Is discipline one of your challenges in personal growth? It sure is and it might even be a recurring theme if I am to be honest with myself.

I must admit that one of my faults is that I don’t like repetitive work. I don’t like to re-do something that I just did. This seems to cover all aspects of my life- both personally and professionally. I recognized this once again today as I was doing this DIY project to go on the wall behind my desk. I had seen this fabric in a local fabric shop and it just screamed my name. The color is exactly part of my new branding colors, so I knew it was meant to be mine.

A Little More Soul Barring

So now, in addition to not liking repetitive tasks, I also must admit that I do not have a lick of talent when it comes to dealing with fabric. I don’t even have a pair of scissors sharp enough to cut fabric! Thankfully, the owner of the fabric shop was kind enough to cut these to size to go on the three foam core boards that I did manage to cut right.

The first board is laid out on top of the fabric and I begin taping and stretching and taping and stretching. I have enough packing tape on the backside that it should never come apart- in theory at least! I stand it up on the kitchen counter to see how amazing it looks and- what the heck!- I see words showing through the fabric. And this is where I once again realize that this will be a project that has to be completely redone! I finished the two smaller sides, making sure there was no writing there. Starting over on the larger piece I finally got it done, irritated that I did not see that big label on the board prior to starting.

Vision vs. Discipline

In a recent podcast I was listening to one of my favorite podcasters, Christy Wright talking about discipline. Turns out she is a lot like me. We both identify with being visionaries. We like the big picture. We like “one and done” so we can move on to the next project. We definitely don’t like “one and do it again to get it right.” This particular podcast was all about discipline, another toughie for myself and many entrepreneurs but I will go into that more in a future blog. She quoted Christine Caine saying, “Vision will inspire you, but discipline will get you there.”  I had the vision for creating this hanging to go on my wall, but it was going to take some discipline to get it right.

As entrepreneurs our days are consumed with an unbelievable array of things to be done and important things requiring out attention. For visionaries we would rather focus on the big picture and let the operational side of our business slide. Dave Ramsey once identified himself as having this trait, so I guess I am in pretty good company. He said he might jump into the operational side briefly, but he hands that off to someone who does that better and he gets back to the big picture.

If you can afford to hand off the things not really in your wheelhouse you have a couple of choices. First, decide if it really is critical to your business. Sometimes we heap things onto our plate because we think we need to do them. If necessary, you can bite the bullet until you can afford to hire someone to do it. Or, you might be able to trade it out for helping someone with something that is your strength. This could very well fall squarely on our ability to be disciplined even when we don’t feel like it.

Lessons Learned

So, the project is done and hanging on the wall. This might be a work in progress as we see if see if it remains stuck to the wall and at the right height. As with all opportunities to learn and grow, only time will tell. I am a huge proponent of personal growth and learning discipline is part of that.