00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 728 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Scott Brookens from ScottBrookens.com. I encourage you to find the way to be inspired, to start your dream business and find freedom. And one way to do that is to be inspired by this the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader, You don't have to know the entire journey.
00:00:33 You don't have to know all of the steps. You don't have to have all of the answers today. You just have to know what's next and I'm speaking to everyone, but I'm honestly speaking to myself just as surely right now, because the truth is I've got a lot of things in my life right now that I'm trying to master very quickly. Welcome.
00:00:54 And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact.
00:01:27 And today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why one key to success is to just get started, how getting started isn't the end of the journey, but it is the most important step. And I share how getting the attitude of what's next rather than what's right. Can help as we talk about stewarding your time.
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00:02:11 just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. It's funny, but I think all of us at one time or another begin looking for some of the secrets to success, you know, what are the things that set successful people apart from others? What is it that let successful people get more done or get bigger things done, or get out there and win and some way that the average person doesn't.
00:02:37 And what's interesting is when you actually talk to people about success, one of the secrets to success, Jared shared with you on Monday, it's this idea of getting started. It's this idea of beginning before you're ready of getting started when you're not good at something, instead of waiting until you master it. You know, a funny that my mother likes to tell is that when I was a kiddo,
00:03:02 when I was growing up, I decided that I didn't want to ride a bike until I could ride the bike without falling down. Now, some of you are probably laughing right now because you recognize that that statement is a little bit ridiculous at face value. Now, to give you the rest of the story, I actually made a study of watching people who are riding the bike and thinking about how to ride the bike and puzzling out all the different ways.
00:03:30 I asked my dad questions. I asked my mom questions. I asked other friends who were already riding bikes questions. I tried to intellectually dissect, how do you ride a bike without falling down? And then finally, one day I decided to try it and I got on the bike and I'm sure my dad ran along beside me and held the bike and held it up and then let go and said,
00:03:52 keep peddling, keep peddling the way that we do. And I pedaled down the Hill and my mom likes to say that I was a little stinker. And for a long time, I actually didn't fall. I, I managed to keep the bike balanced and I pedaled and I balanced and I balanced. The problem was I'd figured out how to ride a bike without falling.
00:04:10 I hadn't actually figured out how to stop the bike without falling. And I ended up hitting the curb and falling into the grass. And no, I didn't hurt myself. And relatively quickly I did actually learn how to ride a bike. But when I started, even with all of my study, even with all of my brute force, will have making sure that I did it in a way that was perfect from the very beginning,
00:04:35 I still fell off the bike. And you know, that's the truth for all of us. I think too. There's some interesting psychological studies out there about how, when you ask people about tasks that they don't want to do, you'll putting off that, that term paper as a college student, they'll, they'll rationalize. They'll talk about all of the reasons why I work better under pressure.
00:04:56 You know, I'll feel more like doing it tomorrow. I've got a little bit more research to do. I've just got to figure out one more thing before I get started. And the truth is all of those things are mere rationalizations. Once they actually get started, all of a sudden the language they use to describe that task, how stressful they describe it as being how frustrating they think it's going to be.
00:05:20 All of those emotions that they have that are negative about the task flip and usually become more positive. They say, it's not as bad as they thought it was going to be. It's easier than they thought it was going to be. They wished they would have started earlier. But then we repeat that pattern over and over and over again. The truth is,
00:05:40 that's why one of the secrets to success is getting started. Getting started before you're ready, getting started for, for your good, letting yourself be bad at something so that eventually you can become good at it because see, it's the process. That's more important than the result. Same thing happens with athletes. You know, becoming a professional athlete can be very stressful,
00:06:05 but learning the skills that athletics teaches us is more about learning the sport and playing the sport than it is about becoming a pro all too often in our culture. We hold it up. That if you can't be number one at something you might as well not even try, but the truth is being the 10th best person at something or the hundredth Beth's person at something,
00:06:27 does it really change the attitudes and the abilities that you learn? See, the truth is getting started is vital to the process. It's not the end of the journey, but it is the most important step because see finishing, which is also important comes after starting. You can't ever finish something. If you didn't start now finishing for people and following through can be a problem as well.
00:06:55 Because sometimes we use starting as an excuse, we start something and then we get a little bored with it. So we go start something else. And then we start something else. So serial starting where you can start something new because you want something new and exciting in your life. All the time can also be bad. But all too often, what I see instead is people that have had a dream for a long time have wanted to go out and do something for a long time,
00:07:22 but are still waiting around until the perfect moment. They're not starting too many things instead. They're not starting at all. This is why one of the things that I try to work with people on is around their attitude around it. See the truth is oftentimes the reason we don't get started is because we think we have to know the entire destination. We have to know the whole journey.
00:07:46 We have to know the beginning and the middle and the end before we can start. But the truth is you don't need to know all of the steps of the journey. You simply need to know what's next. What is the next action I need to take? What is the smallest thing I can do today? That moves me on that process. That moves beyond that journey.
00:08:07 That begins to step me towards the destination that I want. You don't have to know the entire journey. You don't have to know all of the steps. You don't have to have all of the answers today. You just have to know what's next. And I'm speaking to everyone, but I'm honestly speaking to myself just as surely right now, because the truth is I've got a lot of things in my life right now that I'm trying to master very quickly.
00:08:34 I'm trying to learn how to use this new sound system that we put into our church. And I'm the guy that's also going to have to teach other people how to use it. But the truth is at this point, nobody knows how to use it. Me included. I've got all sorts of things that I want to be perfect at. And I'm having to remind myself that it's not about being,
00:08:55 it's just about taking the next step because see, deep inside, I'm still that kid that doesn't want to ride the bike until I can do it without falling off. And I've had to get a lot more comfortable with what's next, rather than what's right. Or what's perfect are what is the end of this journey instead of just the beginning. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast,
00:09:29 as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series, by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four, four, two, two,
00:09:58 two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact.