Over at Live Curious, Todd Clark posted yesterday that “You are the most important and difficult person you will lead this New Year.” He makes the case that leadership in general starts with leading yourself, then points to four disciplines that are critical for self leadership:
- Spending time with God.
- Rest.
- Exercise.
- Obedience.
Go check out the post for yourself. Self-discipline is a big deal and these four areas are easy to neglect. It’s easy to make excuses for why we just don’t have time to read the Bible, or get enough rest, or… whatever. But the good news is that these 4 practices aren’t actually hard to do. I mean, how hard is it really to take a few minutes to do some pushups? Or read a passage of Scripture that you can think about over the course of the day? Or turn the TV off and go to bed? (that one is killing me right now, to be honest)
Our problem isn’t that these things are hard, it’s just that we so easily give in to the inertia of the status quo. But that won’t get you where you want to go. Maybe I’m just talking to myself here… that won’t get me where I want to go. I don’t want to move from one day to the next with no forward progress. I’m sure to slip up or take a step backwards from time to time, but the trajectory I want for my life is forward, deeper into the heart of God. That’s not likely to happen without some discipline on my part.
These 4 areas of discipline are a great place to start as we set out on the journey of a new year. I intend to start here and generate some more forward momentum. I’d love to help you do the same in your own life
Imagine if we replaced all our excuses with the discipline it takes to keep moving forward?!