Think Celestial, Defining Success, Great Expectations
The Disciple-Leader Newsletter #40 // October 28, 2023.
Discipleship. Leadership. Mental Performance.
DISCIPLESHIP
"Think celestial!"
Russell M. Nelson
In the sports world, there's a lot of focus placed on an athlete's "performance floor" and "performance ceiling". Just a couple of months ago, the 49ers' head coach Kyle Shanahan cited this concept as his reasoning for why he promoted one QB and demoted the other.
"The primary determining factor for the 49ers’ backup QB role has always been performance floor — not performance ceiling. There’s been much talk of Lance’s ceiling, but his sheer inexperience has also led to notable inconsistency — or a lower floor. And above all else, Shanahan wants the offense to keep functioning without too much boom-or-bust variance if Purdy goes down."
Performance floor refers to your lows. Performance ceiling refers to your highs. Your performance floor is you at your worst. Your performance ceiling is you at your best. You have one of these 4 tendencies at any given aspect of your life.
Low Floor - Low Ceiling (at its worst ... bad. At its best ... mediocre).
Low Floor - High Ceiling (at its worst ... bad. At its best ... incredible).
High Floor - Low Ceiling (at its worst ... mediocre. At its best ... mediocre).
High Floor - High Ceiling (at its worst ... mediocre. At its best ... incredible).
This concept applies to everything, not just sports. We each have a floor and a ceiling in everything we do. It applies to how we think, how we feel, how we minister, how we lead, how we learn, and on and on.
Let's use emotion as our example. If your emotional well-being has a low floor - low ceiling, you might have a stronger tendency to experience negative feelings. You might be prone to sadness and hopelessness. At your best, you feel okay. But joy might be escaping you. If your emotional well-being has a low floor - high ceiling, on the other hand, you still have a tendency to experience low, negative feelings. But when you're happy, you're really happy. Low lows, high highs.
The ability to think celestial–yes, it's a learned skill–raises your floor and ceiling in all aspects of your life. Consider these statements from President Nelson:
When you are confronted with a dilemma, think celestial! When tested by temptation, think celestial! When life or loved ones let you down, think celestial! When someone dies prematurely, think celestial. When someone lingers with a devastating illness, think celestial. When the pressures of life crowd in upon you, think celestial! As you recover from an accident or injury, as I am doing now, think celestial!
As you think celestial, your heart will gradually change.
The Lord was teaching Joseph to think celestial and to envision an eternal reward rather than focus on the excruciating difficulties of the day.
As you think celestial, you will find yourself avoiding anything that robs you of your agency.
As you think celestial, you will view trials and opposition in a new light.
As you think celestial, your faith will increase.
To think celestial means to "have the same mindset as Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5, NIV). Aligning your mindset with His, you are filled with His power, which is expressed and experienced through the power of the Holy Ghost. As you are filled with the Holy Ghost, your floor and ceiling skyrocket.
Parley P. Pratt taught this very principle: "The Gift of the Holy Ghost adapts itself to all these organs or attributes. It quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections and adapts them by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form, and features. It tends to give health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being."
Experience the floor and ceiling-raising power of the Holy Ghost that comes through celestial thinking. Your life will never be the same.
LEADERSHIP
“You don’t want to define your success by achieving your goals. You should think about success as living your values.”
Adam Grant
John Wooden and Pete Carroll are two of the most decorated coaches in the history of sports. They are also two of the most philosophical. I don't think that's a coincidence, by the way.
In terms of any extrinsic goals a coach could have, they've accomplished them all. Wooden has as many championship rings as he does fingers. Carroll has won national championships at the intercollegiate and professional levels. They maximize themselves and those around them. In other words, they lead.
Interstingly, Wooden and Carroll don't set a yearly goal as you might expect. They aren't riveted on winning championships. They are riveted on living their values.
Both have created their own personal culture. Wooden called his the "Pyramid of Success". Carroll's is his "Win Forever" pyramid.
You'll notice that each of these focuses on values, not extrinsic goals. Paradoxically, the less you focus on the exterior goal and the more you focus on your values, the more likely you are to reach the exterior goal. Wooden and Carroll are evidence of this.
Wooden wrote, "In all my years of coaching I rarely, if ever, even uttered the word win, talked about 'beating' an opponent, or exhorted a team to be number one. Instead, my words and actions always reflected (this) advice––'Never cease trying to be the best you can become' ... There is a standard higher than merely winning the race: Effort is the ultimate measure of your success." - John Wooden
If you have defined some big goals for your life, but you haven't clearly defined your driving values and principles, you're approaching life wrong.
What's your personal culture? What's your purpose? What's your mission? Get clarity about these first principles. Those are foundational. Then live those values with conviction. If you do, you just won't care as much about any exterior goal, although any exterior goal will be much more within reach.
MENTAL PERFORMANCE
"Let us shed any thought of failure.”
Thomas S. Monson
Your behavior is a direct reflection of your expectations. Think about it.
You expect your team to win, thus, you buy expensive tickets to their game and go all out cheering for them.
You set a reservation at a 5-star restaurant with glowing reviews. Thus, you look and act your best because you're expecting a 5-star experience. You treat it differently than you would McDonald's because you have different expectations.
If your spouse makes you breakfast every morning, you're not going to wake up tomorrow with the thought to make breakfast for yourself, because you expect they will make it for you.
Behavior always aligns itself with expectations. Behavior will never deviate from expectations. If you expect to have a bad day, your behavior will follow.
If you expect to get turned down by a potential date, you'll approach him or her with an unimpressive aura, or more likely, you won't even ask.
If you expect to fail in any form, you'll have a failure's attitude. You'll have a failure's behavior.
Shed any thought of failure.
"(God) has high hopes for us." - Russell M. Nelson
So have high hopes for yourself. Fill your mind with great expectations. Your life will be as exciting or as bland as your expectations allow it to be.
Disciple-Leadership: Jesus-led. Lead like Jesus.