The Habit of Small Steps

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…

The Habit of Small Steps

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…

Thanks for Listening!

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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Free Download of the Big 3 For Episode #374

Everyday Disciple Challenge and Workshop – Register FREE

Missio Publishing

 

Join us on Facebook

Transcript
Caesar:

Your actions reveal how badly you want something.

Caesar:

If you keep saying something's a priority, but you never act on it, then you don't really want it.

Caesar:

It's time to have an honest conversation with yourself, your actions reveal your true motivations.

Caesar:

So he's saying the same thing.

Caesar:

We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

All big things come from small beginnings . The seed of every habit is a single tiny decision.

Caesar:

But as that decision is repeated than a habit sprouts and grows stronger roots entrench themselves in branches grow the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time, we all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

What is it that God's calling you to do and leading you to do when it comes to making disciples?

Caesar:

The only mission of the church,

Announcer:

welcome to the Everyday Disciple podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.

Announcer:

In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors . Probably forgot to tell you.

Announcer:

And now here's your host Caesar Kalinowski

Caesar:

ya know,, I am still thinking about our team K family dinner night.

Caesar:

We had last Friday, we all got together, always a good time in our family.

Caesar:

When I say team K family dinner night, it's usually extended oikos.

Caesar:

But we did a homemade pizzas, almost like a challenge.

Caesar:

That's how we roll.

Caesar:

We don't just make pizzas, all one kind or pull them out of a box wherever we hand-make these babies.

Caesar:

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.

Caesar:

Let me tell you the top pizzas are almost always the same ones.

Caesar:

There's usually my grandson patent, his meat.

Caesar:

Lover's classic is a favorite.

Caesar:

That's always great.

Caesar:

Oftentimes there's either a chicken pesto or some sort of Asian influence pizza, which is so good.

Caesar:

That's always a favorite.

Caesar:

And again, this week as always drum roll 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:

And if you've never had a bacon, lettuce and tomato pizza, we usually add avocado as well.

Caesar:

All what an amazing thing.

Caesar:

We grill our pizzas, by the way.

Caesar:

So in this case, we're pre grilling, the hand rolled out dough with lots of olive oil and all that business, and then you slather it up with mayonnaise and lettuce and bacon.

Caesar:

Not the lettuce, but first, but the mayonnaise and, and a bacon and some cheese.

Caesar:

And then you rebake that a little bit.

Caesar:

And then you had the lettuce and tomato and avocado and all, and it is mind blowing.

Caesar:

So if you think, oh, that sounds weird to me.

Caesar:

Well, there's a reason it's always in first place.

Caesar:

Don't knock it till you have tried.

Caesar:

Hey, I'm getting pretty excited about our upcoming Everyday Disciple challenge.

Caesar:

Last episode, I was saying, Hey, get ready.

Caesar:

Kind of mark your calendar.

Caesar:

It's coming up March 21st.

Caesar:

Well, depending on when you're hearing that, that's just a few days away and this challenge has been a very popular thing.

Caesar:

We've done this several times before.

Caesar:

It's we call it a challenge because.

Caesar:

Homework.

Caesar:

There's a little baby steps to take each day.

Caesar:

As you start to embrace some new discipleship rhythms and every life kind of proven to you really can do this.

Caesar:

It is an info and action packed four days.

Caesar:

And in it, I walk you through exactly how we do discipleship in everyday life.

Caesar:

Basic foundational first steps.

Caesar:

All the things you'd need to get started.

Caesar:

And so many ways, this is really how the church is now embracing this new normal of so many people, not coming back to their Sunday gatherings and all, and deciding it's time to do micro churches and all, a lot of things we've been talking about.

Caesar:

We still call them Missional communities, but I hope that.

Caesar:

you will make a small step forward and join me for the Everyday Disciple challenge starts on Monday, March 21st.

Caesar:

It'll be at 11:00 AM Pacific time each day for about 40 to 45 minutes.

Caesar:

Okay.

Caesar:

And there's, I'll be training like hard.

Caesar:

Like there'll be a lot of training each day.

Caesar:

You'll have a worksheet to go along with that.

Caesar:

There'll be a little bit of homework and I give out a bunch of prizes too, just to kind of keep you excited.

Caesar:

Keep you hanging out with us and all that.

Caesar:

I hope you'll check that out.

Caesar:

Even if you think, well, I've done this before or whatever, it's always morphing and I keep moving it forward based on what we're experiencing now.

Caesar:

The things we've learned, but also what the church is experiencing now.

Caesar:

So if you're trying to lead people to make disciples, or you're trying to help move people from just a Sunday only experience into life and community and discipleship as a lifestyle, this is free training that is gonna, I think, really help you move the ball forward in a lot of ways, both personally, and as a family, but with those you're leading invite them to do it with you as well.

