Do you have the discipline that it takes to get the results you want?

You don't need motivation.  You don't need to "feel" like doing what you need to do.  

You need discipline.

Discipline brings freedom. It takes work. But, it is worth it. If you want to change any area of your life, you have to be willing to suck it up and create a discipline. No one else is going to do it for you. It’s up to you.

Make the choice.

Own your choices and your actions.

Embrace the suck.

I encourage you to evaluate the areas of your life where you want to change.  Then, start nailing down the disciplines necessary to make the changes you want to make.

Enjoy!

What does it mean to be unconsciously competent?

I want to challenge you with this episode today. 

I want you to find one thing that you want to improve or master. It can be big, it can be small, it really doesn’t matter. I want you to analyze it. I want you to look at what stage of competency you fall in. I want you to evaluate where your strengths are and where you can improve. 

Map out some steps, drills, or routines. Do them with purpose. Practice. Practice more. Keep practicing. Practice with intention. Be dedicated to the process. You’ll begin to move from one stage to the next. 

Over time, you’ll become unconsciously competent. You’ll no longer have to consciously think…you’ll simply execute.

We’ve got just a few short weeks left this year. What if you made the commitment to make them count?

You don’t need to wait for January. You don’t need to wait for a better time. You don’t need to wait for anything. It’s time to make the changes you want to make. It’s time to grow.

Let's go.

Enjoy!

What would you say is your most valuable asset?

Time?  Health?  Relationships?  Wealth?

While all of these are important, I believe you have an asset that is more valuable.  That asset is your.....

Well, you have to keep listening to find out :).

We allow things, people, circumstances, and random stuff to completely drain this asset dry without even thinking twice about it.  Then we wonder why we wake up feeling blah, tired, and then count down how many days we have until the weekend.  Life isn’t meant to be lived this way. We should feel good. We should be excited to get up.  We should feel full of purpose.  

In today's episode, I want to focus on four things that we must consider when it comes to our most valuable asset.

Clarity

Scheduling

Attitude

Giving

I hope you enjoy this one.  If you do, make sure you share this episode and then head over to iTunes to leave a review for Kindle & Kerosene.

Let me know how you're doing...I love hearing from you guys.

Let's go.

Since it is almost Thanksgiving, I wanted to spend a little time addressing gratitude today.  It’s been said that the greatest of human emotions is gratitude.  I don't know about you, but I always thought of gratitude as an action rather than an emotion.

Gratitude involves much more than just a fleeting thought. Real gratitude practice means that you actually take the time to appreciate the moment, you find the joy in it, and you begin to lean in. When you begin to practice gratitude this way, it will change everything about your life.

Gratitude. It will bring you joy. It will bring you fulfillment. 

Each and every single one of us has so, so, so much to be grateful for. It’s crazy how much good we overlook and how much negative we focus in on. Let's reverse that. 

Join me as I walk through the ways that I personally practice gratitude.

Enjoy!

This week's episode is a bit of a personal one.  Last week, I took a few falls.  I had some good responses as well as some not so good responses.  I had to keep reminding myself to get back up, to move on, to make an effort to choose a story of gratitude.

My experiences over the last week got me thinking about how so many of us fall and instead of getting back up, it’s like we sit there and wait…and then wait….and then wait some more. Then, eventually, we’ve waited so long that we just crawl off and don’t get back up. We get out of rhythm, out of sync.  So, we resolve to just “take a break” and start again later.

The most important thing you can do when you fall is to get back up. Do not get stuck in your story of feeling bad for yourself. Yes, I know that’s hard, but it’s a long road to go down, and the climb out of that story is way harder than just changing the story to begin with. Choose your story, and choose how you will move forward…but, you must decide to move forward.

See, it’s not the fall that stops us. It’s the inability to get right back up that keeps us stuck.

Join me today as I walk through the process of getting back up.

Enjoy!

What if you stopped blaming your choices on your lack of willpower?

