Author: disciplinedforsuccess

It has been said that time is money, health is wealth, and knowledge is power.  Do you know the value of your time, the state of your health, and the extent of your knowledge?  The value of time is determined by how wisely we use it.  The state of our health is determined by how well we take care of ourselves, body, soul, and mind.  The power of our knowledge and skill is determined by how well we put it to use.  The best use of our time, health, knowledge, and skills, is bound to increase our net worth.

Our net worth can never be determined fully in dollars and cents.  If fact, your value to others cannot be measured monetarily.  What is the value of a friend?  What is the value of a parent, sibling, cousin, aunt, uncle, or grandparent?  What kind of value would you put on the most important people in your life?  Yes, the value you place on your time, health, and knowledge will affect the value you have to those you love.  If you have no time, wellness, knowledge, or money to give to those you love, you are probably a liability to them rather than an asset.  If you give more than is wise, you are probably a crutch to them, and they will probably never learn how to walk on their own. 

Being disciplined for success will make us healthy, wealthy, and wise.  Put your knowledge and latent skills to work.  Evaluate the way you use your time and see if you can make better use of the twenty-four hours you are given each day.  Most of all take care of your spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional health, because therein lies great wealth.

Disappointments are bound to occur in life.  The way we address them will determine whether they lead to success or failure.  If discouragement overtakes you, you may give up and quit.  You may have been disappointed in the past and someone came along to encourage you, or you may have decided to push through your disappointment and had a breakthrough.  When things do not go as planned, before you give up and throw in the towel, try again.  It helps to know what recharges your battery and where you can go to be encouraged and strengthened.  During difficult times make sure you charge your battery regularly. 

Some people wait until their gas tank is almost empty before refilling, and some people fill up at a half tank.  When there is the possibility of a snowstorm or inclement weather, it might be a good idea to keep a full tank.  What revives you?  What restores your energy?  What or who makes you feel like you can get up and get back into the ring?  Find time to have a cup of tea with a friend, watch a good movie, read or listen to scriptures, sing or listen to a song, read a good book, go to a worship service, run, walk, swim, bike, dance, workout, or do something that recharges you.

Recharged and ready to return to the mission, you now have fresh eyes on the situation.  You have had the discipline of rest and recharging.  Who knows what creative ideas may come to you now that you are recharged, and disciplined for success?

Every time we learn something new, our worldview shifts ever so slightly.  When I speak of learning, I am not simply referring to the acquisition of facts.  I am referring to the acquisition of knowledge.  Facts can help you acquire knowledge, or simply pass an exam, earn a diploma or degree, or become somewhat successful.  When one has knowledge, however, they understand how facts relate to situations and circumstances.  Knowledge is used to interpret facts, so when someone says, “just stick to the facts,” they are suggesting that when the facts are fully presented, we can make a judgement, or we can understand how the facts line up.

If you want to see your world shift, gather facts, and then look at them from different perspectives.  You are bound to see something you did not see before.  When this happens, you will never be able to see those facts the same way you did before.  Living and growing is about shifting and changing.  My father used to say, “a wise man will change, but a fool will never change.”  I interpret this to say that a fool or foolish person cannot change because they can only see things one way and from only one perspective.  The only things that change about that person are external, like the color of their hair, the condition of their body, and the world around them.

If we want to be disciplined for success, we must be disciplined for change.  If we want to be successful in growth and change, we must not just look at the facts, but we must study to understand how the facts align to produce knowledge.  If we are disciplined for success, our lives and our perspectives will shift whenever we acquire knowledge.  

Although our portion of the greater mission seems to end when we die, our success is determined by how well we duplicate our efforts through others.  If you have something of great value to others, the last thing you should want is for its value to die when you die.  The greatest gifts are the gifts that keep on giving long after the giver is gone. Just as our personal calling and mission relates to the missions and callings of others, and just as we received a legacy, we must create a legacy to pass on to others and future generations.  In that sense, our success is predicated upon the disciplined efforts of those who preceded us, our disciplined determination to complete our leg of the mission well, our willingness to duplicate ourselves, and the willingness of others to take up where we leave off.

