Discipline

Discipline.  Such a simple word but so hard to put into practice.  It is described as a course of actions leading to a greater goal than the satisfaction of the immediate; and a disciplined person is one that has established a goal and is willing to achieve that goal at the expense of his or her immediate comfort.  Sometimes easy to become a disciplined person when it comes to having a job, having children, or completing school assignments.  We often focus on what needs to be accomplished and even if we hate the work it takes to achieve that goal we preserver until we reach the end.  There are always those time were we have a goal in mind yet we lack the discipline to work towards that goal or we just feel like doing the work.

I'm certainly very guilty of this.  Especially when it comes to writing.  I have been working a lot the last two months and my time for writing has been very limited.  But I have to confess that my writing has really come to a stand still.  On my days off I find reasons to not get any writing done that day.  All in all my disciplined writing habits that I had while I was unemployed have vanished.

I have been reading Be Mature by Warren W. Weirsbe, which is about growing into a mature Christian, in the book Weirsbe takes about how adults will themselves to daily read the Word and spend time with God and how children so things based on how they're feeling.  (I don't have the book with me at the moment so my wording will be different from how Weirsbe said it.)  My point is that when it comes to writing I haven't felt like writing.

I haven't really say down and willed myself to sit and write a certain amount of words.  Don't get me wrong I want to reach my goal of finishing three books this year but I lack the will and discipline to get anything done.  I have been acting as feeling powered, undsciplined child.  This realization has been floating around the back of mind for a long time, I've just been ignoring it.  So I've been praying, as I always do when something like this arises in my life, for God to help me find the will to write and that He will help me become disciplined as I once was.  I don't want to act like a child anymore.  I am 23 and I want to be a successful author.  I want my writing to come to the point were it can support me completely.

Through all this prayer I have made some new goals for myself: 1, I want to write at least 3k words on my days off and 1k words on the days I work; 2, I want want to complete the Forsaken by May 1st; 3, I want to write at least two chapter in Tides at Midnight every week; 4, I want to have a new book series KOST ready for publishing by July 1st.  I know this goals seem hard to reach but they are NOT impossible.  Starting tomorrow I am going to start working hard toward these goals (I say tomorrow because I'm on my to work right now).  I'm going to be keeping track of my progress on a calander so I can see exactly where my time is being spent.

From here on I'm going to working like I never have before to become a successful author.