The powerful results a HIM produces working within his HIZ creates a challenge to his Missionality. His IMPACT within the Groups he Serves will soon result in requests that he undertake Tasks that range far outside of his D2X. No matter how compelling the underlying need sounds, the HIM should quickly and firmly decline to do so.

Here are the four reasons why:

1) He will disappoint the asker

When an excited well-meaning person compliments the HIM on how fantastic his efforts are within his D2X, he should be ready for the next sentence, which will sound something like this: “so, I got to thinking how perfect you would be for this critical, challenging life-changing opportunity to do the same thing (although differently) for this other (wholly unrelated) group of people.”

The asker reasons that the HIM’s success within his D2X arises primarily from him being a successful person, rather than being the result of his disciplined Missionality. Ergo, to the asker, the HIM will succeed at everything else regardless of its relation to what he does well. There is a certain logic to that, but the HIM knows the truth. He knows he can’t possibly perform outside of his D2X the way he does within it and that the asker will inevitably be disappointed. Sure, the asker will also be disappointed when the HIM declines the offer, but not nearly as much as he will be when he ends up mailing it in on the new thing, the asker’s thing.

And that’s what we end up doing when we take things on outside of our D2X, we mail it in.

2) He will deny service to his own Daffodil

When a HIM succumbs to the temptation of the well-meaning asker and takes on something outside of his D2X, there will be a consequence to his own Daffodil. Every minute he spends mailing it in outside of his D2X is lost to the time he has available for his own Daffodil. It’s hard to calculate the opportunity cost on that. Particularly when you consider how much longer it takes to mail in mediocre performance than it does to dynamically provide a great performance.

3) He will box out the right HIM

A man once asked me if he ought to marry a certain woman. I asked him why he was asking me (or anyone else) that. The reason, he said, was that while he was sure he loved her, he wasn’t sure he loved her the way some other guy might. But, he admitted, she really wanted to marry him and he was afraid of losing her. He asked me to give him a reason that he shouldn’t marry her. All I could think of was this: while you are married to her, she’s not free to marry the guy who really loves her, loves her the way you think someone ought to love her. Even though you don’t know who he is, you are effectively boxing that guy out.

That is how it goes when you start doing things outside of your D2X. There is a guy out there for whom this thing you are doing poorly is in fact his Dolphin. Because you are doing it badly, he can’t do it well. Or, even if you are doing a pretty darn good job at under the circumstances, that guy would still do it better because it is a D2X thing for him but not for you. But he can’t get to doing it because you are boxing him out.

There is one major exception to this that we call a Diaper Changer, which is a Task that must be done but is not within anyone’s D2X (or at least anyone who is around at the moment). A HIM doesn’t let one of his kids run around with dirty diapers because he doesn’t want to box out the guy (or his wife) who has that in their D2X. Nobody has that in his D2X and yet it has to be done, so somebody has to do it. Sometimes, you are just going to be that somebody. The key is knowing the difference between a Diaper Changer and succumbing to a temptation outside of your D2X.

4) Ultimately, it will be a Joyless experience

Unless you are the kind of man who does the hard things first every day, you probably do what you love to do first and leave what you hate until later in the day (at which point you ultimately blow it off or try to get somebody else to do it). But eventually you end up having to do those hated things, and it is always Joyless drudgery.

Tasks outside of your D2X will be like that. They will be the last thing you do every day, at a point when you have already used your prime time and energy on the things you love, the things inside your D2X. Couple that drudgery with the disappointed asker, the denied Daffodil and the guy you boxed out and you’ve got a deluxe Joy-free-festival. All of which could have been avoided by simply saying “no thank you” to the temptation to work outside of your D2X.

Saying no to Tasks outside of one’s D2X is an act of discipline in the face of significant external pressure to do otherwise. The HIM (because he knows it’s coming) gets Prepared for it like a Pro. He expects to be tempted by the flattery of the asker and besieged by the guilt of having to decline. He also knows better than to be distracted by the Oprah Bombs that he expects Goo Nation to continually throw at him to “expand” his Comfort Zone.

But, because he’s a Pro, he also stays ready for the unexpected–and that is the pressure from within that is generated by his own pride and ego trying to convince him that even though this is not a job for him, he is the only man who can do this job–even if it kills him. The timing and virulence of this self-generated messiah complex cannot be expected, so the HIM has to stay ready for it. He does so by having his Shield Lock primed to whisper three magic words into his ear when they see his pride taking over: get over yourself.

The graveyards are full of indispensable men and yet the Earth keeps turning. Just say no. Stay Missional.