Discipline and success must be modeled.  We receive the modeling and then we pass it on as an improved model to others.  Duplication is about reproducing and upgrading.  Just as parents want their children to excel beyond their own achievements, we should want our successors to succeed beyond us.  If students only stopped at the limitations of their teachers’ knowledge, new discoveries could never be made. 

Being disciplined for success is having the vision to see that even those we train, and those we engage along the way, now become part of the mission that we inherited.  The more powerful the mission, the greater the potential for production and reproduction.  The more dedicated we are to our mission, the more likely we are to pass on something of value to those who come after us.

Fulfilling our purpose and mission in life is a team effort.  It is not something that we can do alone, and so much of what we do in life are not things that affect us alone.  In order to fulfill your mission, you need the help of others along the way.  The vast knowledge that we have acquired as human beings is the result of others fulfilling their mission.  As we fulfill our purpose and mission, we too will leave something for others to build on when we are gone.

Some missions could never have been accomplished without a team effort.  In building a building or complex, the various tradesmen must coordinate their efforts to complete the project.  When you watch a good movie, stay long enough to read the credits at the end and you will see that it requires the coordinated efforts of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people to successfully film a movie.  Look around you and see where your help is and see if there is anything you can do to help your help. 

As we discipline ourselves for our individual success, let’s remember that our mission is connected to the missions of others.  The failure of others could also mean our failure.  So, our mission is always connected to a larger mission for a greater good.  Our individual success is always tied to someone else’s success as well.  As we carry out our individual missions, we may find greater success if we help others succeed also.  If I help you win, I increase my chances of success, and if you win, I win. 

The results from your daily review are in, and whatever the review revealed, it is time to revisit the mission.  At the end of the day, succeed or fail, progress or regress, the mission is still primary.  Tomorrow’s plans must be made based on the purpose and mission and not on today’s progress or setback.  Perhaps you have heard the saying, “it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”  Usually this saying is associated with failure but if we go back to the drawing board each day, keeping the mission in mind, new plans come out of success or failure. 

Approaching each day with the value added from yesterday’s review gives us fresh eyes on the mission and a less encumbered view of today’s plan.  Imagine coming to each day with fresh enthusiasm and a new set of eyes on the world.  It does not mean that ongoing challenges and problems disappear, but like the sun rising on a new day, we rise each day with a new perspective on the mission.  Driven by the purpose for which we are here on earth we take up the gauntlet and face the challenges of a new day.

Disciplined for success means starting each day with the added value of what we learned from yesterday’s portion of the journey.  It takes discipline to disconnect from yesterday.  It takes discipline to live today and relegate yesterday to the past.  The only way to truly be disciplined for success is to stay on mission today.

A plan can only be considered successful or effective after a review of the results.  Just as much as we need to discipline ourselves to plan our days, we must discipline ourselves to review the outcome of our plans.  Did I accomplish everything I set out to do today?  How well did I carryout today’s plans?  Did I give my best and do my best?  Were my plans reasonable and doable?  Where my plans detailed enough?  Without making the process to complicated, it is good to review your day before planning for tomorrow.  Each day’s review helps with the next day’s planning. 

When you fall short of fulfilling your plans for a day, a review will help you to determine whether you took on too much, became distracted, or just did not put forth enough effort.  A review of the day can also help you to determine whether a change in direction, strategy, or focus is needed.  The better the plan, the easier the review, and the better the review the easier it is to plan the next steps.  When you can look back on a well-executed plan, you become excited about the next day, week, or year.  When a student has prepared well, the exam may appear to be easy, but when the student is ill prepared, the exam will be dreaded.

It is time to become disciplined for success by taking an assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, where we are, how well we are doing, and what can be improved moving forward.  If we do this daily, not only will we be successful, but continual review will lead to continual success.