Caesar:

Just go over to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash channel.

Caesar:

Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash challenge.

Caesar:

And you can register right now for free.

Caesar:

In fact, if you need to pause the podcast and do that right now, do that.

Caesar:

I don't want you to forget, and don't forget this to invite the folks from your small group or your Missional Community or your church family to join you in this.

Caesar:

Why not get this free training together?

Caesar:

I think it'd be glad that.

Caesar:

That's Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash challenge.

Caesar:

And I'll look forward to seeing you in just a few days live.

Caesar:

Now, today, I want to share with you an idea and a practice that for some folks is maybe as old as time for our team.

Caesar:

And with those we equip and coach we've put a new twist on it lately and it serves us well.

Caesar:

What am I talking about?

Caesar:

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:

Let me illustrate on his blog author, Sam Davies sites, a story of a mother who decided to visit a daffodil garden with her daughter.

Caesar:

It goes on and says this several times, my daughter had telephone to say, mother, you must come see the daffodils before they're over.

Caesar:

And I wanted to go, but it was a two hour drive from where he lived to where she lived now, after some hesitation, due to bad weather, the mother finally agreed and she made the two hour drive in the rain and fog with her daughter.

Caesar:

When they arrived at the daffodil garden, the sun was coming through, the rain had disappeared and they couldn't believe their eyes.

Caesar:

We turned a corner of the path and I looked up and gasped before me lay the most glorious sight.

Caesar:

It looked as though someone had taken a great VAT of gold in poured it down over the mountain peaks and slopes.

Caesar:

There were five acres of these golden flowers in front of them.

Caesar:

Lay an ocean of flowers, daffodils, as far as the eye could see.

Caesar:

Now he goes on, he says next to the flowers was a house with a poster that read answers to the questions.

Caesar:

I know you're asking.

Caesar:

The first answer was 50,000 bulbs.

Caesar:

The second answer was one at a time by one woman, two hands, two feet, and a very little brain.

Caesar:

And the third answer was began in 1950.

Caesar:

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:

Let me say that again.

Caesar:

A lifelong commitment to a goal by taking one simple action every day.

Caesar:

Now, author William James says this.

Caesar:

He says all our lives.

Caesar:

So far as it has, definite form is, but a mass of habits, practical, emotional, and intellectual systematically organized for our wheel or woe, which means joy or sours sorrow.

Caesar:

So this is all organized for our joy or sorrow and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever that might be.

Caesar:

And this really came home to me personally, recently, I was reading a book by Ronnie and Clint Howard.

Caesar:

It's a book called the boys.

Caesar:

Now, Ronnie Howard is a big director these days.

Caesar:

He used to be Opie on Andy Griffith and then he was a Richie in happy days.

Caesar:

His brother, Clint, too.

Caesar:

You've seen him a million times.

Caesar:

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:

And he's a pretty famous actor in his own.

Caesar:

Right?

Caesar:

Well, they wrote a memoir called the boys, a memoir of Hollywood and family, and it's, it really was so good.

Caesar:

I, it really touched my heart.

Caesar:

This guy knows how to tell us.

Caesar:

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.

Caesar:

He really wanted to direct TV and film, and he knew that.

Caesar:

And so there was a movie he was working on with a director named Bob Totten.

Caesar:

And here's what he said.

Caesar:

He says, Bob Titans mentoring was a formative experience in terms of my filmmaking aspirations.

Caesar:

Tom asked me what I was doing at furthermore.

Caesar:

And I told them that I was making super eight movies in my back yard, but then I hope to make my first feature.

Caesar:

I'll still in my teens.

Caesar:

He smiled ryely and said, well, you need to ask yourself every day, what you've done about being a film maker.

Caesar:

Did you write something?

Caesar:

Did you study a movie that you like, did you shoot or edit or do one thing to make yourself a film?

Caesar:

He says, get the heck is up, use a different word out of your backyard and get to it.

Caesar:

Now let's quit thinking about it.

Caesar:

And I gave Bob a sharp nod and I pledged to him that I would heed his words.

Caesar:

And he goes on later, Ronnie does Ron Howard.

Caesar:

And he says, I began to everyday, regardless of what I was shooting happy days, or, you know, he was in, uh, all kinds of different movies, American graffiti, and all he says, but at least one thing each day I worked towards becoming a director.

Caesar:

Like maybe it was working on a script or researching lenses or reading.

Caesar:

Scripts or all these different things 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, believing that what he had said would be true, that if I did, I would eventually make it.

Caesar:

Well, he did clearly.

Caesar:

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 a hundred percent, it only takes a small step each day towards it.

Caesar:

And you'll get there.

Caesar:

Think about this a 1% shift in some.

Caesar:

Over a hundred days, you can change it a hundred percent.

Caesar:

Yeah.

