Over my many years of working and observing successful people, it is my opinion that high achievers usually have at least one noticeable thing in common: Personal discipline. High achievers are willing to do the difficult, and sometimes mundane, things to achieve their goals or dreams.

In my previous season of ministry, I worked for James Robison’s Ministry for almost 15 years. In that period of time, I met some of the most successful people in business, ministry and family life. I learned volumes of truth and insight by observing and interacting with these people. Most, if not all of these people, learned how to discipline their emotions.

“A person without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken down walls.” (Proverbs 25:28).

These highly successful people were more dedicated to their dreams and goals than they were to their emotions. How many of you understand that emotions will lie to you? Emotions will cause the defined target to move, blur, or worse, simply fade away as impossible.

Emotions are a beautiful gift that God gave every person who is or ever will be alive. Yet if this gift does not submit to the desired dream or mission, it becomes our greatest enemy in reaching our goals. Emotions must be disciplined by truth.

My 14 year old son, Tucker, wanted to achieve a goal of doing more push-ups. Simple, right? Wrong! When he started, he could only do five good pushups. When I suggested that he set a numerical goal with the necessary daily discipline to get there, he became overwhelmed by negative emotions. I told Tucker that I could have him doing 40 push-ups in four weeks. Tucker’s reply to my statement was, “Dad that’s impossible,” (while rolling his eyes). His emotions were lying to him and causing him to believe it was indeed impossible to achieve such a high goal. So to make a long story short, I began to force my son to discipline himself every day by doing three sets of push-ups. Four weeks later the impossible became possible!

How are your emotions going to affect your dreams and goals this year? There is one simple solution to this obstacle: Discipline will be the bounce in your step that allows you to sore to new heights. Remember, God says that all things are possible for those who believe. Today, choose to believe in God’s truth for you instead of negative emotions.

Written by: Marc Owings on January 9th, 2012
Posted in Running the race | 1 Comment » You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.