Every day of your life is merely preparation for the next. What you become is the result of what you do today. In other words . . .
YOU ARE PREPARING FOR SOMETHING
The way you live your life today is preparing you for your tomorrow. The question is, What are you preparing for? Are you grooming yourself for success or failure? As my father used to tell me when I was growing up, “You can pay now and play later, or you can play now and pay later. But either way, you are going to pay.” The idea was that you can play and take it easy and do what you want today, but if you do, your life will be harder later. However, if you work hard now, on the front end, then you will reap rewards in the future.
It’s the old ant and grasshopper story. During the summer and fall, the ant is constantly working, gathering food. Meanwhile, the grasshopper is playing all summer long. When winter’s chill sets in, the ant retires to his home and enjoys life. He’s paid the price for his leisure. But now it’s time for the grasshopper, who played on the front end, to pay a price. He starves out in the cold because he has been preparing to fail, not succeed. He doesn’t understand that the only adequate preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.
The only adequate preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.
One of the ways I “pay” today so that I can have a better tomorrow comes in my practice of filing away quotes and thoughts. From the time I was seventeen, I knew I was going to become a pastor. I knew that meant I would be writing and speaking to people every week of my life. If you’ve ever needed to write and present more than one hundred new lessons in a year, you know how hard it is to find good fresh material for an audience.
In 1964, I started the regular discipline of reading with an eye for finding good quotes, ideas, and illustrations for sermons and lessons. As I found good material (on any subject), I’d cut it out, decide what topic best described it, and file it away. That’s something I have done every day for forty years!
Is it fun to do? Not especially. Often the practice is quite tedious. Does it work? Absolutely. The twelve hundred files in my office containing thousands of quotes are evidence of its success. Any time I need to write a lecture or want to work on a chapter for a book, instead of spending countless hours over the course of several weeks searching for high-quality material, I go to my files, and in minutes I put my hands on great quotes and stories I’ve collected. I simply look at reading and filing as a price I pay every day to make tomorrow better. It’s a way of preparing to succeed.
PREPARATION TODAY GIVES CONFIDENCE TOMORROW
I always try to look at today as preparation for the future, and as a result it paves the way for my success tomorrow. One benefit of that mind-set is confidence. When you were in school, did you ever study so well for an exam that you walked into the classroom with absolute confidence, knowing you would ace the test? Or have you ever rehearsed a song or practiced a basketball shot so thoroughly that you just knew you would be able to deliver at crunch time?
You can bring that same kind of confidence to your everyday life, if you keep in mind that today matters. Legendary New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath explained it this way: “What I do is prepare myself until I know I can do what I have to do.” When you invest in today, it’s like putting money in the bank. It’s like studying for the test of tomorrow. You’re just better prepared to meet life’s challenges.
PREPARATION TODAY GIVES SUCCESS TOMORROW
Not long ago I was chatting with John Kotter, the Harvard Business School professor and author of Leading Change. We were preparing to speak at a simulcast to thousands of businesspeople, and I told him about the idea for Today Matters. His response was, “Most people don’t lead their own lives—they accept their lives.” I believe that is true.
“Most people don’t lead their own lives—they accept their lives.”
—JOHN KOTTER
Unfortunately, many people approach their lives very passively. They take a reactive approach to living instead of a proactive one. It’s as if they’re waiting for something. But life is not a dress rehearsal. You won’t get a second chance to relive today! I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.
| Preparing | Repairing |
| Lets you focus on today | Makes you focus on yesterday |
| Increases efficiency | Consumes time |
| Increases confidence | Breeds discouragement |
| Saves money | Increases costs |
| Pays now for tomorrow | Pays now for yesterday |
| Takes you to a higher level | Becomes an obstacle to growth |
To become a preparer, heed the advice of nineteenth-century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, who said, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.”
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.”
