I know the phrase is suppose to be “… what begins with D?”, but I couldn’t find a good word that begins with D for the topic.

The premise of the book’s second lesson is that you don’t get to where you want to be by just showing up. Progress takes effort and being the best person you can be takes constant progress and constant effort. But it is not just effort along the way, but effort applied to those things that help you be the you that God intends.

Rule 2

The best executives are made, not born. They never stop learning. Study the people and organizations in your life that have had enormous success. They offer a free course from the real world to help you improve.

When I was in Boy Scouts, the boys were organized in troops and patrols and each had leaders of various activities. The young and new scouts were never in positions of leadership regardless of age or ability. The organization was set up to develop leaders with knowledge, experience, and guidance to improve along the way, certain way. You had to follow in order to learn to lead. You had to have success in little things to be given bigger things.

Many activities in life have some of this institutional learning buried inside them. NCL is one and Taekwondo is another. Participation in these allows individuals to grow and learn in an environment of support.

Many opportunities in life are not so well defined. School itself has almost no leadership opportunities, but extra curricular activities do. Examples are Junior Counselors, Student Council, swim team homecoming floats, etc. School does have great leadership learning opportunities as you can see your teachers lead everyday. Watching them is an example you can build on and you have many, many examples to learn from over the years.

One of the characterizations of Jesus is that He was a teacher. He taught in many ways; lectures like the Sermon on the Mount, personal discussions like the woman at the well, and personal humility like washing the disciples feet. Jesus spent three years pouring into the lives of the Apostles and they went on to be the leaders of the church.

Acts 26 includes Paul witnessing to King Agrippa. Paul used the experiences of his life to not only make a case for his defense, but to do more. After he finished, King Agrippa asked him: “Are you going to persuade me to become a Christian so easily?” Paul’s response includes “not only you but all who listen to me” as he knew his duty for Christ was to witness and to allow God to provide the results.

To become the Christian God desires for you, you need to learn from reading the bible and seeing the examples of Jesus and Paul, but you also need to always be learning from the circumstances and experiences you find yourself in. Learn from the successes around you, but also learn from failures, both yours and those of others.

So expect greatness, see it around you, and learn how to learn from it.