Tuesday, January 7, 2014

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life: Day 5

I am reading 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life as part of my goals for 2014 and I'm sharing insights from each day's readings. If you want to catch up on my progress, read previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

Day 5:
Discipline will take work, effort, and perseverance and you'll have days where you just don't want to follow through on your commitment. In light of this, we need to prepare for the inevitable obstacles and have a contingency plan in place. Write out a specific plan of what you want to accomplish and how you plan to accomplish it. Set reminders and alarms. Don't give up completely when you fail, if (more likely when) you fall down don't stay there. Defeat is not an option.

Practical Application: 1. Read Michale Hyatt's article on 5 Steps to Developing More Discipline, which is really good by the way. 2. Consider the obstacles to your goal that are sure to pop and create a strategy to help you prepare for them. My big obstacle to cleaning the kitchen before bed is being tired. 3. Write down one obstacle that may pop up, and two solutions that will leave you on top. I plan to fix this by doing the dishes and cleaning up right away after dinner so I don't have the chance to get to that "too tired" point. I also plan to have the kids help me clean up 3-4 days a week so that I make sure to do it before their bedtime.

Mega Project Progress: Finish my allotted mending for the day.
Good Habits I want to develop
  1. Clean the kitchen every night (this is what I am currently working on
  2. Wake up early
  3. Read daily
  4. Track what I eat
  5. Exercise on a regular basis (3-5 days a week)
  6. Follow my monthly budget
  7. Go through the filing on a weekly basis
  8. Clean up right away after working on a project
  9. Sew more (make 6 or more items a year)
  10. Practice piano on a regular basis (2-3 days a week)
Bad Habits I want to reverse
  1. Going to bed late at night
  2. Snacking on sweets
  3. Impulse buying
  4. Stop piling things in boxes instead of finding a place for them

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