While we are developing our skills and honing our techniques, we must have forward movement towards fulfilling our purpose and mission.  This means we must plan our days with the mission in mind.  Planning, like practicing, takes time, focus, and diligence.  Each day we must ask ourselves, “what’s the plan for today?”  Like any construction, some things must be done before other parts of the plan can be implemented.  Brick-by-brick, floor-by-floor, and day by day the building goes up, the highway is laid, the shopping center or housing complex is built.

When we see our lives as purpose and mission in process, and our life’s work as a building under construction, we can carefully plan our days to bring us closer to our destination.  When you have a sense of where you are going it is easier to enjoy the journey, and when you are confidently carrying out your mission, you can proudly enjoy the fruit of your labor.  Our progress will be determined by how well we carry out our plans daily, and whether our plans have been wisely ordered to correspond with our plans from yesterday and our plans for tomorrow.

The more disciplined we are with our daily planning, even if we only accomplish a very small amount each day, the more progress we will see from week to week and year to year.  Being disciplined for success is being dedicated to steady, ongoing progress.  It is being able to take one step, two steps, three steps, or more each day until the mission has been accomplished.

Clarity will come.  Your purpose, mission, and strategy will become clearer as you go along.  In the meantime, with what you know concerning all three, continue to work on your technique.  Continue to develop a style and way of doing things that feels comfortable and right for you.  Whenever you see someone who is very good at what they do, they usually have a unique style, technique, and way of doing things.  Their unique technique makes it possible for you to identify them by their style.  It is also their style that reveals how good they are at what they do. 

There was a time when the greatest professional athletes practiced day after day, and hour after hour simply developing their technique.  Even if you do not know where it will take you, find something that you are good at, or like to do, and practice, practice, practice, until you get better, and until you master it.  Someone said, “prepared places are for prepared people.”  While you are mastering your technique in the shadows, there just may be a place in the light prepared for you to demonstrate your skills.  However, if a place in the light is made available for you, and you have not mastered a technique or honed any skills, the light will soon go out on the stage. 

Being disciplined for success is working behind the scenes and in the shadows doing our very best with what we have.  We must develop our gifts and our techniques at the same time.  In addition to developing a strategy to fulfill our purpose and mission, we may need to develop a strategy for developing our gifts and techniques as well.  Sometimes victory is won through the strategy, and sometimes it is won through the technique.  Practice, practice, practice!

You’re being pulled by your purpose and your target is becoming clearer.  Now you need a strategic plan to get there.  There are seen and unforeseen obstacles between you and your destination.  A strategic plan will help you to circumvent the seen obstacles and anticipate the unseen ones.  A good plan will keep the big picture in view while focusing on the details of the most immediate steps at the same time.  In other words, keep the target in view, observe everything along the way, and be mindful of each step along the way. 

Yes, strategic moves must be made with panoramic and focused vision.  Recognizing the need for a strategy means that you anticipate some opposition or obstacles along the way.  By anticipating obstacles and preparing for them strategically and emotionally, you are not as likely to throw in the towel and quit along the way.  Never losing sight of the mission allows you to develop patience and a keen eye to know when the strategy must be modified.  Sometimes you must shift in midair or turn on a moment’s notice. 

To be disciplined for success requires the flexibility to adjust strategies while never deviating from our purpose or mission.  In fact, if we use our inner eyes and inner ears every day, our short-term and long-term strategies will be adjusted daily as we move confidently towards the completion of our mission.  So, discipline requires going back to the drawing board each day to reassess the game plan.

Purpose without a mission is like a flying arrow with no target, or like a flight with no destination.  Both will either fall to the ground, land in an unknown place, or hit an arbitrary target.  If you can think of yourself as an arrow released in time with a specific target, destination, and purpose, then as your mission becomes clear you become a guided missile destined to hit your target at an appointed time.  Unfortunately, many arrows fall to the ground because they fail to see their purpose, and many miss their intended target because they lose contact with their Source or refuse to be guided.

