The following is one of my favorite passages from one of my favorite books, Achieve Anything In Just One Year
“You shape your future every day through the choices you make. That’s a hard one to swallow, isn’t it? It would be much easier to say you are a victim of circumstances. Then you don’t have to act. Your choices create your reality. They are far more important than aptitude or circumstance.”
When I developed my elevator pitch for this blog, I had that exact thought in mind. I wrote: The Discipline Project educates and encourages women to overcome inertia and live their lives actively – not reactively. Now I’m thinking I need to reword that to something simpler. Something like: The Discipline Project helps women make choices that will create the reality they desire.
I’m good at big decisions, but when it comes down to the mundane details of everyday life, I don’t always make the best choices. I tend to be a bit lazy with certain things and that laziness comes back to bite me. Skipping exercise and eating poorly = weight gain. Not planning enough to keep my kids engaged = fighting and stress. My inertia in these areas (fitness and emotional control – my two big rocks) needs to be overcome. I’ve tried a lot of different things (half-assed, undoubtedly), but never have I really tried to stick to a routine.
So I’m taking action. I’m shooting down my long-standing excuse of “We homeschool – every day is an adventure! I couldn’t possibly stick to a schedule.”
I’m going to try a {gasp!} routine.
This will probably be just about the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. I’m not confident at all in my ability to do it. All I know is that I have to try. Try hard. Once in my life. If it doesn’t work, I can breathe easy again. But if it changes my reality? Whoa.
What does this mean for me? It means:
- Getting up the same time every day. (not too tough: I’ve got about a 90% success rate on this one)
- Exercising first thing in the morning. (a little harder: I really like checking Twitter and Facebook in the morning, but I’ll reward myself with that AFTER I exercise)
- Preparing meals for myself and my family on somewhat regular breakfast-lunch-dinner basis. (really tough: Except for dinner, we all pretty much just eat whenever and whatever we feel like)
- Preparing additional educational activities for my kids on days we don’t have co-op or other plans. (time-consuming, but something I do enjoy, so hopefully it won’t be too hard)
- Setting specific time aside for writing, answering email, and social networking. (this will likely be the first thing on the schedule to get thrown out the window – I know, such positive thinking!)
- Getting my kids to bed around the same time every night. (shouldn’t be that hard, but I want to move up their bedtime by a 1/2 hour or so)
I know it will take me a little time to get into the groove with this. I’ve got my alarm set and my workout clothes ready for the morning. Now… what to make for breakfast (the most hated meal of the day in my home)?
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Photo Credits: “This Way” by hlkljgk on Flickr
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh congratulations and good luck to you… i need to do this as well im just procrastinating!
Miranda H. recently posted: Psalms 34-18
Twitter: gal513blog
April 4, 2011 at 9:51 am
I just resolved to start doing this today. I’m sick and tired of looking back at the end of the day wondering what I did all day. I really need to have a schedule and stick to it! I’m going to give myself little rewards for staying on task and make the important things more of a focus. This past month, I feel like I’ve been working so hard to build my ministry blog that I have suffered in many other areas of my life!
Heather recently posted: Back Into the Groove
Twitter: diana_prichard
April 4, 2011 at 10:14 am
I love the quote, Shannon.
I too am good at big decisions, but not so great at the every day details. For me, just recently, I’m finding that rather than a set schedule what works is just having benchmarks — exercise sometime in the afternoon/evening, eat a full breakfast sometime before 10am — that kind of thing, rather than “exercise at 6 am” which never ever seems to stick with me.
Can’t wait to see how this goes for you.
Diana recently posted: How Time Flies
Twitter: DressingMyTruth
April 7, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Great goals and I love the reframe of your elevator speech! I agree with that philosophy.
Jeanine Byers Hoag recently posted: Three in Thirty- Are You on Track to Meet Your Goals
I have a routine that is a little flexible that really helps us to stay on track of school. Our get up time is somewhere between 6:30-7:15. Before 7:30 is quiet time for everyone (that means everyone has to be quiet with whatever they are doing). By 7:30 everyone is expected to be dressed and starting their daily chores. 8:00 is breakfast, nothing fancy. We try to start school at 9:00 sharp and though we don’t have an exact schedule for school subjects, I did start with a time-line and trying to get a feel for about how long each subject should take each individual child. Then when they are working on that I know by how long it takes if there is a problem or someone isn’t paying attention to what they should be. We are flexible as to when each subject is completed, but my goal for most days is to have most work completed by lunch time, then they can play and finish up anything else they still have to do. Usually most things are completed between 2-3 pm and we take 1 to 1 1/2 hours break at lunch time. The kids also may have one to three 10 or fifteen minute breaks in the morning, between subjects as I am working with someone else. My kindergartner is almost always finished between 10:30 and 11:30 and my first grader likes to lolly-gag most mornings so sometimes he doesn’t get finished until almost 4, unless of course he decides to work diligently and get done quickly then he could be finished by 2.
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