—BENJAMIN DISRAELI
The Makings of a Masterpiece
In February of 2003, I fulfilled a lifelong dream. I was privileged to spend some time with one of my idols: John Wooden, UCLA’s Hall of Fame basketball coach. I’ll tell you more about that later. One of Wooden’s sayings provides the missing piece for how we should handle today. He frequently exhorted his players to make each day their masterpiece:
When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece. Too often we get distracted by what is outside our control. You can’t do anything about yesterday. The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away. You can do nothing about tomorrow. It is yet to come. However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today. So make today a masterpiece. . . . This rule is even more important in life than in basketball. You have to apply yourself each day to become a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better. Only then will you be able to approach being the best you can be.1
Isn’t the idea of making today a masterpiece appealing? The question is, How? What does it take? I believe there are two ingredients necessary to make every day a masterpiece: decisions and discipline. They are like two sides of the same coin; you could call them “goal setting” and “goal getting.” And they can’t be separated because one is worthless without the other. I say that because . . .
Good Decisions - Daily Discipline = A Plan without a Payoff
Daily Discipline - Good Decisions = Regimentation without Reward
Good Decisions + Daily Discipline = A Masterpiece of Potential
Time is an equal opportunity employer, but how we treat time is not equal. Time is like a block of marble. Give a block of marble to an average person, and you end up with . . . a block of marble. But put it in the hands of a master sculptor, and watch what happens! The sculptor looks at it with an artist’s eye. First, he makes decisions about what it will be. Then he practices the disciplines of his craft until he has transformed lifeless stone into a masterpiece. I believe you and I can become like the sculptor. We can learn to become master craftsmen, not of stone but of our lives.
GOOD DECISIONS TODAY WILL GIVE YOU A BETTER TOMORROW
It seems obvious to say that good decisions help to create a better tomorrow, yet many people don’t appear to connect their lack of success to their poor decision making. Some people make choices, then experience negative consequences, yet wonder why they can’t seem to get ahead in life. They never figure it out. Others know their choices may not be good for them, but they make them anyway. Such is the case with the alcoholic who keeps drinking excessively or the person who engages in one abusive relationship after another.
Nobody says that good decisions are always simple, but they are necessary for success. Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame University, admonished:
You don’t make decisions because they’re EASY;
You don’t make decisions because they’re CHEAP;
You don’t make decisions because they’re POPULAR;
You make decisions because they’re RIGHT.
You begin to build a better life by determining to make good decisions, but that alone is not enough. You need to know what decisions to make. I’ve given the subject a lot of thought, talked to many successful people, and narrowed down the list of critical areas for success to twelve. I call them the “Daily Dozen”:
1. Attitude: Choose and display the right attitudes daily.
2. Priorities: Determine and act on important priorities daily.
3. Health: Know and follow healthy guidelines daily.
4. Family: Communicate with and care for my family daily.
5. Thinking: Practice and develop good thinking daily.
6. Commitment: Make and keep proper commitments daily.
7. Finances: Make and properly manage dollars daily.
8. Faith: Deepen and live out my faith daily.
9. Relationships: Initiate and invest in solid relationships daily.
10. Generosity: Plan for and model generosity daily.
11. Values: Embrace and practice good values daily.
12. Growth: Seek and experience improvements daily.
If you settle these twelve issues by making the right decision in each area and then manage those decisions daily, you can be successful.
Before going any further, I need to make something clear: Please don’t let the length of the list bother you. I’m not trying to add twelve more things to your daily to-do list. What I’m suggesting is that you take some time to think through these areas and make a major decision in each that will be lifelong. You can settle an issue once and for all, and you won’t have to revisit it daily. That’s a good idea for two reasons:
1. It Takes the Emotion Out of the Decision: We often make decisions in the heat of the moment. If we’re not careful, we can make a life-altering decision based on a temporary situation rather than on our values. Or we can base it on our feelings. Instead, if we make critical decisions before we have to, then we can make them without our emotions controlling us. When we do that, we are more likely to make decisions with integrity.