Maintaining contact with the Source requires submission to the mission.  Submission to the mission involves waiting for certain details from the Source that are critical for carrying out the mission.  Remember, it is the one who pulls the bow and releases the arrow who knows the intended target.  So, the Archer commands the bow and the arrow, and the mission is accomplished when the arrow hits its target.

Perhaps we heighten our discipline and our success if we see ourselves as an arrow released daily with daily targets.  Getting in touch with the Archer each day for the details of our daily mission places us on target to reach our lifelong mission as well.  Watching with our inner eye, listening with our inner ear, and knowing that we came pre-loaded with what we need to fulfill the mission, we can say to ourselves each day, “I was born for this.”  Each day if we ask God to let us know our target, as the writer of Psalm 39 verse 4 in the Bible, we will begin to see the target come into view.  With this daily discipline we will surely be successful in accomplishing the purpose for which we were released.

Some people call it a calling, and some people just call it a sense of knowing why they are here on earth.  Whatever we call it, it is having something to give our lives to, and for, while we are here.  If you have not discovered your purpose and you do not know why you are here, do not stop until it has been revealed to you.  If you know your purpose, it is a good idea to remind yourself of why you are here, and to make sure that you are progressing towards its fulfillment.  Purpose is something that becomes clear to you early or late in your journey.  Some people know at a very young age and some people do not bloom until late in life.

It is possible to be thrust into purpose or to gradually discover it.  If you become a parent unexpectedly, soon one very important part of your purpose will require that you become disciplined and attentive.  In the sense of a calling, purpose is not something that you choose, is something that you were destined or predestined to do.  Whether you choose your purpose, or it is thrust upon you, more than likely you have a natural proclivity to be skilled in that area. 

In recent posts I wrote about seeing and listening with your inner eye and ears.  Purpose is something that has more than likely been whispered in your inner ear many times already in your life.  It does not have to be anything grandiose but the more you follow the direction you are pulled in, the closer you get to understanding your purpose.  To successfully discipline yourself to fulfill your purpose will require other steps which I will address in upcoming posts.

In my two previous posts I invited you to close your eyes and to block out the outside sounds.  Hopefully you have opened your inner eye and inner ear.  If you were successful, you have seen and heard things which may have surprised you.  Your vision and imagination may have opened new possibilities for you.  It may even be somewhat unbelievable and fearful to think that there is a new path available to you that could only be discovered from within.  Go figure, it was inside of you all the time.

In the Bible, Jesus said, “do you not know that the Kingdom of God is within you?”  We may travel to the center of the universe to find God only to discover that the pathway to God is not external but internal.  ‘Knowledge about’ God and the universe can be externally obtained, but ‘knowledge of’ God must be internal.  Knowledge about someone can come from information, study, and observation, but knowing someone can only come through intimacy and interaction.  The power to discover God may not come from reaching out into the universe to touch God, it may simply come from having the humility to be touched by God. 

As human beings we have studied the depths of the oceans.  We have been to the Moon.  We have studied the stars and explored space.  We have extracted the wealth of the earth.  We have harnessed multiple forms of power and sometimes think of ourselves as the masters of earth and the universe.  Being disciplined for success may mean exploring the spiritual or unseen world within, as much as we have the natural world without.  At the intersection of both worlds we may discover things that our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, and our hearts have not imagined.

Who said God does not speak to us?  Just as we have an inner eye to imagine, envision, and see in another dimension, we have an inner ear to hear inaudible voices of past, present, and future.  If you go into the quietest place you know, block out all sound, and simply listen, you may be surprised at the sounds you hear and the voices you hear.  You may hear your own voice in your head, reminding you of something you need to do.  You may hear the voice of a parent, friend, or loved one saying something funny or wise.  You may hear a voice of criticism, anger, or judgement, bringing shame or belittlement.  If you keep listening, intently and frequently, you may just hear the voice of God beyond the other voices. 

