schedule

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Discipline Can Be Very Elusive At Times

 

There are certain situations or places that trigger a lapse in discipline … and I’m in one of those places right now.

discipline can be very elusive at times

Creating a habit or trying to form a pattern in life takes discipline – lots of it, in many cases.

For instance, if you are trying to get fit or lose weight or just eat healthier, you have to work at it. No one drops 20 pounds by not making some sacrifices. No one gives up pizza twice a week or pop every day of the week without some effort.

Well, for the past 6 or 7 months I’ve been making a real effort to stay fit.

Now that I’m retired I’ve let my work go, but I don’t want to let my body go as well. I’ve needed to be disciplined at exercising every day and eating at the right times.

Through the winter, exercising came easily. I played hockey 4 or 5 times a week and on the off days worked out in my home gym.

Eating was not as easy, but I decided to keep my food intake to between 9 am and 6 pm (which I didn’t realize at the time was a form of intermittent fasting). 

I haven’t followed any meal plan or diet of any kind. I only eat food in that window, don’t eat junk food at night and keep snacks down to a very small amount. 

Things were going well – I mean, pretty well. The biggest hurdle was finishing dinner by 6 pm. … It should have been easy but I haven’t been able to convince Lily that we need to be done dinner by 6 pm. 

She controls my evening meal because, though I’m an excellent breakfast maker and micro waver, I’m not much of a cook. To be honest I’m not a cook. I can make a grill cheese sandwich and soup but that’s a lunch meal. I can also make spaghetti, but I can’t eat that every night. 

Let’s just say, for the most part, I have been disciplined and things were going really well.

Then summer happened. I spent more time at the cottage. And along with the change in environment came a dip in my discipline. 

For some strange reason being at the cottage means snacking at night, eating out more often, extending my meal window by sometimes a few hours and not exercising every day.

I was having no problem at home, but that same discipline I had a home didn’t get packed in the trunk to take to the cottage.

Oh, and it doesn’t help that there is a candy store and three ice cream shops in town. With only having my bike for exercise up there, I don’t have a means to exercise on rainy days.

I know when I’m home I will have my discipline back, but right now my discipline is lapsing. 

Here’s the thing: Discipline can also be an issue for spending time with God. You may have a well-disciplined time with God at home, but when you are on the road that can all change. Your schedule is different and you don’t have the same set up or place to meet with Him. One thing I do is always make my time with God the first thing I do in the day. Then the rest of my day gets adjusted from that.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to get back to being disciplined about? Leave your comments or questions below.

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Too Many Things Means I Have To Make More Choices

Spring is a time when I have too many things to do – a statement most people could probably make all year long. 

too many things means I have to make more choices

But I’m not talking about work or all the things that I am pressured to accomplish. I just have too many things I want to do right now.

Now that spring weather is fully on us, I have a hard time deciding what to do on my day off. I have too many options and I can’t do them all. 

It’s sort of like going into a candy store with too many options of what to buy. You have to sort out what you feel like eating right then. Do you want chocolate, and if you do there are all kinds of options. Will it be a Big Turk or a Kit Kat? Those are very different bars. 

Maybe you don’t feel like chocolate. Rather you have a hankering for some candy. But what kind of candy? Licorice? Mike and Ikes? Or maybe some Sour Patch (sweet and sour candies)?

There are so many options that it’s sometimes hard to decide which way to go. 

When it comes to the things I want to do on my day off, sometimes the decision-making process takes too long. It can take so long that I have to scrap one or two things I had wanted to do because I no longer have the time to do them. 

I find I don’t schedule my activities on my day off in the same way I schedule my work day. 

At work I have a time frame in which I will work on a particular task or assignment. When the time is up, I move on to the next task. But on my day off I just have a list of things I want to do. If something takes longer than I thought, I might not get to those other things I wanted to do. 

This is especially an issue in the spring because I want to do all the things I haven’t been able to do throughout the winter. 

Like today for instance, I want to go mountain biking, I want to fly my drone, I want to edit a video I’ve been working on … and I have two things I don’t want to do but have to get moving on.

If I go mountain biking, that will take two and a half hours. With the other things I must do, it will not leave me enough time to fly my drone. 

Some time later … 

I got interrupted by an unexpected visitor and, of course, that pushed back the finishing of this blog. Then it started to rain. 

So no biking and no droning today. I guess my circumstances have narrowed what I can do. I’ll work on video editing and one task I really don’t want to do but must. 

Sometimes your choices for what you will get to do are decided for you and there’s nothing you can do about that. 

Here’s the thing: If you want to spend time with God, you have to schedule that time. But more precisely, you have to schedule it so that nothing can crowd out that time with God. For me that’s the first part of my day. It’s the first thing I do before anything can interrupt me. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What interrupts your schedule more than anything else? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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A Community Schedule Is A Great Idea

We should collectively schedule things as a community. … That might sound a little controlling, but I think it would give us more peace in the long run.

a community schedule is a great idea

I’m certainly not advocating having to do everything at the same time as everyone else in the community. I just have one thing in mind. 

