Frances Hesselbein is chairman and founding president of the Drucker Foundation, as well as the former CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. She began her work as a volunteer troop leader and vowed to defend the core values of the Girl Scouts while recommitting the organization to its mission of “helping girls reach their highest potential.”

She determined that any girl in America should be able to see herself in a Girl Scout uniform—whether she was Navajo or Vietnamese or a young girl in rural America. She also determined that the organization had to become more relevant. Girls were not so in need of preparing for marriage as for math, and had to be prepared not only to work in the kitchen but also to avoid teen pregnancies.

Hesselbein began a relentless crusade to narrow the focus while broadening the reach. During her tenure the Girl Scouts went from a membership of one million girls to more than two million, with 780,000 adult volunteers. Her accomplishments were noticed by none other than Peter Drucker himself, the man many credit as being the father of the modern organization. Drucker recruited Hesselbein to start and run his Drucker Foundation, which is dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations run more efficiently.

Hesselbein calls herself the chief cheerleader of Drucker's principles. One principle that she quotes most frequently in her book Hesselbein on Leadership is that of “planned abandonement.” She writes, “If we are to remain mission focused, as we must be if we are to be relevant in an uncertain age, then abandoning those things that do not further the mission is a leadership imperative.

Hesselbein is in good company. Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great, writes about Hesselbein. He states that Frances follows three basic tests of mission, understanding that to do good does not mean to do all good. According to Collins, the three basic tests of mission relevance are these: “First, the opportunity must fit squarely in the midst of the organization’s mission. Second, the enterprise must have the ability to execute on the opportunity better than any other organization. And third, the opportunity must make sense in the context of the economic engine and resources of the organization.

Planned abandonment means learning how and when to say no, as well as cultivating the discipline of saying no. Because we live in a day and age when opportunities are endless, and “acres of diamonds” lay everywhere at our feet, we need to be able to understand what to pick up and what to put down.

Jesus understood this and demonstrated it when he put down the hammer in the carpenter shop and picked up his walking stick. Being a carpenter was something he did very well, but there was something higher and more unique that he could do better than anyone else. He went toward that “occupation”, and the world was forever changed.

Because a theme of my work is finding your divine calling and living it, I counsel people from many walks of life, all endeavoring to reach out and grasp “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Invariably the challenges they face are due not to lack of opportunity but to the multiplicity of choices.

Having too many choices can be just as paralyzing as having few or no choices at all. I have watched a woman surrender her chairmanship of a church board, only to go on to become a congregational coach throughout her region. I have watched a CEO relinquish his opportunity to become president of his national trade association, so he could drill down deeper into the roots of his organization and solidify its growing success. I have watched a speech pathologist turn over her practice to friends and associates, so she could get on with the work of church planting and growth. I have watched a man struggle with the decision about whether to become a lifetime deacon of his church or devote more time to his family. Every decision was an agonizing one because it meant leaving others . . . disappointing others . . . leaving a gap in services. But the decisions were made, and somehow the gaps were filled.

As someone whose mission involves the words divine connection, I have had to struggle with decisions that meant loosening ties with others. Whenever I have to make a decision that means leaving someone behind, I am reminded of something. What would I be doing if I had only six healthy months to live? That question always eases and triggers some planned abandonment of projects and tasks that could be done by others. Abandonment to God means abandonment to bliss. And that is worth planning for.

Now, I want to say a word about false abandonment. Perhaps you are as dubious as I am when I hear of a politician, who has been caught in a scandal or who is losing popularity in the polls, deciding that he wants to return home to “spend more time with his family.” That is not a planned choice—that is a default choice because his chosen route isn’t open to him anymore. There is a difference.

Planned abandonment doesn’t mean walking away from something that is difficult or isn’t working anymore. Planned abandonment means choosing between good and great, between better and best. Planned abandonment means that you are able to say no to all that glitters and discern what truly shines. Once you understand the difference, you are on your way to fulfillment.

I love this story:

When Mary chose to leave her kitchen duties in favor of listening to Jesus, she was praised for her planned abandonment. She decided to let lesser things go in order to choose the higher part. Jesus practiced planned abandonment.

Laurie Beth Jones' book, Jesus, Life Coach, is perfect for lying in the hammock or curling up in a chair. Buy your own copy here.