The Discipline of Desire
Doing things daily as a starting point
Over the past few weeks, my wife and I've been really working a systematic way to increase some of the things that we desire that are positive for us. We sat and discussed our relationships, the way that we eat and exercise, the things that we practice and enjoy, and the things that help us get enough sleep and keeps us in a household rhythm.
One area that I really want to work on is increasing the discipline for the right desires. They're things that all of us want, whether it is an object, or a goal, or a feeling, we notice that we go through a certain process if we really want it.
One thing that that I am discovering is the first steps that starts us on this path is us reflecting on how we this about events in our day to day life. And when we think about the events or people in our life, we tend to cast some form of judgment and then eventually, it will cause us to want a certain outcome or to not want a certain outcome. Avoidance is still a desire that has to be evaluated.
So what I want to do is, first clearly state the things that I do want, and that specific want will increase my desire to be more disciplined.
Over the years, I've noticed that there are things that we want to succeed in our life. From the business that we work for to the people that we love our community. We find that we even stretch ourselves to sacrifice to the point where it can even hurt ourselves personally.
Now, we know that everyone has a scope of control, whether it's things that's happening within themselves internally, things that's happening within their household, their internal community, their society as a whole or the world. But we know that as we begin to interact with each area, we have to definitely represent those attributes that we want to see in our community within ourselves. But the key is to understand that there's some things that we will never be able to control. The world has its own course, the world has its own set of judgments. The world has its own path. I am learning that it is important for me to understand that as I begin to get closer within that dichotomy of control, it starts with me as an individual.
My wife and I noticed that we really focus a lot on our community, and we love our community. Therefore, it would be a shame not to focus adopting the good attributes that we've pulled from our community. From the relationships that we've developed within the community, the things that we do together, such as eating healthy, or exercising as a community, the things that we love to practice in our community or that we enjoy, and lastly the rhythm that we've developed within that community. At some point, your community will impact you or you will impact your community. So once you know that you're in the right community the best choice is to glean some of the things that you can benefit from.
For example, over the past few weeks, I've been noticing that people within my church community have been doing excerise challenges at home since everyone is locked in due to COVID. Therefore, it has increased a desire to come up to that same standard. If you're around good people, you're eventually become like them, just like it says they that are wise must be among the wise. So it's important for me to take on some of those attributes.
My wife and I outlined some of those as we begin to think about the individuals that we love in our community. We thought about some of their attributes and we talked about how we want to start focusing more on our relationships. I'm not only referring to our relationship with each other as a family or as the husband and the wife, but also relationships within our community and our deeper spiritual relationships.
One thing I noticed in order for us to accomplish these items, which we call REPS, is to focus on the discipline of desire.
I think John Locke, who is a philosopher said that the discipline of desire is the background of character.
I totally agree with this. I totally agree that if you have the right desires, you can begin to shape your character. But one thing I like to do is take it a step further. There is a known scripture, that is one of my favorites, and Psalms 37:4 that says the light that's self in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of the heart. That doesn't mean that if you delight yourself in them, that you'll get a car or a new house. But I really believe that the key is when it states "of thine heart". And we know that there can be good and bad things within a person's heart, but I believe in this scripture is really referring to good things.
I want more of those good things to be in my heart. But in order to get there, it takes discipline. And of course, discipline is taken those repetitive tasks that I need to do to work toward it. It's 90% action and only 10% theory. So my goal is to really work on creating a system where we can do this daily, we can set a time in each day, to really talk with each other, both as husband and wife, and discuss what w've accomplished in each one of these areas. But it will require discipline, of course. We're gonna sit and we're gonna talk about how do we make this a repetition within our household.
Since we work 18 hour days, sometime we have to be careful of when that rhythm is thrown off, or when that rhythm is taken off its course. So this is our desire. This is our wish and I believe that if we do something consistent, we'll be able to unlock the things that we've been longing and hoping for as individuals. We are not focus on objects not focus on wants as far as possessions, but the focus on those deep character building events that happen in our life daily, and to begin to reflect on them.
What are you doing to focus on certain events in your day? Do you do it in the beginning of the day, or in the afternoon or at night before you go to sleep?
WHAT ARE REPS?
