Tag Archive - motivation

Cultivating Discipline, Part 3: Character and Discipline…

August 2, 2010 in being christian, leadership with 1 Comment

As a particularly undisciplined person, I have often shrugged-off the connection between discipline and character… But lately, I’ve sort of been challenged to do things that only a person of great character could do…

And I don’t wanna…

I’m not whining, just generalizing in a way that I hope will challenge you to think about this…

Jesus told his followers that this world would throw hardship and trouble at them (John 16:33) but “take heart,” He said, “I have overcome the world.”

Could character be fueled by the discipline to do things that are difficult, painful or heart-killing?

This promise that Jesus overcame the world sometimes seems hollow in light of the very real pain that the world dishes out. But the same power that fueled Jesus is alive in those who follow Him…

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
- Paul, the Bible (Romans 8:35)

When Paul wrote these words, he was facing tremendous persecution, in the next verse he says that he faces the threat of death continuously… Then he goes on to answer his question:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  (above, verse 37)

So, there is a supernatural work going on inside that gives us the potential to more-than-conquer (overcome even) some pretty extreme hardship… But I find that I am often way-laid by some simple slight… or thrown off-course by someone’s harsh words… or discouraged by the decisions of those in leadership…

Where’s the disconnect? What happened to all of the overcoming and more-than-conquering that I was supposed to experience? After I pray and repeat the promises to myself… After I conjure all of the spiritual-sounding jargon that has ever been thrown at me… If I’m still way-laid or off-course or discouraged, what am I missing?

Discipline?

Really?

I’m throwing this out for your consideration… I think I’m onto something life-changing.  You see, lately I’ve been discouraged and it effects every aspect of my life: I don’t feel like writing, don’t feel like balancing the checkbook, don’t feel like doing anything around the house, don’t feel like taking my daughter to the library… You get the idea, right?

But when I push past the feelings and do these things (that’s discipline, right?), something cool happens: I find that I have just a bit more “feeling” for the next thing… and the next thing… and the cumulative effect:

I’m overcoming that discouragement.

I think this is why Paul compares the life of a Christ-follower to the life of a distance-runner:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… I beat my body and make it my slave…
- Paul, The Bible (1 Corinthians 9:25, 27)

There is a balance between the work that Jesus did (when He overcame the world) and the discipline I need in order to access that work (to overcome obstacles in my own life)… Does that seem right to you? Do you see a similar truth in your own life?

NEXT in this series: Habit-forming…

Cultivating Discipline, Part 1…

July 20, 2010 in being christian, creativity, leadership with 3 Comments

Discipline is the anti-art…

Where we creatives like to live on the right side of our heads, the suggestion that we lack discipline is met with a shrug… “So what?” we retort.  Of course we lack discipline. Isn’t that the point?

We get it in our heads that talent, charisma and awesomeness is all we need to have a fantastically successful life… well, that and a good agent…

But there’s not a single success-story out there that hinges on talent, charisma or awesomeness… Not one that I’ve read, anyway.

Every successful author, performer or artist that I’ve ever read about has a story that hinges on discipline… the singular capacity to stay with a task until it is complete; the unwavering drive to take on the insurmountable obstacles that life seems to throw at talented, charismatic and awesome individuals.

I’ve now quite a few talented, charismatic and awesome folks that failed to launch… it’s sad really… a waste… but it happens all the time…

At some point or another in our lives, we must choose the path of greatest resistance… We have to weather storms and pass through dark valleys… We simply have to learn to discipline ourselves.

This is where it always falls apart for me: discipline isn’t something that I can just wish for or purchase or conjure.  If that were possible, I’d have gotten it by now. Discipline must be grown…

More than that, really, discipline must be cultivated.

In horticulture, cultivation is more than planting seeds, more than watering or feeding plants… It is the entire process of growth and harvest… Learning the process is the only road to success as an artist or anything else, really.  If we are going to produce a harvest (to extend the metaphor) that is 50 or 100 times greater than the seeds we sow, we have to persevere through the entire process…

Every time.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be sharing the process with you… As I work through a few projects that require a high level of discipline (including the continuation if this series), I’m going to spill out my struggle to you guys…

Could be messy…

NEXT in this series: The Fallow Ground…

Finding Focus…

July 19, 2010 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

Everybody gets lucky once in a while, but success in imaging and in LIFE requires purposeful focus.

I shoot pictures with a nice digital SLR… It has a deep well of features to draw from but, for the most part, I keep all of the dials and menus set to “auto” so that I can just point and shoot.  I do this because I have a 4-year-old and I don’t want to miss any of the impromptu moments that happen in our family life…

I also do it because I’m kinda lazy…

In general, I don’t take the time to really dial-in my technical skills in photography.  I have a pretty good “eye” for capturing good composition, but I am limited by the automatic choices that I set by default.

