Do IT Today

Hey, what's up? This is Tim Pratt Jr. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this content today. I hope you hear something that adds value to your life, shaping your perspective, faith, and hope, as well as the application to see it through on this thing that we call life. Enjoy. What's up everybody? So this is episode 9 and we're gonna call this one "Do It Today." Now I want you to just give me some room because I'm gonna I'm going somewhere with this one, but I want to start off with two quotes and then a little story. But a while back, I heard it was Torrey Robertson that said it, like that he heard it from someone else. But they said that procrastination is the arrogant assumption to do what you have been anointed to do today, putting it off until tomorrow. No, thinking that you're going to have tomorrow to do what you were anointed to do today is what he said. Then John C. Maxwell said in one of his books, The 15 Laws of Valuable Growth, is that think about how much better the world would be only if people did what they intended to do. When you take that into consideration, a lot of times you will see why we don't do what we supposed to do today. And we like to put it off until tomorrow or we never write it down. You know, Jim Rohn said, I'll take a dull pencil over a sharp mind every day. Now, I'm not saying you got to go fill up notebooks, but that's what works for you. That's cool. You know, we have electronics and electronic notes and to-do lists and all that stuff now. But the concept is still the same, the principle. And so for me in my life, you know, I am focusing on being more intentional. And just like making sure that whatever I have on my list or just those critical things, I have to get it done. Or if I can't or it doesn't get done, it needs to be quickly done within that week. Or I need to basically just truly, even if it's like I said, it's in my personal life, say, okay, this is why this didn't get done. You know, something happened or something transpired. But for the most part, Everything that I strive for, I put on that list. It needs to be living a power of intentionality to get it done. You know, think about this is why we are slow for a lot of times, you know, being late and lagging for ministry things, or sometimes you have an issue with showing up late for work. It all comes down to intent, but you're not living in like the power of intentionality, which therefore doesn't get you the results that you desire. Because it's just like, for example, you know, the garbage man runs on Wednesdays. I could literally like know that, you know, right there on the spot, whatever, like on that Tuesday before I leave, you know, get up, go to work Wednesday morning. I can either take it out then or take it out early Wednesday morning before I leave. But if I forget, it's like, oh man, I intended to take out the trash today. And true enough, like we do forget, but I'm pretty sure between last Wednesday and now something happened where I could have wrote it down, reminded myself, or something to help me make sure that I get that trash on the curb, the intended result. And so, or better yet, you know, John Wooden, kind of the story that I want to tell is that I was listening to him, or I might have read it in a book when he was coaching basketball, and he said that you know, he would notice players wasn't giving 100% in practice. He would pull them to the side and basically let them know that, like, you know, you're not going to be able to give 150% tomorrow. You can only give 100%. So if you're going into tomorrow with that mindset of like, man, I'll just— I'll really come with it the next day and give it 50% more or 200% or whatever, you can't do it. So you're really just shortchanging— you're taking today for granted. That's what we do when we supposed to do things today. When we set out and say, I need to get this done today in order to set up the next day. When I became a technical project manager and then was promoted to senior technical project manager and really started running the technical project side of things as well as compliance and the teams and things like that, I didn't know a lick about compliance to save my life, just straight up. But as my CTO would, you know, or at the time VP, the CTO would groom me and, you know, show me this is this, and I will ask certain questions, and I will look at YouTube videos and just talk to people in security, you know, and like learning just, okay, this is what this mean, or this trend and this trend, and so on and so on. Self-taught. You know, however you want to do it, and groomed and mentored. I had to do it every single day, and it sucked in the beginning, but now I can literally like jump on calls and, uh, be pulled in and answer questions without my CTO being there so he can focus on other things because it's all about the development. But although he was grooming me, I still had to take some personal responsibility and say, okay, what can I do today? What can I do this week? What can I do by the end of this month so I can measure something and say, okay, you know, I'm getting better at this. I'm seeing the results that I want to see in order to basically make myself more marketable by the grace of God. So we have to do something too. And so you can't have, like I say, these arrogant assumptions or hide behind, I intended to do something once. Like, this is what the trashcan example. Like, think about people when they— when they text you and there's somebody that you're close to or your parents, you know, it's like, oh man, oh my God, I intended to hit you up. I intended to check up on you yesterday. If this is a common thread in your life, why is it always that you intended to do it and you just didn't do it? So what practical steps are you setting in place to say, OK, man, I'm going to get done what I need to get done today? Are you going to keep making those arrogant assumptions to do what you have been called to do today? Because the future will take care of itself if you just do it. I have never read his book, but I looked at the summary because I was thinking about getting it from the library or something like that. But it was just a book by John C. Maxwell called Today Matters. And I was like, just, you know, like, look through the summary and the chapters. And I bet you if I was to read it, I probably— this probably will be a lot more articulate, you know, like quotable things that you can get on Facebook and Instagram or whatever and share. But I don't necessarily