Every day is filled with so many options. What do I do now, and what do I do next? If you have too little time and too much to do, you’re not alone, especially as an educator. Discipline in choosing the most important tasks, even the hardest ones to do, is crucial to celebrating the victories you truly want to achieve.
The question then becomes, will we compromise simply because we don’t feel like it?
"Discipline is choosing between what you want now and
what you want most."
— Abraham Lincoln
We're well into March, which means one group of people are finally back to normal. Those who are devoted about working out at the gym now have relief from those pesky resolutionaries who no longer show up because now they don't feel like it.
That's another thing I admire about Tammy—she sticks with it even when it hurts. It's hard. The trainer pushes beyond mental limits. Reasons abound to just not go.
Rather than get trapped in self-negotiation, she prioritizes what she wants most.
We know what we are, but
know not what we may be.
— William Shakespeare
In our executive coaching with education leaders, too little time and too much to do are consistently identified as the most significant inhibitors to greater productivity.
Success favors those who are clear about what they want most and then are able to choose high-value tasks that contribute to those priorities while avoiding what's not.
Daily discipline is elusive, but greater progress and joy in the work are the incentives.
"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."
— George S. Patton
Present predicaments are predictable products of prior preferences at pivotal points. We learn something new about ourselves with each decision at that fork in the road.
Do we or don't we? Will emotions take control and talk us out of the optimal choice? Will we compromise on our expressed goals because we simply don't feel like it?
It's easy to get overwhelmed by the tyranny of the urgent and give into those shifty feelings, but that exhilaration of victory to become and do more is worth the effort.
When we choose the path of delayed gratification, we are choosing to victoriously celebrate what we truly want the most.
