For the next 21 Days I will be participating in Suscipio’s E-book Discussion – 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine. The cynical side of me scoffs and says, “Yeah, you know you won’t make it beyond the first week. Another self-help bites the dust.”  The hopeful side of me says, “There’s something different about this one because it is down to earth, broken into manageable steps each day and there is a community of awesome ladies joining in and ready to encourage.” I’m rooting for the hopeful side!

Okay, a quick run down about 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life. Excerpt taken from Crystal’s blog.

What Exactly is 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life?

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life is not going to fix all of your discipline problems in less than a month, and if I claimed I’d be able to do that, I’d be lying.

After you have finished reading this book and gone through your first 21 Days, you will have implemented one or two small changes and created a habit of discipline in one area of your life

You will also have one completed “Mega Project”. Completing your first Mega Project is so important to your continued success in creating discipline habits. It will propel you forward and motivate you like nothing else.

Who is This Book For?

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life is for you if:

• You have trouble following through.
• You get overwhelmed by huge projects.
• You start strong, but your passion fizzles out.
• You are super-disciplined in a few areas of your life, but you have one or two pet areas that you just can’t get under control.
• You check out 10 different books on discipline and organization from the library, but return all of them late.

Read the rest here.

So I downloaded the ebook, which was an inexpensive $4.99, and started day one.

My thoughts so far…

One of the familiar songs I sing to Brian every night is the “I-have-so-much-to do-and-organize-and-change-in-my-life-that-I-am-overwhelmed-and-accomplish-so-little-it’s-depressing” Blues. Yeah, he’s getting a little tired of that. And I am tired of his response EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. He calmly replies, “Just do a little bit every day, love.” What?? Such cheekiness! I don’t want that! I want big dramatic changes. Jaw dropping Befores and Afters! Something blog-worthy! And then I read Day 1 and what does Crystal say? Basically the same thing. Work at it one small bit at a time. It’s not going to happen overnight. Sigh.

Favorite paragraph…

Do you see what the problem is here? Instead of addressing the root issue – my own, personal lack of self-discipline – I convince myself that a fancy new system or a change in circumstances [in my life] will fix the problem.

But here’s the reality: A bad system is not the problem. My circumstances are not the
problem.

I am the problem.

Ouch. That’s so true it hurts. How many times have I downloaded the “perfect” planning page or set up an elaborate system only to find it didn’t magically bring order to my life. Even now, I have been having fun working with my planner but that doesn’t change the fact that I have to keep at it and not just decorate my “To Do” lists but actually DO my list. And how many times have I tackled a big project and then got depressed because I had to keep stopping every 5 minutes to take care of something else (crazy things like feed the kids, change diapers, etc 😉 ) and then gave up on the project all together.

On the other hand, that statement is energizing because she goes on to explain, that we are not only the problem, we are the solution. We don’t need to spend money or make these elaborate schemes or complain that our life circumstances hold us back from accomplishing anything… we just need to adjust the way we look at things and how we tackle the problem. Let’s face it, as moms/working women/students our lives are going to be crazy busy, unbearably so at times. There will be mornings we are dead tired because we were up all night with the baby or making a deadline. There are life situations that knock us over but we can learn how to deal with it.

Jen says it beautifully in her reflection of Day 1, “The key is adjustments instead of the excuses. And rearranging feels so much better than excusing.” So yeah, curve balls are a part of life but instead of using them as an excuse, we readjust how we deal with it.

The Mega Project…

With 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life I have to choose one Mega Project that I will work on over the next 21 Days. Good grief, it took me forever to narrow it down to one project! There are so many things I need to do. Finally, I decided to concentrating on my bedroom (which includes the closet and master bath.) Some sections of the room I’ve already organized but other sections look like a tornado hit it. I won’t even mention the closet of doom…. or the bathroom shelves overflowing with stuff…or the pictures and framed art sitting in the closet that has been waiting to be nailed to the wall for over two years! I had to break the task down to 21 smaller sized jobs. It’s funny but it seems a lot less daunting knowing I can do just a little bit every day. (Hmm, I guess Brian was right. I owe him an apology. :-))

Practical Application…

Each day there is also one small thing you have to complete. Today we had to do one thing that we have been putting off. On my dining room table I had two bundles that needed to be packaged up and mailed off. So I finally made copies of my receipt and packaged up a school uniform I needed to return (wrong size) and I put together a package to my niece. Added to the pile where a few bills that needed to be mailed out. They are ready to go to PO first thing in the morning.

Such a tiny thing really but I needed that extra kick in the arse to get it done. 😉

I’ll keep up with the book study and I won’t be able to post about it each day but I’ll post as often as I can. The accountability helps me out.

Want to join me and the others?? Download 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.

Then leave a comment here at RoL and make me a happy mama! After that go join the ladies at Suscipio  for further discussion!  🙂

 UPDATE: The next post is here.

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