Top Posts Tagged with #pre-decisions

New Post has been published on Crown of Compassion

New Post has been published on https://www.crownofcompassion.org/2019/03/08/pre-decisions-important-decisions/

Pre-decisions: the most important decisions

“Pre-decisions . . . help you make the right decision when you have to make a tough decision. If you don’t make pre-decisions, you’ll end up making lots of bad decisions, because you’ll cave into your circumstances instead of sticking to your convictions.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 3 of Primal, he asserts that your focus determines your reality. For example, do you focus on what you have or what you don’t have? That determines whether you display gratitude or greed. Or, do you focus on your wants or the needs of others? That reveals whether you show selfishness of compassion, unhappiness or joy.

Most noteworthy, as your focus changes, your perspective changes. And, as your perspective changes, your life changes. Yes, you might still find yourself in the same circumstances. But your heart has changed. Also, along with your heart change, your motivations and expectations change as well. Pastor Batterson continues:

“The bottom line is this: your focus determines your reality. If you focus on your wants, enough will never be enough. And your heart will get smaller and smaller. If you focus on the needs of others, you’ll discover that you have more than enough. If you focus on the here and now, you’ll try to hang on to everything you have. But if you focus on eternity, you’ll give away everything you’ve got.”

In conclusion, Mark offers one of his core convictions: you cannot outgive God. However, the author observes, it’s easy for us to operate based on a scarcity mentality. We believe that the more we give, the less we’ll have.

Yet, in the kingdom of God, that notion gets turned on its head. For in reality, if you give less, you’ll have less. In contrast, the more you give, the more you’ll have. And your heart grows larger for the things of God.

Today’s question: What pre-decisions help you to stick to your convictions? Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Our litmus test for worship”

#convictions #focus #pre-decisions #reality #scarcity mentality

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Hi dear friend, I hope you are feeling well today! I hear you are going to a new sober house soon. That must be on your mind a lot lately; I wonder if you are feeling excited or nervous. I find that, to me, excitement and nervousness often feel pretty much identical. The only difference is my attitude. If I think of the future in fear, dwelling on all that could go wrong if I “fail,” then my nerves become a jumbled mess and I can barely think straight. However, if I frame the source of my anxiety in a positive light, and look at it is a challenge and a game to be won, as something rewarding and healthy and positive, the excitement is enjoyable and a great motivator. It is interesting how living with intentionality can impact every area of your life. I took a financial class a couple of years ago and the instructor liked to say, “Tell your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.” I think that sentiment applies to way more than money. You could sub in the words “time,” “health,” “relationships,” and still have a true message. If you make plans ahead of time, by budgeting your money, for example, and you stick to them as you make daily decisions, you will end up where you want to be, instead of ending up in a bad spot and having to try to figure out how you got there. Your plans don’t always have to be as complex as a whole budget. They can just be simple “pre-decisions:” decisions about how you will act in a scenario, before being faced with those circumstances. That kind of planning and faithful diligence is what I mean by intentionality. Obviously, one of your pre-decisions is to not do drugs. Think about what other decisions you can make now, that will help you later on. Maybe it’s the decision not to speak with certain people from your past. Maybe it’s the decision not to go to certain places, or even not to listen to certain music. Then later, when one of those people texts you, or you feel tempted to visit an old hang-out, you can revert back to a different auto-pilot, the one you programmed intentionally, as part of your bigger plan. In fact, Future You doesn’t even need to make the decision at all; someone has done it: Earlier You – all you have to do is listen to you, the you that thoughtfully reasoned out a plan, with your best future in mind. (Sorry this is getting a little meta.) Sometimes it’s really hard to not cave when the pressure is on, but I’ve found that if I really accept my decision and commit to it, I can abide by it in even the heaviest of situations. It is when I leave room for compromise, that I weaken my resolve. I might make the decision not to contact someone, and I won’t: I won’t text or call. But then, out of nowhere, she texts me, and I sneak through the loophole in my own rule: I reply. I know that when I do that, I’m only hurting myself, but that’s why it’s important to make your goals or personal “rules” very clear to yourself, and exercise enough self-awareness to look out, ahead of time, for exceptional circumstances where you might be tempted to skirt the law. This kind of personal responsibility is HARD, but it is the ONLY thing that works. You won’t have people around you much longer making it their job that you don’t mess up, literally making it practically impossible for you to break their laws. It’s as if they are telling you “don’t sit on that chair; it is a bad chair.” And then they stand around you taking turns to hold you up. If you haven’t used your time in that safety to adopt “their laws” as “your laws,” you will collapse when they turn you loose, desiring to sit more than you ever have before! You need to develop the strength and the determination to stand on your own so you do not fall out of weakness, and you need to put structures in your own life to prop yourself up when you do feel weak. It isn’t shameful or stupid to be weak; we all go through those periods for various reasons in our lives. Yet people who are wise anticipate those periods and prepare for them beforehand. I am sure your counselors are helping you with this; take them seriously. Invite people into your life that will lovingly hold you accountable. Do not run from discipline and accountability – they will save you, and if you are really serious about getting better, they are absolutely necessary. My best friend quit coke and heroin cold turkey and was clean for about 6 weeks before his birthday came. He figured that the occasion was special enough to warrant an exception to his rule. That was the night he OD’d. He was a smart guy, really smart, and he had people who loved him and helped him in every way, but the decision was ultimately his own. Only you can save your own life. I pray you have the strength of spirit to direct yourself how to feel and behave, rather than jumping into the next stage of your life without a plan, and wondering later on how come things turned out bad again. Entropy is the law of physics that draws all things towards chaos. Without actively working against it, everything goes bad. You’re in my heart, ~Nicole

#gracie #penpal #personal responsibility #pre-decisions