Strength—Inside Out
There are few of us born naturally strong and talented. The rest of us must work toward that goal, if we so desire. Creating the desire is the hard part.
When we are lacking in mental, physical, or financial strength, our doubts for making progress can be self-defeating. That is why the best progress can come from allowing yourself the possibility for improvement.
Mental Strength
Mentally, you have the capacity to add to your knowledge base. It is that base of knowledge that will help you make good decisions in all aspects of your life. That base of knowledge will include facts to make cost-to-benefit decisions, understanding how you need to react to the actions of others to limit over-reacting and acting on limited knowledge of the situation, and making note of more study to be done.
Physical Strength
Physically, you must value your need for training. It is a fact that once your body has experienced an elevation in conditioning, it will be much easier to regain that condition after training has lapsed. In other words, you will have periods in your life where demands on your time will limit your ability to train physically—walking, running, swimming, etc. Therefore, you need to consciously set goals to attain a level of physical conditioning that will give you the energy, strength, and endurance you desire.
Are you feeling tired just listening to that? Then, you need to at least start walking!
Financial Strength
Financially, allowing for improvement must include acceptance of your current situation as a temporary condition. Face the mistakes you have made with the resolve to learn to do better. The key is to “learn to do better”. There are ways to learn more marketable skills that will help you find better-paying jobs.
Spending less than you earn is not as easy as it sounds. Credit cards make spending decisions too easy, until the statement comes in and the balance is beyond what you can pay anytime soon. Delaying some spending to avoid using credit is one of the best lessons you can learn and apply in your daily financial decisions.
Knowing your decisions will accumulate should give you reason to build some disciplines internally to assure your visible accumulations are positive and encouraging!
Build Disciplines Inside
Discipline requires perspective. Do you value good health? Do you value relationships? Do you value family? Do you value your spiritual welfare?
Let me pose some more pointed questions:
- Do you enjoy being fat and lazy?
- Do you enjoy being poor, unable to do what you want to do or go where you want to go?
- Do you fear getting more education or taking on more responsibility?
- Do you drink, smoke, or party because you feel left out in life?
Sorry for the harsh questions, but this is your life, and you are making decisions that could affect the wellness of your future and how long you have to live it.
Get a grip on your realities and decide what you want to do to make things better for you. Then, do it. That is discipline!
Build Your Knowledge Reserves
You may have reached what you consider a plateau in your education. That may be because you are not allowing yourself to consider any more education, or you are just tired of learning. I have observed both and experienced both.
However, sooner or later, you will conclude that you need more education or certification to give you more value in the job market. That decision might come about because you are unable to buy the good stuff at the grocery store.
How well you live depends on how well you learn. Think about that.
You may have a G.E.D., a high school diploma, a college degree, or a trade school certificate. Beyond that, there are skills to learn to help you become a manager, a leader, or an expert.
Personally, I earned a master’s degree out of necessity. I lost a long-term job in industrial accounting and found myself lacking in skills to compete for the same pay. I had to make that happen. It was not fun, but it was worth it.
Knowledge requires discipline, making time to read, to study, and to apply that education. The effort will require you to delay some fun things, or maybe some sleep. However, your goal must be to accumulate knowledge reserves to serve you well in your earning potential!
Build Your Financial Reserves
Though you may have little financial reserves today that does not mean you cannot build more into your future. Your present reserves include time, money, and assets.
Make note of what you have today:
- How much time do you have available for you to apply discipline to improve your situation?
- How much money do you have on hand and how much debt?
- What do you have on hand for assets, such as property, tools, investments, etc.?
Build a plan. Progress needs a means to measure.
Change will come with a reason to change. That requires discipline.
Discipline Is a Matter of Time
Each day demands an evaluation. Shall I rest and do more tomorrow? Shall I do more today so I can rest peacefully tomorrow?
Family needs time. Work requires time. Discipline determines how well you distribute your time to each one.
Make the time to build your inner strengths. Depth of learning to build mental strength. Training your body to support your mind and giving yourself a reason to rest at night. Using your mental and physical strength and endurance to build a potential for building financial reserves.
Growth requires discipline. Discipline is a matter of the use of time.
Our results come from our discipline. They accumulate benefits. You can learn to do more, do better, and grow your potential.
Do not let others decide for you. This is your life. Decide to discipline your time to build a better future for yourself.
Be among the few who do!