2. It Makes Managing Your Life Easier: If you nail down the critical decisions in your life, then you just have to manage yourself based on those decisions. For example, let’s say you discover that you have an innate desire to gamble, causing you to make bets that lose lots of money. If you make the decision not to do any kind of betting, then in the future, your task will be to manage yourself in the light of that decision. That may mean avoiding visits to racetracks, removing Las Vegas from your list of potential vacation spots, and passing on an invitation to a friendly poker game. Once the big decision has been made, you rarely need to revisit it.
The most successful people in life are the ones who settle their critical issues early and manage them daily. The earlier you settle the critical issues in your life, the greater your potential for success.
The most successful people in life are the ones who settle their critical issues early and manage them daily.
THE DISCIPLINES YOU PRACTICE TODAY WILL GIVE YOU A BETTER TOMORROW
The first ingredient of success—making good decisions—has no real value without the second, which is practicing good discipline. Let’s face it: Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long; not many want to exercise. Everybody wants money, yet few want to work hard. Successful people conquer their feelings and form the habit of doing things unsuccessful people do not like to do. The bookends of success are starting and finishing. Decisions help us start. Discipline helps us finish.
Decisions help us start. Discipline helps us finish.
Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is often painful. But we need to recognize that there are really two kinds of pain when it comes to our daily conduct. There’s the pain of self-discipline and the pain of regret. Many people avoid the pain of self-discipline because it’s the easy thing to do. What they may not realize is that the pain of self-discipline is momentary but the payoff is long-lasting.
If we’ve made a decision to try to be healthy, but we put off exercising, it’s true that we avoid thirty minutes of unpleasantness. But then we feel guilty because we’ve violated the decision we know was right for us. Then we regret not having exercised. And if we consistently avoid exercise, we end up paying a price later.
On the other hand, when we do practice the discipline of exercise for thirty minutes, we feel good about ourselves the entire day. That’s a great trade-off. We get sixteen hours of positive feelings about ourselves for half an hour of work. And if we consistently practice the discipline of exercise, we also receive a health benefit that can literally save—and extend—our lives. When we subject ourselves to the pain of discipline, the rewards are great and our opportunities increase. However, if we repeatedly compromise our discipline, we not only receive fewer opportunities, but the regret grows.
I have to give my parents a lot of credit for training me to be self-disciplined. One of the ways they did that was to use my chores to teach me. Every Sunday my father gave me a list of chores for the week. Some I had to do on a particular day, such as taking out the garbage the night before pickup. Others I could do anytime I wanted, as long as they were done by noon on Saturday. At first, I would put off as many tasks as possible. That was, until one week during the summer when I neglected to clean out the basement by the deadline. At noon that day, the whole family loaded into the car to go swimming. When I arrived there with my towel, my father asked me, “John, did you clean out the basement as you were supposed to?”
I hemmed and hawed for a moment and then finally confessed, “No, sir, I didn’t.” Then I thought fast: “But I’ll do it as soon as we get back from swimming!”
My father looked at me and said kindly but firmly, “That’s not what you agreed to. You chose to play all week instead of finishing your chores. We’re going swimming, but you’re staying home to finish the basement. I’m sorry, son, but those are the rules.”
I spent that afternoon working in the smelly basement while my brother and sister swam and had fun. I stopped procrastinating after that. I wasn’t about to miss out on all the fun again. Someone once defined hard work as the accumulation of the easy things you didn’t do when you should have. The work just didn’t seem quite as hard when I stopped putting it off. And I soon discovered that the quicker I got my work done, the better I enjoyed the week.
The First Step toward Success
Getting started is often the hardest part of making changes in your life, whether it’s an exercise regimen, a personal growth plan, a diet, or a program to quit smoking. Because we already have so many reasons not to start in the back of our minds, let me encourage you by giving you some compelling ideas about getting started:
START WITH YOURSELF
A few years ago on a trip to India, I got the opportunity to visit the home of that nation’s great leader, Mahatma Gandhi. The house has been turned into a museum, and it contains some of his personal possessions as well as artifacts from his time of leadership. It also teaches much of his philosophy. One of his statements that I saw there struck me: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” What a great statement! So often we want to change the world. But it’s easier to talk about the change someone else should make than to roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
—MAHATMA GANDHI
If you desire for just one person close to you—your spouse, your child, a close friend, an employee—to change in some way, then become a model of change yourself. When that happens—
• You gain experience, confidence, integrity, and influence.
