Was Jesus Gay? (How to stay focused?)

Goal of the day: 1290 words. Written: 724.

The answer may shock you! Doctors hate him! Updating!

There you go, my friend. You should have worked, rested or studied - keep your focus on the activities that matter most to you and exercise discipline the power

But instead, you quit your job and opened this letter with a very strange title.

…What does this topic even have to do with your self-development and work? Unless you delve into the story of Jesus' life... And let's face it, this is probably not the most important question for you. There are more things you are more interested in.

Can you force yourself to focus on work and do something unpleasant for the long-term benefit?

If so, that's cool! You will go far. But what if your concentration is defeated by letters with sounding names, and patience to fight ends at the first failures? Maybe you lack discipline?

Let's talk about that today. 🙂

Let me give you three examples of Discipline:

Charles Darwin  (1809-1882)

This biologist who developed the first theory of the evolution of life and forever changed our understanding of life on Earth wasn't always the cute uncle with the big beard you might have seen in school pictures.

Yes, he was interested in biology all his life until his fateful discoveries. But his discoveries did not come easily and suddenly.

As you probably know, he conducted life research on the sailing ship HMS Beagle, which sailed from Britain in 1831. …And how long did his trip across the world's continents take? Well, just despicable for five years.

Yes, a year. Not for months.

Charles liked biology, so he was hired on board as a geologist (not many people saw the difference back then). And for five years, despite his shyness and severe seasickness, he studied nature in order to return to work about twenty more years in the name of his greatest work.

This is stubbornness. It is seeing what is most important. This is discipline.

Jean Paul Sartre  (1905-1980)

Writer, playwright and one of the most famous philosophers of all time. Not only did he change the entire world of 20th century philosophy, but he was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for his literary abilities.

All his life until his death at the age of 74, he created feverishly, distracted between six hours of uninterrupted daily writing, meetings, classes and active political activities.

Sartre was not an exemplary creator. To fuel his work, he consumed copious amounts of alcohol and nicotine daily, and in the early 1950s, when he was almost completely exhausted, instead of stopping, he started using coridran, a mixture of amphetamine and aspirin, which he swallowed by the handful.

And all for the greatest work of his philosophy: Critiques of dialectical reason.

Despite the realization that he was slowly (or quickly) killing himself, Sartre did not give up and fought for the mission he set - to finish this book.

He had a habit of writing at least 6 hours a day, and surrounded himself with supportive people (his wife Simone de Beauvoir and other philosophers) and was not distracted by other works. This is discipline.

My friend Egle  (1988-present)

And the third, very simple girl, Eglė, is just a good friend of mine. She's not a world-class creator, she's not famous like Lady Gaga, and she's not trying to be famous.

Instead, she strives to become at least one percent better than she was yesterday.

Every morning at 6:00 a.m., regardless of whether or not one foot is off, she gets dressed, sits down, and starts playing her guitar, singing songs she's made up. After 30 minutes, he starts getting ready for the day, goes to work, and only manages to play and sing again the next morning.

Why does she get up so early every day? When I asked her this, she replied:

"Because if I don't do it now, I'll never learn it!" And I always had a dream to record my own album of songs dedicated to my mother. If I don't do it every spare moment, I never will. After all, you yourself know."

Eglė knows what she wants - to record an album of songs for her mother. She has already acquired the habit of getting up at six in the morning every day and during those 30 free minutes to train her voice and fingers. And she doesn't stop. This is discipline.

What can we see in common between these people?

They have developed discipline. And the fact that it consists of very clear components in certain proportions:

1. Habit: 40%. Your routine.
2. Support: 20%. Your environment.
3. Option: 40%. Your goal is clear.

All these three heroes were able to create a habit for daily work. And as I discover by researching the stories of the world's most famous creators, this is no accident. A good, well-planned routine is the best thing that can happen to your work, because you won't be distracted by a thousand other activities.

Two out of three (and, accordingly, slightly less famous) creators created themselves supportive environment in difficulties. Athletes of the Olympic Games are grateful not only to themselves, but also to their coaches for half of their achievements. To some purpose. I myself have such mentors in writing!

And so are our three heroes and most of the most prolific other inventors saw what was most important to them. It doesn't matter if their mission was not the noblest (inventor Kalashnikov gave all his strength to the rifle) or really noble (Mother Teresa cared for the poor) - they saw their way and followed it. Some made many mistakes as they walked, but they saw their goal ahead and did not stop.

That is what discipline is made of.

Let's practice.

Let me give you three recipes that, if properly applied, you will get a habit work, you will find someone who supports you mentor and you will decide the best for yourself direction. 

FIRST: How to find your direction? (40%)

I will not start with habits, because more important than them - know why you work Maybe you don't need a very specific goal, but knowing the direction is important. Because without a way... What is that discipline for you?

So, your plan is:

1. Give up everything. First of all, you will have to perform such a (not very) magical exercise, which is performed by athletes who go out to train in closed camps and who are looking for spiritual answers - in monasteries. It is to let go of the restraining directions of the past. "I can - I can't" is not as important as "I want and work".
2. Don't do anything except what's next. It is important not to rush when choosing a direction, because a hastily chosen "calling" is worth as much as enrolling to study Civil Engineering for four years, because you didn't think of anything else. And yes, I have made this mistake too!
3. Ask and watch your answers. Questions are the only technique that will help you find direction, because if you don't have a question, the answer will be meaningless. So ask yourself questions. Who are you? why are you What does your intuition say? Maybe it IS POSSIBLE to survive from your hobby, as other people doing similar work survive? Look, I started living from writing, even though I was in the red a year ago.
4. Define Then try to write down the answers, mark them, frame them on a poster on the wall, and repeat them many times to your loved ones. As long as the answers are only in your head - they are just a feeling. Your answers must be reflected in your notes, in your work, in your speech - like a manifesto to the world.

