Here we go
The first 18DS starts now
New to the 18 Day Sprint? Scroll to the bottom and read the images for an explainer!
“Oxygen masks will drop down from above your seat. Place the mask over your mouth and nose, like this. Pull the strap to tighten it.
If you are traveling with children, make sure that your own mask is on first before helping your children.”
If you’re like me, you probably ignore every second of those airline safety speeches. We know, we get it, move on, etc.
However, there’s an incredibly useful point in that bit about oxygen masks.
You have to handle your own business if you’re going to be a benefit to others.
As we look for motivation in reaching our goals, sometimes it’s hard to do it for ourselves. In fact, we often have a tendency to be easy on ourselves and make excuses.
But when you realize others will be heavily impacted by your ability to remain disciplined, it might just be the motivation you need to put in the time to get your proverbial oxygen mask on.
This isn’t self-love or self-care or whatever the cool kids call it these days. It’s discipline.
The only people equipped to make a better world for others are the disciplined.
Just consider the children of the undisciplined:
The spiritually lazy rarely produce faithful children—an eternal cost. Those who don’t take care of their own health often have children who develop unhealthy habits long before it’s their fault. Financially undisciplined people have no ability to help their children and grandchildren have a solid footing.
Even if you don’t have kids, you can see how your example and ability to execute impacts the people around you. I don’t want to be the person who needs others to bail me out. I want to be the person who lifts others up.
So, this year, our goal is to get the oxygen mask fitted nice and snug so we’re ready to help others.
And now, for Sprint #1
If you’re open to it, I encourage you to comment with some of your long-term goals and the targets you’re aiming for in this first 18 Day Sprint. I’ve tossed around the idea of a FB group for people doing sprints… if there’s enough interest I might set it up.
Here are a few of mine:
Long term:
Read through the Old Testament this year
Read 15 books
Finish repairing/updating/unpacking the house we moved into in 2023
Build a side income (with a specific dollar amount in mind)
18 Days
Read the first 50 Psalms along with daily prayer journaling
Get through 180 pages (10/day) of The Brothers Karamazov, my first book of the year
Organize my tool closet
Complete course and set up accounts for e-commerce project
What about you?
What is an 18 Day Sprint? Here’s a brief explainer:
I have several things I want to focus on for this year, and a lot of things are daily things, like for my health. A couple of things I want to note here is that I want to read 12 books this year, 1 per month. I need to finish the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia that I started shortly before the end of 2023. Another thing I will list here is I want to study 1 verse of the Old Testament in the Hebrew and 1 verse of the New Testament in the Greek every day.
I started a goal reaching program in Dec which breaks the year up into 12 weeks, similar to your 18 days. I need all the motivation and reminder I can get, so if it is okay I want to follow along here also. 2 goals of my current goals: Training to proficiency in a new service to offer our clients & several declutter projects in my home.