Part One introduced Atomic Habits, a book written by James Clear, whose premise is that a person can accomplish exceptional goals by consistently performing minor habits. The principles he lays out work not only in the pursuit of physical success but also along the path to God's Kingdom. The key to reaching our goals is to stick with the process of doing small things well and steadily.

We covered three necessary steps in the process of achieving success:

1. Consider one's goals and write them down. Jesus commands us to have the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as our primary goals (Matthew 6:33). We may have many other sub-goals for different facets of our lives.

2. Make lists to set down what one desires to accomplish. Lists like this keep us focused and act as reminders. They also make us more efficient.

3. Evaluate what one desires to accomplish and prioritize the most important. This step helps to eliminate low-priority activities, requiring self-control to exercise delayed gratification, a common trait of successful people.

As a fourth step, Clear's book counsels its readers to acquire small habits by repeating them daily, and once they become routine, to continue and expand on them. This advice follows the phrase, "Inch by inch, anything's a cinch." Doing things in small increments gets things done. This step benefits the busy person who may not have large chunks of time to spend on his goals each day, but breaking them down into bite-sized pieces will, over time, accomplish his desired objectives.

For example, perhaps the goal is to read through the Bible in a year. The One-Year Chronological Bible utilizes this fourth step in its presentation of Scripture. Its editors have chronologically arranged God's Word into 365 daily readings, and the individual readings are not lengthy. All it takes is to be relatively faithful—setting aside a consistent time—to read it every day, and if one falls behind a few days, it is not difficult to catch up.

We can do the same kind of thing if we have included writing out the books of the Bible as part of our study routine, like the kings of Israel were to do with the book of the law (Deuteronomy 17:18). We can choose to write a few verses each day or a whole chapter. The point is to break the task down into workable pieces to make progress toward accomplishing the larger goal. A commitment to small habits, repeated daily, will lead to completing the goal in time.

This step can be used to organize one's reading of books: Break the reading down into paragraphs, pages, or chapters and commit to reading just that much each day. We can use it to organize exercising, process emails, prepare writing or speaking assignments, write cards or letters, catch up on the news, tackle a home improvement, and so forth. Breaking larger projects into manageable tasks and consistently performing them leads to completing the goal.

A word of caution: We must not burn ourselves out. Once people see how much they are getting done, many add too many activities—even small ones—to their daily list of things to do. It is a great feeling to accomplish more, but the human body can handle only so much before it begins to wear down. While getting things done, we need to keep an eye on our health, ensuring we get enough rest, eat well, and exercise. All our accomplishments will mean little if we grind ourselves into the pavement along the way.

The fifth step is, when we have decided to accomplish a goal, we need to stick to it. As the old saying goes, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Intentions must be combined with perseverance so that we remain faithful to our goals to the very end.

Following all the steps to getting things done yet failing in this one will doom the process eventually. The individual who is not fully committed will give up somewhere along the line. The project may be drawn out over so long a time that he may lose interest, or more pressing concerns may swallow it up. How many people have joined a health club only to give up after a few weeks? Or have a minor injury and never go back after it has healed? Or let their membership run out because something else has captured their attention?

The Bible provides many exhortations to be faithful and enduring. The apostle Peter encourages us to "gird up the loins of your mind" (I Peter 1:13) and continue the walk to God's Kingdom as He has called us to do. This phrase is the ancient equivalent to "man up"—to get ready for action and hold one's ground. The author of Hebrews urges us to "lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

As a sixth and final step, we must seek the help we need along the way. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says, "Life is too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful." We will be confronted by challenges to the goals we have laid out before ourselves, and we will need help to overcome them. The greatest resource of all is God. When we encounter troubles along the way, seek His help first, and He will give us the insight, strength, and persistence we need to keep going and reach our goals. If we include God in our projects, we will succeed.

We must train ourselves to view such challenges as a gift from God, and this mindset will go a long way toward helping us find ways to finish what we start. The apostle Paul writes encouragingly in II Corinthians 8:11 (New International Version), "Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means." If our goals are good, and failure is not an option, we will find a way to complete them.

A recent commercial for Hyundai depicts an active week in the life of a busy executive. He gets up early, drives his child to school, works hard all day, exercises, shops for groceries, helps his wife with dinner, and then still has time to take his family out for a pleasant weekend outing downtown. At the ad's end, two men admire the man, his family, his car, and even his confidence. One says to the other, "That's one lucky guy," and the other man concurs. The final image is the text: "Isn't it funny that the harder you work, the luckier you get?"

This commercial is just a modern portrayal of ancient understanding. Seneca, the Roman statesman and orator, wrote two thousand years ago, "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." Most people we think are "lucky" are those who set goals, plan a process of accomplishing them, work hard, and persevere so that they can take advantage of opportunities that spring up along the way. We would do well to establish these godly attributes in our lives to get things done.