Inch By Inch

Without discipline, we are like a ship without a rudder. We may be taking lots of steps, but making no progress. The good news is that you and I don’t require tons of discipline to succeed. We can learn discipline through small steps. And small, simple daily disciplines, practiced day by day, eventually lead to the destination we desire.

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Move Toward Your Goal

There’s a difference between having a goal and reaching a goal and that difference is movement. If you aren’t taking actual steps to reach your goal, it’s still in the dream stage. You don’t have to figure everything out in the beginning. That isn’t always possible anyway. But find a way to begin – to go from having a goal to moving toward your goal.

Title Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

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How To Move From Procrastination To Productivity

When we procrastinate, we “voluntarily put off tasks despite believing ourselves to be worse off for doing so. When we procrastinate, we know we are acting against our own best interests.” (~ Piers Steel) If your aim is to reduce procrastination, you’ll want to increase Expectancy and Value or decrease Impulsiveness and Delay. Either will work, but the quickest way is to do both at once.

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The Difference Between Trying And Doing

“Trying” to do is different than doing and different than not doing. Trying lets us off the hook – we don’t have to succeed and we don’t have to fail. We don’t have to really do anything. That is languishing, NOT flourishing.

trying or doing

Trying Or Doing?

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Once upon a time, as I attended a workshop, the presenter asked me to come up to the front of the room. She laid a pencil down on the table and said to me, “Try to pick that pencil up.”

I picked up the pencil. “No,” she said, “I said ‘Try to pick it up.’ Instead, you picked it up. Now, again – try to pick the pencil up.”

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Small / Simple Daily Disciplines

Self-discipline is essential to growth and development. Establish small acts of discipline, practice them daily, and build on them as your sense of self-discipline gets stronger.

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” ~ Proverbs 6: 6 – 11 (NIV)

The Ant And The Grasshopper

Summertime, and the Grasshopper spent his days singing and hopping about, lazing away the hot days. One day the Grasshopper saw an Ant, toiling hard to drag a piece of grain to her nest.

“Why do you work so hard?” asked the Grasshopper. “Come, sing and dance with me. We can do as we please. It’s too hot to work so hard!”

“I’m storing up food for the Winter,” replied the Ant. “You should be doing the same. Summer won’t last forever.”

“Phuh!” said the Grasshopper. “Who cares about Winter? We have plenty of food right now.” And he went on singing and dancing, doing as he pleased.

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Don’t Feel Like It? Do It Anyway.

“The mature human being goes about doing what needs to be done regardless of whether that person feels great or terrible. Knowing that you are the kind of person with that kind of self-control brings all the satisfaction and confidence you will ever need. Even on days when the satisfaction and confidence just aren’t there, you can get the job done anyway.” ~ David Reynolds

“He didn’t feel like it.”

Once upon a time, there were two friends, Sue and Stan. One day, Sue and Stan decided they needed to get in better physical shape. They joined a gym and made plans to work out.

The next morning, Sue saw that she was scheduled to work out, so that’s what she did. She got dressed and went to the gym. She had a good work out and left feeling energized.

Stan woke up and saw he was scheduled to meet Sue at the gym. But he hadn’t slept that well and decided he didn’t feel like working out. So he didn’t.

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