What we can all be certain of is that when we wake up tomorrow, absolutely nothing will be different unless we make it so. There is no magic in the clicking of the clock that means magic for our lives. What we are, we will be as each new day dawns—unless, that is, we determine otherwise.
A good deal of what I do is coaching leaders to their best, to a more noble and effective version of themselves. In this work, I have come to recognize that there are a few decisions human beings can make that almost always mean immediate change, immediate freedom, and immediate ascent. Some of us may find our lives lastingly transformed as a result of making the following five decisions:
1. The Decision to Forgive
Let’s take the mystery out of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a decision you make that no one owes you anything anymore, that the wrongs you have suffered are laid aside, freeing both you and the person you’ve held in bitterness. It means you are no longer going to rehearse fantasies of revenge, no longer waiting for a day of reckoning. Forgiveness is deciding that you have been wronged by people who are flawed just like you are and that you are not going to hold their wrongs against them anymore.
I don’t urge forgiveness because it is commanded by God or because it is the sweetly-spiritual thing to do. No, I urge it because I’ve seen more personal change from people forgiving others than from any other single act.
Let’s cut to the chase. In the next few days, make a list of the people you are lifetime angry with and set them free between you and God. Call them if you must, but only if it is essential to forgiving them.
Richard Roberts believes this will open the door to some great things.
2. The Decision to Clean House
There are things you own that you have to throw overboard if you are going to reach your destination. Your soul attaches to them, receiving signals that won’t help you be your best. These objects will be different for everyone. For one man, it may be the phone number the woman on the plane gave you. You haven’t called her, but you kept the number. You’ve fantasized in a way that pulls you from your wife. Throw it overboard. For someone else, it is the porn or the art on your walls that encourages lust, or the stuff the old boyfriend gave you, or the toys that take you from your family and your God. There are too many possibilities to list.
And for each of us it is different. My idol may not be your idol. Whatever the idol, throw it overboard for a better future.
3. The Decision to Say Goodbye
We are defined more than we know by the people we spend time with. My mother once told me to “Go smart, be smart.” As a struggling student, I determined to spend time with smart people who were serious about learning and created a culture around them of intellectual passion and accomplishment. I was changed by this decision.
Examine the people you spend time with. Do they encourage good traits in you? Do they even care about you? Are they dumping immoral bilge into your life with their jokes, stories, and language, or do they make you stronger? Perhaps more importantly, are you caught in relationships with passive-aggressive people who pledge love but practice a spirit-crushing brand of disloyalty on a regular basis?
If you scan your life and find you are hanging with the wrong gang, have the courage to say goodbye. Remember my mother’s dictum, “Go smart, be smart”? Well, it works on a lot of topics: “Go sober, be sober,” “Go successful, be successful,” Go honest, be honest,” Go family first, be family first.”
You get the point. There may be a need for big changes in your life. You decide.
4. The Decision to Be Bold
Why don’t you make this the time to declare war on your fears? Why not make a list of any fear you find ruling your life and decide to defy it. Did your father’s financial failures make you afraid to invest, give, or strive for advancement? Declare war on that fear of failure. Do whatever you have to do. Act against the fear, in the face of its counsel. Be radically generous or invest a bit more boldly. Take the same attitude toward the other fears that rule your life. Decide that by the end of this year, no irrational fear will rule you. This is a decision you have the power to make, and you will find a greater life on the other side of it.
5. The Decision to Give
Volumes have been written on the power of generosity. All the great religions command giving, and millions of people can testify to the transforming power of giving as a lifestyle. Yes, I know this message has been abused in our generation, but it was only worth abusing because the core truth is genuine: Generous people are happier and more prosperous.
Decide today that you are going to give more and give strategically, not just on impulse or sentiment. This may take the form of a regular tithe to your church or it may take the form of some monthly giving elsewhere. However you choose to do it, start giving and then keep some record of how things change in your life in the coming year.
Don’t make these decisions to be implemented at a future time.
Instead, make these decisions to act and act now. Nail down these new directions for your life. In this way, you can have truly a new life, rather than a recycling of life as it has always been.
In this spirit, Richard Roberts believes this can be your best year ever