Maturity is the result of a deliberate decision on our part to learn from life. _Tim Kimmel, Extreme Grandparenting: The Ride of Your Life!

Okay, let’s review.

I’m on a quest to build a short checklist to help you make great decisions.

Remember, better decisions, better life; great decisions, great life! (Sorta like “Happy wife; happy life” except it doesn’t rhyme.)

Here’s the checklist so far:

1. Does this decision even need to be made? See: Before Making That Decision
2. Does this decision need to be made now? See: Wait a Minute!

And now let’s add the next question: Am I the one who must make this decision?

Pass the buck every chance you get.

People are lazy. Unless it really matters to them or there is no risk, they’d much rather you make the decisions. (Think about how hard it is just for a group to decide where to eat lunch.)

But every decision costs something. And you – being a limited human being – only have the capacity to make a few good decisions each day.

Something my friend Marc Campbell said while teaching at a pastor’s conference has stayed with me for years. He said, “Don’t pastor other people’s problems.”

I remember pushing back a little in my mind when he said that. Isn’t that what pastors are supposed to do? Help people with their problems. But context is important. The moment you become to the answer to someone’s problem, the problem becomes yours.

Instead of helping them grow and learn how to solve their own problems (or better yet not create their own problems), when you step in and “pastor their problems” instead of pastor them, you’re only crippling them.

Remember, people are lazy; they’ll gladly let you take ownership of their problems.

Of course, help people, but do so by helping them learn how to solve their own problems. Just because something needs to be done doesn’t mean you are the one who should be doing it.

There is only so much that you can do on any given day (and with any given life). If you hope to leverage your life to the fullest, you’ve got to focus primarily on those things that only you can do.

You’ve got to keep asking yourself: Am I the one who must make this decision?

The goal is not to be lazy; the goal is to do the most good with the limited amount of time (life) that you have and to call others to the same high calling.

The ONE THING for today: Pass the buck every chance you get by pushing the next decision to the one closest to the action. It frees you up to do what only you can do and it sets others to do what they should do. 

When you do this, everyone wins; everyone grows.

Maturity is the result of a deliberate decision on our part to learn from life. _Tim Kimmel, Extreme Grandparenting: The Ride of Your Life!

Okay, let’s review.

I’m on a quest to build a short checklist to help you make great decisions.

Remember, better decisions, better life; great decisions, great life! (Sorta like “Happy wife; happy life” except it doesn’t rhyme.)

Here’s the checklist so far:

1. Does this decision even need to be made? See: Before Making That Decision
2. Does this decision need to be made now? See: Wait a Minute!

And now let’s add the next question: Am I the one who must make this decision?

Pass the buck every chance you get.

People are lazy. Unless it really matters to them or there is no risk, they’d much rather you make the decisions. (Think about how hard it is just for a group to decide where to eat lunch.)

But every decision costs something. And you – being a limited human being – only have the capacity to make a few good decisions each day.

Something my friend Marc Campbell said while teaching at a pastor’s conference has stayed with me for years. He said, “Don’t pastor other people’s problems.”

I remember pushing back a little in my mind when he said that. Isn’t that what pastors are supposed to do? Help people with their problems. But context is important. The moment you become to the answer to someone’s problem, the problem becomes yours.

Instead of helping them grow and learn how to solve their own problems (or better yet not create their own problems), when you step in and “pastor their problems” instead of pastor them, you’re only crippling them.

Remember, people are lazy; they’ll gladly let you take ownership of their problems.

Of course, help people, but do so by helping them learn how to solve their own problems. Just because something needs to be done doesn’t mean you are the one who should be doing it.

There is only so much that you can do on any given day (and with any given life). If you hope to leverage your life to the fullest, you’ve got to focus primarily on those things that only you can do.

You’ve got to keep asking yourself: Am I the one who must make this decision?

The goal is not to be lazy; the goal is to do the most good with the limited amount of time (life) that you have and to call others to the same high calling.

The ONE THING for today: Pass the buck every chance you get by pushing the next decision to the one closest to the action. It frees you up to do what only you can do and it sets others to do what they should do. 

When you do this, everyone wins; everyone grows.