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Start to get disciplined

Feb 28
Posted by DaveOlson in Personal

So what’s the first step to take in order to get some discipline in your (my) life?

Get started!

Deeply profound statement indeed…. :-)

If you are really serious about getting disciplined in your life let’s start by looking at two areas.

  1. First let’s take a look at all the tasks, projects and goals in your life either unfinished or unstarted.
    While everyone will have a number of the above, normally the lower the level of your self-disciple the larger the number of unfinished projects and tasks. You can be a great dreamer and have a lot of unstarted tasks but it’s the unfinished ones that are more likely to indicate a lack of discipline. Maybe you just tend to overcommit which means that you have a hard time saying no or focussing on one task and seeing it through to the finish. Me? I’m a dreamer and have a lot of tasks, projects and goals on my list. Unfortunately, there are way too many on the unfinished side. So here’s what I’m doing.

    • Making a complete list of all tasks, projects, and goals.
    • Dividing the list into unfinished and unstarted tasks.
    • Prioritizing the unfinished tasks based on this criteria.
      1. Is there anything that I can legitimately drop?
        There are somethings that I have started but ultimately they don’t need to be done. I haven’t completed them but the world won’t end if I never complete them. There’s the treehouse in the backyard and the electric go-kart that my son and I started a few years ago. I can probably scrap them.
      2. Is it important to my wife or someone else close to me?
        I’m often tempted to drop items that lose their importance to me but I have to consider how it will affect my wife or others close to me.

    If you have noticed a theme in the first two criteria it’s because I’m looking for reasons to drop some of the things on my list. I’m not trying to weasel out of anything but I realize that in my first step to self-disciple I have to believe that I can do it. So I need to eliminate anything that doesn’t include a high degree of motivation.

      1. What is the most urgent item on the list?
        Some things have deadlines and I need to meet them.
    • Starting to work on the item with the highest priority.

    You can certainly get to this point with very little self-disciple. All we (I) have now is a plan but putting it into action will require some further work and determination.
    If you want some more ideas, Simple Dollar has some productivity hints.

  2. Second it’s time to look at your schedule.Stay tuned…..

What do you do? Let me know in the comments.

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Discipline is not a dirty word

Feb 27
Posted by DaveOlson in Personal Development

I’ve been working on this post now for a couple of days and am still struggling to find the right words. It’s not that I don’t know what to say it’s just that discipline or more specifically self-discipline is really the fundamental key to all personal growth.

Essentially, every other aspect of personal growth is subservient to self-discipline. Knowing the right things will only translate into change if you are disciplined enough to do something about it. Even in the area of your thought life. You may know the right thoughts to have as Steve Pavlina might suggest but you still must be disciplined enough to have those thoughts.

Someone once said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. While that may or may not be the literal case, it certainly does suggest that we need more than just an intention to produce something in our lives. True change comes about when we discipline ourselves to do the things that we need to do over the things that we want to do. The greatest tragedy in life is that people tend to go through life on default. Only doing the things that come easy.

It is a physical fact that electricity will follow the path of least resistance so it requires good planning to produce effective electronics. It is very similar in life. The easiest way is rarely the most efficient way. At least initially.

Here is how real self-disciple plays out in your life:

  • You do what is beneficial over what is easy.
  • You plan a response rather that react to a situation.
  • You save rather that put something on a credit card.
  • You work toward something rather than settling for what you can have right now.

Here’s my challenge for you today. I’m working to develop greater self-discipline and I’ll share my journey with you. What hints can you give me? Leave them in the comments. Thanks.

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You are what you think…

Feb 21
Posted by DaveOlson in Personal Development

We’re on our way to see the Color Purple on Broadway.

As you walk around the Broadway area or into Times Square, you are bombarded by sensory overload. I keep thinking that I would hate to be driving down the street with all of the electronic billboards and such. It’s really hard to keep focussed.

Not a lot different than life…

You’re primary task in life is to keep focussed. Focussed on your purpose. Focussed on your destiny and focussed on who you want to be.

Because you become what you think about, it is extremely important to keep your thoughts on what you want to be not what you are trying to eliminate. This principle is the reason why so many people never succeed when dieting. They focus on losing weight instead of what they want to gain. The focus of a diet ought to be on being healthy, energetic, strong and fit. That focus will produce what you want. Instead a focus on losing weight seems to attract weight. You get what you think about.

If you are trying to make a change in your financial picture don’t focus on your debt. Focus on your income. Focussing on your debt will only attract more debt. Instead focus on money coming in. Focus on benefits, stock increases, investments and money streams and that will be what is attracted to you. DON’T FOCUS ON DEBT!!

What got your attention as you scanned this article? Debt! It attracted you and your attention. That’s exactly how it works in life. You attract what you give your attention to.

Don’t make a goal of eliminating debt. Make a goal of increasing income. Then you will attract the income to eliminate debt.

Think big. Dream big. There are enough small people in the world. Here’s a photo I took from the top of the Empire State Building tonight. Let your thoughts and focus be as big as this…
NY at Night

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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