Fighting Atrophy
The best athletes hit their drills hard in practice. Leaders seeking to be their best are required to do the same.
As I exited the building after officiating a game last week, a woman roughly ten paces ahead of me was in a vibrant phone conversation about who-knows-what.
We were on a sidewalk in front of a school, and a random thought crossed my mind.
This young woman has likely NEVER experienced what life was like before the age of portable phones.
(Today’s is not a “back in my day” thought – please bear with me. I am going somewhere.)
I DO remember that earlier age. Back then, I knew every one of my friends’ phone numbers. I still know my home phone number (you know, the one tethered to the wall) from 1977.
But now, without my Contacts list, I could not tell you my own daughter’s cell number.
Calculators were just becoming a thing in my middle school years. They were super expensive and not allowed in the classroom.
That would have been cheating!
By the time I got to college, they were required for certain math classes.
We lost something in that transition too.
As technology continues to develop faster than ever and AI looms large on the near horizon, what are the next skills to be lost?
Before your mind goes too far down that rabbit hole, that is not the point of today’s Stretch either.
The point today is this: How do we, as purpose driven leaders who desire to have a significant impact on the world around us, battle the broad swath of atrophy our modern world tends to welcome with open arms and actively pursue at breakneck speed?
Be it physical, mental, emotional/relational, or spiritual in nature, the goal of modern culture seems to be to make things easier – to the point of life becoming effortless.
But as leaders we know – through both our experience and the supporting data all around us – that “easy” is the broad road that leads to destruction.
And that “hard” is the narrow road that leads to life, to things that make a difference, to things that truly matter.
As I have pondered the question in italics above, one answer continues to rise to the top (though I am sure there are others):
Drills.
Drills are specific, focused activities we engage in in a practice environment – repeatedly and repetitiously – that advance muscle memory, cognition, and skill development.
Athletes inherently understand this. Conditioning drills. Shooting drills. Passing drills. Dribbling drills… Pick your sport and the skill you want to strengthen, and there will be myriad drills to choose from.
All of them are designed to improve an athlete’s mindset, skills, and abilities in preparation for game day performance.
It is how one pursues a state of mastery in any given skill.
So how might we apply that same concept to our business, life, and faith leadership?
What are the drills we could perform in “practice” that would promise to keep our minds, hearts, souls, and bodies sharp and ready to roll?
As I’ve said before, any day could be game day, but EVERY DAY IS TRAINING DAY!
How are you and I training for future excellence in the face of modern convenience?
And just as important – how are we helping our teams to do the same?
Let me know if I can help.
Blessings to you, my friends!
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This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
"Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition: The Path to Spiritual Growth"
- Richard Foster
From Amazon: Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.
Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration bring us nearer to one another and to God.
Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities—and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.
MMS 25-46
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