Category Archives: self-discipline

The person who carefully designs their daily routines

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“The person who carefully designs their daily routines goes further than the person who negotiates with themselves every day.”

—Shane Parrish, creator of the Farnam Street Blog

Image from Unsplash by Marissa Grootes

By designing daily routines, you create a framework that supports your goals and well-being, reducing the need for constant self-discipline and making it easier to maintain a balanced, productive lifestyle.

Here are a few key benefits of a carefully designed daily routine:

  • It reduces the need for constant decision making, allowing you to move from one task to another without wasting time and energy.
  • Routines provide structure and predictability, which can significantly lower stress and promote a sense of calm and control.
  • Consistent daily habits can boost mental well-being by providing a sense of purpose and stability.
  • A daily routine often includes consistent sleep and wake times along with regular exercise — which support improved physical health and overall productivity.

EXERCISE:

How can creating better daily routines help you achieve more in your personal and professional lives?

Where can and will you start today to tap into the magic of momentum offered by these new habits?

Take stock in your life.

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Take stock in your life. You always have the capacity to change things for the better. What will you do or not do given this awareness?

—Calm App Reflection

Have you done it yet? Have you stepped or leaped into the new year with boundless energy to better your world?

If not, you’re not alone. Many folks are still digging out of all the e-mails and work that piled up over the holidays and feel they haven’t even gotten out of the starting blocks.

What to do when “the hurried-er you go the behind-er you seem to get”?

Something dramatic has to happen to get your head above water and swim for the shore of the life you envision.

EXERCISE:

Try a brain dump exercise: List all the personal and professional to-dos that fill up and spill over your days.

Keep asking yourself “What Else?” until you get everything down.

Let this list sit for a day and dig some more.

Consider asking those close to you for their additional thoughts.

Once this list is complete, it can be managed, using a sorting strategy using the words More, Less, Start, and Stop.

It’s within the Less and Stop clutter in your world that you can make room for the Mores and Starts that will put you back in the driver’s seat to take your life where you want to go.

When angry, count to ten before you speak.

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“When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”

—Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States

Image from Unsplash by Piotr Miazga

Have you ever considered how similar anger is to a bowl of hot soup?

This past winter, we discovered that our grandkids love my homemade chicken soup. They love slurping up the noodles and then lifting the bowl to drink every last drop of goodness.

Teaching them to blow on their spoons and waiting until the soup cools on its own is a lesson they quickly learned!

How do you cool things off when tempers flare?

Counting to 10, 100, or more is a proven method to allow boiling emotions to subside and let a cooler head prevail.

EXERCISE:

What other chicken soup remedies do you use when faced with heated emotions?

Where and with whom would Jefferson’s counting technique prevent things from overheating in the first place?

I only start counting sit ups once it begins to hurt.

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“I only start counting sit ups once it begins to hurt.”

—Muhammad Ali, 20th Century American Boxer and activist

Image from Unsplash by Anastase Maragos

In the early years of my coaching career, I was fortunate to be selected for an amazing assignment — to coach the CEO of an exciting start-up tech company.

I was referred to this individual by another CEO I had been coaching for years, and who happened to be an angel investor in his organization.

Our relationship got off to a wobbly start and we needed a number of check-in sessions to sort out a few areas of misalignment.

The client, who was very direct, eventually told me that he wanted to “feel the burn” in our efforts, much like a personal trainer would do when working with their athletes.

EXERCISE:

In what area of your life would feeling the burn and some pain from your efforts lead you to the gains you seek?

Make a pact with yourself

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Make a pact with yourself. It is up to you to see it through.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Elise Storsul

It is common to promise others what we intend to do. Giving and keeping our word is fundamental to the establishment of trust.

How impeccable are you with your word when it involves others? How trustworthy are you when these promises are made with yourself?

Consider the words promise, commitment, vow, and pledge as alternatives to the word pact.

Which if any do your find the most empowering and inspiring to help you see things through?

EXERCISE:

Where and on what matter is it time to make a pact with yourself?

How might you also engage others to support your efforts to fulfill this commitment?

Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean me first. It means me too

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“Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean me first. It means me too.”

—L.R. Knost, Editor-in-Chief of Holistic Parenting Magazine

Image from Amazon

Do you eat a healthy diet? Get regular exercise? How much sleep and rest do you get to recharge and renew?

If your answers aren’t to your liking, most experts would suggest some significant upgrades.

We all fall out of balance from time to time but far too many people—for a variety of seemingly good reasons—are paying a very high price. They assume being selfless and always putting others first is the optimal way of living a meaningful life.

EXERCISE:

Pick up a copy of Adam Grant’s book Give and Take for an expert analysis of being other-ish as the way to go. I also recommend the book On Target Living by Chris Johnson if you want to re-evaluate your eating, sleeping and exercise strategies.

“How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?”

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“How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?”

—Attributed to Carol Hegedus

Image from Unsplash by Aaron Burden

Today’s quote is a challenging question for most people. Upon close introspection, many of us realize that we are not doing the best of jobs tending to our life. We can be like a shepherd who falls asleep and notices upon waking that a good number of his flock have wandered off — or God forbid — were taken by a wolf.

Where have you been sleeping on the job or dilly-dallying through your days just letting the world pass you by, or following paths mapped out by others?

If you were to tell a stranger your life story up until today how likely would they stay riveted and engaged?

EXERCISE:

How can you do a far better job tending to the story of your life as you pen your upcoming chapters?

Consider reading the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller for ideas and inspiration?  Another book worth exploring is Someday Is Not a Day in the Week by Sam Horn.

Friday Review: Self Discipline

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FRIDAY REVIEW: SELF-DISCIPLINE

When and in what ways do you demonstrate discipline? Here are a few self-discipline related posts you may have missed.

 

“A committee of one gets things done.”

 

 

 

 

“Your ‘I Can’ is more important than your I.Q.”

 

 

 

 

“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is easy to miss.”

“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life,

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“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is easy to miss.”

—Boris Pasternak, 20th Century Russian poet & novelist

Image from Unsplash by Rodion Kutsaev

I recently learned that our average level of digital engagement nearly tripled between 2007 to 2017.

Surprisingly, other aspects of our daily activities, such as sleeping, working, and commuting, have remained fairly stable.

We can all point to many positive aspects of our digital world, including increasing productivity, however more of us are now paying the price for this lack of digital well-being.

EXERCISE:

Mark Ostach, a Digital Well-Being Coach, suggests the following actions we can take to capture more of the “knocks on our doors” we may be missing:

  1. No digital gadgets at mealtime.
  2. Sleep device-free. Get a real alarm clock.
  3. Take a digital fast at least one hour each day.
  4. Make eye contact when talking.
  5. End your digital day one hour before bedtime.
  6. Go outside and get some fresh air.

 

“Your ‘I Can’ is more important than Your I.Q.”

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“Your ‘I Can’ is more important than your I.Q.”

—Robin Sharma, Author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari series

Image of the book cover of "The Little Engine that Could"

The Little Engine that Could is an American fairy tale that became widely known in the 1930s. Through an online poll of teachers, The National Education Association rated it as one of the Top 100 books for children, because of its key message of the importance of optimism and hard work.

The story’s signature phrase, I Think I Can is a key memory I have from childhood on the importance of self belief and self determination. My wife Wendy and I did our best to instill this concept in both our children.

EXERCISE:

Where and with whom would a bunch more “I can” and “I know you can” statements support greater achievement and life satisfaction in your personal and professional communities?

Here is a short video if you wish to recapture the memory or share it with someone you love.