If you have never taken the time to listen, how do you know what can be heard at the inner most recesses and the outer limits of your thoughts.  Faith and creativity can come through hearing.  I believe most song writers, playwrights, composers, speakers, preachers, and others who are gifted with creative audible abilities, only reproduce what they have heard through their inner ear.  Maybe psychotic voices only make themselves audible because of our tendency to deafen our inner ear.  If God is speaking to me, I want to hear.  If my own inner voice is trying to show me something, point me in a better direction, or warn me, I want to hear. 

Being disciplined for success involves hearing the inaudible and listening for what no one else can hear.  If we all have a unique purpose to fulfill on earth, then there may be personal instructions for each of us, designed for our ears only.  Listen with your inner ear and carefully evaluate what you hear.

What do you see in your future?  Will every day look pretty much like today?  Will there be any major changes that you planned and carried out, or will life and death come and go as usual?  Are there any possibilities that excite you?  Do you have a bucket list?  Do you know your purpose for being here and are you on track to fulfilling it?  You may say that you are not a clairvoyant, or prophet, so how can you know what tomorrow, or the future may bring?  Yet we predict and plan the future every day of our lives.  Without the ability to see tomorrow in our vision and possibilities, life would probably end for us today.  Even the most depressed person will open their eyes tomorrow, hoping against hope that something may change their circumstances.

The Bible says, “where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Prov. 29:18).  Sometimes you must close your eyes in order to see.  Sometimes it is what we envision that enables us to establish a vision.  Think of envisioning as the creative use of your imagination to see possibilities with your inner eye.  If you begin to use it, you may discover that there are things to see, places to go, and things to do that you never imagined before, at least not consciously.  Now in your imagination, move backwards slowly from what you see to where you sit right now. Open your eyes and begin to follow the forward path of your imagination.  Follow the dips, curves, obstacle courses, and smooth terrain until your vision becomes a reality.

Being disciplined for success is about imagining where you can be and following the blueprint of your imagination until you get there.  It is about finding the purpose God wants you to fulfill on earth and walking it out.

“You’re doing too much,” is a colloquialism used to chide a person for making something more complicated than it must be, or for just bringing undue and unwanted stress to bear on others.  Sometimes we find ourselves doing to much because we don’t know another way of doing things.  On the flipside, we sometimes find ourselves doing too little, or nothing at all, because we don’t know what to do.  Doing too much, doing too little, or doing nothing at all may sound like the symptoms of a bipolar disorder.  I know what it feels like to not be able to shut off my mind, and I also know what it feels like to wonder whether my mind would ever work again.  Thank God for balance, and for the regaining of balance when we lose it. 

It is important to know when to take a break, and when to forge full steam ahead.  Even nature gives us a balance between sunlight and darkness, between Winter and Summer, and Spring and Fall.  We used to have a ditty which said, “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.”  All play and no work will make Jack broke, dependent, and a burden to others also, even if Jack was born with the proverbial ‘silver spoon’ in his mouth.  Balance is important in everything.  Even the earth, sun, moon, and stars must be kept in balance for them and us to survive. 

Pull back today and put some things on the scales to make sure there is balance in your life.  Being disciplined for success is not just about hard work, it is also about knowing when to take a break from hard work, when to work on something else, and when and how to enjoy life.

Think of the tears you have cried, every trouble or sickness you have been through, and every time you thought you would not make it.  Just think, you are still here, and you made it through.  Some have been through major heartbreaks or heart attacks and survived.  I do not know what you have been through or what pain you have endured but I believe that your pain and suffering can be a source of much strength and good.  You may ask, “How can suffering be a good thing?”  It is not when you are going through it, and some people do not survive.  However, those who have survived did not do it alone. 

If you look back on your struggle you may find that someone encouraged you, pointed you in the direction of help, or helped you in some way or another.  People who have been through something difficult know how to help people who are going through.  These are the people who can tell you from experience that if you keep living, you will get through what you are going through.  These are the people whose stories encourage us.  These are the people who will tell you how they cried and how they cried out for help, even from God, and how help came unexpectedly, from unexpected people and unexpected places.  It may be a mystery to us how this works, and I could tell you it is the way God works, but aside from that just look at the simple fact that many come through great pain, against great odds. 

