“Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them. They float along. They wait. They react… And by the time a large portion of their life is behind them, they realize they should have been more proactive and strategic.” - John C Maxwell.
When I think of the word design, I think of a plan.
But when I think of a plan, I think of verses like Mathew 6:24 or 1 Timothy 4:13-14 which talks about not planning for tomorrow because tomorrow has its own worries and isn’t guaranteed. When we think of design in this way we are talking about goals we want to accomplish. Go on a vacation, lose weight, or get a raise at work.
When we design our lives in a way that we are trying to reach our goals, we have a high level of anxiety, because we are trying to change our external circumstances. We naturally complicate our lives, because now we have to not only control ourselves but also try to control events or those who influence our lives. We will spend a lot of time, effort, and energy trying to make life perfect only to feel defeated when we don’t reach perfection.
Instead of thinking of design as goals that we are trying to attain.
Let’s think about it as the way that we would like to live our ideal life. How would we like to be? At its core, this is what discipline or discipleship is really all about. Having a foundation and how you were going to live planned out. Then make it autonomous so that you know what you’re going to do no matter what the situation.
In order to make our discipline autonomous we need to implement systems & strategies to operate our responses to every situation. Navy Seals have a saying, “Action is faster than reaction.” Systems allow you to plan your reaction by preplanning what a response will be. Much like a computer input is entered and output is immediately delivered. If you don’t plan and have a strategy in place then you will have to process the event and react based on the limited information you have in that moment. When this occurs you may miss opportunities because they were gone before you realized they had presented themselves.
During the month of May, we will look at the six systems you can put in place that will help you design your discipline and discipleship. They are:
Effective systems Take the Big Picture into Account.
Effective Systems Make Use of Priorities.
Effective Systems Include Measurement.
Effective Systems Include Application.
Effective Systems Employ Organization.
Effective Systems Promote Consistency.
Go, and outlive your limits!