Our focus today is on Rule 3:
 
1.  Put On Your White Belt
2.  Build Your Plan
3.   Dedicate Yourself TO Your Plan
4.  Pick Up The Phone And Call
 
Let's begin by considering a new way to understand our White Belts, and then apply that new way of understanding to Rule 3.
 
Spiritual White Belt
 
We're about to make reference to the Christian scriptures of the New Testament. But, please understand, we could turn to any religion, or even to Atheism and find the same fundamental metaphors, believe it or not.
 
One of Jesus' most famous commands was, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."
 
And, He also clearly proclaimed, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
 
Why did Jesus focus on the children and on the command to be born again? What does it mean to be born again?
 
Obviously, the command is not meant to be taken literally.  It is a metaphorical command.  You must become like a baby, and start over from scratch as if you knew precisely as little as a baby knows.  You must find your innocence and your ignorance, and claim them with your adult mind and heart.
 
Can there be any greater spiritual command?  We all know that year ends is represented as an ancient old man, a harbinger of death.  The New Year is represented as a new born.  Just as the sun sets in the evening and then rises in the morning we can use the same images.  In the morning, we are a baby to the coming day.  To be reborn, metaphorically, means to become aware of this infancy, to treasure it and not fight it. We put babies in white swaddling clothes. Our White Belts can remind us, every morning, that we are born again this day.
 
Recruiter, Obey Yourself!
 
This brings us to one of the most controversial words in the English language today: Obedience.  A baby must obey his or her parents. 
 
Are you a parent?  Do you teach your children to obey you?  What about your own parents?  Where did they stand on the subject of obedience, not just in belief but in practice? 
 
How about the law? Do you obey it? How about the speed laws?  Are there laws you feel right in breaking?
 
When you wipe away everything but the most powerful forces, the greatest challenge you face is whether or not to obey yourself.  This may seem almost impossible to follow, or perhaps a bit crazy, even schizophrenic, possibly.  But consider how many mere intentions you have set with your mind alone, over the course of your adult life, which you simply disobeyed utterly?
 
In our last lesson, we discussed how a Black Belt Plan would follow the formula of 1 Planned Action = 1 Executed Action.  Why would that be a Black Belt formula?
 
The reason is that we do not obey ourselves.  None of us do.  How can we understand this truth?  It is very easy.  Your mind and heart do not speak to each other perfectly.  The thoughts of your mind and the desires of your heart are simply not the same.
 
As you build your daily plan, the question you must ask and answer is will you actually obey this plan and execute these intentions?  If you're a believing person, you should go another step.  You should ask yourself, "If these planned actions were blessed by God, would I then obey them as His Law, as His will for me this day?"
 

Bob Meissner, Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do

What if you're not a believing person?  When I serve non-believers the force I challenge them to discover, the spiritual force that matters most, is their own will.  Atheists believe that God is simply a concept created by man, and not that man was created by God.  What then would be the highest spiritual force? What if this life were to be the one and only existence you were to ever have?  What if you were actually simply gone once you died? Then, during the brief, mysterious time you were alive, your will would be the very force of the spirit you are.
 
Where does that leave the Atheist?  With precisely the same question as the believer: What will you obey?
 
When you create a plan, if you visualize a God commanding a believer or a parent commanding a child, that plan should have the force of right and good within it such that disobedience of that plan is a bad thing.  Building a plan means to put the force of good behind the chosen intended actions.
 
If your plan was built with that force within, then the act of dedicating yourself TO your plan is nothing more and nothing less than the choice to be obedient.
 
The Other Side of the Board
 
Why do we capitalize the one word "TO," in our 3rd rule?
 
My friend, teacher and wonderful client Bob Meissner once taught me a Black Belt lesson about breaking a piece of wood.  Bob taught me that before you strike the wood, you must see your hand six inches through it, and on the other side.  Then, you punch through to that spot as if the wood wasn't there at all.
 
Punching through the wood as if it wasn't there is the emotion our word TO should evoke for you.  Your plan is not just a list of actions, commands to obey for no reason.  Rather, each action has a purpose.  That purpose must always be to serve someone, in one way or another.  To be dedicated TO your plan is to be devoted TO the people you will serve when you execute each action within your plan.
 
Don't just see the effort that your obedient execution demands.  See the purpose of service that is on the other side of the act of obedience.  Dedicate yourself TO the plan, but for the right reasons.

The daily plan you write for yourself is the word you must live by, the word you must express in action.  If you would dedicate yourself to living by the spirit and letter of your plan, you truly must be ready to obey yourself.  Interesting concept, isn't it: self-obedience versus self-disobedience?