Four more habits for success

As I rode in the car to Stillwater, I felt defeated about a project I was working on. I was confident there would be no willing participants and I might as well give up now. What was the point?And then I heard Craig Groeschel talking on his leadership podcast in the back of my mind saying, you don’t stop when you’re tired, you stop when you’re done. I was tired and I definitely felt done, but the context wasn’t the same. I was ready to quit when I realized I wasn’t done and I couldn’t stop. So, I threw caution to the wind and kept working until finally the project was finished. It felt great going to bed that night realizing I hadn’t quit and I was rewarded because of it.How often do we want to quit? The habit of getting to that finish line over and over again is what we need to be striving for and when we make it, we are so much better off. Integrity and progress should be enough to keep us from giving up.The habit of one more rep is another practice we need to keep on doing. We exceed expectations, bring solutions and go further than necessary when we are willing to do one more rep because leaders do better than “normal.” Muscles only get stronger when they do one more rep. We need to adopt that for our daily lives as well.Everyone is passionate about something, but that passion can fizzle if we don’t fuel the fire. Just like our marriages, we need to intentionally and actively encourage ourselves and one another to keep a fire in our spirit about our mission, our family and our goals. Mediocrity is easy. Status quo is easily mastered, but to get up every day excited about your job or even your life can be fleeting if we don’t get encouragement from others or fan the flames ourselves.And that final habit is the one that might be the most difficult to do, the habit of showing back up. We’ve all had those times when we wanted to cut our losses and walk away. Or we are simply tired of trying and getting nowhere. You will certainly achieve that if you don’t show back up. The only way to keep moving forward with progress is when we commit to showing back up and finishing the job.These habits have certainly given me a place to focus as I work through the busyness of life. We can achieve more than we think when we are intentional with our days. It’s not always easy, but when we are successful along the way, that can fan the flames to carry us through the hard moments in life.Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.Melissa is a farmwife, mom and freelance writer residing on a dairy farm in southern Michigan. She is available for speaking engagements by contacting her at farm.writer@hotmail.com. Visit her blog at www.knolltopfarmwife.blogspot.com.