Yesterday I began a series of posts on the necessity of discipline in a person’s life (click here). Today I want to go further into detail about how to structure your life in a way that you have more discipline.
The reality of discipline is that you cannot just become disciplined if you don’t already have discipline in your life. Think of it this way; if a car is out of fuel, the car (on its own) cannot add more fuel to its tank – something/someone outside of the car must add the fuel to the car. And the same with us – if a person lacks discipline then they lack the ability to simply become disciplined just by willing it on their life. We have to go OUTSIDE to bring it into the INSIDE. If I don’t have discipline I cannot produce discipline on my own.
So how do we become disciplined?
In the book Entitlement Cure by John Townsend, Dr Townsend refers to discipline as an “app” that we add to our operating system or “internal structure”. To be able to add the app we need to have an internal structure that can “run” the app effectively. Today, I will start sharing about the 5 steps we can take to improve our internal structure so that we can add the app of discipline to our life (OS).
5 Steps to Developing My Internal Operating System
Step 1: Work on Worthwhile Goals
Ephesians 5:10-11 (NLT) – Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.
The first thing to do as we begin developing our internal system is to start working on worthwhile goals. Goals that would improve one of the keys areas of our life (Physical Health, Sound Financial Habits, Spiritual Growth Plan, Improved Relationships). Setting goals in these areas is easy. Just sit down with a piece of paper and pen, ask God for some guidance and begin jotting down some goals. Your goals should stretch you and they should be focused on one of the key areas mentioned above.
For example:
- If you are out of shape you can set a physical goal to lose XX amount of weight in the next year.
- If you don’t have a habit of daily Bible reading and prayer you can set a goal of reading through the Bible in a year.
- If you need to save money for a home project you can set a goal of setting aside XXX dollars each month till you reach your desired amount.
- If you struggle sharing your life with others you can set a goal of joining a small group and attending it weekly for a set period of time (every week for 6 to 8 weeks).
Goal setting should not take long (maybe an hour of thinking, praying, and writing) and the goals should be specific with metrics included to know that you successfully accomplished them.
That’s all for today – be sure to check back tomorrow when I will cover Step 2…
Step 2: Work On Your External Structure
The Series Links
To view any of the posts in this series, use the links below:
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 1: https://wp.me/pajKXW-m7
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 2: https://wp.me/pajKXW-m9
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 3: https://wp.me/pajKXW-ma
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 4: https://wp.me/pajKXW-mb
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 5: https://wp.me/pajKXW-mc
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 6: https://wp.me/pajKXW-mi
- Discipline Boot Camp Part 7: https://wp.me/pajKXW-mj
