Mastering the Habits That Matter Most

Good morning, everybody. Dennis Engelbrecht, with an encore presentation of Digging Deeper.

Today, I want to talk about mastering the habits which matter the most. I got into this from two areas. One is I caught, 
again, a terrific quote from Vince Lombardi. Those of you who are young may not remember Vince Lombardi, but he was 
the coach of the Green Bay Packers when Green Bay became title town, and they won the first couple of Super Bowls and 
really probably the most renowned coach in the history of coaching. Maybe Belichick has come on in the NFL to challenge 
that a little bit. But the quote, "Winning is a habit. Watch your thoughts, for they become your beliefs. Watch your beliefs 
because they become your words. Watch your words. They become your actions. Watch your actions. They become your 
habits. And watch your habits. They become your character."

And if you go through all of that, your thoughts, beliefs, words, actions, habits, all of that does lead to who you are, to 
your character. And your character can be very much about what habits you have and what habits then go on display as 
you go through your day-to-day as a leader. Then also caught a little bit about Craig Groeschel does a podcast. He did his 
recent podcast on creating habits. And his quote, "The best leaders intentionally create strategic habits that produce the 
desired results." So how do you do that? How do you create the habits that produce the results, help you become the 
leader you want to be? Well, Craig's biggest suggestion, I'd say, is to start with the end in mind. And in doing so, start with 
who versus do. And when I say who versus do, the key question there is, who do you want to become? What kind of leader 
do you want to be? What are those characteristics? Who do you want to become?

And in starting with who, you really have to think of yourself. What kind of leader do I want to be? And then what habits 
will help me build that? So, an example of this, and it probably has a lot to do with what do you think of yourself or how 
you think about yourself, but if you want to think about yourself as organized, maybe you start each day with a to-do list 
and prioritizing that to-do list. If you want to think of yourself as caring, maybe you start each day by checking in with 
people either at home or even at work, or both. We used to call that touching the four corners of the office. I'm not sure 
everyone's in an office anymore. But if you want to think of yourself as caring, that might be a habit that you start each 
day with.

If you want to think of yourself as a servant leader, well then maybe you have to ask of others, how can I help you? How 
can I make you more effective? How can I remove whatever obstacles are in your way, get you the resources you need, 
help you through a problem or a decision? But basically, a servant leader is always looking for the ways that they can help. 
So, it all comes down to, again, intentionally creating those habits that allow you to be who you want to be. And then like 
all habits and goals, if you want to be good at that, you want to make sure your habits or your goals are smart, specific, 
measurable, all of that. I'm sure you all know that but write it down.

Write down the habits that you want to achieve. Make sure it's descriptive. Sometimes we're just too simplistic with our 
habits but be descriptive. That'll help you have a better idea of all the things that need to occur in order for you to really 
make a habit a habit. And then of course, put it in a visible place, whether that be on your screensaver on your iPhone or 
your desktop computer, whether that's on the mirror in your bathroom at home, or maybe it's just in a visible place in 
your office or on your desk, or maybe not on the dashboard of your car. There might be better habits there for that. But 
basically, put it in a visible place, so you're always looking at it, always thinking about it, because that again, helps you to 
develop the habit, and you're developing the habit in order to be the best you can be and be the leader that you want to 
become.

So again, if you want to be a great leader, master the habits which matter most. Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper.