“Behind the Veil of Accomplishment” is a story about the rock-bottom foundation of stick-to-itiveness.

What if I were to say, you don’t need inspiration, motivation, role-rituals, or goal-setting strategies to accomplish whatever challenge or task you encounter?

There are several tools available to draw upon that will help you achieve goals, but none of them will do the task without one basic concept—you have to have a want to—in other words a burning desire to succeed. Nothing is more inspiring or motivating than a decision to do, followed by commitment. Whatever you want to achieve, finish, complete, or accomplish is doable. People have made life harder than it needs to be by believing you need a boatload of crutches to get done what you want to get done.

Allow me a few more minutes of your time, and I will explain the most basic of principles.

The elderly preacher was summoned to the chapel’s pulpit. The congregation was quiet, their attention focused on the man as he stood, his jerky movements and wobbly posture forcing him to pause before proceeding slowly with a pain-ridden gait to the lectern. Carefully maintaining his balance, he placed his Bible on the center of the stand then one hand on either side of the pulpit, stabilizing his posture before he spoke.

I was one of the few that day who had prior knowledge of the old Louisiana preacher and how he had been stricken at birth with an incurable disease. He was a man who faced the painful hardship of everyday life as a victim of cerebral palsy and the additional daunting task of life in the ministry.

Before he delivered his sermon to our student body, the preacher gave God the glory for the life and ministry he had been given.

The preacher took us on a journey back in time that morning, back to his childhood, back to the mid-1930s. A time when children diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy were not given hope for a meaningful life. With his strained voice, he described in detail the futile fight his mother and father faced.

“My mother was told I would never walk,” he said. But one day when he was four years old he did. Not because he had a structured routine to develop the motor skills but because he wanted and was determined to walk. Painful at times—yes, incredibly so, but he pushed himself to walk; balance and posture challenged his every step.

“I was told I could never ride a bicycle.” His friends were on bikes at five, six, seven but, he was told he would never be able to control the bike. He wanted to try and try he did until one day he hurried home leaving the bike on its side along the roadway. He called out to his mother who greeted him outside on the front porch. With blood running down his nose, his mother asked, “What happened?”

Bleeding and smiling he said, “I rode the bicycle to the end of the block.”

“When I went to Bible College I told them I wanted to be a minister.” The school counseled him against wasting his time by going into the ministry. They reasoned he wouldn’t be able to answer the Call with his CP disorder. The effects of his speech impediment, exaggerated reflexes, and involuntary movements would keep him from being able to minister. But he had a “want to.” When he completed his studies he entered the ministry.

Not long after he began his ministry, he met the woman of his dreams and intended to marry her. She was counseled to not marry the preacher, that he would never have a ministry and she would have to be the breadwinner for their family. But he had a “want to.” They married, raised a family, and were actively engaged in the ministry for fifty-five years.

It was more than three decades since I had the opportunity to hear the old preacher man. To this day I remain moved by his message. I adopted his principle as the basis for every decision. In my life when faced with deadlines, tasks, or seemingly insurmountable difficulties, I don’t look to prompts for inspiration or cheerleaders for motivation. I remember the rock-bottom principle for getting something done, “You have to have a want to.” It is the strength behind every decision that makes the task doable.

Behind the veil of accomplishment for this writer is a want to. A decision based on value. The value that I’ve attached to authorship.