Principles of Stewardship: Personal Discipline Part 2

Last week I posted on personal discipline in the areas of sleep, prayer and Bible reading.  If you missed the post, you can read it here.  Today I want to follow up that discussion by talking about personal discipline in the areas of exercise, diet, family time and work time.  Without further ado… Exercise

I mentioned before that my happiest times tend to be my most fruitful, as well.  One way to take an otherwise cruddy day (in terms of productivity or even attitude) and give it an instant shot in the proverbial arm is to get in a great workout.  Even the term “workout” can be misleading, because exercise is often skill practice, training in a movement or even some active recovery in the form of stretching or a long walk.

But I digress.  Here’s the thing.  It’s true in exercise as in most other areas of life: results take work, and work takes discipline.  The truth is that I often do NOT want to exercise, because I know it will be the most brutal 10-20 minutes of my day.  But here are some strategies that I employ to make it happen, and make it worthwhile.  There are more, but this is a start:

1. I change my attitude. I decide that I need to have a better attitude about exercising rather than dreading it, because the harder the workout, the more satisfying is its completion.
2. I play mind games with myself. At minute three of a ten-minute workout, I may think something like this: “This is hard, but guess what?  The next seven minutes are going to pass whether I am exercising or sitting on the floor.  I may as well have something to show for it seven minutes from now.”  And then I’ll hit it again.  Soon enough, the ten minutes (or whatever the length) is over and I’m enjoying my recovery.
3. I time my workouts. The clock is a ruthless taskmaster, whether it’s going up (stopwatch) or down (timer).  I do both.  The clock doesn’t care how tired I am, and the clock will keep me moving.  This helps me to started (“It’s only a 12-minute countdown, Sarr; you can handle this….”); it helps me to keep going (“Only ten more seconds’ rest; I’d better get ready for the next round….”) and of course, it helps me to better manage my schedule.
4. I plan for shorter workouts. If I have to carve out an hour three or four times a week to exercise, it’s not as likely to happen.  I plan to have regular, shorter workouts and make them count.
5. I plan workouts that I’ll actually enjoy. I actually like Turkish get-ups, clean and presses, long, prayerful walks and yoga stretching.  Working this exercise into my schedule is not actually hard; I like doing them.  So I’ll plan them periodically throughout the week and mix in harder, less-fun stuff in between.

Diet

Any overall wellness program must include a healthy diet.  There’s no way of getting around it.  Even if you’re working out like crazy, have chiseled abs and muscles on your muscles, but eat a steady diet of Burger King, you’re not going to be healthy, whether you look like it or not.  (By the way, if you can pull that off, email me.  I’d love to know your secret.)

Now, I’ve learned the benefits of all sorts of things: eating lots of fruits and vegetables, drinking lots of iced water (it takes more caloric energy for your body to heat up cold water than lukewarm water), ingesting your carbs primarily in the morning and/or after a workout, and eating a micronutrient-rich diet, to name a few.  But this enables me to eat whatever I “want” to.  The key is in the “want to.”

The thing is, I don’t want to eat junk food all the time.  I will eat it from time to time, but that’s all.  I’ll eat a fruit smoothie for dessert, a hard-boiled egg for a snack, and I’m definitely not afraid of chocolate, but I try to enjoy everything in moderation.

When I eat like I used to, it makes me feel gross.  Even sick.  Some of that was previously normal for me.  I didn’t know how good I could feel and the sense of general wellness and healthfulness I could enjoy until I started taking nutrition seriously.  As with many things, it involves a change of mindset.

Family Time

There are times when I just need to stop working and go be with my family.  I still have a long way to go in terms of being “all there” when it’s family time, but I’m trying.  My opportunities to hear my kids’ hearts, their own conversations with each other, how they interact with their mother, and what generally is making them tick (or ticked off) are optimized when I’m with them in body and and spirit.  It also gives my wife some needed support.

Some people can work less and be with their families more.  If you can, you should.  But lots of people just can’t.  They have demanding work schedules or long commutes.  In this case, the moderate step toward personal discipline and practical stewardship for you is probably the same as it is for me: when I’m there, I need to be ALL THERE.  If I only get thirty minutes of family time per day, I need to maximize them.  I need to read the paper or the Internet later.  What about you?  Maybe you can check your favorite blogs after the kids are in bed or on your lunch break.

Do what I have done and ask yourself what you would like for your kids to remember about you from their childhood: all the time you were working, or the times you played Legos with them or read to them or built snowmen in the front yard.  They’ll remember something for sure.  What will it be?

Again, this is about stewardship and doing what you can.  Some people won’t be able to devote even thirty minutes to their families daily.  But are you doing all you can do, being ALL THERE?

Work Time

Now similar to family time, don’t be afraid to be ALL THERE when you’re working, too.  Like many of you, I feel most fruitful when I’ve actually been most fruitful.  When I’m working hard and getting a lot of things done, I generally am happier and more effective.

When Christians work – no matter how godly their employer are or are not, we have additional motivation to work hard because our work is for the Lord.  If you are lazy at work, you are misrepresenting Christ in the world.  You are bearing a weak testimony.  If you’re a Christian, and you’re lazy at work, how does that make Christ appealing?  But if  – even amid frustrating or unfair circumstances – you can have joy because you’re not working for a man but rather for Christ, that is the sort of thing that makes unbelieving coworkers take notice.

Before I started my current pastoral position, I enjoyed a brief stint in home improvement retail.  I saw these principles firsthand.  It is really sad to me how diluted the American work ethic has become.  Many employees today approach work with a sense of entitlement, like their bosses owe them something.  This paves the way for laziness on the job.  Folks will do what they’re told, but nothing more.  They won’t self-start or go the extra mile…ever.

As I mentioned in my post on doing the right thing, the American workforce could be radically transformed if the Christians in it would work like Christians.  If we would work to please God and not men, our bosses will be thrilled with the results.  And the nonbelievers will scratch their heads and ask how we do it.  They’ll also be shamed into action and we’ll be enjoying a whole new level of productivity.

So in short, when it comes to work time, WORK.  I learned this principle long ago and it’s reinforced often.  I still fight laziness violently, but I want to be faithful and disciplined in my work.

Conclusion

So there you have it.  A decidedly incomplete but hopefully-helpful list of hooks on which to hang your disciplinary thoughts.  Personal discipline is often about doing something you don’t want to do, or not doing something you do want to do.  Lots of times I don’t want to work out, or eat my veggies, or spank my kids or finish off that long email.  But the payoff is always worth it.  A disciplined and faithful life is a happier life, and I want to be happy…and I know you do, too.

So what about you?  What would you add to my list?  Do you have a beef with any of my comments or suggestions?  As always, your questions are welcome.

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Have you read…?

• Principles of Stewardship: Personal Discipline Part 1
• Gospel Lessons from My Children
• Change the World; Start at Home
• A Disservice to Our Children