Are you becoming today what you hope to be tomorrow?
Without question, you are becoming today what you will be tomorrow. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” The world we inhabit today is largely the product of our past practices. To put it in a coach’s terms, “You play like you practice.”
How you practice and what you practice in the present determines your future. You will be tomorrow what you are becoming today. The only question is whether it’s what you really want.
Often, we want health but eat junk food. We want fitness but lounge on the couch. We crave closeness to God but pay more attention to football. We wish to know the Bible, but don’t read it. We long for peace but deny forgiveness. We want more friends and deeper relationships, but practice isolation.
Direction, not desire, determines destination. Whatever we want to be tomorrow, we must practice today. After hearing a famous pianist play, a woman gushed, “I’d give my life to be able to play like that.” To which the pianist replied, “That’s exactly what it takes.”
To what are you giving your life today? What you are practicing today will show up tomorrow. Joe Frazier, former heavyweight boxing champion says of the big fight, “That’s where your road work shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, you’re getting found out now under the bright lights.”
Renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz said, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it."
Life is conditional. We choose outcomes by choosing inputs. “A man reaps what he sows” is how God puts it (Galatians 6:7). What we practice today predicts what we will be tomorrow.
Larry Bird is well known for what he did on the basketball courts in televised games. What is lesser known is that Bird practiced five hundred free throws alone every morning before he went to high school. “The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda,” says leadership expert John Maxwell. Bird’s agenda included practicing free throws and he became famous for his accuracy.
What is on our agendas? Do a quick check. What are your daily habits? Make sure they will take you where you want to go. Whatever we hope to be tomorrow, let’s start becoming today.
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