Show Notes
After you have established your identity, what do you do next? This episode is about disciplined decisions. A decision is God's greatest gift to man. Listen to understand the power of making a choice!
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:13 Welcome to the life refresh podcast. My name is Ryan Robinson. And if you were looking for a podcast that is designed to uplift, encourage, and revive your heart, mind, and spirit, and you're in the right place, welcome to the journey of becoming the version of you. God designed for the foundations of the now.
Speaker 1 00:00:50 Hello, this is Ryan Robinson. Welcome back to the life refresh podcast. Uh, I am so excited to be able to come and give you another episode here. Uh, we just completed a three part teaching series really on anchored identity and starting with not just what we do, um, but who we are and whose we are really getting down to the root of who we are, because if we don't set a great foundation first, we will build some things that don't necessarily last. The example I gave at the end of, of the last episode, uh, really depicted that with the men who built their houses on sand and those who built their house and the one who built the house on the rock, those things are the most important things that we need to make sure that we put a solid foundation on because at the end of the day, uh, I believe that every, anything that we do for Christ is the only thing that's going to last, uh, past us.
Speaker 1 00:02:02 Everything else as the hymn says is sinking sand. So once we get that foundation going, um, there's a couple of things that we need to do, and I want to get back to the what part, uh, because essentially once we get the who and the who's part of us together, we have to revisit the, what, your perspective of what will change once you connect with who and who's, you are, you will look at your things a little bit different. You will probably find out like, I don't really like that. Or, uh, I have too much of something, you know, you'll, you'll start getting rid of stuff, things that, um, at least for me, and I'm just speaking from my experience, I have to start getting rid of clutter. Um, I accumulate stuff. I'm low key, a hoarder of, uh, of little knickknacks and gadgetry and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1 00:03:09 So, um, it took me a while for me personally, to realize I don't need all this stuff. I don't need a whole lot of stuff, um, to really be happy and, uh, or to not just be happy, but to have joy, uh, happiest temporal temporal, uh, but joy is a constant state, right? Where you will find good even in situations that are not good, you know, joy is a state of being, so, uh, I wanted to get to, and really expound upon the thought of like what, again, but this time, the right, what, um, there's a book that I, um, that I usually read at the top of every year and it is called a centralism. Uh, the tagline is the disciplined pursuit of less, but better by in the author's name is Greg McKeown. I'll make sure it's linked in the, uh, the podcast notes. And, um, this gentleman, uh, had a life of what he calls non-essentialism, where he was trying to do everything and really wasn't doing anything in his life. And in fact, he was pursuing a career in law and, um, was challenged by a friend, like, what do you really want to do with the rest of your life? And he made a list of all the things that he wanted to do. And once he looked at the list again, he did not see law school on that list.
Speaker 1 00:05:00 He just did what was expected of him that would make his family proud, make his parents proud, all those things. So, um, one of the things that happened when he did quit school, he, uh, told his dad, you know, told us it's going to tell his family. So, you know, I want to quit school here in London and I'm gonna move to America. And, uh, I want to be a teacher. And, um, he never, you know, did not know what his dad would say because he had been supporting and he was in law and was really, really pushing him to go into that career. And, um, he told his fathers, he said, dad, I'm going to, I quit law school and I'm going to move to the states and pursue a different career. And he had never gotten this response from his father. Um, but he received this particular quote.
Speaker 1 00:06:04 Uh, he said, well, son to the unknown self be true, which is a, um, it's a Shakespearian quote that really says be true to yourself. Be true to yourself. And, uh, it wasn't something that he was expecting to hear from his dad who was initially pushing him to do everything, to do the thing that he thought would make him take his son, uh, great, have a great career income, all the things. Um, he ended up writing the New York times bestselling book. So I'm glad he left law school. Cause I liked this book quite a bit, but again, this book has become a part of my, um, my annual reading to kind of recalibrate myself. And, um, one of the things that he says in this book about essentially Chism, it is really getting the clutter out the way or the noise out the way in your life.
Speaker 1 00:07:09 Because once he get the noise out of your life, you can start hearing a little bit better. So let me read a quote from here and it speaks to this, uh, he says, the author says essential ism is not about how to get more things done. It's about how to get the right things done. It doesn't mean just doing less for the sake of less either. This is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential. He says this, we have an fulfilling experiences making a millimeter of progress in a million different directions, but by investing in fewer things, we have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter most. And you know, those are some of the hardest things to do because there's so many options out there.
Speaker 1 00:08:20 In fact, there's too many options. There is a what we call decision fatigue these days. Um, and it is said that if you could minimize the number of decisions you have during the day, you will actually create better willpower for yourself. Um, I don't know. I'm just going to admit it. I'm a midnight, I'm a late evening snacker and it's because probably I ran into the decision fatigue at some point during the day and I just have no left and that chocolate sounds good. That cookie really looks good too. So I will help myself to it sometimes. Um, but, uh, those are the things, again that we've allowed ourselves to be inundated by a lot of options. So by finding, and again, everything is good. I mean, not everything is good, but options are good to have, but too many of those options can really cause us, uh, damage.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 And, uh, there's another great quote, um, that I've run into. I am not a designer by any means, but I really have a huge appreciation for those that design and create and do those kinds of things. But, uh, the quote says a designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there's nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. And, uh, I love that quote because it speaks to the power of simplicity. Um, when it, from the Bible, when Adam and Eve sinned in the book of Genesis chapter three, the world got complicated. Adam had to sweat to, to create something. Uh, you know, there was labor pains. There was all kinds of stuff that came as a result of the fall. And it's easy to make things complicated. Don't clean up your kids' playroom for two weeks. Come back to me at the next podcast.
