Staying on track toward accomplishing large goals can seem hard, but all big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision and we all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
In this episode, Caesar shares a simple process for getting started and sustaining movement toward our great task and mission of making disciples of Jesus in community. You'll discover the habit of small daily steps that add up to something big!
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
The "Daffodil Principle".
The power of moving 1% each day toward your goals.
How our actions and habits reveal our true motivation.
A simple daily process that will add up to big changes!
Get started here…From this episode:"We all do exactly what we choose to do every day. If your family life on mission, or your church or small group is not living with the spiritual freedom and relational peace you desire, it is within your God-given ability to change that. Your actions reveal how badly you want something. If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don’t really want it."
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:Coaching with Caesar & Tina in Everyday Disciple MAKERSMissio Publishing
Transcripts
Caesar Kalinowski:
Your actions reveal how badly you want something.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If you keep saying something's a priority, but you never act on it, then you don't really want it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's time to have an honest conversation with yourself.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Your actions reveal your true motivations.
Caesar Kalinowski:
See, he's saying the same thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
All big things come from small beginnings.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The seed of every habit is a single tiny decision, but as that decision is repeated, then a habit sprouts and grows stronger.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Roots entrench themselves and branches grow.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
What is it that God's calling you to do and leading you to do when it comes to making disciples the only mission of the church?
Heath Hollensbe:
Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionalities and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Heath Hollensbe:
In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Heath Hollensbe:
This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors.
Heath Hollensbe:
Probably forgot to tell you.
Heath Hollensbe:
And now here's your host, Caesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski:
You know, I am still thinking about our Team K family dinner night we had last Friday, we all got together, always a good time in our family.
Caesar Kalinowski:
When I say Team K family dinner night, it's usually extended oikos kind of thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
But we did homemade pizzas almost like a challenge.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That's how we roll we don't just make pizzas all one kind or pull them out of a box wherever we hand make these babies and We kind of each have our choice and make them and then we kind of compete and see which one's the favorite so much fun Let me tell you the top pizzas are almost always the same ones There's usually my grandson Patton his meat lovers classic is a favorite.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That's a great You Oftentimes there's either a chicken pesto or some sort of Asian influenced pizza, which is so good.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That's always a favorite.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And again this week, as always, drumroll.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Number one, the favorite pizza, we always have to make extra because we know it's going to be the case, is our BLT pizza.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And if you've never had a baconless and tomato pizza, we usually add avocado as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Oh, what an amazing thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We grill our pizzas, by the way, so in this case we're pre grilling them.
Caesar Kalinowski:
the hand rolled out dough with lots of olive oil and all that business.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And then you slather it up with mayonnaise and lettuce and bacon, not the lettuce, but first, but the mayonnaise and bacon and some cheese.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And then you rebake that a little bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And then you add the lettuce and tomato and avocado and all it is mind blowing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So if you think, Oh, that sounds weird to me.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Well, there's a reason.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's always in first place.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Don't knock it till you have tried it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now today, I want to share with you an idea and a practice that for some folks is maybe as old as time.
Caesar Kalinowski:
For our team, and with those we equip and coach, we've put a new twist on it lately and it serves us well.
Caesar Kalinowski:
What am I talking about?
Caesar Kalinowski:
I'm talking about the habit of small steps, and specifically the habit of small steps applied to moving the ball forward when it comes to discipleship and mission and seeing our folks in our churches move much more outward instead of inward and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Let me illustrate.
Caesar Kalinowski:
On his blog, author Sam Davies cites a story of a mother who decided to visit a daffodil garden with her daughter.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It goes on and says this, several times my daughter had telephoned to say, mother, you must come see the daffodils before they're over.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And I wanted to go, but it was a two hour drive from where he lived to where she lived.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now after some hesitation due to bad weather.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The mother finally agreed and she made the two hour drive in the rain and fog with her daughter.
Caesar Kalinowski:
When they arrived at the daffodil garden, the sun was coming through, the rain had disappeared, and they couldn't believe their eyes.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Quote, We turned a corner of the path and I looked up and gasped.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Before me lay the most glorious sight.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peaks and slopes.
