Faith Venture

Jim Collins researches people and companies to discover patterns of success and failure. He likes to discover what makes people and organizations tick. I’m finishing his latest book, ten years in research—What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone curious about living a life.

He begins with the concept of encodings. He defines these as durable capacities of a person’s intrinsic construction that lie within, awaiting discovery through the experience of life.

He writes about many pairs of people (successful, because there’s enough data in the public domain). His team found three patterns to their lives:

• Discover and display a set of encodings
• Flip the arrow of economics to afford to follow the encodings
• Focus inner fire

Among his pairs of subjects were the first two American women’s figure skating champions. These exemplify the “focus inner fire” part. But also these relate to my continual thoughts on spiritual (and physical and mental) practices. His comment caused me to revaluate the path I’ve been on.

Of all the sources of fire, I’ve concluded that perhaps the biggest is sheer unadulterated love of doing. If you discover something you’re encoded for and you love doing it, then you can’t help but want to do more of it.

• Love is greater than discipline.
• Love is greater than ambition.
• Love is greater than ego.
• Love is greater than fear.
• Love is greater than achievement.
• Love is greater than determination.
• Love is greater than passion.
• Love is greater than purpose.

I’ve read Charles Duhigg Power of Habits and James Clear Atomic Habits and Richard J. Foster and Dallas Willard on Spiritual Practices and even Arnold Schwarzenegger on setting up the day to do the first thing that will create momentum. 

Ah, but love. 

I’m not sure I could call it love…that I meditate almost every morning, that I go to the gym (and see familiar people), that I take walks.

But maybe. Maybe I love the feeling after?

What do you love?

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I have reshaped my body over the past three years or so. Body fat composition dropped to 13%. Noticeable changes to arms, shoulders, chest, thighs, calves. This came through subtle changes in  nutrition (we never really ate poorly) and through a consistent practice of strength training. Plus I met several nice people in the fitness center.

Similarly, we can transform our spiritual formation becoming the kind of person who does good naturally. We experience God’s grace transforming our habits of body and mind through intentional spiritual practice. Even though much of the practice is done alone, people on the path are often drawn to other fellow travelers on the path.

Our average self tells us as we are sitting on the couch, “I will (exercise, practice my instrument, write my novel, pray, study, perform a service) when my motivation rises.”

This motivation to get up and do rarely happens. I have a time in late afternoon when I pick up my guitar for practice. Sometimes I just don’t feel it. But I run through a few chord progressions and finger picking styles, and I’m into it.

Motivation follows action. Not the other way around.

Waiting for the proper motivation for your daily time of prayer and meditation? Quit that. Pick a chair and a regular time—usually before the household comes alive. Then, like the old Nike ad, just do it.

Same with reading.

Same with exercise.

Force yourself if you must. Get up and start. Once begun, the rest is easy.

Paul Graham, an early venture capitalist, on writing: “1. When you write something intended to be read by an important person, go through it and cut every unnecessary word. 2. The reader of anything you publish is an important person.”

The same thing could be said about speaking—except you must pause and think before you speak.

The famous concert pianist played a short chamber concert. A middle-aged woman rushed up to her at the conclusion.

“Oh, how lovely,” she gushed. “I wish I could play like that.”

“No you don’t,” replied the pianist. “If you did, you would find a teacher and practice hours a day.”

You wish you knew the Bible like someone you know.

You can. Pick up a Bible in a translation that suits you and begin reading. With intent. Every day. Think about it. How does this paragraph fit into the theme of the entire “book?” What is the writer trying to say? Does what I read contradict what I’ve been taught? (Many times I’ve talked with people who discovered that what they thought was in the Bible actually isn’t!) Find a teacher–in person or read commentaries.

You see someone with an aura of calm assurance and deep joy. You wish you could have it.

You can. Practice deep prayer with intent. Every day. Maybe three times a day like Daniel in the Hebrew scriptures. There will come a time of realization that you have changed. You’re calmer in interactions. You’re not so easily worked up.

You see someone who is a dedicated servant to others. They cook for a “soup kitchen” or serve food or offer hospitality at church. Wow, I wish I could be like them.

You can. Ask how you can help at the soup kitchen or the homeless shelter or at church. Practice doing with intent to be a server. 

Or, back to the original story. Find a teacher of piano or guitar. Practice daily. Maybe begin to serve by playing at small church gatherings. Invite people to your house for some music and food. Or find friends to do that. 

You can do it. Intent. Practice. Repeat. Go for it!

Computer science professor Cal Newport writes on the intersection of technology and life. His latest thinking involves reducing the distraction of smart phones and digging behind the hype of AI.

He synthesized some research recently on his podcast regarding cognitive fitness. I think these easily fit within a spiritual disciplines or practices framework.

Newport suggests five routines that promote cognitive fitness:

• Read—delve into progressively more difficult texts over time if you have not been reading
• Write—journal or keep a notebook of thoughts, ideas, experiences; write the newsletter for your organization; writing requires thinking and motor skills
• Take “Thinking” Walks—get outside for a period of time each day, no phone, perhaps take a problem you’re working on or a concern to ponder, write insights achieved
• Plug in your phone—when home, plug your phone in the kitchen or foyer, go to it when you need to look up something, also delete distractive apps
• Learn a hard skill—guitar, violin, knitting, carpentry, something where you can see progress as you practice

These are great ideas. Transforming these to assist our spiritual development takes but a small step.

• Read spiritual texts from the Bible to respected authors (e.g. Merton, Nouwen, the Desert Fathers, and the like)
• Write a journal or daily reflections, a newsletter or blog
• Take meditative or prayerful walks (with eyes open!)
• Plug in your phone (see above), remove distractions from your life
• Practice service and kindness (for many of us, this is a hard skill) or perhaps a musical instrument to contribute to gatherings