Your One LifeSample

Day Four: Self-Leadership

Author John Kotter once said, “Most people don’t lead their own lives — they accept their lives.” Rather than realizing we are in charge of our own lives and exerting good self-leadership, most people take a more passive approach. They get caught up in the current of everyday life and passively get swept along to an unwanted destination. 

Perhaps the greatest verses in all the Bible about self-leadership are found in Deuteronomy 30. In the first ten verses, God extends an invitation to an abundant, blessed life. He says that if the Israelites will return to Him, He will restore their fortunes, increase their number, protect them from their enemies, prosper them, and give them bumper crops. 

Right on the heels of this amazing offer, God speaks to self- leadership: 

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

—Deuteronomy 30:11-14 

This abundant, rich, satisfying, fulfilling, meaningful, joy-filled life is accessible and available. It’s not too difficult, and it’s not out of reach. It is close at hand and available. But you must turn your face toward that life and lean in to it.

As we’ve already talked about, we get only one shot at our lives on this planet. Every day spent is one we will never get back. That might mean that we have to stop blaming others, stop playing the victim, and stop making excuses for why we can’t live the life we want. 

So don’t let yourself off the hook. Don’t give yourself a free pass. Don’t rationalize or make excuses. Take responsibility. Start leading yourself. 

Where do you tend to give yourself a free pass? In other words, where do you tend to come up with excuses or rationalize poor choices in life?