After I had unmistakably been called to make a positive impact in the lives of young people, I felt driven to learn & grow in my faith and my knowledge of motivating and inspiring young people.
I wanted to connect with people that I thought could provide direction in that area. I started having coffee with Roy Heintz who had been the head women's basketball coach at University of Alabama Huntsville. During one of those discussions, he asked if I read much. Ok, full disclosure coming. I used to hate to read. The only 2 books I read in high school were Old Man and The Sea and Of Mice and Men. I probably read them because the Clift notes were as long as the books themselves so I just decided to read the 100 page big font real thing. </disclosure>
He suggested I read a book called Burn Your Goals by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert. He described it to me and it really interested me. 2 days later I had finished it. Loved it. t spoke to me and validated some of my own feelings about how I lived my life. I highlighted as I went and weeks later came back to the highlights. One of the topics that jumped off the page to me was the idea that our commitments are way more important that our goals. For me, if I was going to live into the fullness of who God had called me to be, I had to commit to a life of excellence, obedience, love, courage, & trust. And it's not enough to just have it resident in you mind (which is important), it's got to come out and be written down. There is something about writing it down and saying it aloud that brings it meaning.
So I started writing down a commitment for the day in my notes app on my phone. Sunday, November 16th was my first one & I noted,"Today I will give my very best to God in worship. I will not let my apprehension about raising my hands stop me from giving glory to God this morning". I continued in private daily writing down a commitment and trying to make it happen. But what I found was there was no accountability. If I forgot (which I did many times) or did the opposite of what I committed to, there was no one to remind me or correct me.
During this time, I had also made a decision that I was not going to let trash dominate social media. Young people were engrossed in it and I needed to use social media for good! So on December 3rd, 2014, I posted #TodayIWill & followed with my daily commitment to Twitter in an effort to publicly document my commitment & to allow those that followed me to hold me accountable to my commitment. I've posted every day since then. Check out Edgegainer on social media or go to the hashtag #TodayIWill to read more.
What I found was that my own personal commitments resonated with others. They too were making those same commitments and I was encouraging them through their own journey. So now it continues and has added a daily text message service to deliver encouragement and inspiration directly to your phone.
Life isn't about our intentions, it's about our commitments. What commitment do you need to make today? It starts with #TodayIWill ...
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