The challenges that form your character rarely dress themselves up in drama. They hide in the daily moments that test your discipline.
This week, like every week before it, will bring challenges that test your discipline—both familiar and new, personal and relational, practical and emotional, simple and complex.
By challenges I don’t mean what people typically refer to as “adversity”. I mean anything you experience that tests the discipline of your response — moments that demand your best when your impulse pulls you toward your worst.
It could be quite literally anything.
No one will mistake an alarm clock in the morning for adversity, but that might be the first challenge you face. What challenges the discipline of your response is unique to you.
All sorts of things can challenge you:
- Eating healthy
- Moving more
- Speaking up
- Listening better
- Expressing honestly
- Responding not reacting
- Leading people
- Following others
- Making changes
- Being consistent
- Receiving feedback
- Giving feedback
If it tests your discipline, then it’s a challenge, no matter what it is: Speeding up. Slowing down. Giving effort. Staying patient. Setting and enforcing a standard. Accepting responsibility. Making an adjustment. Holding the line. Staying the course.
The challenges you might experience are limitless. Nothing is too small. Nothing is too big. A challenge is a challenge no matter its size or weight.
Daily discipline matters. Decisions and actions compound. Everything is training for something. How you respond now is building toward something later.
So, I am giving you one more challenge: this week, meet every challenge with decisive discipline. Recognize when you are experiencing a challenge — whether it’s an alarm, a criticism, or your own feelings — and respond with clear, decisive discipline. Each time. Every time. All week.
Commit to the week. Treat it like an experiment. See how it goes. Feel what it’s like to enforce a higher standard for yourself. Observe what happens. It’s a worthy challenge, and a fun one if you let it be. Make it your adventure.
How you respond to this week’s challenges goes a long way to determine next week’s experiences, rewards, and disappointments. This week’s challenges are lining up to test you. Ace the test.
Event + Response = Outcome. Do the work.
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