Living Your Life's Purpose
By Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker
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About this ebook
Read all seven! The complete Uncommon Life Weekly Challenge series includes the following:
- Achieving Your Potential
- Building Your Team
- Developing Your Core
- Living Your Life’s Purpose
- Maximizing Your Influence
- Strengthening Your Faith
- Strengthening Your Family
Tony Dungy
Tony Dungy is a retired football coach, most known for leading the Indianapolis Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI. He was the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016. Dungy’s memoir, Quiet Strength, was a New York Times bestseller, and he is currently a studio color analyst for NBC’s pregame show, Football Night in America.
Read more from Tony Dungy
Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Called to Coach: Reflections on Life, Faith, and Football Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running for My Life: My Journey in the Game of Football and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncommon Marriage Bible Study Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Achieving Your Potential Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncommon Marriage: What We've Learned about Lasting Love and Overcoming Life's Obstacles Together Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maximizing Your Influence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeveloping Your Core Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Uncommon Marriage Adventure: A Devotional Journey to Draw You Closer to God and Each Other Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strengthening Your Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTomlin: The Soul of a Football Coach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSidelined: Overcoming Odds through Unity, Passion and Perseverance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Game Plan for Life: Your Personal Playbook for Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Championship Fathering Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding Your Team Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFacing the Blitz: Three Strategies for Turning Trials Into Triumphs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrue Competitor: 52 Devotions for Athletes, Coaches, & Parents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Strengthening Your Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCatch a Star: Shining through Adversity to Become a Champion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaning on the Promises of God for Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlaying for More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder My Helmet: A Football Player's Lifelong Battle with Bipolar Disorder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirst Team Dad: Your Playbook for a Winning Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Living Your Life's Purpose - Tony Dungy
How to Use This Weekly Challenge
We hope you will enjoy reading The Uncommon Life Weekly Challenge—Living Your Life’s Purpose. The principles in this devotional were taken from The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge—a book we collaborated on together.
While The Uncommon Life Weekly Challenge—Living Your Life’s Purpose offers weekly readings instead of daily ones, our hope is that the format will prove useful for regular doses of encouragement and strength—one for each week of the year. It’s possible that instead of getting together every day for devotions, your family opts for a weekly devotional time. Or maybe you’re a coach or a sports chaplain who has set aside time once a week for devotions with your team. Or perhaps you attend a weekly prayer meeting that would benefit from a short devotional time. It may also be the case that weekly personal devotions fit better into your schedule than a daily devotional routine. On the flip side, another option is to go ahead and read the devotions on a daily basis, either consecutively for fifty-two days or sporadically throughout the year. Whether read on a daily or weekly basis, or in a group or an individual setting, the fundamentals highlighted in The Uncommon Life Weekly Challenge—Living Your Life’s Purpose will keep you anchored in God’s Word. And check out www.coachdungy.com for more resources.
Each Purpose Principle includes Scripture and an Uncommon Key—an application or action to implement based on what you’ve just read. This isn’t just a read-it-and-you’re-done
type of devotional. The goal is not only to engage your mind but also to challenge your heart with the purposeful principles of God’s message to us through his Word, the Bible.
If you miss a week, keep going. Don’t try to catch up, and don’t feel guilty. Last week is gone—spend time with God today. Our prayer is that every week you will be blessed by what you read and challenged to find your life’s purpose in God’s Kingdom.
Tony Dungy
Nathan Whitaker
WEEK 1
Purpose Principle: First Things First
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:33
When people ask me to sign something, lately I’ve begun using this verse. Its truth is such a helpful way for me to structure the focus of my days.
How do you begin to set the right priorities for your life against the pull of the things the world says are important? It’s not easy, but it’s absolutely essential if you want to make sure you don’t miss the things that matter most.
With today’s verse, the natural tendency is to read the first part quickly in order to get to that last phrase: and he will give you everything you need.
I know; I’ve been there. And if we’re honest about it, we would probably admit that we’re usually inclined to live each day primarily focusing on everything [we] need.
It’s the stuff that slams us smack in the face when we wake up each morning and becomes more and more pressing throughout the day. The pressing needs around us—even if they are good things—can take the focus away from what matters most: our relationship with God and the people He has placed in our lives.
But read the verse again: Seek the Kingdom of God above all else
(another Bible translation says, Seek first His Kingdom
). How can you do that? With all the challenges, obstacles, and urgent matters of each day, is it even possible?
Let me suggest that you keep doing what you are doing right now—taking a few moments to be quiet and spend time with God. When you do, you will be pleasantly surprised at how He will lessen your worries about tomorrow and release you from the breathless pace of the world’s urgent
priorities for today in order to make room for His priorities.
Dedicating time to the priorities that God has entrusted to you may not seem significant right now, but to someone who needs you, it could make all the difference in his or her life—and in yours.
UNCOMMON KEY > Determine to seek God’s priorities for your life. It begins by spending time with Him. Try to do it every day—for yourself and for those who matter most to you.
WEEK 2
Purpose Principle: Facing Reality
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
James 1:23-24,
NIV
Perceptions don’t win ball games. No team can rely on its reputation as a finesse team
or a dome team
or an offensive team.
After all, it may not even be accurate—perception is not the same as reality.
I used to talk to my team often about the difference between perception and reality. The public perceives players as different from the ordinary people their families and friends know. But to win and be effective, our players needed to dig beyond perceptions and look at reality—not at their reputations, media personas, or past performances, but who they were on the field. And sometimes that process of uncovering reality could take a little work.
To develop a good game plan in life, we need to know who we really are—not how others perceive us, not the image of who we want to be or who society says we should be, but our true selves. That applies not only to us as individuals but to the teams
we play on: with families, coworkers, church members, neighbors, and other groups we’re involved in. We need to know our strengths and weaknesses and how they fit into the big picture.
How can we all do that? We must occasionally stop and take stock of who we are and what our goals are. And we need an objective standard to do that, not just our personal opinions. When we measure ourselves, our thoughts, our actions, and our goals by our own standards, we may end up missing the mark. Our perceptions aren’t always accurate. But if we measure these things by God’s Word, we are basing our lives on reality, not perceptions. That is the kind of game plan that works.
It’s a process, and it isn’t always easy. But if we want to win
—to live effective lives that contribute to society and further God’s purposes—we’ll take the time to look in the mirror of truth, see who we really are, and base our lives in reality.
UNCOMMON KEY > Perception doesn’t accomplish goals; substance does. Know who you really are and where you are going, and then pursue your goals.
WEEK 3
Purpose Principle: True Civil Disobedience
Submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished . . . . Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you.
Romans 13:1-3
Not too long ago, the FBI investigated a denial of service
attack against corporate websites. Apparently some hackers, who know far more about computers than I do, launched an attack
through which they caused these corporate websites to crash. They did it quickly and anonymously.
In an article, some of the cyberspace criminals, who had either been apprehended or were speaking anonymously while still in hiding, used terms like justice
and civil disobedience
to explain their actions. But