Auto-focus is a funny thing… particularly when you shoot macro-stills.  For example, an image of a flower:  the camera might select the edges of the petals as the focal point… or the end of the nearest stamen or the nearest flat surface or the dead twig in the lower right corner of the image that you didn’t even notice… I have come home from photo-walking with a hundred images in my camera and no more than 3 that were properly focused… I suppose everybody gets lucky sometimes…

When you let the technology select the focus, it could be anywhere.

If this isn’t an obvious life-metaphor, then you haven’t lived long enough:  Focus doesn’t happen by default.

In life, I often wander around with all of the dials set to auto.  I get by largely on talent and intuition but fail to capture the real potential because I slack on skills development, discipline and focus.  Sometimes, I get a lucky break: a great image, a singable song, an interesting story… but mostly, I get a camera full of bad images, a notebook full of unused ideas…

And most of the artists I encounter seem to be floundering in the same way…

Except for the successful ones.

The “professional” artists that I know… the ones that play regular gigs, appear in multiple plays simultaneously, open their own art shows and make a living with their talents… These guys are all focused on specific goals.  They spend hours dialing-in their skills.  They have a camera full of great images, albums of great music, awe-inspiring portfolios… This is the legacy of living with purpose.

I saw this on a t-shirt:

Talent and discipline will always beat talent, unless that talent becomes disciplined.

Creativity Killers, Part 3: Darkness…

April 15, 2010 in being christian with 0 Comments

The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy…  -Jesus (John 10:10)

...but the Lord will rise on you...

This is going to sound kinda kooky, but I believe that the Bible teaches that there is an Enemy to God and His people… That Enemy opposes us, especially when we devote ourselves to serving God with our gifts…

The Devil…

But I’m not talking about the “Halloween Devil” with his red cape and widow’s peak and pointy tail… I’m talking about a power of darkness, who deftly uses his skill at deception and aggravation to keep us discouraged or distracted when we are running the race that God has called us to run…

In our progressive, modern conception of the supernatural, we tend to discount this as idle superstition, but read the Bible and he’s there, he’s personal and he’s playing for keeps…

So, we have to play that way too…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes….  -The Bible (Eph 6:10-11)

When we talk about the “armor of God” in church, we tend to get really stuck on the imagery… The shield and the breastplate and what – exactly – it means to have your loins girded…

And we miss the point.

Because the point of Paul’s military metaphor is what the armor represents… faith, righteousness, the word of God, salvation, peace… These disciplines are the essence of our fight against darkness…

So, I find that when I am creatively blocked because of unnatural or unreasonable discouragement, depression, irritation, whatever… I pray against it.

It’s a simple matter of asking God to bring His authority against the darkness… Authority that He gives us when we belong to Him…

I have applied this principle in many areas of my life… family, ministry, creativity, etc… with a great deal of success.  I highly recommend John Eldredge’s very practical book on this, Waking The Dead.

You see, Jesus lived so that we could walk in Light and not be mired in Darkness…

Arise, shine for your Light has come and the glory of the Lord rises on you.  For darkness is on the earth and thick darkness upon the people, but the Lord’s light is upon you… Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn…     -The Bible (Isa 60:1-3)

Creativity Killers, Part 1: The Block…

March 27, 2010 in being christian with 0 Comments

The view from here...

For a Christ-follower, using your gifts in worship is an act of heart… Something most creatives can easily wrap their right-brains around…

Heart… Feeling… Inspiration… Soul…

Virtually required elements for creativity.

Lately, Inspiration has been eluding me. I generally feel that I have a fairly deep well to go to when I need to draw out an idea… a image… a solution…

But not recently.

It’s like there’s a gate inside my mind that all of the good ideas are hiding behind… All I seem to be capable of is approaching the gate and knocking… But the gatekeeper is nowhere to be found and I seem to have misplaced my keys.

I haven’t even been able to write for a couple of weeks… In truth, I think my best writing is actually months behind. So, I dug deep and consulted a reliable source…

I prayed about it.

I wonder, often, about non-believers… How they access their creativity… Because I really identify with Jesus’ assertion:

I am the vine, you are my branches… Apart from Me, you can do nothing…

I’m not courting false-humility here… This is literally true.  I’ve tried to use my creativity outside of the realm of worship and “Christian service” and it’s always a dismal failure.

I understand that this isn’t true for every christian… I know a number of artists that are able to move in their creativity in “secular” situations.  I’ve always found this interesting and have recently just accounted it to differences in individual calling…

But true worship flows from the heart.  On another occasion, Jesus said:

The time is coming, and is already here, that the true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth…

Worship through artistic expression, therefore, must naturally flow from a true reflection of my innermost being… from a heart empowered by God’s Spirit. Whether I write or lead the band or doodle graphics or any of the other outlets for creativity that I offer up, it’s just not “worship” without integrity and connection with God.

When I suffer from “blocked” creativity, I start looking for a breakdown in either Spirit or truth or both…

I found an interesting combination of breakdowns when I prayed about this…

And I want to share these… If not for the sake of anybody but myself…

And, what are blogs for if not narcissistic navel-gazing…

Tomorrow… Part 2, All Stressed Up and No One to Punch…
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