Caesar:

So for instance, let's say you're really trying hard to move your church toward discipleship and mission in everyday life.

Caesar:

Not just showing up once in a while for a church service or streaming the service on line or whatever, but you're really trying to get community life happening and all of that.

Caesar:

Well, what if you did 1% of a shift every week, even.

Caesar:

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:

If you did it over a hundred days, that's only a few months, right.

Caesar:

It's amazing.

Caesar:

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:

And here's what they put.

Caesar:

They put up to their employees, they put like posters up with this and email them all says, if you start out with a hundred dollars at the beginning of the year, and you were able to increase what you have by 1%, every single.

Caesar:

At the end of the year, you would have $3,778 and 34 cents.

Caesar:

And you can do the math on that.

Caesar:

I've checked it.

Caesar:

It's real.

Caesar:

So a 1% increase in your total hundred dollars over the course of a year.

Caesar:

And you'd have basically a 37 point 78 times growth from what you had at the beginning of the year.

Caesar:

You get that 1%, every single day.

Caesar:

And Zappos wrote urging their employees to improve 1% each day and become 37 times better at whatever their job was by the end of the year.

Caesar:

Who 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:

Well, there's a problem though.

Caesar:

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:

None of them really seem to stick all that long, but here's a truth.

Caesar:

We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

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:

You only have to do 1% a day for a hundred days, and that whole thing's changed a hundred percent.

Caesar:

Or if you do it for a year 3700%, that's crazy.

Caesar:

Do you think you could do that?

Caesar:

Do you think you could choose.

Caesar:

To do one thing a day, just one thing a day towards your goal, maybe it's praying for a person of peace.

Caesar:

Maybe it's getting together with another leader.

Caesar:

Maybe it's even asking God, what's the one thing you want me to do today and then doing it.

Caesar:

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:

It's true.

Caesar:

It's amazing.

Caesar:

And that's the thing we've been waking up to in our own lives.

Caesar:

But also with those we coach and we kind of started asking each other via Voxer, how we stay connected, like, Hey, what's your one thing today?

Caesar:

Or what's your 1% we kind of use it interchangeably.

Caesar:

We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

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.

Caesar:

And just create new small habits by starting small and doing one little thing each day towards your goal.

Caesar:

There's a book called atomic habits by James clear in it.

Caesar:

He says your actions reveal how badly you want something.

Caesar:

If you keep saying something's a priority, but you never act on it, then you don't really want it.

Caesar:

It's time to have an honest conversation with youself.

Caesar:

Your actions reveal your true motivations.

Caesar:

So he's saying the same thing.

Caesar:

We all do exactly what we choose to do every day, but he goes on to say later in the book, too, all big things come from small beginnings.

Caesar:

The seed of every habit is a single tiny decision.

Caesar:

See, tied back to that.

Caesar:

What do you choose to do?

Caesar:

What is it you really want?

Caesar:

But as that decision is repeated, then a habit sprouts and grows.

Caesar:

Roots entrenched themselves in branches grow the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.

Caesar:

It's interesting.

Caesar:

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.

Caesar:

I dug it out of this memoir by Ronnie Howard and his brother.

Caesar:

We all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

What is it that God's calling you to do and leading you to do when it comes to making disciples?

Caesar:

The only mission of the church?

Caesar:

How about this start?

Caesar:

Praying what next Lord?

Caesar:

What's my one thing today.

Caesar:

Before you get out of the bed in the morning, or maybe if you're really ambitious, pray that before you go to bed.

Caesar:

Listen for what God says.

Caesar:

And then you got time for your subconscious mind to prepare for that one thing tomorrow, before you even get out of bed.

Caesar:

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 center communities.

Caesar:

What is that, Lord?

Caesar:

And then write it down, so make it real.

Caesar:

And I would suggest share that one thing with someone else, maybe a partner in ministry or your spouse, someone in your Missional Community.

Caesar:

Maybe you start a little text chain where you ask everybody in the morning.

Caesar:

So what's your one thing today.

Caesar:

The one thing that you're going to do to move towards accomplishing your goal on mission of making disciples.

Caesar:

So what's your one thing going to be today?

Caesar:

How about I help you?

Caesar:

What if your one thing today was to say, you know what, I'm doing that Everyday Disciple challenge next week, I'm going to invite some folks and I'm going to go register right now.

Caesar:

Yeah.

Caesar:

See, I know it sounds a little self-serving, but I'm doing this training for free.

Caesar:

Remember, I want you to join me in this, and I want you to invite folks that you're on mission with, or your small group leaders in your church or whatever.

Caesar:

We've done this before.

Caesar:

We're leaders.

Caesar:

We'll all the, watch it online.

Caesar:

And then they'll hop on their own zoom call afterwards or later that evening or whatever to discuss it.

Caesar:

Okay.

Caesar:

This is about 45 minutes a day over four days.

Caesar:

I there, I will leave the replays up in the Facebook group for a few days, but they'll come down pretty quick after the challenge.

Caesar:

So if you can't make every one of them wherever that's okay, you can watch it later that day.

Caesar:

The whole thing is starting on Monday the 21st.

Caesar:

And I'll give you the link again.

Caesar:

And let me just give you a quick heads up.

Caesar:

Like the first day we're going to talk about what is discipleship.

Caesar:

And I'm going to share really practical things and a working framework of discipleship that will forever change the way that you make disciples.

Caesar:

And it also give you a way to articulate this to those you're trying to lead into Everyday discipleship.

Caesar:

The second day, we're going to look at our gospel identity.

Caesar:

I'm going to go pretty deep into that.

Caesar:

That's a foundational issue because understanding how our true identity from God changes our motivation.

Caesar:

And who, how we see life and all who we think we are.

Caesar:

That's what sends us out on mission.

Caesar:

And that's key to making disciples in everyday life day three.

Caesar:

I'm going to show you six ordinary rhythms of life that are perfectly created by God for natural daily discipleship, and it already fits everyone's schedule.

Caesar:

And there again, there'll be a little bit of homework, so you'll get to pick one of those and give it a.

Caesar:

And I think you're going to say, whoa, this is really doable.

Caesar:

And then day four, we're going to talk about finding Missional balance.

Caesar:

How did Jesus know how to spend his time with who and give his best time and attention to, as he moved his disciples from sort of curious, onlookers.

Caesar:

To mature disciple makers.

Caesar:

This is going to really help you start to figure out, okay, how do we do this?

Caesar:

How do we do this?

Caesar:

And all of this will work wherever you're at.

Caesar:

I promise you in every context, it doesn't matter if we've got a real traditional church or we're more rural or we're in the city, wherever I promise you, we've trained this same stuff and used it personally in over 30 plus countries and we've seen it work and we've seen community start and multiply and people come to faith and disciples of Jesus, making more decisions.

Caesar:

This is going to work.

Caesar:

And even if we go in and out a few more times of social distancing or whatever, I don't know.

Caesar:

You'll see all of this stuff is it's going to work perfectly, even if that's the case and it has been.

Caesar:

So is this your one thing today, go and register right now, go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash challenge Everyday Disciple dot com for slash challenge and send that link out and say, Hey, let's all do this together.

Caesar:

Work that out.

Caesar:

You'll be really, really glad you did.

Caesar:

Now let's get to the big three takeaways from today's topic.

Caesar:

If nothing else, as you're thinking about the habit of small steps, I don't want you to miss these.

Caesar:

And as always, I'll send you a printable PDF of this week's big three as a free download.

Caesar:

All you have to do is go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash big three.

Caesar:

Okay.

Caesar:

So here's the big three for this week.

Caesar:

Before you get out of bed in the morning tomorrow, ask God to show you what your 1% or your one thing for that day is.

Caesar:

And in faith, regardless of all the other stuff that you plan to do that day, do that one thing that God pointed out, trust him, then do it again tomorrow.

Caesar:

Yeah.

Caesar:

Remember a 1% movement toward a goal or some major shift or.

Caesar:

It's changing a well-worn set of traditions.

Caesar:

1% shift done for a hundred days straight.

Caesar:

We'll get you there 1% each day for a year.

Caesar:

And that's you with 3700% shift.

Caesar:

That's probably more than you need.

Caesar:

Okay.

Caesar:

Number two, God loves you exactly the same fully and perfectly, regardless of your Missional performance.

Caesar:

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, but see, he has placed desires within your heart to glorify him with your life and to experience all that.

Caesar:

Jesus died to give us if your fear of others' opinions or fears of failure, keep you from walking and leading from a place of peace.

Caesar:

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.

Caesar:

And number three, we all do exactly what we choose to do every day.

Caesar:

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:

Your actions reveal how badly you want something.

Caesar:

If you keep saying something's a priority, but you never act on it then maybe you don't really want it.

Caesar:

Hmm.

Caesar:

So that's the big three for today.

Caesar:

Don't miss those.

Caesar:

I hope this has been helpful.

Caesar:

I hope you'll join me and Tina and those we've been coaching with.

Caesar:

Checking in with each other and go, Hey, what's your one thing.

Caesar:

And trust God for the results of that.

Caesar:

But you're going to be amazed at how quickly this starts to add up to some really major progress.

Caesar:

Again, your one thing today can be signing up for the Everyday Disciple challenge in workshop that starting on Monday the 21st, I hope you'll go over there to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash challenge and register right now.

Caesar:

I'll look forward to seeing there on Monday.

Caesar:

All right, I'll talk to you soon.

Announcer:

Thanks for joining us today.

Announcer:

For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.