Self Improvement

“The difference between a successful person & others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” ~Vince Lombardi

You know, we have access to a lot of tools to help us get things done.

Calendars, planners, techniques, lists, apps, accountability groups, etc.

But the single most important tool is self-discipline.

We can’t buy it.

And we can’t borrow it.

All we can do is develop it.

If you’re ready to develop your self-discipline:

• Start small — set yourself up for success, not failure
• Make daily goals — short-term goals, baby steps, if you will, will keep you headed in the right direction
• Commit — whatever you do, do it for at least 30 days
• Write it down — words on paper will help you stay focused
• Don’t beat yourself up — if you mess up or miss a day, get over it and get moving again
• Don’t forget a reward — once you’ve stuck with it for 30 days, do something special for yourself and a loved one
• Don’t delay — start today

One of my primary tasks today is one that pops up from time: I’m killing my darlings.

My writing friends are likely familiar with William Faulkner’s assertion that “In writing, you must kill all your darlings,” but the principle applies in other areas of our lives too.

A large portion of my waking hours involve writing so I spend a lot of my time typing words and phrases that I love, and then I invest even more time killing those darlings — that is, the clutter that makes my prose sluggish and boring.

It’s hard work; painful and unfulfilling when I’m engaged in it.

But I’m happy once the work is done, not just because it hurts to delete words that I thought were grand when I first typed them, but because the end product is better.

Now, that’s the writing-side, but I also need to constantly kill the other darlings in my life.

Those are the things that accumulate over time and clutter up my life, making my life sluggish and unproductive.

These darlings take on many forms — time-consuming habits (both good and bad), unnecessary reading materials (i.e., those that are unrelated or unhelpful for my personal and professional growth), and the like.

So today, I’m happy to be adding some new projects to my TO DO list.

But I’m also doing my best to kill the darlings that are no longer relevant and are weighing me down.

If you think about it, you most likely have a few darlings of your own that you need to kill.

It’s painful, but you’ll be glad you did it.

Do it!

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

This isn’t really news to most of you, but it is interesting to observe that those who are ostensibly the busiest — building businesses, teaching, leading churches and military organizations, etc. — still make time for reading.

Did you know that the average CEO reads more than 60 books a year and makes more than 300 times the income of the average worker who read just one book a year?

We all have the same 24 hours — 1,440 minutes — each day, but there are big differences in how we decide to use them.

As the infographic below shows, those who are wealthy make good use of their time and some 88 percent of them read at least 30 minutes every day.

Could you squeeze just 30 minutes of reading time into your schedule?

If you do, you’ll be happy with the way your wise investment in reading pays off.

You can also find more infographics at Visualistan