We are already sort of scheduled in our city as to when we can use our washing machines at home. The city charges us more money for using electricity and water at certain times of the day. They basically want everyone to do their washing in the evening or early mornings.  

It’s not a forced thing, but you pay more if you don’t bend to the community’s wishes.

At times the city has also issued a watering ban for households. We can only water our grass on even or odd numbered days, depending on our house numbers.

Therefore, we basically have a precedent for getting everybody on the same schedule. 

I’m thinking it would be nice to get everyone on the same grass mowing schedule.

It wouldn’t be necessary if everyone had an electric lawnmower, but with so many gas grass cutters, it would really help. 

At my cottage we are in a community and, though the properties are small, there are a lot of them. There is no mistaking the sound when someone pulls out their Briggs and Stratton and pulls the chord. 

The guy that designed the mufflers for lawnmowers must have once worked for Harley Davidson. Every gas lawnmower sounds like a 750 cc roadster! If you close your eyes you can picture the guys from the movie, “Easy Rider”, cruising down the highway.

A lawn doesn’t take that much time to cut. But what’s bad about it is that somehow the noise gives other people the idea that it’s time to cut their lawn too. 

They don’t get out there together at the same time. Instead, it’s more like a chain reaction. When one lawnmower stops, another one starts right up. 

You can hear the sound of lawnmowers for an hour or more. 

Especially when I’m at the cottage, I want peace and quiet. 

I want to hear the sounds of birds chirping, crickets cricketing, and paint drying. – Yes, I want that sound over the sound of some four stroke engine, winding up to top speed. 

And then there’s the guy who made the mistake of putting his weed eater gas into his lawnmower tank. That oil and gas mixture makes a lawnmower sound like a sixteen year old with an old car, trying to impress the girls by continually revving his engine. 

So if we could schedule everyone to get out there and cut their grass on Saturdays at, say, 11 am, well, that would be just great. 

We could all wear ear plugs or put in head phones and listen to music. 

… And I would have some peace the rest of the day.

Here’s the thing: There is a lot of sound in our world. All that noise will drown out hearing what God might want to say to you. Take time in the peaceful part of the day to read and listen to God for His guidance, encouragement and even His correction. God likes it when the sounds of other things are quieted in us. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When is the peaceful time of your day? Leave your comments and questions below.

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A Good Excuse Is Not Hard To Find

Every once in a while we just need a good excuse to attend a conference.

good excuse

This past week I attended a two-day conference on leadership. It’s an annual conference that I usually try to get to. 

The logistics that needed to be in place to attend included finding someone in advance to speak for me in church on the Sunday that followed. I also had to make sure my schedule was free from appointments and meetings.

None of that is too hard to do. I only have to want to make those arrangements, and then set them up weeks, or sometimes months, in advance.  

Probably the most common reason people give for not attending a conference is that they are too busy. However, the real reasons might be that they don’t see the value in attending, may not like the disruption in their schedule, or are deterred by the cost.

It’s just simpler to say, “I’m busy”. 

Years ago when a girl didn’t want to go on a date with a guy she would sometimes say, “I’m washing my hair tonight.” Her response gave the impression that turning down his invitation had nothing to do with him.

But even the dumbest guy could figure out that there was something more behind that excuse.

“Too busy” is an easy defence. Everyone knows what busy is all about. We are all busy; life is busy. Everyone I know from the retired guy to the public school kid is busy. I don’t know anyone who talks about having all the time in the world. 

You can’t argue with that excuse. We love to use it; it’s at least partly true.

Have you ever been asked to do or attend something and felt a little cornered to say “yes”? But then you checked your calendar and saw that you already had an appointment on that date. You almost had to control your joy and excitement as you adjusted your face to look disappointed before saying, “Oh, unfortunately I’m busy on that day.”

The “I’m too busy” excuse is one of the great excuses we use for getting out of things we don’t want to do. We use it even for something that’s good for us. 

For instance, the conference I attended this past week was world class. The speakers are always top notch, but this year the numbers were down. 

Instead of an excuse not to attend, people need a good excuse to attend. 

And one of the greatest excuses for attending something that is going to cost you money and cause you to rearrange your schedule is … it breaks your routine. It gets you out of your daily rut; it changes things up. 

And that is good for you. It’s healthy for you. It’s a break from everyday sameness. It adds spice to your life. 

And along with that great excuse is that you learn new things that you benefit from. 

So set up a budget, save up, and sign up for a conference this year to put a little spice in your life. 

It’s a good excuse.

