No time to coast

The holiday season is upon us with Thanksgiving mere days away, and Christmas only a few weeks beyond. 

It can bring a lot of stress and drama into your life. 

What to get everyone and how to make every person you know feel loved and special?

The slow depletion of your bank account or ever accumulating debt adds to this stress. 

But these are not acceptable reasons to coast these next several weeks. 

Coasting is the temptation most face between now and the New Year. 

It is in the air this time of year. Everyone it seems is shifting things into neutral and waiting for 2017 to end and 2018 to begin. 

Don’t let that be you. 

Resolve to hold the line. 

To remain vigilant and consigned to the disciplined path. 

Discipline won’t allow you to coast. It forces you to stay in the game and keep moving forward. 

Does that mean you can’t relax and recharge? No, it means you don’t waste your time the next 6 weeks. 

It means you keep getting up early and grinding it out. 

It means you don’t blow all the hard work you’ve put in this year by letting it all go right before you cross the finish line. 

Let everyone else take time off. Let the whole world coast these next few weeks. 

You’ll be busy getting after it and taking ground. 

Waste not your days in idleness

“Ye lads whose age is fitted for reading,” Alcuin said, “learn! The years go by like running water. Waste not the teachable days in idleness!” 

The years do pass by like an ever-flowing stream. 

And you're faced with one sobering reality—your days are numbered and you don’t how many you’ll get. 

So why waste them? 

Why spend them binging on entertainment and frivolous pursuits, when bigger, better and greater things are calling? 

You want to squeeze every drop you can out of life. To be the best and most remarkable version of yourself you can muster. 

You don’t slack and take your eye off the ball on purpose, it’s just the easiest thing to do.

One compromise here or there, and you slowly drift into idleness. 

You must fight compromise and idleness at every turn, especially on things that seem insignificant. That’s where your battle is won or lost. 

Big things are easy. It’s the small things that don’t appear the matter that in the end matter most of all. 

Reading is like that. It is a small habit that avoiding or forgetting doesn’t appear to impact your life today. And one day without reading doesn’t set your course for destruction and ruin. The problem comes when one day turns into two, and two becomes three, and so on and so forth until you look up one fine day and realize all the opportunities to learn and grow you've missed. 

It’s the same with what diet, exercise and a whole host of tiny habits and routines that don’t appear important on the surface. Their magic isn’t found in the days work, but in the compounding effect, they’ll have if you’re consistent over time. 

So stick to the path. 

Stay the course. 

Don’t allow slack and idleness to creep into your easy chair. In fact, throw out your easy chair and get after it because seizing the day ain’t easy. 

It takes constant vigilance to hold the line on even the tiniest of things.    

Every second counts.

You don’t reach worth while goals overnight. 

They take relentless pursuit, hard work, and patience. 

You also don’t fall apart overnight either. 

It happens over time. 

Success and failure are both slow processes. 

That’s why you have to pay attention. 

That’s why you have to stay on guard and resist the urge to coast. 

Every second counts. 

In each one, you are either gaining or losing ground. 

So make them count. 

Don’t take them off. 

Don’t let up. 

Don’t buy the lie that this second or that second doesn’t matter. 

A Quick Word on Failure

Successful people are comprised of thousands of failures.

Search the annals of history and you’ll find that famous and successful people are forged in the fires of failure. 

They fail and they fail and they fail, until at long last they reach their destination. 

Remember this the next time you encounter disappointment. 

Failure isn’t near the big scary monster you were most likely told.

It’s a necessary part of your journey. 

Don’t bail and give up. 

Stay the course. Hold the line. 

Keep on the disciplined path. 

Most of all remember that failure isn’t breaking you, it’s forging you into who you need to be. 

What You Focus On

Have you noticed that the more you focus on a problem or mistake the more you repeat it?

That’s because your focus determines your output. 

What you focus your energy on is what you’ll produce. 

In other words, your behavior follows your mindset.

If you’re focused on not doing a particular thing, chances are you’re setting the stage for it to happen again. And again. And again. 

While taking things seriously and holding the line is important, so is focusing on the right things. 

Don't waste time and energy dwelling on the negative. Focus intently on the positive instead. 

There is a positive side to every problem you encounter. Focus on it. 

It is always better to be for something positive, than against something negative. 

Discipline your mind to think in this way. Discipline it to focus in the right direction. 

Change your thinking, and you’ll change your life. But as with everything else, that’s going to require discipline.