Daily Inspiration 11-11-12

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily." -- John C Maxwell       In yesterday's Daily Inspiration, I shared a link to a webcast and some thoughts I gained from it by John C Maxwell centered on his newest book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. Since I find that I was so profoundly moved by the incredibly powerful and yet simple messages, I decided to share a little bit each day about this for a while. Frankly, I'm finding some answers that I've been ignoring for a long time. Maybe some of you are like me in that something sparks a thought and another and another and you start getting excited about where those thoughts are leading you. In the webcast, John spent a good amount of time on the Law of Consistency. I absolutely loved the simple ideas he shared about how he has been able to write 74 books. Bringing what he said to the simplest concept, it is this: He is passionate about what he does because he loves what he does and more importantly, he knows why he does it. He also knows that what he does is something much, much larger than himself. In other words, he serves a larger purpose than making a living, writing a book, etc. The first part of that is his motivation, but in order to actually get it done, or turn it into an accomplishment, requires discipline matched to the motivation. Discipline is a scary word to most people because it sounds an awful lot like drudgery, work, lots of effort, late nights and other such ideas. However, he says the truth is that he just does it every day. 'Every day? What does that mean?' people would ask him. His answer, 'it means, every day.' Of course, they're looking for a different answer because to them every day seems like a burden. . . surely he must mean 5 days a week, or every day for just a month or two or something. 'No,' he would say, 'every day means every day.' 'Even on Christmas?' they would add. 'Yes,' he says, 'every day.' So, how does he have 74 books published? He writes every day. 'Now,' he says, 'I might only write 10 minutes today, 6 hours tomorrow, I have no set amount, but only to write every day.' It is the consistency of his actions that add up to the accumulation of the results. John asks, "what are you willing to change doing today in order to change what you will be doing tomorrow?" It's a great question to consider and answer. He adds, "in the end, hard work is really the accumulation of easy things you didn't do when you should have." I've known that consistent efforts are a key to better results, but have I applied that in my life? Rarely. It is now obvious to me why I have what I have. However, in recent years, I have endeavored to find things that I love to do and have a good reason why which helps me do some things consistently. This CTS Daily Inspiration began in summer 2009 and every single day since I have practiced writing and thinking and sharing. Believe me, there have been many days when I didn't feel like it. But, I love what I am doing, have a strong larger than me purpose and that strong motivation encourages me to actually then be consistent by following through and doing it anyway.

The Results To Me Are Worth Any Of My Efforts. It Is Also Interesting How The Accumulation Factor Works.   Spread Some Joy Today--Beating yourself up, or 'shoulding' yourself is not joyous or helpful. Start by loving yourself first. Count your blessings that you already have. Now go do some things you want to do from that much stronger foundation! Whatever your choice, you are perfect the way you are to begin with.