What if willpower is not your problem?

You are not weak. You don’t suck. It’s not that you don’t have willpower or that you need more willpower.  You simply need to set yourself up for success.

Here’s the deal…we are humans. Humans are wired to take the easy route. We will almost always take the path that seems easier….the path of least resistance.  We must set ourselves up for success by making the changes that we want to make fall onto the path of least resistance..

In order to make a change, you must establish positive habits that align with the changes you want to make.  Habits and change are not built on inconsistency. You have to be consistent. This is why you need to make them easy. The easier you perceive them to be, the more likely you are to continue to do them.

It’s not a matter of willpower. Willpower is a limited resource that we should not be relying on. Set up your day to work for you. Set up your actions so that each positive action takes the least amount of decision making possible.

Don’t blame your choices on willpower. Don’t wait to make positive changes until you have more willpower. Get your habits set. Once you do, the positive things just become your default.

Let's go.

Enjoy!

The harvest.

We are entering the harvest season.  So often, we look at the harvest, we say thanks for the harvest, but we never actually think about all that went into the crop. But the reality is, there is a time of preparation, a time of planting, a time of growing, and finally, a time of harvest. 

Throughout your life, you will go through many seasons. You will produce a harvest.…in fact, you will have the opportunity to produce many harvests. 

The question is….what will your harvest be? 

How are you preparing for it? 

What seeds are you actually planting? 

What care are you giving to that harvest that you are hoping to grow? 

How are you pulling the weeds in your life? 

What is it that you want your life to produce?

Enjoy!

Waiting.

Waiting is a part of life. We will all enter seasons where we are called to wait. However, just because you are waiting for something doesn’t mean that you should be idle. How we wait and why we wait matters. Just because you are waiting doesn’t mean you stop working. In fact, in a season of waiting, you have to be even more intentional about taking action.

What we cannot do as we wait is simply sit there and wait. Wait for someone to tell us what to do, wait for circumstances to change, wait until we know more, wait until we have more time, wait until we have the perfect plan, or wait for affirmation from someone else. We must never be caught in the trap of waiting…we must always be doing.

Your breakthrough will come when you decide to take full ownership of everything in your life, when you decide to stop waiting and start doing, and when you do what you know you should do for you, not to gain approval from anyone else.

Let's get to work.

Enjoy!

The 3 R’s.

Welcome to another episode of Kindle and Kerosene. It’s hard to believe that we are in the middle of October.  This year continues to be a wild and crazy ride, but here we are. 

We are overcoming, we are learning, we are getting better. I have to allow myself to be grateful for the challenges that this year has presented…the storms certainly haven’t been fun while we’ve been in them, but on the other side, I can find so many things that I’ve learned, so many ways that I’ve grown, and I know that if you look, you’ll find those too.

Throughout the roller coaster ride that is known as 2020, I'm sure you've felt the 3R's.  As you grow and learn, you will continue to experience them.

Resistance. A necessary force, but one you can totally reckon with. 

Rejection. We’ve got to stop letting it have power over us. 

Reaction. The one thing that you can absolutely always control.

Enjoy today's episode!

Comparison.  It's something that I have dealt with throughout my life, and I'm guessing you've dealt with it too.

The truth is, comparison is a thief.  It will rob you of joy, of confidence, and that feeling that you have done a job well.  You focus and work so hard on something, and you accomplish it, but instead of allowing yourself to be excited about the fact that you did what you set out to do, you look around and see that someone did it better, faster, or with less effort. All of a sudden, your bubble bursts, and you forget about all of the amazing changes and wins you’ve had…you’re now worried and consumed with what someone else is doing.

That's comparison.

Be on guard. Comparison comes in many different forms.

Success is not a lottery ticket. It requires a long climb, many ups and downs, and a drive to keep going. Don’t discount someone else’s climb.

Know what season you are in.

Ask yourself…are you focused growth or glory?

"Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who someone else is today." - Jordan B Peterson

Enjoy!