Chapter 4
Prepare Your Heart: Look In
LOOK IN
John Wooden, one of the greatest coaches ever, led the UCLA basketball team to 13 national championships. He was the only person inducted into the Hall of Fame as both a player and coach. He would always tell his players, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” For him, preparation was a key ingredient to success.
When we talk about preparing your heart, we mean getting your heart ready by looking in. That takes preparation and, as Coach Wooden discovered, it’s our first step to success in the One Word process. Every year, we are intentional about stopping and preparing our hearts. If you skip this step or rush through it, you are likely to miss out on the most rewarding and revealing part of the One Word journey. Preparing your heart creates fertile ground for life change.
Failing to prepare = preparing to fail.
Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” Nothing is more frustrating than chopping wood with a blunt blade, and nothing is more frustrating than going through life without focus. Taking the time to sharpen the ax makes the task successful. Most of us fail in the preparation, not in the task itself.
The Silent Killer
There’s no question that it’s hard to break away from the busyness of life. It has become the silent killer of our day. In the Chinese language, the word busyness is represented by single pictograph of two characters: heart and killing!
Busyness is a disease that’s robbing us of life. It brings on stress and exhaustion, and it weights our hearts with anxiety so that we become numb and calloused to the most important things in life. Busyness throws us into survival mode and leaves no time for mission and meaning.
It has been said that busyness makes us stop caring about the things we care about. Some of us are addicted to busyness. When the alarm goes off, we hit the ground running. We are constantly on the go.
Activity does not mean achievement.
But if you’re running the rat race, you’re in the wrong race. As experts at multitasking, we’ve bought into the lie that activity means achievement. If you are like us, you may even feel guilty when you’re not doing something, as though you should be filling up your time every moment. If we take a break, it’s almost never in silence; we find something else to create noise and fill the void.
Make the Investment
The first and most important step of the One Word process is to prepare your heart. It means we need to escape from the busyness of life and take time to get our hearts ready by looking inward. The truth is, what you sow, you will reap. What you invest into this process, you will receive in return. The seeds you plant today will create the harvest you will enjoy tomorrow.
Sometimes, our hearts are similar to hard-packed soil, and the seed never takes root. Other times, it takes root and grows, but the worries, desires, and distractions of life choke it out. Then there are times when the seed falls on the good soil of a heart that is ready to receive it. That seed grows and produces a great harvest. If you want a great harvest, don’t go through the motions: Prepare your heart. Take the time to look inward by opening your heart.
Right now, you might be wondering how much time is needed. We can’t answer that for you, because it’s different for each person. We know some individuals who begin to prepare their hearts to receive their word around Thanksgiving. That gives them a good four to five weeks before the New Year. They don’t like to rush through it, so they enjoy the extended time to evaluate the possibilities. Others set aside one hour on December 31. Still others who read this book during the summer may want to take time to reflect and choose their word for the second half of the year. When the New Year approaches, simply choose another word for the year. Any approach works, but the path you choose depends on what you want to gain from this—simply a word or actual life change?
One Word is for any time of the year—it’s never too late to start.
The most important thing is to detach from the business and stress of life to prepare. Whether it’s April, August, or December, you will be ready for your word. Preparation paves the way for growth and harvest.
When it comes to preparing your heart and looking in, we follow two simple steps: (1) Unplug, and (2) Ask.
Unplug
Unplugging requires that we intentionally find solitude and silence. Being alone and quiet are tough disciplines for most of us. Unplugging doesn’t come naturally and can feel awkward. We’re much more comfortable with the TV on in the background or headphones in our ears. We like noise, because it keeps us company, but it will keep us from discovering our One Word.
When developing our One Word for the year, it’s imperative to completely unplug from all distractions and create an environment conducive to silence. That means:
- No TV
- No music
- No computer
- No phone
- No other people
- No to-do lists
As you prepare your heart for discovering your One Word, it’s challenging to find a place with no distractions or interruptions. We’ve found that getting up early, when it’s still dark and before the family gets into full swing, is key. Others capitalize on the late-night hours. Sometimes, finding an isolated place in nature is helpful. Wherever you decide to go, create the environment to look inward and to discover what you need to quiet your mind and really listen to your heart.
Ironically, the first thing you’ll experience in the silence is the unrelenting noise in your head. It’s difficult to shut off the concerns of the day, your schedule, and the endless to-do lists waiting for you. It’s an all-out battle to break through the noise of life.
Out of silence comes power.
But if you move past the initial awkwardness of silence and look inward, you’ll be rewarded with clarity. You’ll begin to see things more clearly and be refreshed by the renewing of your body, mind, and spirit. You’ll begin to experience and enjoy a peace that you probably didn’t think was possible.
When this happens, you will find it easy to discover your One Word. It has been said, “A word with power is a word that comes out of silence.” Your word will be birthed out of solitude. Commit to unplugging.
Ask
While you’re unplugged, take the next step and ask the following three key questions to prepare your heart for your One Word.
These three questions are so powerful because they’ll help you find a word that has true meaning in your life. Too often, we focus so much time on getting our One Word that we miss the real power—the why behind the word. When you know the why behind your word, you’ll have greater power to live and share it.
The why is always more important than the what.
Discovering the why happens when we look at the past, the present, and the future. What are your past circumstances that you need to learn from? What is your current reality? Where do you want to go from here?
Situations and circumstances in the past happened for a reason—and for us to reason. They paint the picture of our life story. The answers to these questions help us understand where we are now and why we want to make improvements and changes.
Once you understand why you are drawn to a certain word, you create fertile ground for the word to be planted in your life.