When we are disciplined for success it can never be our success alone.  Whenever our victories over dark days are used to encourage those who are going through rough times, our former tears are not wasted. 

Things will go wrong, sometimes we miscalculate, extenuating circumstances beyond our control will arise, and sometimes we are just simply wrong.  Whatever has derailed your original plans or drawn you away from your goals or purpose can be overcome if you can adjust.  Birds and pilots must adjust to changing wind currents while in flight.  If you view hindrances or delays as roadblocks to your destiny you may become discouraged and turn around and give up.  If you view them as obstacles and setbacks to be hurdled, even if you are far behind schedule, by adjusting your plans you may make up for lost time.   

When adjusting our plans, we must not rely solely on our own thoughts but seek wise counsel from others.  If a plane is delayed in an airport due to equipment failure or inclement weather, the pilot must rely on the expertise of the technicians, air traffic controllers, and the meteorologists in order to know when it is safe for departure.  Reading about, or observing, the successes and failures in the lives of others can help us avoid pitfalls and show us how to adjust to the setbacks.  Whether making or adjusting plans, knowledge is critical to our success, and knowledge is available through study.

There is an even greater key to success which unlocks the doors of both knowledge and wisdom.  It is a summons that can only be made through our spirits.  It is the call for divine help.  Solomon summed it up this way in verses five and six of chapter 3 in his Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge God and He will direct your paths.”  Maximize your counsel, adjust when needed, and soar to success.

We have been living beneath our privilege.  We have been waiting for the right time. We have been waiting for the world to change.  We have been making excuses.  There is no better time than now!  Clean out the clutter.  Get rid of things you don’t need.  Take the class, write the book, take the trip, do the research, or whatever you need to do to accomplish your goals and complete your mission.  A quote from the Gospel of Thomas says, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.  If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”  It is time to do and become what we were meant to do and become.

We all know that there is greatness in us and that there is more that we can do in our lives.  You may say, “perhaps when I am older,” or perhaps when I was younger.”  Something is holding us back.  Well, it is time to release the brakes and stop holding back.  Take off the emergency brake, come out from under the covers, put yourself if drive, it is time to shine. 

It means that you are going to have to let some things go.  It means that you are going to have to develop discipline.  It means that you may have to get up earlier or stay up later.  Once you are convinced that it is your time, the burden gets lighter and the work gets done.  When we are disciplined for success, we make each day a time to bring forth the treasure that we have kept stored up inside.  It is our time.

Our daily routines tend to be predictable and we tend to only look for the familiar.  Yet all around us looms the unfamiliar and the unpredictable.  If we desire something new and different, we must do something new and different, and we must look for the unfamiliar even in familiar places.  Change is difficult, and sometimes we only change when it is forced upon us.  Even when things are not working at all, we sometimes remain stuck in the pattern of the familiar.  If we can discipline ourselves to do something different, we may find that success was simply waiting at our doorstep.  As it has been said, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” 

As a world we have been forced into uncharted territory simply by our ability to communicate and do commerce throughout the world in split seconds through our satellite connectivity.  Just as the pace of our world has sped up, so has the speed in which we can do good or harm.  We now have greater potential for the unleashing of both, mindless hearts and heartless minds.  We have avoided talking about politics and religion, preferring to hold those with private privilege.  Our private beliefs are becoming glaringly public all over the world.  Keeping our politics devoid of religion, and our religion devoid of politics, has created a pressure cooker that is fueled more by emotions than reason. 

Being politically correct may lead to moral and spiritual suicide.  Being disciplined for success is not just having knowledge or an opinion, it is living them out with integrity in public and in private.  If our goal is for the good of the nearly 8 billion people on earth, we must begin to move in unfamiliar and uncharted territory every day in our personal lives.  Soon it will no longer be business as usual for any of us.