Disclaimer: While I believe discipline is a huge part of abundant living, it is not the only or most important thing. Jesus is always the most important. Loving Him with all one’s heart, mind and strength and loving others as one’s own self is the foundation of all abundant living. This is just some simple ‘how – to’ if you find yourself coming up short of ideas in how to incorporate discipline into daily life.
Just stop.
Stop it!
Stop thinking that you deserve easy, because you don’t.
No pain. Enough money all the time. Comfort. Gratification. Idleness. Luxury. Security. Children that just be good. Husbands that automatically know what we need when we need it. A job that never has glitches. Coworkers that are always understanding. Friends that are always there for us.
Nope!
Just stop.
We tend to look at people and only see their success, their seemingly flawless lives. We envy people that have more money than us. Better looks than us. Talents and gifts that we don’t have. We envy those who are more influential than ourselves. We see people stronger than us, more forgiving, more patient, gracious and kinder than who we are. We envy that.
In doing so, we are blind to the years of hardship, sorrow and discipline that they walked through to get to where and who they are today.
Discipline is a precursor of success.
Make a plan!
Improve your weaknesses.
You have within you the potential to be a world-changer. Be one! Start changing your own world.
It begins with discipline.
You wish you were more physically fit? Start walking, running – anything to get moving. Do this on a regular basis. Find someone to do it with you and it gets even better!
You wish to rise earlier in the day? Set an alarm and make yourself accountable to someone. Then get up! On the flip side: maybe you wish to get to bed earlier! Set an alarm for yourself 30 min. before you want to be in bed. When that alarm rings, put everything aside and go get ready for bed. =)
You are unorganized? Write a daily or weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it.
You make unhealthy eating choices? Have someone else do your grocery shopping. Or strictly adhere to a pre-written grocery list. =)
You spend too much money or continually don’t have enough? Trash all credit cards and use a debit card or cash only. Give yourself a weekly allowance. Budget. And start giving more money away. Yep. Really. Start giving more.
How do you waste time? Delete your Netflix account and invest in an Audible account and listen to books that stimulate your thinking and teach you new concepts. Cut out all social media or limit yourself to 15 minutes per day (unless you use social media for business). Set a timer for 15 minutes and when it beeps, log off social media. Figure out how you waste time, then eliminate or restrict that vacuum.
You don’t know much about what’s going on in the world? Read world news for 10 minutes a day. Subscribe to an informative magazine.
Read History books. (children’s history books are the best, as they’re easy to understand and often illustrated!)
You wish you were smarter? That’s the easiest thing! Get smarter!! In what ways do you want to be smart? As a human, you are capable of learning whatever you wish to learn. Remember, the brain is a muscle and like all other muscles, it can grow, expand and become stronger. Study a specific subject for 15 min per day until you’ve grasped its concepts then choose a new thing to understand! Oh, and make sure you tell someone else what you have learned.
Don’t know where you want to go in life? Start a “Things to Accomplish” list and write down everything that you wish you could someday do. Then put action points to each one and start working toward those goals. For example: ‘I wish to backpack Europe someday.’ The action point I put to that might be: ‘Set aside $5 per week until I have X amount.’ If money isn’t the issue, I might instead write: ‘Buy a ticket for 8 months from today’ and start planning!
Perhaps something I wish to accomplish is ‘Confidence in public speaking’. My action point to that will be: ‘Offer to speak at the local Homeless Shelter/Nursing home/School/church at least once a week’. Then go do it! There are countless opportunities out there; you’ve simply got to put yourself out there and unearth them.
Goals are well and good; but if there are no action steps as to how those goals will be reached, goals are of no consequence.
You have too much clothing and stuff laying around? Take a weekend, go through absolutely everything you own. Make a ‘Good Will’ pile, a ‘Trash’ pile, and a ‘Keep’ pile. Allot every single thing to one of those 3 piles and carry on! If you have a lot of stuff, it might take a few weekends. In doing this particular exercise, keep in mind that “Someone is going to go through all my stuff someday” and “Will this have any value to anyone when I am gone?”
You complain because you don’t have enough time for ________? Make time! Figure out where you are wasting time, or misusing time and adjust your schedule! We automatically make time for what is important to us.
Prioritizing is simple if your priorities are written down and constantly recalled to mind.
I know this is a lot of information, but start with one thing and stick to it. Once you have that down as a normal discipline, then choose something else to work on!
Have fun with this one! Don’t get overwhelmed and set yourself up for failure; just start with one thing. Let me know what you decided to work on – I’ll cheer you on!