THE ONE THING

Pressing Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.…

Good News Translation says: Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead.

There is one thing that I find absolutely amazing about most of us. It’s this —

Deep down we all know what is it that we need to do. We know what will make us happier, what will make us healthier, what will help us grow.

We know exactly what we should be doing with our time, with our lives.

And despite knowing all of that, we just don’t ACT on it.

It just becomes one of those things that we talk about, dream about and obsess about, but it never makes its way into our reality.

It's so sad that we end up not achieving our life's purpose coz we never did what we were supposed to be doing, that which makes us happy, healthy and successful.

One of the battles I fight as a leader is the battle of focus.

It's hard to know what to focus on as a leader with all of the noise of life, the church, family, culture, etc.

So, here's something that's been massively helpful to me.

In the morning as I'm doing my prayer and Bible study I'll just ask God to show me the "one thing."

The "one thing" is one action or task that will make the biggest difference in my life or leadership that I can accomplish first.

It gives me clarity and helps me focus on many levels.

Because, the real power of focus isn't always what you're looking at...it's what you're not looking at.

By identifying one thing to do or work on I get freed from the distraction of "the many."

Accomplishing the "one thing" also guarantees that my day (no matter what else happens) is a success because I accomplished the highest value action and didn't let distraction derail me.

Sometimes the "one thing" is something I've been avoiding...a tough conversation, a difficult project, etc.

Other times it's something that I know will advance the church or build the kingdom but I've been putting it off dealing with the details of life.

Go ahead and give yourself permission as a leader to do the BIG stuff first and deal with problems later.

Now, go do "the one thing."