(Read on staythecourseleaders.com)

S-T-C Tuesday: Don’t Delay - Choose Discipline

February 7, 2023

(2 Corinthians 6:2 MSG) “Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated-or-not-in the details.”

For a highly skilled, transformational leader. The details matter. They matter a lot.

The discipline is in the details. The daily efforts that stack over time and take an individual, a team or organization further than they even dreamed. There is however, one major obstacle to the details.

Procrastination. 

Maybe you’ve conquered procrastination years ago, but if so you surely recognize one of the greatest obstacles to daily discipline is procrastination.

Procrastination is “The action of delaying or postponing something.”

“The action…”

We’re choosing an action when we procrastinate. We think we’re staying neutral - when really we’re choosing an action willingly. Voluntarily. No accident. A conscious choice.

You can often spot procrastination when everything becomes urgent & important. No sense of a hierarchy of importance or urgency to the tasks in our days. Everything is always “level 10” and rushed against a deadline. 

When everything is important. Nothing is important.

When everything is urgent. Nothing is urgent.

Our lack of daily discipline begins to put us in a state in which we’re stressed, anxious, and feel as if our tasks are more important than anyone else’s tasks. 

When we procrastinate we are lowering our propensity to feel happiness, joy and contentment. The water always seems to be rising on us. We’re lowering our ability to be in the state of mind needed to be a server. 

There is however another action available to us. Discipline.

Discipline is the “orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior.”

Control gained by obedience. 

Discipline is obedience to the task at hand. Completely obedient to the moment. 

Discipline is choosing not to delay.

While procrastination is choosing an action that works against us. Discipline is choosing an action that works for us.

For any transformational leader to flourish, their actions must work for them, not against them.

Better to choose actions that support you than to choose actions that work against you. 

Better to choose discipline.