If you’ve read my blogs for any period of time you know that I struggle with the three words listed in the title of this post.
through discipline comes freedom – ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle quote printed on grunge vintage cardboard
Once I took a free online version of the Strengthsfinder assessment. I had previously taken the actual assessment where they reveal your top 5 strengths. I took this one because it said it would reveal all 34 from top to bottom.
Discipline and Focus are two of the 34 Strength themes that are measured by the assessment.
Now, I always take these free versions of assessments with a large grain of salt in reviewing the results. That being said four of the five highest scores for me were the same as in my actual assessment from the Strengthsfinder 2.0 book by Tom Rath and the fifth one was seventh in the free online version, so there appeared to be at least some level of accuracy to this version.
All of that to say that my scores in Discipline and Focus in this free online version came in dead last. They were Strengths number 33 & 34. YIKES!!
Now, I could use that as an excuse, which I have done far too often, for my lack of production. Or, I could use it as inspiration to be aware of my weaknesses and make adjustments in my routine to be more disciplined and focused to overcome those tendencies.
I don’t like to admit my weaknesses. When Strengthsfinder first came out I remember how excited I was because the whole idea stresses focusing on what you do well. I truly believe this is critical to success. Do what you do well over and over again.
However, if not facing up to your weaknesses is holding you back, you need to find a way to work through them.
It takes courage to look at ourselves honestly and say we need to change and that we need help.
Last week as I was riding my bike I was listening to a podcast by Donald Miller. I’ve been a big fan of Miller and his writing and hope someday to attend his Storybrand conference.
Miller’s guest on his podcast was Ben Crane, a professional golfer.
The entire podcast was great and I encourage you to listen to it here. It’s important to note this is not a podcast about golf even though he talks about it because that is what he does. His message is relevant to whatever walk and work of life you do.
For me, there were two huge takeaways from what he shared.
First, Crane talked about his incredible streak of time of beginning and ending his days with an exercise routine. He said that there has not been a single morning where he has woken up and wanted to do his exercise. Not one. Yet, he has gotten up and done the exercises anyway. Not one.
The second thing that Crane does at the end of every day is something I am going to incorporate into my life in an effort to become more disciplined and focused every day.
Crane ends each day by asking himself three questions and writing his answers down in a journal. Here are those three questions:
- What did I do well today?
- What did I learn today?
- What am I going to do about, or with, what I learned today?
Are those powerful questions or what?
There is so much more to the podcast so, again, I encourage you to listen to the whole thing here or you can at least read the notes at the link as well.
It takes courage to build on our strengths but it takes even greater courage to acknowledge our weaknesses and do something about them!
What will you apply in your life today from Donald Miller’s podcast with Ben Crane?
2 Corinthians 12:9
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
