“The secret of discipline is motivation. When a man is sufficiently motivated, discipline will take care of itself.” – Sir Alexander Paterson
Last week I spent the entire week out of town down at Lake Powell with a group of business associates and their families along with my own family. It was gorgeous as always down at Lake Powell and it was really great to spend time with great people. Not to mention how fun it is to surf and wakeboard! And it’s amazing how much better you can think and how much easier ideas flow when you can get away from your daily routine and totally unplug from all forms of technology…no cell phone, no email, no internet….
The only bad thing about taking a trip to Lake Powell is coming back home to an overflowing inbox of unread emails and a ton of voice messages on your phone and a big ole stack of mail waiting for you…yikes….it sorta sucks the joy right out of having taken the trip…and getting yourself motivated to jump back into the thick of things when you know you are facing a mountain of work can be rough!
That’s why I appreciated the quote I began today’s blog with. The very best way to be disciplined enough to face the work that lies ahead of all of us is to be sufficiently motivated to jump in and get it done. And what is better to motivate us than having a deadline we want to achieve for having everything done so we can enjoy another fun event?? For me that fun event is having my sweet daughter coming back home from her mission in a month! She will have been away from home for 18 months when she returns and I have missed her so so much! I am so excited to have her back home again and so having that event coming up is the perfect motivation for me to jump back into life and get caught up on everything that needs to get done so I can be prepared to take some time off with her to go play as an entire family!
All of us need something that will be sufficient motivation to help us be disciplined enough to accomplish the things we need to by a set deadline. I think it is especially important to have that during the summertime when it is SO EASY to get distracted by the beautiful sunshine and the desire to be outside playing rather than inside working. Create to do lists for yourself with set deadlines when things will be done and have a reward you will achieve for doing it – whether it is time off with your family or friends, or going somewhere special, or buying something you have been wanting – find anything that will help you stay sufficiently motivated to accomplish all you need to in the time that it needs to get done.
And so I will bravely face the frightening mountain of work that is piled up for me when I awake tomorrow morning….thank heavens I have sufficient motivation to keep me disciplined so I can get through it these next few weeks!
It’s going to be a productive week ahead everyone! Let’s get our work done so we can PLAY PLAY PLAY and have a little FUN IN THE SUN with the people we lovev!!! Yay for sunshine!
~Amy Rees Anderson
