March 12, 2020
ISSN# 1545-2646
Disciplined to be disciplined
The inherent nature of being disciplined to do something or act someway starts with self accountability. It is easy to say that you will do this or that but the true test is in actually doing something.
As we move into the 3rd month of 2020, stop for a moment and consider those stroke of midnight New Year’s resolutions you made to yourself and maybe to others. Have you been disciplined to hold yourself accountable to acting consistently on and toward them? How many of you started that ill-fated exercise routine only to still be paying the monthly fitness center fees and not spending any time going to them? How many of us started that ill-fated diet and then shortly into 2020 have fallen back into the holiday binges of snacks and goodies?
Being disciplined is hard work. It takes commitment or as I like to frame it – a “PROMISE” to yourself and others. You need to carve out specific time and energy to live up to your promises. This in turn causes you to rearrange an already defined day into something new. You can intellectually understand it and appreciate what it will do for you. Ultimately your willingness to make the changes necessary begin to become distracted and eventually fall away.
I’m not intending to make you feel guilty. For most of us we can all relate to the breakdown of not completely holding ourselves to a new routine or the discipline of making changes for our personal betterment. We can look at others and make judgements but not hold ourselves to the same standards. I’ll be the first person to not only admit this is a challenge for me but continuously need to remind myself that I can only expect of others what I expect of myself.
This week as you process through your work life and personal life, be conscious of the time you want to hold others to their discipline but falter on your own routines. Understand that we are bombarded by a multitude of distractions all calling for pieces of our time and energy. If we do not hold ourselves to our own disciplines, then the universe of stuff being thrown at us will easily take hold of us and push us in directions we ultimately did not want to go.
For those of you who recognize and believe in higher levels of self, take this coming week to identify a single discipline you can adopt into your world. Focus on it and completely embrace it into your life. Make the PROMISE for the next 45 days to live without missing a beat of your new discipline. Then in 46 days look back on how that change has contributed greatly to your future!
Need a “PROMISE Guide to help you along your journey? Call JKL Associates at (313) 527-7945 in Michigan or (407) 984-7246 in Florida to start on the path you have desired but not taken the first step.