Caesar Kalinowski:
There were five acres of these golden flowers.
Caesar Kalinowski:
In front of them lay an ocean of flowers, daffodils, as far as the eye could see.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now he goes on, he says, Next to the flowers was a house with a poster that read, Answers to the questions I know you're asking.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The first answer was, 50, 000 bulbs.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The second answer was, one at a time by one woman, two hands, two feet, and a very little brain.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And the third answer was, began in 1958.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The woman who planted the flowers had adopted this daffodil principle, and it was a lifelong commitment to a goal by taking one action every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Uh huh, let me say that again, a lifelong commitment to a goal by taking one simple action every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now author William James says this, he says, All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Practical, Emotional and Intellectual, Systematically Organized for our Weal or Woe, which means Joy or Sorrow, so this is all organized for our Joy or Sorrow and bearing us irresistibly toward our Destiny.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Whatever that might be.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And this really came home to me personally recently.
Caesar Kalinowski:
I was reading a book by Ronnie and Clint Howard It's a book called The Boys.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now, Ronnie Howard is a big director these days.
Caesar Kalinowski:
He used to be Opie on Andy Griffith and then he was Richie in Happy Days.
Caesar Kalinowski:
His brother Clint too, you've seen him a million times.
Caesar Kalinowski:
He was in Gentle Ben as a kid and I'm going way back machine here, but you've also seen him in every Ron Howard movie ever.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And he's a pretty famous actor in his own right.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Well, they wrote a memoir called The Boys, a memoir of Hollywood and family.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And it's, it really was so good.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It really touched my heart.
Caesar Kalinowski:
This guy knows how to tell a story.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now in the book Ron Howard talking they go back and forth But there's a part where Ronnie Howard's talking about his desire pretty early on to become a director later in life He really wanted to direct TV and film and he knew that and so there was a movie He was working on with a director named Bob Totten.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And here's what he said He says Bob Totten's mentoring was a formative experience in terms of my filmmaking aspirations Totten asked me what I was doing to further my dreams And I told him that I was making Super 8 movies in my backyard, but that I hoped to make my first feature while still in my teens.
Caesar Kalinowski:
He smiled wryly and said, Well, you need to ask yourself every day what you've done about being a filmmaker.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Did you write something?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Did you study a movie that you like?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Did you shoot or edit or do one thing to make yourself a film?
Caesar Kalinowski:
He says, get the heck, let's use a different word, out of your backyard and get to it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
In other words, quit thinking about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And I gave Bob a sharp nod and I pledged to him that I would heed his words.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And he goes on later, Ronnie does, Ron Howard, and he says, I began to every day, regardless of what I was shooting, Happy Days, or, you know, he was in, uh, all kinds of different movies, American Graffiti and all these, but at least one thing each day I worked towards becoming a director.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Like maybe it was working on a script, or researching lenses, or reading scripts, or all these different things.
Caesar Kalinowski:
He says, but every day, regardless of how busy I was or what I thought I had to do, I did at least one thing to move me towards my goal.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Believing that what he had said would be true.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That if I did, I would eventually make it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Well, he did clearly.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And that is the thing that's been rocking us lately is if you want to change something or a system or a pattern in your life or even big things about your life or something you're trying to achieve, even if you're trying to change it by 100%.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Percent.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It only takes a small step each day towards it, and you'll get there.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Think about this.
Caesar Kalinowski:
A 1% shift in something over a hundred days, you can change it a hundred percent.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Yeah, so for instance, let's say you're really trying hard to move your church toward discipleship admission in everyday life, not just showing up once in a while for a church service or streaming the service online or whatever, but you're really trying to get community life happening and all of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Well, what if you did 1 percent of a shift every week even?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Well, hardly anybody would even feel that because it'd be, you know, a small little movement, but over a hundred weeks You'd have changed everything a hundred percent.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If you did it over a hundred days, that's only a few months, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's amazing Now I found this online too today when I was thinking about this This is from the the management at Zappos, which is a huge online shoe company.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And here's what they put out Uh, s h n e t o u c e e r d o At the end of the year, you would have 3, 778.