…And yes - all your answers are good if you like them To you!

It will help you: 52 Self-Discovery Questions Selected by the Boatman. But there is another, better tool for your questions and answers. I will tell you more about him.

SECOND: How to find a coach? (20%)

Then you will need it mentor (which can help even in the first step). A mentor is someone more experienced than you, who you listen to and learn the secrets of your craft from.

I have mentors for writing, sales, training, and even blogging. By the way, I don't pay them a cent, but I repay them with my work and positive friendship. And this is the path to mentorship:

1. Follow the experts in your craft. For example, since I'm interested in writing, I follow Andrii Užkalnis, Beata Tiškevič, Kristina Sabaliauskaitė and countless foreign writers. I watch, I save their best texts, I have fun using them.
2. Say "Hi" to them or otherwise start a conversation. That's the part that was hard a million years ago—before Facebook. And now sometimes you don't even need to say hello, it's enough to send a message on Facebook. That's how I started getting to know inspiring authors who can share experiences that I don't have yet. Also - to support when it's difficult. Imagine how fun it is when, when you make a mistake in choosing the "flavor" of the article, a three times better writer reassures you: "It's okay, try something different next time." I almost melt in those moments.
3. Build a friendship. True, mentors are not people you should force. Now I myself receive letters asking for help writing my first book or learning how to communicate with people. However, instead of the introduction starting nicely, it starts with "Well, Daniel, you're nice, but maybe you can tell me how to do it *something I've already written a million articles about*?". Don't waste the authors' time - be a friend, give benefits, support them. For example, if they write me a letter with compliments or friendly criticism - I also melt. And if openness continues, I willingly support further communication.

It will help you: Your courage to say hello. Don't be afraid - if you write a boring letter, no one will remember you and you can try again in a year. 🙂

Mentors and their support are important in developing habits and finding a path. By the way, that one tool that I have already hidden will also help you. But first let me introduce the third part of Discipline.

THIRD: How to create a work habit? (40%)

And then you will need it habit. It is not a habit to train "whenever you want", but every day or at another set period.

Another synonym for habit is routine And these are negative (when they are annoying or only lead to a daily glass of whiskey) and positive, which I tell more about in "The Lazy Manifesto" - they bring skills, concentration, calmness.

Here's how habits are created:

1. Choose a process that you want to turn into a habit. One is not thirty. It can be the habit of playing the guitar when you wake up in the morning, it can be the habit of writing at least 300 words every day, the habit of reading biology books in the toilet... Don't get distracted now among a million good routine details - just take one, simple and accessible.
2. Decide for yourself: When? What time are you going to do your business? For example, if you want to become the most beautiful bodybuilder in Lithuania - when do you exercise? The answer "Whenever I can" is not appropriate at the beginning of this journey. After 5 years of work and later, you will be able to afford it - but now you have to pull yourself together and control yourself. Teach yourself to work every day.
3. Set yourself up: How do you know you've covered the daily meter? If you aspire to become a good poet, as my other friend aspires, perhaps a good goal would be to write a poem a day? Great! Want to earn money for your family? Your goal can be "100 euros per day". That way, the routine will not become a meaningless schedule - you will see your progress. Guess why I post my challenge progress publicly.
4. Determine yourself: Do you mark your progress and where? It's not necessary if you already know how to monitor yourself... But at least for me personally, it's still important. That's why I have a small calendar on my phone where I mark every day that I've already done things: I've written, I've sold, I've read.
5. Start slowly, very slowly. If you try to cram 6 hours of a new job you've never done into your new routine... Well, you won't last long. Friends will not understand such a sudden change, and you will hardly understand either - you will only suffer. Instead, it is better to deceive your instincts and get used to the changes. Therefore, when I started exercising a year ago, I started very slowly - just 10 push-ups a day! That's it. Would you be able to dedicate 30 minutes a day to your calling? 10 minutes? Hell, at least 3 minutes? I believe you can. And minute by minute... It adds up over many years.
6. If you make a mistake, ignore it and continue. It happens to everyone that after setting a challenge "to play with your daughters every day for 30 days" one day you can't do it - work, illness, unexpected opportunities... It's distracting! However, you shouldn't give up after the first missed day and say "Oh, I'm not destined to gain discipline, I'm too weak." Better to forgive yourself, spit it out, and carry on tomorrow as if nothing had happened. Don't stop!
7. Rejoice. And finally, your routine, your habits, your daily activities, must bring joy. If you don't, you won't be doing this job for long, so you'll have to go back to the first step - rethinking what you really want to do. Enjoy the routine - well planned it brings only good.

…And this is your way to discipline.

The people we admire so much are usually characterized by great stubbornness and endless energy. But it's not magic or a one-night New Year's change.

Discipline comes from working on yourself.
And today is the time to start.

Congratulations - if you apply this knowledge, you'll be on your way to the world of strong discipline in no time! If you don't use it, you can't blame anyone.

Don't forget to use today's techniques!

If you don't use it, don't make excuses in the future that "I didn't know how to gain discipline." you knew And you can use it.

…Will you start training today?

Write me a letter to danielius@debesyla.lt and I will gladly become your mentor, reminding you of your mission in the future. Or express your desire to your husband, wife, coach or close friends.

Discipline is a conquerable beast. 

yours
Daniel