Head Down, Look Forward.

     One of my favorite books of all times is "Discipline is the Destiny" by Ryan Holiday.  The book speaks on how developing discipline across all aspects of our lives is what brings us prosperity, success and growth into legacy that we wish to leave behind us.  I have read this book and truly bought into the belief that when we develop discipline in all aspects of our life we are ultimately creating freedom in our relationships, our health, fitness, finances and all other aspects.  I have been able to experience both sides of the spectrum. 

    A vision word, as I am calling it, is a challenge to choose one word that is central to your year ahead.  It is what you desire your year or next season of life to inspire.  It's another version of setting goals, except the vision word can be a bit simpler to break down on a daily basis - especially if goals seem daunting.  I have thought a lot over the last few weeks of 2023 what I want my word for 2024 word to be and that word is discipline and focus.  I want to get back to creating discipline in every single aspect of my life.

    This past year has been probably my most challenging in terms of discipline and focus.  I feel as if my routines were challenged a lot by new seasons of life and looking back now, those challenges were pushing me to develop new ways of keeping my discipline.  I did not do a great job at being adaptable and I learned a lot from this past year.  I believe that without focus, you cannot have discipline and without discipline, focus is hard to keep.  So how do I plan on doing this? I am beginning the year off by journaling every morning.  At the beginning of each morning, in my journal, I plan on setting the my to-do list for the day and my intentions for the day.  What NEEDS to get done and what are my purposes for the day in getting me closer to optimizing my teaching, my fitness and my relationships.

    As you close your 2023 out and ring in your 2024, I challenge you to set a word or two for this year.  What do you want your upcoming year to look like professionally and personally? If you want an extra challenge set a vision word professionally and set one personally.  Let me know what your vision word for this upcoming year is in the comments.