• You become content with yourself. (As the popular psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw would say, “You need to be there for you first.”)
• You must have something to give before you can give to others.
I started learning these lessons the hard way early in my career. Back then I often tried to push people forward. Today, I work at leading people forward by trying to set the example.
START EARLY
There’s an old saying that Noah didn’t wait for his ship to come in; he built one! If you take a proactive approach to changing your life and you start early, you increase your odds for success—and you create more options for yourself later in life.
One of the people I greatly admire is Pat Summit, basketball coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers. She has been named Naismith Women’s Collegiate Coach of the Century, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and given the John Bunn Award. Her teams have won six NCAA titles. As a head coach, she has won more than eight hundred games. Only a handful of coaches at any level have accomplished such a feat. How did she do it? Well, first of all, she’s just good! Nobody achieves that many victories without talent and drive. But the other secret of her success is that she started at age twenty-six.
As you read the chapters ahead, you will become acquainted with my personal history and how I came to make each decision for practicing one of the Daily Dozen. I share it because I want to flesh out the process for you and let you know that I’m trying to live out the principles I write about. And I’ll tell you where I struggle—I’m not pretending that I do all this perfectly. But you’ll also find that I had the good fortune to make many of these decisions early in life:
In my teens—4 decisions
In my 20s—5 decisions
In my 30s—2 decisions
In my 50s—1 decision
The earlier I made the decision and consistently practiced the discipline, the greater the compounding effect on my life. The same will be true for you!
If you happen to be young, then you have an advantage older people don’t. The earlier you start, the more your odds for success increase. Beginning early is like getting a head start in the 100-yard dash. As a result, your performance may surpass even hardworking people with much more talent than you.
START SMALL
The bigger the change, the more intimidating it can be. That’s why I recommend starting small. Just about everyone believes he can take a small step. That’s encouraging. When you start small and succeed, it helps you believe you can accomplish the next step. (Besides, you can’t do step two until you’ve completed step one, right?) It also helps you to prioritize your actions and focus your energy. But here’s a piece of advice: As you get ready to begin, don’t expect to understand all of what it will take to get to the top. Just focus on the next step.
START NOW
My friend Dick Biggs, author of Burn Brightly Without Burning Out, says, “The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.” Deep down, we all know that if we want to change and grow, we need to get started. Yet we sometimes hesitate. That’s why Maureen Falcone says, “Most people fail in the starting.”
“The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.”
—DICK BIGGS
A few weeks ago, Sammy Poole e-mailed me something that captures the heart of the excuses we make for not beginning what we know we should. In part it said,
So stop waiting . . .
Until your car or home is paid off.
Until you get a new car or home.
Until your kids leave the house.
Until you go back to school.
Until you finish school.
Until you lose ten pounds.
Until you gain ten pounds.
Until you get married.
Until you get a divorce.
Until you have kids.
Until you retire.
Until summer.
Until spring.
Until winter.
Until fall.
Until you die.
You may have a million reasons not to get started now. But deep down, none of them can be as compelling as your desire to change, grow, and succeed. In a month or a year or five years from now, you may have only one regret—that you didn’t start now. Today matters. The way you spend today really can change your life. But the first decision you must make is to begin.
How to Make These Decisions a Reality in Your Life
Cartoonist Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, quipped, “Life is easier if you dread only one day at a time.” But the truth is that you don’t have to dread your days if you settle the decisions you need to make and the disciplines you need to practice in the critical areas of your life. You’ve probably already noticed that this book contains a chapter concerning each of the twelve critical areas in the Daily Dozen. After reading through the chapters, do the following to begin turning today into your masterpiece:
REVIEW THE DECISIONS AND ASK YOURSELF, “WHICH GOOD DECISIONS HAVE I ALREADY MADE?”
Undoubtedly, you will have already made decisions in many of the critical areas discussed in this book. Some you’ve made without really knowing it. Others you may have thought through very carefully. You may even have put some decisions in writing at certain points in your life. Begin the process by recognizing and acknowledging the positive steps you’ve already taken. At the end of each chapter, I’ll prompt you to do that.
IDENTIFY THE DECISIONS YOU STILL MUST MAKE
There will also be areas to which you’ve not given any consideration before now. As you read some chapters, you may even find that there are a few you thought you’d settled but haven’t. Don’t get discouraged, but do acknowledge your need to change. You can’t improve in an area if it’s not on your radar.
CHOOSE ONE OF THOSE DECISIONS AND DETERMINE TO MAKE IT THIS WEEK
When it comes to change, there are really only three kinds of people:
1. Those who don’t know what to do
2. Those who know what to do but don’t do it
3. Those who know what to do and follow through
This book has been written to help you be the third kind of person.
I’ve attempted to be thorough in this book, so that individuals who have given no attention to one of the twelve areas will have everything they need to tackle it and make it a success asset. However, one of the dangers of a book like this is that it covers so much ground that you may be tempted to go in too many directions at once. Just focus on one area at a time to make the greatest progress. And remember, when it comes to the big decisions in life, once you make them, you won’t have to keep dealing with them in that way again.
LEARN THE DISCIPLINES THAT GO WITH EACH DECISION
Most people can make good decisions once they know what the issues are. But character and perseverance determine what happens after the decision is made. To help you follow through in each critical area, I’ve recommended disciplines for you to practice so that you can manage the decision well in your life.
As you proceed, remember that while decisions can be made quickly, adopting disciplines in your life takes more time. If you’ve lived without much self-discipline in the past, you’ll need more time to learn them. However, if you are already a highly disciplined person, you will find it easier to adopt new disciplines. A victory of discipline in one area of life can carry over and help you win in other areas.
REPEAT THE PROCESS UNTIL YOU’VE MASTERED EACH OF THE DAILY DOZEN
Once you’ve settled a critical decision and have a handle on its disciplines, then move on to another one. That’s what I’m doing. I have to admit, I’m still working at this myself. For example, I didn’t make the decision to exercise consistently until I was in my fifties. And I’m still learning the discipline of it. Do I have it down? No, I’m still fighting the fight. I’m getting better over time; I’m a work-in-progress. As I strive to move forward, I keep in mind that what I do in the future depends on what I already am; and what I am is the result of previous years of discipline.
What I do in the future depends on what I already am; and what I am is the result of previous years of discipline.
His Life Is a Masterpiece
I mentioned earlier in the chapter that I fulfilled my lifelong dream of spending half a day with John Wooden. He is an amazing man. He coached basketball for over forty years. And, in all those years, he had only one losing season (his first). He led his UCLA teams to four undefeated seasons and a record ten NCAA championships, including seven in a row. No wonder he is called the Wizard of Westwood (the Los Angeles suburb where the UCLA campus is situated).
Before I went to see him, I spent three weeks rereading his books and devouring every bit of information I could about him. Then, on the appointed day, I met him for lunch at a little diner near his home where he eats regularly. When we met, he was ninety-two years old. But you wouldn’t know it to talk to him. He’s alert. And he is sharp!
As we ate, I must have asked him a thousand questions, and he answered them all graciously. I wanted to learn as much as I could about his leadership. I wanted to know why he thought he had been able to win as he did. He said he attributed it to four things: (1) analyzing players, (2) getting them to fulfill their roles as part of the team, (3) paying attention to fundamentals and details, (4) working well with others. I also wanted to know what he missed most about coaching. At first his answer surprised me.
