IN ORDER TO HAVE AN EFFECTIVE 2021 AND TO TAP INTO “THE YEAR OF THE WILL,” YOU HAVE TO HAVE 3 THINGS:

1: Clear intentions –  You need to decide what you want to accomplish this year and commit to it.

2: A Plan – You need to consider what it will take to create what you want, and build a road map to your success.

3: Action – Disciplined action is the only way to work your plan into reality.

Your will is your ability to choose a direction and initiate action; to concentrate and focus your attention on your chosen aim.  However, the biggest enemy to being decisive and choosing a direction, is indecision.  And the biggest enemy to initiating action, is making excuses.  And when you are spinning in indecision and keeping busy by making excuses you create a black hole that sucks up all your focus and attention.  This is when you get to the end of a week and wonder where it went.  You were ready to make this week count but somehow it slipped through your fingers.

Our will is like a muscle and we must develop it. That means if you find yourself off course, the correct action is to course correct, NOT QUIT.  

INDECISION IS LIKE A ROUNDABOUT  

Making decisions can be challenging and things that are challenging are easy to put off, which is how indecision is created.  Indecision is created by spinning in circles considering all the options over and over and over but never picking one.  That’s like entering a roundabout in a four way intersection but never exiting onto a street.  At some point you have to pick a direction and take the exit.

It feels great getting out of the roundabout, making progress moving down the road.  It took some effort, it was a bit scary but you picked a direction and got moving.  You go to sleep that night, excited for tomorrow, only to get moving and run into another roundabout.  You have three different things to do but you can’t pick which one to start with.  And now you are spinning in circles again.  I hope you took your Dramamine this morning. 

This indecision is created by two things.  The first thing is not prioritizing these activities.  Yes they all need to get done but there is no way you can get them all done at the same time.  So you have to pick one.  The second thing that is preventing us from committing to a task is excuses. 

I start to think about picking one of the tasks but then I run through this list of “reasons” why I can’t do it right now.  I.E. excuses.  So I think about picking a different task, but you know I have a whole host of “reasons” why I can’t work on that task right now.  I.E. excuses.  So around and around we go, where we stop, everyone knows, it’s called Procrastination Station.  It’s the place where everybody knows your name. 

Excuses can be tricky because you can be so used to using them that they actually seem like valid reasons.  So we let them become factors in our decision making.  

A factor is anything we let weigh in on, influence, or contribute to our decision making.  Jocko Willink did a talk about excuses.  He said, “Excuses are a lie.  And when you understand that, you no longer need to believe them”. 

An excuse is an attempt to justify why we can’t do something.  It’s a way of defending our lack of action, discipline and progress.  It’s an attempt to absolve ourselves from responsibility.  Check out this list of similar words for excuse: to let off, release, relieve, exempt, spare, absolve, free.  

Dang.  I don’t want to be absolved from my calling.  I don’t want to be released, relieved or freed from my duties.  Heck NO!  But that is what excuses do.  

To exercise our will we must excuse our excuses.  In order to do that we must become aware of what they are (This list is inspired by Jocko Willink).

LIST OF EXCUSES:

I’m tired, I’m not feeling it, I can’t focus right now, I don’t have the right equipment, I don’t have all the pieces, the creativity isn’t flowing, the environment isn’t conducive, this isn’t fun, this is taking too long, it’s hard, I’m grumpy.  Man, I might need some cheese with that wine.  

These excuses are lies.  I have the energy, I am feeling it, I can focus, I do have the equipment to get this done, I have enough pieces to get moving, obviously the creativity is flowing otherwise I couldn’t have come up with this stupid list of excuses.  Excuses are not factors, they are not real facts, and therefore have no place in influencing our decisions.  

To exercise our will is to choose and be decisive even when we want to be indecisive.  To exercise our will is to do the work when we feel like procrastinating and pushing it off until tomorrow.  To exercise our will is to hold the course instead of giving up.  Strength comes in exercising right thinking and good actions, especially when we don’t want to.  Resistance is good for the bones.  Your tasks may seem hard at times, but you are harder.  The road may seem tough at times, but you are tougher.  

“The easy path leads to misery.  The path of discipline leads to freedom” – Jocko Willink

Be decisive.  It’s better to be wrong then stagnant.  Take action and when your list of excuses starts to rise to the surface remember this phrase, “No Factor”.  Excuse your excuses and exercise your will.   

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