Here’s the thing: The easiest things to do in life are the same things we are doing, even if they are wrong, harmful, or good for us. God longs to bring the best to your life, which will mean breaking from the same thing to do something that’s best. Don’t fall back on your regular excuses. Come up with a good excuse to do what God wants.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What would add some spice to your life that you need a good excuse for? Leave your comments and questions below.

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You Need Purpose On Your Day Off

Have you ever worked hard for a week or more, and been in desperate need of a day off?

day_off_640_01

When you finally get that well-deserved day off, there is a tendency to want to do nothing, to not plan, not initiate, not schedule.

And that’s probably the worst thing you can do.

We all need rest from our work. We need time to recharge our batteries, to get ourselves ready to face work again. But so many times we approach a day off with the wrong kind of thinking.

We want to distance ourselves from anything that reminds us of work, like making a to-do list, or completing a to-do list, or even putting things down on a schedule for the day.

We want to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and just float through the day being pushed by the wind.

… It sounds nice in theory, but it’s the worst thing you could do on your day off – your precious day off.

You see, if you do that, by the end of the day you’ll feel frustrated that you wasted your day.

The next morning you’ll be wishing you had another day off because you won’t be ready to go back to work. You’ll feel like you didn’t accomplish anything on your day off …  which is precisely what you set out to do!

The problem is that we are not mindless and ambition-less. We were made to do things, and built to have purpose – even if it is purpose for a day off.

God has created us with a purpose. Purpose is in our DNA.

We can fight having a purpose – and many people do on their day off – but you’ll have a subconscious frustration that forms a pattern you can’t seem to break out of. It becomes habit-forming.

I remember when I was in high school I would sleep in on Saturdays. I thought I liked sleeping in like that. But at one point I realized that I would wake up a little frustrated, slightly cranky, when I would get up at around 12:30 or 1 pm.

It dawned on me that deep down I felt like I was wasting a good portion of the day.

That’s when I made a big change. … But getting up early was not the only thing I needed.

I also needed a plan of what to do, or else I would still diddle my day away.

When I’ve planned my day off and executed it, I feel better, and the next day I’m rejuvenated. All I need is a little purpose in my day off.

That means coming up with a plan, a schedule and action. The difference between that and work is that you do what you are interested in, what will bring some joy, fulfillment, and a sense of accomplishment.

That’s why this morning, on my day off, I’m making a plan of how my day will be filled with purpose.

Here’s the thing: If you are going to keep growing in your relationship with God, then you are going to have to be purposeful in that as well. Take some time to plan and schedule when you will meet with Him. Don’t let days, weeks or months go by in subconscious frustration knowing you should meet with God. Make a plan, put it in your schedule and implement it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What makes planning on your day off difficult for you? Leave your comment below.

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How a Plan Would Have Improved My Day

Maybe it was the weather that made me lazy, but I sure needed a plan last Saturday. I felt like I accomplished nothing, like I wasted my precious day off, like I frittered away the day.

plan

That doesn’t happen every day to me because most days of the week I make a plan. I have things that I want or need to get done and so I put them on my reminder list or right into my calendar.

Some people can keep it all organized in their heads, but I need to write it down. I like to see it and check it off.

Saturday was different for me; I wasn’t motivated to do anything. Well, I was … I wanted to go for a bike ride but the rain put an end to that dream, and with it any motivation to do anything else.

It was like I was thinking, “If the weather’s not going to let me go biking, I’ll show it. I’ll do nothing instead.” I didn’t actually think that, but in hindsight that was what I was doing.

I spent my day getting lost in the new iOS for my phone and iPad. I’d look at the time every once in a while and shake my head, but then go back to the nothing I was doing.

There were a couple of things I did during the day but they weren’t things I scheduled. They were things that others scheduled for me, and they didn’t give me a sense of accomplishment.

All I really needed to do was to spend about ten minutes writing a few things down and that would have changed the pattern of my whole day. I would have gone from floating through the day to having some kind of purpose.

Having a simple list of things I wanted to work on or complete would have also changed how I felt about my day. I would have progressed through it instead of being annoyed at how the time was advancing.

I can’t figure out why I would keep doing something – in this case nothing – that I didn’t like doing and not do something about it. (I hope I didn’t hypnotize you with that sentence!)

But that’s what lack of planning does – it keeps one stuck in the past/present while time is still moving. It’s like for me, time was standing still, but in reality time was passing me by.

I could say that I was tired and I needed a day of nothing, but why, at the end of the day, didn’t I feel good about the nothing I did? No, even planning one or two things would have brought me fulfillment.

Here’s the thing: If you’re not planning God into your day, either connecting, growing or serving Him, you will float along in your relationship, stuck in the past/present with Him. Time will keep moving while your relationship will be standing still. Simply thinking of how to include Him in your day is all you need to improve your day.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How has planning made a difference in your life? Leave your comment below.