What does discipline look like on me?

Over here I wrote about discipline and how much I admire those who employ it in their lives. I’ve continued to think about discipline and the ways it would be best employed in my own life.  While I’ve come up with many answers to that question, I think the first way I should focus on living a disciplined life is by using my time intentionally.

This sounds cliché, I know, but time management is such a huge issue in our culture and I have been as susceptible to lapses in time management as anyone has.  The most common way I misuse my time in the phase of my life is with TV.  I felt like cringing as I wrote that because I would never classify myself as a big TV watcher! I spent the last two years of my life without a TV, so saying that the TV sucks up too much of my time is somewhat humiliating. But in this phase of my life, it’s true.

I have been searching for employment full-time for the last month and a half.  Much to my dissatisfaction, the process of finding employment is largely an on-line ordeal in this day-and-age.  So I often find myself turning on the Food Network or TLC while I spend time on job boards and filling out applications.  By the end of the workday when my family returns home from work and school, I usually end my job hunt for the day as well, and the TV is turned off.  But, after that many hours of mindlessly watching TV I feel as though all creativity has been drained from my body.

Turning on the TV does not help me to live intentionally!  In response to this realization, I decided to make an effort to live with more discipline in this area of my life.  Last week I determined that I would only turn on the TV for shows that I know I want to watch beforehand.  This equates to about three hours of television time each week instead of the mindless, who-knows-how-many hours were on before!

I have definitely seen an improvement in my ability to focus on tasks when I’m not distracted by watching Giada de Laurentis make delicious pasta dishes. :) I plan to continue to use discipline and intentionality in this area of my life. It provides a great platform from which to embark on another exercise in discipline.