Atonement child

A Review of Make Today Count by John C. Maxwell


Reviewed by Dekpen Tamarapreye

The author started by asking some very relevant questions about life that each person needs to answer. How would you describe your life? Are you achieving what you desire? Are you accomplishing the things that are important to you? Do you consider yourself a success? How do your prospects for the future look?

These are the questions John C. Maxwell wants each and every one of us to answer if we must be successful. Let's all ponder on these questions even as you answer them in your mind and be sincere with yourself. What answers are you getting?

In this book, John said that the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda and if you make few key decisions and manage them well daily, you will succeed. You can never change your life until you change something you do daily. He went further to say that success doesn't happen suddenly in someone's life in one day, neither does failure. Each is a process and everyday of your life is merely a preparation for the next. What you become is as a result of what you do today and the decisions you make today. In other words, you are preparing for something. The way you live your life today is preparing you for your tomorrow.

Now here is the big question; the big question John wants us to answer is this - "what are we preparing?" Are we preparing for success or we are preparing for failure? The answer lies in your daily agenda. John C. Maxwell said something very striking which I will want us to take home as souvenir for reading this piece. He said, "you can pay now and play later or play now and pay later." Did we get the gist?

Which one are you going to do? I believe you are in the "pay now" category. As for me, I am paying now, so that I can play later. Unfortunately, there are some group of people who consciously and unconsciously prepare for failure. The idea is that you can play and take it easy and do what you want today, but if you do, your life will be harder later. However, if you work hard now, on the front end, then you will reap rewards in the future.

So, in order for us to succeed, we must intentionally make each and everyday of our life count. We must make today a masterpiece. We can do that with good decisions and discipline. These are the two ingredients we need to make every day a masterpiece. He calls them goal setting and goal getting. The decisions you make today determines what your tomorrow will look like, so making the right decision now is key and you also need to discipline yourself to follow those decisions no matter what. Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame University said:
"You don't make decisions because they’re EASY;

You don’t make decisions because they’re CHEAP;

You don’t make decisions because they’re POPULAR;

You make decisions because they’re RIGHT."

The author listed twelve critical areas for success which he calls the daily dozen. He said if you settle these twelve issues by making the right decision in each area and then work to manage those decisions daily, then you will be successful. These are the twelve dozen:

1. Attitude: Choose and display the right attitude daily. Your attitude can either draw people close to you or push them away. See good in everything, every situation and in everyone. Think, talk, act, and conduct yourself like the person you want to become.

2. Priorities: Determine and act on important priorities daily. List out your priorities and invest your time in them. Don't waste time on frivolities that yield no results. Invest your time more on your area of strength so you can become an expert in that area.

3. Health: Know and follow healthy guidelines daily. Only people who don't have something worthwhile to live for, live carelessly. God gives and takes lives but we have a role to play in taking care of ourselves. Let's be intentional about staying healthy. Our generation needs us.

4. Family: Communicate with and care for your family daily. Most people lose family in the course of pursuing purpose. It ought not to be so. Let's know that no matter our level of achievement, if our family members don't love, respect and celebrate us, then our joy won't be complete at all. Hence, we should make it a priority to put our family first before Purpose or Career.

5. Thinking: Practice and develop good thinking daily. Create time to think daily and think healthy thought. Good thoughts that can build you and not demoralize you.

6. Commitment: Make and keep proper commitments daily.

7. Finances: Make and properly manage your finances daily.

8. Faith: Deepen and live out your faith daily.

9. Relationships: Initiate and invest in solid relationships daily. The author said something striking concerning faith. He said every human has faith, the question is where you place it. We should live out our faith as a lifestyle. Let it determine our decision and be the foundation for our values.

10. Generosity: Plan for and model generosity daily.

11. Values: Embrace and practice good values daily.

12. Growth: Seek and experience improvements daily. We should be deliberate about giving. We should list out values that define us, otherwise anything goes. And we should endeavour to live out these values daily. We should seek growth passionately. If we don't grow, we can't lead. We can't give what we don't have.

And finally, I will like to say something according to the author:

"Time is an equal opportunity employer, but how we treat time is not equal. Time is like a block of marble. Give a block of marble to an average person and you end up with . . . a block of marble. But put it in the hands of a master sculptor and watch what happens! The sculptor looks at it with an artist’s eye. First, he makes decisions about what it will be. Then he practices the disciplines of his craft until he has transformed lifeless stone into a masterpiece."

I believe you and I can become like the sculptor. We can learn to become master craftsmen, not of stone but of our lives.