The Discipline Series: Life Without Discipline - #10 Wasted Time and Energy

If this is your first read in the Discipline Series, you don't know the brief story on how this came to be. In a Tuesday night life class (that's what I call bible study), my pastor gave us 12 indicators that let us know we may be living a life without discipline. (Read the intro to this series.) The message wouldn't leave me alone because God has been speaking to me in my personal time with Him about discipline and walking in purpose and pushing past laziness and doing what He says regardless of how I feel or what's going on around me. And He told me to share with you in this blog series. The indicators that have been discussed in the series so far are Carnal Thinking/Desires, We Defend Our Wrong Actions, Our Health Suffers, We Make Financial Mistakes, We Are Overlooked For Advancement, We Perform Poorly, We Develop Laziness, We're Reckless In Our Speech, and We're Always Late.

Today, we'll cover We Waste Time and Energy.

I don't mind talking about myself because as I've mentioned pretty much throughout this entire series, this list of indicators hit me FIRST! As my pastor was teaching, I immediately saw areas where I was strong in discipline and areas where I was weak. And I'm sure that's true for ALL of us. We can all improve somewhere. And this area, this wasted time and energy area, is for me.

I explained in the Our Health Suffers installment that when I work out in the mornings, my ENTIRE day is on track. I'm more disciplined in completing tasks throughout the day and setting order in my schedule so I can maximize my productivity. But don't you know if there is a day when I don't work out in the morning, I'm not as disciplined with my schedule or with completing tasks? And it doesn't have to be that way; I SEE myself ALLOWING it to be that way when it happens! It's like I'm taking a day off or something. Just this past week, when I didn't work out one day in the morning, I found myself dragging while doing things around the house. I had to preach to myself to snap out of that foolishness and do what I would do on a day that I did work out.  Just CRAZY!

Let me paint a picture for you (as I laugh at myself).

1. I know the benefit of taking my work clothes out for the week. It's a discipline that has saved me time, energy and sanity over the years. I'm ridiculously slow in the mornings, so I need routines that encourage my efficiency. This one is HUGE for me. It's a shame that I'm not consistent with it though. And why wouldn't I be when I know how much it's benefited me before? Why do I fight myself with "feeling like" getting the clothes out when I know that not getting them out will give me a headache later? Why do I allow myself to waste time and energy in the mornings when I'm hustling and scuffling trying to figure out what I'm going to wear? It's like knowing the  million dollars I need is under the pillow right next to me, but refusing to lift the pillow to get it. CRAZY!
2. I know the benefit of packing my lunch at night so it can be ready for me to quickly grab from the refrigerator in the morning. Again, I'm slow in the mornings, so this is another discipline that encourages my efficiency. And it's a shame that I'm not consistent with this one either. Why wouldn't I be when I know how much it's benefited me before? Why do I allow myself to waste time and energy in the mornings when I'm either trying to decide what I want to take for lunch? Why do I waste time and energy packing up the lunch and washing the spoons and bowls and whatever else I used? It's like knowing that going behind Curtain 1 would save my life, but I go behind Curtain 2 to my death instead. CRAZY!
3. I understand the necessity of getting out of bed no later than that 2nd snooze. Again, I say, I am SLOW in the mornings, so setting a couple snoozes to awaken my mind is a discipline that has proven to be quite effective for me. If I'm not up and moving by a certain time, I cause myself unnecessary stress because I have to rush. So, why do I sometimes lie in bed past that second snooze, knowing it hasn't ever benefited me before? Why do I allow myself to waste time and precious, precious energy THAT early in the morning by hustling to be ready by a certain time? Why would I, the one who is a stickler for timeliness, cause myself to possibly be late? It's like knowing the house is on fire and literally burning to the ground, but I walk into the blaze anyway. 

I could go on, but I think we get the picture. We waste time and energy when we're not disciplined. And I shared some small examples, but we can lack discipline in some big ways and waste major time and energy. And in those areas where we KNOW we just need to do what we need to do, why don't we just do them?

Let me hear from you in the comments below. What is an area that you lack discipline and you KNOW it's wasting your time and energy. Why don't you just do what you need to do?

Tomorrow
Life Without Discipline: #11 We Ruin Our Testimony/Witness