Every have one of those days (or weeks) when you just cannot stay focused to accomplish anything? And it’s a day (or week) when you NEED to get a lot done? How do you handle that?

I have to rely on discipline. Through the last few months, I’m learning the value of putting habits in place and sticking with them. Sure, you cut yourself a little slack every once in a while, but there is great value in creating solid habits to move you toward your goals, even when you can’t seem to focus on them.

For me, that means getting up early and setting aside time to write and run, every day. Even weekends. Even the days when I really want to stay in bed. Even the days when it’s cold outside, and I just want to curl up and hide.

But the benefit of that discipline is that later in the day, I can be satisfied with the knowledge that yes, I exercised both my mind and my body. I did get my blog written (or at least drafted) and I did run my miles.

And in the long run, having accomplished both of those things makes me happier and more effective in other areas of my life. (And less crabby as a general rule.)

The beauty of discipline is that when those habits are in place, there’s less consideration of IF I will do this. Autopilot kicks in and I just find myself DOING it. It’s time to write, so I sit down and write. Time to go run, and I just head out. No thinking about it, just do it. And once I go ahead and get started, I find that it is usually the best part of my day.

The rewards are great. The rest of my day tends to be more effective because I’ve gotten started on the right track.

What disciplines do you have in place and how are you rewarded by them?