Episode 913: Why “Just Do It” is not Great Advice
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 913 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Jared Williams: [00:00:08] I'm Jared Williams with biblical wealth solutions. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talents and your treasures to live out your calling, having the ability to invest without compromising your Christian values is key.
[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.
[00:00:29]Scott Maderer: [00:00:29] the other thing you'll find that successful people have is they work to control their environment and to set up systems and processes around them that create friction around the things that they don't want to do and make it very easy to do the things that they do want to do. They make it smooth. To not eat junk food by getting the junk food out of the house.
[00:00:53] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire [00:01:00] to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that.
[00:01:17] Can impact the work
[00:01:19]and today's episode about impacting the world by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why willpower and gutting your way through. Isn't always the best. I talk about why we often try to just do it and do it this way, but we don't really account for our real needs. And I also share some things that you can try and do.
[00:01:43] As we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small [00:02:00] commission, we'll come back to support the show.
[00:02:01] Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/animals. Sometimes you'll hear they had advice, just do it, but that's not always the best advice in the world. Now, the truth is that, that idea that we can just gut through things, we can just do it by sheer willpower.
[00:02:27] We can make ourselves do the things that we need to do by just forcing ourselves to do. Yeah. There's some truth to that. There is some times where quote, unquote, just, you know, pulling up your boots and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and getting yourself moving has a benefit there's action and taking action that begins to lead towards momentum.
[00:02:50] That leads to doing more things, but it's not always the best. Yeah, there are times when you're going to discover that willpower [00:03:00] will only take you so far. Willpower will only get you doing so much. And then at some point it begins to drain away and you're left not doing the things that you need to do.
[00:03:13] And then you're left feeling guilty about that, which leads you to doing even less things. And it becomes a negative feedback loop instead of that positive one that we were talking about a moment ago, where just do it lead to momentum, it can happen both ways. And part of the trick is knowing when is this something that you can get you to just gut through and do that?
[00:03:36] And when is this something that you need to pay attention to? What are the real needs what's underlying the drive. What's keeping you from acting on this. What are the things that are holding you back? What are the things that are maybe getting in the way of really doing what you need to do? What can you do in terms of systems and processes and [00:04:00] environment to make it easier to just do it?
[00:04:04] No, the truth is we often don't pay attention to what we really need. We don't pay attention to what is underlying our difficulty in following through our difficulty and gutting it through and just quote, getting it done. We don't pay that much attention to what is the things that are holding us back.
[00:04:24] And when we don't, then we aren't able to really fix what's wrong. We aren't able to set up systems and processes and environments that help us because it doesn't account for our real needs. What can you do instead of just depending on willpower? See, I think too often, we think that the people that are getting the things done in life and doing a lot and being successful, the ones that are actually out there being the movers and the shakers, we think they must have more discipline than us.
[00:04:56] They must have more willpower than us. They're able to just force [00:05:00] themselves to move forward, but here's, what's. Have you actually study highly successful people. If you go talk to highly successful people, it's a combination of their mindset in that they believe that they can do it. They believe that they can be successful, but they also know that there's going to be problems.
[00:05:22] There's going to be things that are going to go wrong. And they actually make a plan for what they're going to do in response. It doesn't become, this is going to go wrong. And this is what's going to stop me from getting what I need. Instead it becomes when this goes wrong. All I need to do is work to find the solution because there is a solution it's that ability to recognize the fact that there is a way through.
[00:05:48] All you have to do is find what it is when I interviewed Ruth a few weeks ago, that was one of the things she talked about. The other thing you'll find that successful people have [00:06:00] is they work to control their environment and to set up systems and processes around them that create friction around the things that they don't want to do and make it very easy to do the things that they do want to do.
[00:06:14] They make it smooth. To not eat junk food by getting the junk food out of the house, they make it smooth to get up and exercise by making that easier to do. And they create friction or difficulty around doing the things that they don't want to do. It makes it easier to just do it. If the barriers between you and just doing it are low.
[00:06:39] That's really what you need to do instead of just depending on willpower and discipline, you need to make sure that you're setting up the systems and processes that make it easy. Of course the irony is it takes a certain amount of willpower and discipline to go through the hard work of identifying what are the things that are really [00:07:00] important to me.
[00:07:00] And what do I need to set up to me, get easier to do those things. So it's not that willpower's not important. It's not that willpower is not something that will make you move along. It's not that discipline is something that we can just ignore. But it is about making that balance so that you've used discipline to get you moving, but then you use systems and processes to keep you moving and make it easier to build momentum instead of easier to fall back on.
[00:07:31]I just didn't manage to go to the gym today, so I might as well not go tomorrow, which is what happens instead. If all you depend on is willpower and discipline. Thanks for listening.
[00:07:43]So much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you [00:08:00] liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time investor.
[00:08:29] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .