Doing Big Thing! is a two part series. Part 1: Identifying Our Big Things Part 2. How We Get Big Things Done!
Part I: Identifying Our Big Things
We all receive life assignments. These are tasks we are to complete before we die. Most of us reading this blog belong to the community that got the big assignments. Our assignments are to impact many lives beyond our immediate relatives and friends. Our assignments will transform communities, organizations, and systems.
For example, Safe Encounters pioneer Attorney Robyn McCoy was tired of watching the repetitive tv coverage of black boys shot by police during routine traffic stops. She was moved to create safe encounter educational forums with students, law enforcements, parents, and community leaders. This is her life assignment and since 2015, she has completed 38 programs in Michigan schools, appeared on tv and radio, and received numerous awards for her work.
Some of us do not know or are not sure of our assignments. For those who of us, we need to ask ourselves:
“ What societal problem haunts me almost daily? I see it everywhere I go. It impacts those I care about and the things I value most. It pisses me off, it breaks my heart, it leaves me speechless, and I know if only there was an answer or solution everyone involved would benefit. What is that problem? That issue, that problem, is your life assignment.
Life assignments are BIG! Life assignments scare the crap out of us. We don’t have all the skills and experience yet to handle them. And our natural inclination is to get paralyzed in thought and conversation, and do nothing!
It takes Courage and Willpower not to do what is natural. And these characteristics are the foundation of how big things get done.
To break through natural tendencies and habits, research shows that small repetitive actions are effective. Small repetitive actions are not scary and create new neuro patterns and new behaviors for us to do other new and bigger things.
The small repetitive action we will use is a Commitment Statement.
To create our Commitment Statement, we start with “Why” we accept the assignment and we add who will be impacted and benefit by our work on this assignment.
Robyn’s Commitment Statement possibly reads: “ I refuse to sit idly by and watch black boys be shot. I will bring the police and the community together so officers see black boys as children and not threats and so communities see officers as part of their communities. The community and the police are invested in everyone getting home safely.”
Once we have our Commitment Statements, we are going to repeat them daily. Ideally, we will say them when we wake in the morning and before we go to sleep at night. Let’s link them to another routine like showering or brushing our teeth.
Caution: we may tweak our Commitment Statements until they resonate with us. However, we must resist the urge to make massive changes or share the statements with anyone at this time. The goals are simply to create the statement and say it repeatedly. The Commitment Statement is personal and powerful, and it lays the foundation for Part 2: How We Get Big Things Done!
Welcome to the Community!
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Suggested Additional resources:
Tony Robbins’ “Awaken the Giant Within” *Audible 1hr 30 mins)
Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit”
Inspiring Minds 