Wednesday, January 9, 2013

OK, I'm Up!...So Now What?

"Dear God,
It's 6:30am and I'm up! Even though the devil really messed with me by making sure I was wide awake from 12-4am - I persevered! I'm tired, but I'm up. So, what do you want me to accomplish today? -Amen"

That was my prayer last Monday. See, I don't really do "resolutions" but I do pledge every year to put God FIRST in my life.

How do I do that?

By giving the...
  • First tenth of my (our) income to God. I trust God to do a heckuva lot more with my remaining 90% than I could ever do by keeping 100%!
  • First of my day. I start everyday with God in the Word, by reading my YouVersion bible plans.
  • First of my week. I start every week by attending one of Life.church's weekend services.
  • First of my year. I start the year by doing a 21-day fast.
And by "fast" I simply mean that I give up something that is meaningful to me. Something that I will miss. Something that I crave, unfortunately sometimes more than I crave God. I give it up to remove that barrier between us. So that I can grow closer to Him and hear what He wants me to do (or not do) this year.

In the past I've fasted from carbonated beverages and chocolate. Definitely two things that I crave. But I've proven that I can give those things up. They've lost some of their lure.

So this year I was thinking I need to come up with something different. Something that has an even bigger hold on me. We'll get to that in a second.

Ongoing Goals

Like I said earlier, I don't really do resolutions, mainly because I feel like I'm just setting myself up for failure. But I do have 3 ongoing goals that I have been actively working toward. They are:
  1. Be healthy (and lose weight as an added benefit).
  2. Be debt-free except for the house.
  3. Run a successful interior design business which serves people and God. 
I pray for God's divine intervention in all 3 of these because I cannot succeed without His help! Don't get me wrong, I know that I have to do my part too. In the book Sun Stand Still, Pastor Steven Furtick refers to this as "pushing while you pray." And I've been doing that.
  1. I've lost 15 lbs in the last 5 months by moving more and eating less.
  2. We're closer than ever to realizing our debt-free goal by budgeting and spending wisely (mostly).
  3. I've gained a clear vision for my business by consulting, listening, and obeying God every step of the way. Moving forward in faith even when I cannot see what lies ahead. This includes tackling my own self-hosted blog (www.revyourroom.com) and starting my e-Book.
I know that goals have to have benchmarks and timeframes to be useful. And I do in fact have those. But I thought I'd spare you the specifics!

Start by Doing One Thing

So back to my fast. In church this past weekend our Pastor talked about discipline and how without it we can't accomplish anything. So he encouraged us to pick ONE thing that we are going to start doing to become a more disciplined person. Just one because we need to focus.

At first I thought, "Great, one more thing I need to do." I have to figure out one thing to STOP doing for my fast, and also figure out one thing to START doing to gain discipline. Also, I have 3 goals that I'm working toward. I don't want to pick just one!

Then it hit me! The ONE thing I could do that will contribute to all 3 of my goals AND fulfill my fast/discipline criteria...

GET UP EARLIER!

This one thing fulfills the discipline I will START.
It fulfills the one thing I will STOP or give-up for my fast (SLEEP).
And it will provide more time in my day to work toward my 3 goals.

By getting up earlier, I will be forced to go to bed earlier (because I'll be tired). Which in turn means I will waste MUCH less time watching TV, perusing social networks, and playing games on my phone! All of which I usually do when I'm staying-up late. So if I adjust my sleeping hours I'm bound to be more productive in the morning, right?!

So Far So Good!

I'm now on day 3 of my 21-day fast/experiment. So far, so good. I did not make getting up early my "resolution" for the whole year, because that seemed really daunting and doomed to fail. After all, I've never been a morning-person. As a matter of fact I sort of pride myself on being a night-owl.

But I can commit to just about anything for 21 days. And I believe I've heard somewhere that's the amount of time it takes to develop a new habit.

So hopefully, by the end of my fast, I'll want to continue getting up early. As a habit! Because it benefits all other things I want to accomplish this year!

I'll be back with a progress report in approximately 18 days! Wish me luck!

"Thank you God, for giving me the perfect discipline to start my year! I'm looking forward to walking with you in 2013! -Amen!"





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