Tuesday, October 23, 2012

eBook Review: 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life

Last week I wrote a post about my struggle with patience.  I shared Galatians 5:22-23 which says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." and I professed my desire to be fruitful. 
 
I am working on becoming more patient, but a big part of any personal change is self-control, which also happens to be listed in the passage above.  It seems to me that patience and self-control go hand in hand. 
 
To make a change in your life you need self-control and self-discipline.  Then, of course, you need patience to persevere to the end.  And to keep yourself from regressing to your old ways, you again need self-control and self-discipline.
 
An eBook on self-discipline has come my way and I am lucky to have been given the opportunity to read and review it for you.  It's called 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom
 
It challenges readers to own up to their lack of self-discipline, admit fault instead of blaming outside factors, feel confident their being the solution, and determine to make a gradual change.  "Gradual" is the operative word here.  That's where the 21 days come into play.
 
Crystal offers an easy-to-follow 21 day plan to become more self-disciplined.  It is not a plan through which you'll be completely self-disciplined in all areas of life by the end, and Crystal doesn't claim that it is.  The plan simply provides practical steps to make a change - a small change - but an extremely important change. 
 
Crystal points out that becoming self-disciplined is largely psychological.  She says, "...moving in the right direction - even at a microscopic rate - is always faster than standing still.  Tiny changes can add up to major differences over a long period of time.  These differences are not only physical, but psychological as well."
 
The idea is to tackle one small change first, and then feed off of your success.  Making a change, however small it may be, will first prove that change is possible and then encourage you to make more changes. 
 
Crystal encourages readers to set goals, but to start small and make sure they're realistic.  She suggests breaking goals up into "small bite-sized pieces" as to avoid feeling overwhelmed.  She says, "If you never let yourself experience small wins, you'll be much less likely to experience the big wins.  So don't let yourself become burnt out or defeated with big, overwhelming goals.  The small wins quickly add up to significant, measurable accomplishments, and before you know it, you reach your big goal."
 
So here again, we need self-control to take things slow, and patience to achieve big change.  Then we need self-discipline to continue the pattern.
 
The eBook goes on to encourage readers, among other things, to keep a positive thought process, find a support system, write goals down on paper, to not overload yourself, and to not compare yourself or your goals to anyone else.

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life provides very practical, easy-to-follow advice for achieving more self-discipline in your life.  I definitely recommend this eBook. 

But I think it speaks on more than self-discipline and would be a beneficial read to anyone.  It encourages living a more organized life overall, placing your focus on what's important to you and your family, embracing your uniqueness, showing yourself more grace, and becoming more confident in yourself.

The 21 day program is believable and feasible and I, personally, am excited to start utilizing it and making some changes in my life!
 
 
 


No comments:

Post a Comment