Do It for a Day: How to Make or Break . . . (Multnomah, 2021)
Win the Day served as a prequel to Mark Batterson’s latest book, Do It for a Day: How to Make or Break Any Habit in 30 Days. Pastor Batterson continues to shepherd National Community Church (Washington, DC) as lead pastor. Mark asserts that to make or break habits, you must be willing to fail, fall, and act foolish. Therefore, such effort requires lots of trial and error, raw honesty, and holy curiosity. And domino habits provide the key – little habits with exponential effect. Above all, you put this effort into practice using the ‘3 Ms’: make it measurable, meaningful, and maintainable. Because Good habits pay dividends here and now. But they also leave a legacy for eternity. So, pick one habit you want to make or break in the next 30 days.
Most significantly, work through resistance. Rather than work around it. Habit formation starts with a growth mindset. Also, take God seriously, but take yourself less seriously. Because you’ll have a hard enough time with habit formation as it is. In addition, you need to get comfortable with discomfort by adding time and resistance. To make or break habits you must go against the grain, interrupt the pattern, and change the game. Either you conform or transform. You transform as you confront the brutal facts of your situation with unwavering faith. Hence, when you face a challenge that seems insurmountable, ask yourself this question: Is this where I stop? Everyone needs to stop somewhere. But to win the day, you must win in the dark – when no one’s watching.
Let Scripture rewrite your false narratives. Consequently, to get a word from God, get into the Word of God. As a result, over time the Holy Spirit’s still, small voice becomes the loudest voice in your life. You fix your focus, therefore, when you measure your problems against the character of God. The primary identity of who you are in Christ is the key that unlocks your identity, destiny, and authority. Kissing the wave means that you refuse to take the easy way out, that you see past the surface of situations in which you find yourself. That means you take the path of most resistance. The road less traveled. And when you eat the frog, you don’t shrink from sacrifice, flee from danger, or handicap hardship. The enemy of good isn’t bad. It’s good enough.
Finally, Pastor Batterson underscores, playing the long game means getting a little better every day in every way. It’s a think small mindset. Certainly, the goal is who you become in the process. Not actually accomplishing your goal. Stop talking to God about your problems and start talking to your problems about God. Shift the atmosphere by operating in the opposite spirit. You outgrow your seemingly insurmountable problems when you discover something more important than your problem. Thus, Mark exhorts, use your obstacles as motivation, not as an excuse. Above all, what you don’t turn into praise turns into either pride or pain. And don’t box God in by boxing God out. After all, the Holy Spirit is the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do!