Speaker 1 00:10:45 Tell me what you see, because I will tell you, it will get crazy. You might bust an ankle, you might bump your toe. You might find figurines in all kinds of places. Why? Because we have not put in the discipline and nor have we decided that we are not going to have things get to a certain point. It is very difficult for us to learn those kinds of boundaries. So we never want to limit ourselves because by limiting ourselves, we truly believe that we are limiting the possibilities, but there's some possibilities that are not for us. I will never be a singer as much as I love to sing. I am not going on American idol. I am not getting a record deal, period. I don't necessarily have the gifting for that. That's not who I am. I love music. I am just not a person who sing the music like that.
Speaker 1 00:11:56 So in order to dive into yourself and find out what do I have that aligns with who I am, that I can express that out into the world and create and share something beautiful with the world. That is what we are trying to get to. And at some point we are going to have to decide what we are going to do versus what we're not going to do. And I want to get to this root word of decide. We know it means to choose in our, you know, in our English language, but the root word of decision really at its root means to cut off.
Speaker 1 00:12:42 Yeah. Deciding means to cut off. So by choosing yes, you are saying no to something else. So if I choose pizza one day, I'm choosing pizza over everything else. So I'm saying no to subs. I'm saying no to McDonald's, I'm saying no to, uh, other healthy options. I chose, I cut off from my options and chose pizza. Okay. Um, that cutting, if any of you have gotten cut, it's painful, it's painful. Uh, whether it's a small cut or a big cut, it hurts. This leads me to, um, one of the important points of discipline, uh, the tagline for the book that I mentioned, discipline is a very needed thing. For many of us, it gives us the opportunity to really decide what we're going to do before we do it. Because with so many options that we have these days discipline, if you don't have it, you could be quickly distracted from what your original goal is to do.
Speaker 1 00:14:11 So there is a great leadership person. Many of you may know him, uh, as a John Maxwell, John Maxwell, he, he generally has four, uh, questions, um, that he has, that talks about discipline. And I'm going to read a few of them for your consideration, uh, and, and, uh, for you to at least get an idea of, of what this discipline is because we, once we, again, we've got the, who's the who's now the what? Now we need to be disciplined enough to stay on whatever we find. Um, so he, he asked these four truths about discipline. He says, what were you born to do? What is your dream in to become the person you have the potential to be? You have to cultivate a life of discipline. Here's this, the key here is you have the potential to be, but you have to cultivate a life of discipline and we all have potential, but there's also a lot of unrealized, potential and ability that has yet to be realized.
Speaker 1 00:15:31 That's potential. Discipline comes with a price tag. It's really costly. It demands investment of time, energy, and commitment at the expense of momentary pleasure and ease. It means paying hours of practice to win the prize of skill discipline means giving up short term benefits for the hope of future gain. Discipline means pressing on to excellence long after everyone else has settled. For average, man, that is powerful. That is powerful. So once you get clear on your, what, what are you willing to turn down in order to stay the course for what God has placed in your life? I really it's wild how much we discount discipline. The Bible speaks of discipline as an very important thing in the book of Proverbs is actually filled with a number of scriptures and passages about discipline. Uh, one for example, Proverbs 12. One says whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.
Speaker 1 00:17:02 I love alibi was just like in your face, just tells you like it is the Bible says that blessed is the one you discipline. The one you teach from your law. It is important to be disciplined. If it wasn't for the discipline that we have gotten, uh, adults have gotten, we wouldn't know what limits were and we wouldn't know what boundaries are. We wouldn't know what to respect or honor, because we have not been disciplined in some of those areas. It is true. Look at the areas that you have no discipline in. And tell me, are you happy with them? This being disciplined is a constant state of deciding what you're going to do over other things. You could eat the pizza. It's good too, but if you're trying to be healthy and you want to live a full life, have the energy, you need all the things there. It might be wise to cut off the pizza for something else, because down the road, it will pay off discipline, never caches. It's checked late, early. You want to wait a little bit, a little bit longer in order to get the fruit of your labor. And again, in the microwave culture that we live in is hard. By the time something goes viral, it's already over. Everyone's looking for the instant hit, but I've always heard this of musicians that overnight success took 10 years to make.
Speaker 1 00:18:58 Let me say that quote again, overnight successes, take 10 years to be realized. So I would encourage you this week or in the coming weeks to look at the areas in your life that are out of control a little bit, that need pruning. That need to be cut back a little bit. Um, and in doing so you will find that you may be able to see a little bit better. And in our next episode, we're going to really talk about the noise of what the noise of what, um, and I'm really excited for that particular teaching as well. So, uh, thank you for tuning into the life refresh podcast. There are three things I'll need you to do before you go one subscribe to this podcast, whether it be through apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, where ever you listen to podcasts, make sure that you subscribe to get the latest episode in your feed to rank the podcasts. If you liked what you heard today, make sure you give it a great rating on those platforms. It'll help get us the exposure we need to make our message much broader and reach a different audience. And three, make sure you share this episode. I guarantee you, if you found value in it, someone you're connected to will find value with that said take care tune in to the next episode of the life fresh.
