One Word That Will Change Your Life, Expanded Edition

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 a 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, ...