In this episode, we continue talking about ‘Personal Discipline and the Art of Doing’.
Do you find it difficult to engage or take action on your dreams?
Is it hard for you to ‘PULL THE TRIGGER’, take the risk, and go after your preferred future?
Are you waiting on God to show up and do something for you?
Do you find yourself dreaming or planning, only to allow fear to paralyze you from ACT and DO?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this podcast is for you!
In this episode, we continue talking about ‘Personal Discipline and the Art of Doing’.
- Do you find it difficult to engage or take action on your dreams?
- Is it hard for you to ‘PULL THE TRIGGER’, take the risk, and go after your preferred future?
- Are you waiting on God to show up and do something for you?
- Do you find yourself dreaming or planning, only to allow fear to paralyze you from ACT and DO?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this podcast is for you!
Scriptural Principle:
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” ~ James 2:17-18
Personal Discipline
We cannot travel without until we are willing to first travel within. Someone once said, “When we are foolish we want to conquer the world. When we are wise, we want to conquer ourselves”. You see, personal mastery, (and personal responsibility) are paramount to our success. Many times we look outside of ourselves, wanting to place blame and responsibility for our present condition on someone, or something, else. The truth is this. If you could kick the person responsible for MOST of your troubles, you would not be able to sit down for weeks!
The truth is that each of us are responsible for WHERE we are today, as well as HOW we got here! Our life TODAY is a result of the choices we have made, and the actions (or inaction) we have taken along the way. What you are going to BE tomorrow, you are becoming today! You WILL BE whatever your choices are directing you to be. We need personal discipline.
Personal discipline is SELF-CONTROL. It is the ability to manage or RULE yourself FIRST. Personal discipline or SELF-CONTROL comes from the root word meaning, “to grip” OR “to take hold of”. Aristotle used this word to describe “the ability to test desire by reason…to be resolute and ever in readiness.” He explained that people who are not controlled have strong desires which try to seduce them away from reason, thereby sabotaging their success.
The Bible tells us that where there is no VISION, the people are ‘unrestrained’. Where there is no structure or order, there is no discipline. Where there is no discipline, there is no progress. Where there is no measured progress, there will be NO SUCCESS. Where there is no success, there is no joy or fulfillment.
The PRICE OF LEADERSHIP demands that we look inward FIRST, and deal with areas of indiscipline. We must know and acknowledge our weaknesses, so that we might address them and convert them to strengths through discipline. Personal discipline begins with personal responsibility.
The Art of Doing
One of the areas where we struggle with discipline is in the ‘DOING’. You see, we have become a culture of ‘try-ers’ and we have not many DOERS. Real transformation takes place when we decide to DO … to take action.
Real leadership is not accomplished in possessing good theory, or amassing great knowledge, but rather it is the result of putting one’s hand to the plow, and DOING whatever is necessary to get the job done.
What has God said about YOU? What has he asked of you? Are you stuck in the mindset of TRYING? To use the word TRY is to give ourselves an OUT, or an excuse to NOT DO. This may sound like a small distinction, but it has huge ramifications. My encouragement to you is this. It’s time to quit trying and just do it.
Here are three suggestions: (these come from Michael Hyatt’s blog post from December 2011 which can be found HERE.
1. Eliminate the word “try” from your vocabulary. It is a worthless word that accomplishes nothing. It only makes you feel better when you fail.
2. Decide either to do or not do. If you don’t want to do something fine. Don’t do it. But don’t pretend that trying is the same as doing. They are two completely different postures.
3. Commit 100 percent to the outcome you want. Like the project manager in Apollo 13 said, “Failure is not an option.” Play full out. Go for the win. Don’t settle for merely trying.
REMEMBER: “Try not! Do or do not. There is no try!
Be sure to leave us a question at www.BrianHolmes.com and we will do our best to answer it in the show
