"Once you connect those dots, all bets are off."

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Win the Day (p. 16). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

So what are the dots?

Mark says, "You are capable of more than you imagine, and I wrote this book to help you prove it to yourself. Your brain has no idea what your body is capable of, and your body has no idea what your brain is capable of. Once you connect those dots, all bets are off. Following Jesus is less about minding your p’s and q’s than it is about taking your cues from Christ. What did Jesus say? 'With God all things are possible.' (Matthew 19:26) When you give complete editorial control of your life to Him, possible becomes the plotline."

He goes on, "I’d better offer one disclaimer to my hypothesis. Please note the word almost. If you’re five foot seven, genetic factors call into question your dream of playing in the NBA. Be that as it may, may I remind you that Spud Webb won the NBA dunk contest in 1986. Don’t tell me it can’t be done! It has been done, and it will be done again. I won’t ignore the genetic and epigenetic challenges many of us have to overcome, and I’ll tell you why. Because, contrary to popular opinion, we don’t succeed in spite of those disadvantages, difficulties, or disappointments. We succeed because of them, if we learn how to leverage them. So, once again for good measure:

"Almost anybody can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough."

He continues, "Yes, you. Not only do I believe it; I’m also evidence of it. I’ve written books that have sold millions of copies, but according to an aptitude assessment in graduate school, writing is not a natural gifting. 'Whatever you do, don’t write books!' Of course, all I needed was that dare! In retrospect, I’m grateful that writing didn’t come naturally. Why? I had to work longer, work harder, and work smarter. If I was going to be a writer, I knew I had to become a reader. So I read three thousand books before I wrote one.

"Guess where I discovered the idea of living in day-tight compartments? In a 1944 book written by Dale Carnegie: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. I had no idea at the time, but I was researching this book as I read that book twenty years ago.

"If you have a book in you, I want to help you write it. How? One sentence, one paragraph, one chapter at a time. You can’t write a book in a day! Well, I take that back. In 1945, Aiden Wilson Tozer boarded a Pullman train at the LaSalle Street Station in Chicago and requested a writing table. When that train arrived in McAllen, Texas, the next day, Tozer had a complete draft of an all-time classic, The Pursuit of God. If your name isn’t Tozer, it might take a little longer!

He then says, "Tim Ferriss is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, and they aren’t leaflets. His books are thicker than most phone books! How does Tim do it? 'Two crappy pages a day.' Tim takes the pressure of perfectionism off himself by focusing on quantity over quality, which is brilliant. He sets a goal that is, in his words, 'easily winnable.'

"Ingmar Bergman, director of Academy Award–winning films, said the same thing in a different way. 'Do you know what moviemaking is?' he asked. 'Eight hours of hard work each day to get three minutes of film.' Two crappy pages. Three minutes of film. You can do this, but you might want to give yourself a daily quota. Don’t worry about quality. Good writing is bad writing well edited. If you write two pages a day, you’ll have a two-hundred-page book in one hundred days. All you have to do is win the one day in front of you, no matter what goal you go after."

So, let's win today, okay?

Yes, yes!