have to read that book in order to know that I simply need to do what I need to do today. Because my wife and I, we talk about this all the time, you know, more so speaking for myself, but her as well, is that we, we are dedicated to like ministry and like listening to like, you know, leaders today, business leaders. You know, we're going to a leadership conference this, this spring, and you know, I've went to some for, you know, I'll be going to some for work and things like that. Listen to podcasts, listen to audiobooks, read physical books, and just on and on and on. Talk to people, mentors, you know, advisors. And a lot of times, like, they're not saying nothing new. But they sometimes do communicate in ways where it just sticks this time around. But at the same time, we are around it because it's that reminder. It's that fuel that pushes us like, man, stay the course, you know, community. But on the worst side of it, you know, we could be on it from a standpoint of just always hearing it because we hide behind intentions, if that makes sense. Meaning that like, okay, you're around all this information. You are around all— you're reading all these books. You're all around these conferences. But you're not getting results because you haven't became one with it. And you are— like I said, you hear me say this a lot of times. And so in order to do what you need to do today for whatever your goal is, whether it's a financial goal, a skill set goal, you know, getting a job or something— if you know you need a job, you need to be out here doing applications today. It might not hit today, it might not hit tomorrow, it might not hit this week or this month, but I guarantee you if you keep doing something every day, resetting, today matters, today matters, today matters, I guarantee you, you will see the necessary result that you are expecting. Like, it's that simple, man. So like I say, a dull pencil over a sharp mind any day. So write it down. You know, for me, one of my biggest things is in being into like project management. And running Scrum and agile practices and things like that. It's just I have to have like something set up. Okay, this is my to-do list for today. That's kind of like that rolls into the week. And then, you know, you get to big pictures and all of that. Like the more— the higher they are, the more high level, if that makes sense. And then as I get into like to like just today, it's like that's when they get more detailed. Because it's just I want to make sure I have alignment. And so if something comes in where it's like someone say, oh no, we got to get this done, that this is extremely important. So now I'm assessing, OK, is it important? But if it's not urgent, I might not have to, you know, break my, my organization up in order to make sure that they get done. Now, if it's important and urgent, then that's going to affect some things. So something might drop or I might be able to hustle a little bit harder. I don't know. But it's like, that's what I'm saying. But it's like, I'm making sure that I have that list. That list is basically like, okay, now I have a reason why I had to shift or I couldn't get this, you know, or I had to wait. That's all I'm saying. But a lot of times we try to keep everything in our head and that's exactly why we have intended. So then like if my CTO or anybody or other manager come up and it's like, hey, why did this, why didn't this get done? I don't simply have to say, oh man, I intended to get that done. No, this is why it didn't get done. Or this is why it's going to get done a little bit later than what we originally said. It all plays its own part that even in that, like I say, your to-do list. I never really have understood the concept of not being able to take 10 to 15 minutes in your day, whether it's at the beginning in the end to make sure that you are working towards the necessary results that you need. But yet we'll go through the whole day and let the day run us versus us running the day. So what are you doing to help basically yourself get a better future? You know, if you look at it from a financial terms, are you putting back the necessary money in order to give you the options that you need in the future? What are you doing today? If you know you need to develop in the skill set, show me your game plan. If you're trying to learn how to write code, or if you're trying to learn how to be a project manager or product manager, engineer, if you're trying to learn how to be a better teacher, basketball player, baseball player, whatever it is that you're trying to— are you trying to learn how to be a better hitter, a better pitcher, a better finisher around the rim? Whatever it is, what are you doing today to basically make sure that you are better in it? Like, stop putting it off. Stop making the erring assumption that I'll just, I'll double up tomorrow, or I'll do this the next day. What if it's a certain application out there that expires today when all you had to do is simply get on there? Then they start interviewing candidates tomorrow. But because you made the arrogant assumption, I'll just do it tomorrow. Now you missed out. And this is just like— I mean, like I say, the principle can transcend to anywhere in life if you allow it. So do it today. I challenge you, whatever it is, don't show up at work late tomorrow. Set your alarm clock tonight. Matter of fact, do it right now. Get up on time, get dressed, eat, have your hygiene and all that, and get to work. Stop showing up at church, the local church, late. Set your alarm clock right now for on a Sunday at whatever time. If it's 9:30 service, be up at 7. If you need to go to the gym, do it today. Or if you can't do it today, put it in your schedule to do it tomorrow. So like I say, man, Torrey Robertson, when he said that, when he heard that from that lady, that procrastination is the arrogant assumption to do what you have been anointed to do today and to put it off until tomorrow. That's a very arrogant assumption. You have been called to do certain things at appointed times, so do it. Hey, thank you so much for listening to this content today. I want to encourage you, if you haven't already, to subscribe to it and share it with family and friends on your social media feeds. And you can also go over to www.timothyprattjr.org in order to find out more about the blog as well as other things that I offer and how to connect with me. So with that being said, I hope you have a blessed day and continue to see yourself through the recall window.