Recommit: On Discipline

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discipline

Oh friends, thank you for hanging with me this month. I know it’s been a lot of information but I hope it’s been helpful so far.

Honestly, in thinking about the idea of a life reset the bottom line about why I’m “here”, why I’m at a place in my life where my priorities and time have gotten out of whack comes down to one word.

Discipline.

I grew up with the word, my mom was all about discipline, she would make me re-do my homework if my writing wasn’t neat. I was a rule follower; a good girl.

It seems though that over the years I personally and as part of the larger culture have shifted from being a disciplined person, which requires effort, intentionality and work towards a culture of instant gratification and immediate information.

If I have a question, I Google it. Need to contact a friend, I text her. Have to find out the name of a particular actor in a movie, IMDB. Don’t have time to get to the store? Amazon or Google express.

It’s pretty easy to do a lot of things and life does not seem to require quite as much discipline as I believe it once did.

Unfortunately, that translates into my personal life. Again my intentions are good, I mean to use my time wisely and on worthy pursuits but. . . .I lack the discipline to stay purposeful and follow through on those intentions.

The thing is practice still makes perfect. If I can get into habits of living out my values then over time they will become a natural part of who I am. But it takes discipline; focus.

I need to be intentional about limiting distractions. I need to schedule the important in my day and follow through with my goals.

For example, one of my goals is to be healthier. That’s a big goal so I’ll need to break it down to smaller goals, including eating better.

So in order to eat better or let’s say more specifically I want to cut back on sugar. The idea of it sounds great, what that actually looks like is HARD. It takes discipline to pass on the 20oz Coke and have water instead or to not eat the cookies sitting in my cupboard. But without putting into practice the steps needed to accomplish my goal I will never get there.

Self-discipline is about delaying an instant “reward” and holding out for a larger payoff. I believe the larger payoff of living a more meaningful life is worth the sacrifice but it is not always easy.

A life reset will require commitment and discipline. We must ask how important is this change for my life and am I willing to pay the cost of working toward implementing this change?

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