Discipline Needed in Spades These Days
Let's talk about discipline this week. We've just gone through a series about "staying strong" during this mess. If we take the need to stay strong seriously, discipline will serve as the "sustainer" of our strength.
Discipline is needed in every part of our lives. But we'll focus on work here, and it's special importance during our current mess.
Not that discipline isn't needed all the time. In my work, I organize my tasks at the start of each week. Discipline serves as my constant companion to get everything done. Without it, stuff would get pushed off by procrastination. And who knows how long that can drag on? Unless you're one of those remarkable people who's never slowed down by procrastination, you get this.
But our current mess has us all dealing with challenges we either haven't faced before or don't typically face during more "normal" times. (And will those normal times ever return?)
For the first few months of the "lockdown," no matter what you do for a living (if you still have a job), you likely spent a fair amount of time simply assuring that your family had food and other grocery items. We cycled through various methods: Waiting on line to get into the supermarket; trying to get time slots for delivery services. Then there was all the time taken in "disinfecting" everything you bought.
Add in disinfecting mail and other home deliveries of items we ordered online.
Include the time spent making sure our loved ones were OK, especially elderly loved ones.
We've all been through this. And it took up - and likely still takes up - a considerable amount of time, eating into our work schedule.
Our discussion about staying strong recognized the physical drain these activities entailed. Ideally, you're building strength and endurance that bolsters your mental, emotional, and spiritual life. Without that strength, work would be waylaid as exhaustion sets in. But without discipline, you'll use up that strength and endurance by engaging in too much wheel-spinning.
Discipline during these tough times helps us parse and prioritize our tasks so they get done despite the arrival of a grocery or other delivery. Staying on top of everything, always important, now becomes critical.
In my own business, I've had special demands from certain clients who, normally had no financial struggles. Now, however, some have lost or reduced income. What to do? It takes time to fashion solutions. And it's not like there's that much time to come up with them. When people have personal crises, you don't tell them to take a ticket and wait in line. They need your help. You've got to respond to and produce for them.
For me, because I've got a fairly well/tightly structured workday, discipline hasn't been something I've needed to learn or improve. Simply sticking to it has been the trick. That and adjusting my daily tasks such that I build in spaces or flexible time to fit people in who need my time quickly - where scheduling a meeting next week just won't work.
At this point, I just thank God that He's helped me develop and maintain my discipline through all this.
More next time...
Discipline is needed in every part of our lives. But we'll focus on work here, and it's special importance during our current mess.
Not that discipline isn't needed all the time. In my work, I organize my tasks at the start of each week. Discipline serves as my constant companion to get everything done. Without it, stuff would get pushed off by procrastination. And who knows how long that can drag on? Unless you're one of those remarkable people who's never slowed down by procrastination, you get this.
But our current mess has us all dealing with challenges we either haven't faced before or don't typically face during more "normal" times. (And will those normal times ever return?)
For the first few months of the "lockdown," no matter what you do for a living (if you still have a job), you likely spent a fair amount of time simply assuring that your family had food and other grocery items. We cycled through various methods: Waiting on line to get into the supermarket; trying to get time slots for delivery services. Then there was all the time taken in "disinfecting" everything you bought.
Add in disinfecting mail and other home deliveries of items we ordered online.
Include the time spent making sure our loved ones were OK, especially elderly loved ones.
We've all been through this. And it took up - and likely still takes up - a considerable amount of time, eating into our work schedule.
Our discussion about staying strong recognized the physical drain these activities entailed. Ideally, you're building strength and endurance that bolsters your mental, emotional, and spiritual life. Without that strength, work would be waylaid as exhaustion sets in. But without discipline, you'll use up that strength and endurance by engaging in too much wheel-spinning.
Discipline during these tough times helps us parse and prioritize our tasks so they get done despite the arrival of a grocery or other delivery. Staying on top of everything, always important, now becomes critical.
In my own business, I've had special demands from certain clients who, normally had no financial struggles. Now, however, some have lost or reduced income. What to do? It takes time to fashion solutions. And it's not like there's that much time to come up with them. When people have personal crises, you don't tell them to take a ticket and wait in line. They need your help. You've got to respond to and produce for them.
For me, because I've got a fairly well/tightly structured workday, discipline hasn't been something I've needed to learn or improve. Simply sticking to it has been the trick. That and adjusting my daily tasks such that I build in spaces or flexible time to fit people in who need my time quickly - where scheduling a meeting next week just won't work.
At this point, I just thank God that He's helped me develop and maintain my discipline through all this.
More next time...
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