Think back to the last thing you had a deep determination about. Yes, before your curiosity about fasting. Now, think about what barriers or hindrances you faced as you committed to what you were determined to do. What were the limiting factors? How did you overcome them?
In the podcast, we mention the quote by Fredrick Nietzsche - "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." I'm willing to bet that regardless of the mitigating factors, whatever that thing is you were determined to achieve, it's attached to a deep why with significant meaning that existed before you made that determination. In his collection of writings called Think Success, Hindu scholar Jayaram V gives this equation: Idea + Determination = Success. Notice that the ingredients required for success happen before one ever "does" anything. This is the power of an unmistakable why. This is the power of a pre-decision.
When you have decided before you ever start playing that you will not lose, you will probably do everything it takes to succeed. When you've decided that you will go left, there is little that can stop you from going right. When you've decided you will make it to the end of the 5k, there is almost nothing, short of passing out and dying, that will deter you. That is...if your why is strong enough.
Making a pre-decision about your fast is going to be connected to a powerful why. You have to decide...right now...that you will not give in. There is no hunger pang strong enough, no distraction influential enough, nor a hill high enough to climb to deter you from completing the purpose of your fast. Then, you must make smaller pre-decisions to allow that main pre-decision to be built upon. I will pray three times a day. I will call x,y, or z person when I struggle; I will read this scripture daily, and I will apply this principle in my life during this fast!
The power of a pre-decision in your fast determines its success. A lack of a pre-decision will undoubtedly work against you in the fast. If you have yet to determine what you will or won't do, that situation will often make the decision for you. Once that happens, you get distracted, frustrated, and off-track without a way to return.
Here's your first pre-decision. I will make powerful pre-decisions as I lean into my fast, in Jesus' name. Amen!
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