Category: Excellence

Show, don’t tell.

This is the first rule of writing. If your character is hostile or vindictive or loving or kind, don’t just say it. Demonstrate it. Make your character do something hostile or vindictive or loving or kind. That’s because, as writer Donald Miller has said, a character is what he does.

What if this rule took over your life?

Imagine how it would be today if you couldn’t provide narration as you go along: You could tell no one what you believe. You couldn’t explain your actions or defend your motives. You could not say, “I love you,” or “I’m sorry,” or “This is what my life is about.”

Imagine how it would be if today you couldn’t tell, you could only show. What conclusions might your friends and family and co-workers come to? Would it be the truth?

I challenge you to to give a try. Show, don’t tell. Or perhaps: show first, tell second. As Francis of Assissi said, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”

James said, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)

All those things we say we believe, all those principles we insist we’re about, all those feelings we claim to feel, they’re real only when they come to life in what we do.

A character is what he does.

This post originally appeared at PreachingLibrary.com

When Jack Canfield was trying to get Chicken Soup for the Soul off the ground, he asked a number of best-selling authors and publishing experts how he should go about it.

He received more advice than he could possibly act on, and soon found himself so overwhelmed him with options that he had no idea where to start.

Then a friend named Ron Scolastico said, “If you would go to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.”

Out of this advice Canfield developed what he called The Rule of Five. Every day he would do 5 specific things that moved him toward the goal of getting Chicken Soup on the best seller list. It might be 5 radio interviews, or sending 5 books to reviewers, or calling 5 bookstores, and so on.

Eventually the ax felled the tree; two years after the book came out, it made the New York Times list, where it stayed for many months.

Where can you apply the Rule of Five in your life?

Can you make a 5 minute call of encouragement to one of your friends each day? Or send 5 Thank-You emails each morning? Or read 5 pages of a book? Or review 5 memory verses?

As you survey the areas of your life and ministry that present the greatest opportunities for growth, think about how Canfield’s Rule of Five can work in your favor. How can you take 5 strong swings at the tree day after day?

Solomon said, “He who works his land will have abundant food.” (Proverbs 12:11)

The Rule of Five is a great way to start working your land.

Today’s memo was updated from a previous post.

What does a Hall-of-Fame basketball coach teach his players about attention to detail?

John Wooden, legendary leader of the UCLA Bruins, won more championships than any other coach in history — 10 titles in 12 years. Which steps did he take to ensure his players’ top-level performance?

For one thing, he taught them how to put on their socks.

No kidding.

Each season Coach Wooden showed his players how to prevent sock-wrinkles around the little toe and the heel, and how to lace up their shoes with a double-knot. The idea was to prevent blisters, because in the closing minutes of a close game, the player without blisters performs better. This seemingly insignificant adjustment contributed, in a small way, to an impressive string of National Championships.

Attention to detail, Wooden would say, creates success in basketball, in business and in life. His focus on the fundamentals — running drills and executing plays — gave his team confidence on the court, and made them all but impossible to beat.

For this reason, Wooden never had to resort to pep talks or tirades. He just helped each player excel at the basics, because excelling at the basics wins ball games.

THE BASICS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Paul said to the Corinthians, “Hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” (1Corinthians 11:2) He prefaced this statement with “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

The basics of spiritual growth are the same for all Christians: For new believers as well as old saints, for high profile ministers as well as those who serve in obscurity. Maintaining a dynamic spiritual life requires the same effort from all, regardless of nationality, or income, or influence, or education.

There are no tricks and no short-cuts to this process. The only way to excel in the Christian life is to do the basics: daily prayer, daily Bible study, daily worship, daily service, and daily fellowship.

These are the fundamentals of the faith, and we never outgrow our need for them.

Spending time alone in prayer, or memorizing a verse, or visiting a lonely person may sometimes seem as exciting as putting on your socks, but when you do it right it opens the door to greatness.

Jesus said, “You have been faithful in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:23)

The Lord is in the details. This week, remember the basics; God will reward you for your faithfulness.

Today’s memo was updated from a previous post.

Today’s memo (a repeat from a few years back) is about a man with a decades-long history of failure.

His name was Charles. You really can’t say that his friends called him Charlie because he got to the point where he didn’t have any friends.

After failing in business, Charles borrowed some money from the bank to pursue a new idea. But the new idea failed.

He borrowed money from friends, and failed again.

And then he borrowed from relatives, but he continued to fail.

Pretty soon he owed money to everyone he knew, with no way to pay it back.

He believed he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, but found it difficult to focus on developing his ideas because he was constantly hounded by creditors.

Charles sought protection through the bankruptcy laws, but failed to keep his payment arrangements, ultimately landing him in jail. During this time, with fewer distractions, he was able to make progress, developing his idea almost to completion.

A few more years, a few more loans, a few more mistakes, and eventually he attained the success he had sought for so long.

Charles’ business invention had to do with a process for vulcanizing rubber. His last name, by the way, was Goodyear. His elusive idea helped you get to work today.

Early in life, Charles Goodyear made a decision never to quit — to try again, and then again, as many times as it takes. He wasn’t particularly good with managing money, and he often stretched himself too thin, but he never let failure — or his own faults — hold him back.

He refused to give up, long after everyone else had given up on him.  Finally, Charles Goodyear’s persistence paid off.

It’s a decision only the truly courageous can make: Allowing no fault or failure, personal or professional, to persuade you to quit, or prevent you from getting back up and reaching for the prize one more time.

This is where great lives are made. It’s where breakthroughs are achieved.

It’s where the rubber meets the road.

For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. (Proverbs 24:16)

Today’s memo is from Steve’s book, It’s All in the Dailies.

A quote from Martin Luther King to remind us what greatness really is.

“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love…”

His words echo the words of Christ…

“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Mark 10:43)

Today, and every day, we each have the capacity for greatness, for one simple reason: We each have the capacity to serve.

Success may be ever elusive, but greatness never is. It’s as simple as doing something for someone other than yourself, as often as you can: your family, your co-workers, customers, and clients, and even those you may never personally know — greatness exists in your willingness to serve.

Today’s post was adapted from a sermon at Preaching Library.

Someone once offered this advice for those seeking to accomplish good in this life:

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

(I say ‘someone’ said it, because it’s attributed to almost everyone. Whoever deserves the credit, it’s a good quote.)

I imagine we all have a few projects on our to-do list that could be classified as impossible. Or maybe they just feel that way — requiring more energy and more resources than we can currently muster.

No matter how beyond-your-grasp the task may seem, the solution is the same: Do what must be done, then do what can be done.

Eventually, looking back, you’ll see that you’ve accomplished what “they” said (and you thought) couldn’t be done.

The process always begins with facing the most necessary task of the day.

A quote from Andy Stanley comes to mind: “We don’t drift in good directions. We discipline and prioritize ourselves there.”

David said this about priorities:

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

He’s not talking about counting our days, as it’s been said, but making our days count.

How do we do it?

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”