A Routine that Helps Build Better Relationships
TIME TO RESET FROM SUMMER TO WINTER: It is time to get my cold weather vegetable garden ready. But I had a person moment of reflection. A man's true delight is the do the things he was made for. At the core of everything in life, I have learned to continue to till the soil. Yes, It is frustrating. It is repetitive. It is mundane. However, if you embrace that action, you might find hidden secret. It can help you to focus and develop IF YOU VIEW IT FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. Now that I am getting into the repetitive and seasonal demand of a garden, I am learning that there is a personal development application to anything that you practice in life. Some choose music or some other hobby. I choose THE GARDEN. There is a lot to learn from a garden. Tell me what are some of the personal development factors that you are finding in learning how to maintain a garden.
Lela Hello, and welcome to the journey of me, this is Thursday, November 12, our daily recap, let's see how we did. Marcus Smith And today we had a really good day. I mean, at the end of the day is something that we enjoy doing, which is definitely catching up on our reps each day. And making sure that we get our relationships in as far as connecting and making sure that we're good spiritually and personally. And then of course, eating and exercise, practicing something we enjoy and get into sleep and rhythm. So if you're new to this channel, please like and subscribe. Today we're going to talk a little bit about how we accomplish these three goals in our life. So Lela, tell us what happened today. Lela All right, but the R we did great. So we were able to connect personally, we also have great spiritual connections that we want to maintain. And we were able to do that today. So double check on R Marcus Smith Alright, what happened with the E. Lela Again, double check there, we've both eating healthy exercising, Marcus Smith I'm feeling great that we're both on a roll. And we're just doing good. We're in the rhythm. So I really like that we're getting consistent with this Lela Yes a great, great rhythm. Marcus Smith And the P which is practicing something that we enjoy. Again, if you have a hobby, or something that you do that you like to learn, this is something that is you definitely need to make room in your day and make sure you get the total fulfillment, the joy out of it. So today, I got a chance to go into the garden, and I had a great day in the garden resetting for the winter. So that definitely helped me get my checkmark. Lela That's really good. And I'm happy to announce that I have started my second real estate course. So that's an accomplishment there. So I did get my P in. Marcus Smith And last but not least is our sleep and rhythm. Now for me, I've been really going to sleep extremely early, and making sure that I get that sleep in. But I'm really deep into my routine. And again, I've talked in previous videos about sleep hygiene, you want to look at that, because those are some tips and tricks that we have done to keep us in a rhythm. And of course, my wife has taught me some deep secrets of having her sprays and her lavender diffuser going but we that goal is for us to stay into that rhythm. So today I was able to get that in and was able to wake up early and get straight to work. What about you? Lela Well, as you can see, it wasn't a full full for checks for me. But I did do some things taking care of our household I was able to get that in. However, there's also the main thing of the S is dealing with our sleep. So I did to get the rhythm sign in which we don't talk about a lot. But their rhythm has to do with things like your household chores, or just other things that you have to do to take care of the household to make sure that things are in balance. And so, but I do have to admit that I did not get seven hours of sleep last night. So I'm gonna get it tonight, we're gonna see me with four checks tomorrow. Marcus Smith Now, overall, we still consider this a home run because we were able to complete one item in each of the areas and we do this as a household. So if there's some areas that Leila may not be able to fulfill, I'm there to catch her and vice versa. She's definitely carrying me last week. So it's my duty to keep us going this week. Lela My knight in shining armor. Marcus Smith Thank you. Thank you. So before we leave, what are some tips that you want to give someone that is beginning to start these, this rhythm of creating the reps in their life? Is there anything that you want to share with them that they can do to get started? Lela Sure, it's actually gonna sound funny. But if you're just getting started with this, I would actually say to start backwards. And what I mean by that is it's reps starting with the REPS. The first thing and the most crucial thing that I found to help me is actually starting with that s and that sleep in that rhythm is off, everything else goes down the drain. So if you're just getting started, it could help to start by going backwards with this and see if that helps you. Marcus Smith So the best way forward is actually taking a step back. Lela Absolutely. Marcus Smith I thought that was very insightful. So, again, we're gonna close here, if you're new to this channel, tell us some of the things that you're doing just to get started to stay consistent, and we're celebrating our 15th day in our streak. Yes, so we definitely gonna keep sharing the journey of M and E. That's Marcus and Lela, and we're gonna keep sharing this and letting you all know where we are. So again, if you're new to this channel, like and subscribe and tell us leave a comment on some of the things that help you get started with your day to day routine. See you later.