Caesar Kalinowski:
34.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And you can do the math on that, I've checked it, it's real.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So a 1 percent increase in your total 100 over the course of a year and you'd have basically a 37.
Caesar Kalinowski:
78 times growth from what you had at the beginning of the year.
Caesar Kalinowski:
You get that?
Caesar Kalinowski:
1 percent every single day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And Zappos wrote urging their employees to improve 1 percent each day and become 37 times better at whatever their job was by the end of the year.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Oh man, wouldn't it be nice if we could all do this and just turn into superhumans in one year, faster, smarter, happier, more productive?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Well, there's a problem though.
Caesar Kalinowski:
See, we've all read so much life improvement and goal setting things and we kind of commit ourselves to doing it, but we, you know, don't find that they really have worked for us.
Caesar Kalinowski:
None of them really seem to stick all that long.
Caesar Kalinowski:
But here's the truth.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So if you look out ahead of your family life or your missional community life or your church's life and you go, we've got some big changes to make.
Caesar Kalinowski:
You only have to do 1 percent a day for a hundred days.
Caesar Kalinowski:
and that whole thing's changed 100%.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Or if you do it for a year, 3700%.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That's crazy.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Do you think you could do that?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Do you think you could choose to do one thing a day, just one thing a day towards your goal?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Maybe it's praying for a person of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Maybe it's getting together with another leader.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Maybe it's even asking God, what's the one thing you want me to do today?
Caesar Kalinowski:
And then doing it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
But if every single day, You were to do one thing towards accomplishing your goal of leading others in discipleship as a lifestyle and making disciples of Jesus, you will get there.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's true.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's amazing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And that's the thing we've been waking up to in our own lives, but also with those we coach.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And we kind of started asking each other via Vox or how we stay connected, like, Hey, what's your one thing today?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Or what's your 1%?
Caesar Kalinowski:
We kind of use it interchangeably.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So if you've got a bunch of stuff hanging out there and you really want, Oh, I want this for our church or I want this for my life or my family, then choose it and just create new small habits by starting small and doing one little thing each day towards your goal.
Caesar Kalinowski:
There's a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear and in it he says, Atomic Your actions reveal how badly you want something.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If you keep saying something's a priority, but you never act on it, then you don't really want it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's time to have an honest conversation with yourself.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Your actions reveal your true motivations.
Caesar Kalinowski:
See, he's saying the same thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
But he goes on to say later in the book too, All big things come from small beginnings.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The seed of every habit is a single tiny decision.
Caesar Kalinowski:
See, tied back to that, what do you choose to do, what is it you really want?
Caesar Kalinowski:
But as that decision is repeated, then a habit sprouts and grows stronger.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Roots entrench themselves and branches grow.
Caesar Kalinowski:
The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's interesting.
Caesar Kalinowski:
I don't think James Clear probably knew about the lady with her daffodils But you see how there's a lot of real smart people talking about this same thing for me I dug it out of this memoir by Ronnie Howard and his brother We all do exactly what we choose to do every day What is it that God's calling you to do and leading you to do when it comes to making disciples?
Caesar Kalinowski:
The only mission of the church.
Caesar Kalinowski:
How about this?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Start praying.
Caesar Kalinowski:
What next Lord?
Caesar Kalinowski:
What's my one thing today?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Before you get out of the bed in the morning, or maybe if you're really ambitious, pray that before you go to bed, listen for what God says, and then you got time for your subconscious mind to prepare for that one thing tomorrow.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Before you even get out of bed, What's the one thing or that 1%, if nothing else, that you'd have me do today, Lord, that'll move me and my family and our community toward accomplishing our goal of making disciples of Jesus and growing and multiplying gospel centered communities.
Caesar Kalinowski:
What is that, Lord?
Caesar Kalinowski:
And then write it down, so make it real.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And I would suggest share that one thing with someone else.
Caesar Kalinowski:
maybe a partner in ministry or your spouse, someone in your missional community.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Maybe you start a little text chain where you ask everybody in the morning, so what's your one thing today?
Caesar Kalinowski:
The one thing that you're going to do to move towards accomplishing your goal on mission of making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So what's your one thing going to be today?
Caesar Kalinowski:
Now let's look at the big three takeaways from today's topic.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If nothing else, as you're thinking about the habit of small steps, I don't want you to miss these.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And as always, I'll send you a printable PDF of this week's big three as a free download.
Caesar Kalinowski:
All you have to do is go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:
com forward slash big three.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Let me get back to that in just a second.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Have you checked out this discipleship as a lifestyle workshop?
Caesar Kalinowski:
We are offering a bunch of things that we've never offered in this way before as far as training goes going deep into Really the idea of how would you begin to live discipleship as a lifestyle and it's not tips and tricks It is the grounding of sort of the thinking behind it, but then it's very practical because it's a workshop You're gonna leave with done takeaways of things going oh this, this changes a lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:
This changes a whole lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And so, uh, I'm, I, I want you to be able to check that out.
Caesar Kalinowski:
There's going to be some major shifts that'll happen for you in, in light of this.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Uh, we're going to break this up into a few pieces.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Uh, the first section is called discipleship starts at hello, and I'm going to really tweak your mind a little bit about when does discipleship start with people and what is it really all about?
Caesar Kalinowski:
and give you an understanding that will tweak everything a bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It really will, but it's, it's such a good thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:
It's such a good tweak because it, it takes all the pressure off.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Then we're going to get deep into building relational trust in every type of relationship and why that's so important is if it'd be your own kids, your spouse, neighbors, People of Peace, some friends at work or whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If you don't have the skills and the understanding of how you move a relationship forward in trust, then you'll never move them into discipling.
Caesar Kalinowski:
and entrusting Jesus in other ways as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So we're going to spend a lot of time on that.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And that's going to be immediately usable.
Caesar Kalinowski:
You're going to see application all over your life the moment you hear it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And then you're going to discover how to move discipleship out of the classroom and into the normal rhythms of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:
We talk a lot about those kinds of things here, obviously on the podcast, but we're going to go deep into that.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And that's where you're going to get some of those immediate, like, Whoa, I did this today.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And it works and I could have my kids with me and family.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So anyway, head on over to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:
com forward slash lifestyle.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That's everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:
com forward slash lifestyle to get access to that now.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So here's the big three for this week.
Caesar Kalinowski:
First, before you get out of bed in the morning, tomorrow, ask God to show you what your 1 percent or your one thing for that day is.
Caesar Kalinowski:
And in faith, regardless of all the other stuff that you plan to do that day, do that one thing that God pointed out.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Trust Him.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Then do it again tomorrow.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Remember, a 1 percent movement toward a goal or some major shift or in changing a well worn set of traditions, 1 percent shift done for 100 days straight will get you there.
Caesar Kalinowski:
1 percent each day for a year nets you a 3700 percent shift.
Caesar Kalinowski:
That's probably more than you need.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Number two, God loves you exactly the same, fully and perfectly, regardless of your missional performance.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Meaning if you start doing this one thing a day and then you forget one or skip it or whatever, God loves you the same.
Caesar Kalinowski:
But see, he has placed desires within your heart to glorify him with your life and to experience all that Jesus died to give us.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If your fear of others opinions or fears of failure keep you from walking and leading from a place of peace Well, then ask God and maybe some others in your life to remind you of God's great love and his spirit of wisdom and strength that now lives within you and number three We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If your family life on mission or your church or small group is not living with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that you desire, it is within your God given ability to change that.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Your actions reveal how badly you want something.
Caesar Kalinowski:
If you keep saying something's a priority but you never act on it, then maybe you don't really want it.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:
So, that's the big three for today.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Don't miss those.
Caesar Kalinowski:
I hope this has been helpful.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Again, your one thing today can be signing up for the Discipleship as a Lifestyle workshop.
Caesar Kalinowski:
Head on over to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:
com forward slash lifestyle to get access to that now.
Caesar Kalinowski:
I'll look forward to seeing you there.
Caesar Kalinowski:
All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:
I'll talk to you soon.
Heath Hollensbe:
Thanks for joining us today.
Heath Hollensbe:
For more information on this show, and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit EverydayDisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:
com.
Heath Hollensbe:
And remember, you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised, every day.
