In favor of the long road

Everyone wants to do well. They want to be not only bigger, stronger, and faster, but smarter, wiser and richer as well. 

In short, everyone desires success. 

Success in life. Success in business. Success in relationships. Success in the gym. Succes in the classroom. 

Where ever you are and however you define it, in one way or another success is what you’re after.

There’s nothing wrong with that. 

The problem comes in how you pursue it.

Do you jump at the first opportunity to speed up your progress?

Or do you resolve to stick it out and grind until you’ve reached your goal no matter how long it takes? 

Worthwhile goals don’t come through shortcuts. 

They are found at the end of the long, difficult road. The road requiring daily commitment, daily action, and most of all daily discipline. 

It may not seem like the road you need, but it’s the only road heading where you want to go.  

You will fail.

You will drop the ball. 

You will backslide. 

You will give in to weakness. 

No matter how disciplined you are, it will happen at some point in your life.

What then? 

What will you do about it? 

How will you respond? 

You will have at least two choices. 

Choice 1: Give in completely, wallow in your mess, and stay there. 

Choice 2: Correct course, divert your energy back towards discipline and move towards good and right things. 

The first path is easy, which is why so many choose it. 

The second is impossibly difficult, yet leads to every good thing in life. 

Which will you choose?
 

Hitting Pause

When you spend time thinking about discipline and striving to live a life made better by its presence, you seldom think of it as anything other than doing.

There’s more to discipline than action though.

Sometimes the most disciplined thing you can do is rest, relax and recharge.

And that’s precisely what I’ll be doing the remainder of the week; unplugging from the world, and spending quality time with my wife and son.

I’ll return to the blog on Sunday with the next chapter of our swim through Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

Hold down the fort while I’m away. Stay the disciplined course and take ground these next few days.

Can’t wait to be back and finishing 2017 bigger, stronger and most importantly better than ever.

Life of the mind

There is a flow to your life and much of that flow is found within the thoughts that fill your mind. 

Those thoughts are wholly your own. No one else thinks the same as you. 

Your thoughts and ideas are unique and truly yours. 

Their subject determines so much about your life. 

How often do you stop and ponder exactly what does go through your mind? 

Do you hold thoughts captive? 

Do you strain your mind to control its contents? 

With so much riding on the ideas rolling around in your mind, it makes little sense not to. 

Successful men and women don’t allow thoughts to stride through their mind willy-nilly. No, they expend great energy to inform their minds. 

Take a play from their playbook and do the same. 

If life is foremost the life of the mind, success if anything else comes from disciplining your mind.  

Guard your heart

Your heart is filled with many desires. 

Desires yearning and pleading to be fulfilled. 

Desires for food, drink and a hundred other things.

Not all of your desires are good, however. 

Some of them are dark, twisted and evil. 

Which is why you must stay on guard and sift those desires like wheat. 

Not all of the desires of your heart need find fulfillment. 

Many of them must be shattered, broken and defeated. 

Knowing the difference is the key to a happy and joyful life.