“Practice,” he said. It wasn’t the acclaim or the championships. Then I remembered a quote from him I had read before our meeting. I later went back to reread it:
I have often been asked when I first started dreaming about winning a national championship. Was it at Indiana State Teachers College or after I arrived at UCLA? Perhaps while I was a college player? I never dreamed about winning a national championship.
What I was dreaming about each year, if you want to call it that, was trying to produce the best basketball team we could be. My thoughts were directed toward preparation, our journey, not the results of the effort (such as winning national championships). That would simply have shifted my attention to the wrong area, hoping for something out of my control. Hoping doesn’t make it happen.
Mix idealism with realism and add hard work. This will often bring much more than you could ever hope for.2
We talked more about practice, and he said, “What you do in practice is going to determine your level of success. I used to tell my players, ‘You have to give 100 percent every day. Whatever you don’t give, you can’t make up for tomorrow. If you give only 75 percent today, you can’t give 125 percent tomorrow to make up for it.’”
As I listened to him speak, something steeled inside me. Before I met Coach Wooden, I had wanted to write Today Matters. After meeting him, I felt I had to write it. Everything he was saying to me seemed to confirm what I believed about how tomorrow’s success can be found in what you do today.
After lunch, Coach Wooden invited me to his home. It’s a small, unassuming place. I got very excited when he took me into his office. He must have had a thousand awards and mementos on the walls—so many you could hardly see the wallpaper. And any time I asked him about an item on the wall, he would deflect the honor from himself and talk about the team. For a while, he read poetry aloud to me. His love for verse was evident as he read each with great expression. After about an hour, he said, “Just one more,” and read the following poem written by Swen Nader, one of his former players:
I saw love once, I saw it clear.
It had no leash. It had no fear.
It gave itself without a thought.
No reservation had it brought.
It seemed so free to demonstrate.
It seems obsessed, to orchestrate.
A symphony designed to feed.
Composed to lift the one in need.
Concern for others was its goal.
No matter what would be the toll.
It’s strange just how much care it stores.
To recognize its neighbor’s sores.
And doesn’t rest until the day.
It’s helped to take the sores away.
Its joy retains and does not run.
Until the blessing’s job is done.
I saw love once. ’Twas not pretend.
He was my coach. He is my friend.3
The poem touched me, and I mentioned that I knew Swen because our daughters had gone to school together. “He’s a good man, and he was a good ballplayer,” Coach Wooden responded. “You know, many of my players still come visit me.”
We talked for probably another hour and a half, and I began thinking that it was about time for me to go. But before I did, I said, “I’ve read that you carry something with you that contains your philosophy. Can I see it?”
He smiled and said, “I’ll give you one.”
He pulled out a card, a duplicate of one that he carries with him always. And he signed it for me. On the card is this statement: “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
I thanked him for his time and I left, grateful that I had been allowed the privilege of being with and learning from someone I greatly respected as a coach, a leader, and a human being. As I walked back to my car, I looked down at the card. And there it was, along with other favorite maxims of John Wooden: “Make each day your masterpiece.”
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
—JOHN WOODEN
APPLICATION AND EXERCISES
Since I will not have the opportunity to spend a day with you personally, I’m going to share with you the questions I would have asked as I went through the day with you:
1. Is your attitude a plus or a minus today?
2. Are your priorities keeping you focused today?
3. Is your health enabling you to succeed today?
4. Does your family situation provide support today?
5. Is your thinking mature and productive today?
6. Have your commitments been kept today?
7. Have your financial decisions been solid today?
8. Has your faith been active today?
9. Are your relationships being strengthened today?
10. Has your generosity added value to others today?
11. Are your values giving you direction today?
12. Is your growth making you better today?
Spend some time asking yourself these same questions, and be brutally honest in your answers. You’ll have more time to think about them as you read through the next twelve chapters. I want you to see the whole process, looking at each of the areas in turn. Each chapter will have an “Application and Exercises” section to help you improve in that critical area. At the end of the book, I’ll also give you the kind of plan I would provide if I were to spend the day with you.