Habits are powerful things. They can produce unbelievable pain or lasting blessing. Great habits cultivate the very best that God wants from us. Go from good to great in God’s eyes. Develop great habits. Do it now. On your mark, get set, go! The principle of inertia: a lot of things don’t get done because you never get started. There is tremendous power in getting started.

Proverbs 24:30-34: “I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense. I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: a little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.”

Notice, a little. “I’m just going to take a little nap…. I’ll do that later… This is just a little thing… I think I’ll watch just a little bit of this game… We’ll discipline the kids later… We’ll do our bills later…” Anything that’s hard, anything that’s difficult. The great majority of people end their life filled with good intentions and broken promises. They intended to be this. They intended to do this. Someday they were going to go here. Someday. Someway. Somehow.

Do it now! Stop procrastinating. Attack life! Do the hard things now. Have the unpleasant conversation now. Do the most difficult unpleasant I-hate-this thing early in the day. Attack the hardest things first and then cultivate the habit of doing it now.

As silly as it sounds, it’s just a habit. And when you do it in the little things then it carries over. Isn’t it a different world to come in and have two or three days of clothes lying on the floor? Of having a dresser that has a pile of papers over here, six calls to return over here. It’s completely demotivating. And then I get depressed. And I get discouraged about it. So when you’re depressed and discouraged what do you do? Watch tv and eat. That will solve the problem.

So then you gain weight that you don’t want and put stuff in your mind that is more demotivating. And then you go look in the mirror and say I don’t like this person that I’m becoming so I’ll go eat some chocolate and watch some more tv. I’ll go out to eat now and take a vacation. And guess what you’re doing? You’re creating and developing habit patterns about how you face difficulty and how you face rejection and how you face hurt and how you face disappointment. And then you just play out that habit for the next ten, fifteen, twenty years and that is the person you will become.

And it’s a small little thing to say, “Do I feel like doing it now?” If I did what I felt, I’d never get anything done. Feelings are the caboose, not the engine. Do it now. Have the hard conversation. Take the initiative. Guess what? You’ll feel better. Do it now.

Taken from Chip Ingram’s “Good To Great In God’s Eyes – Develop Great Habits, Part 2”
https://listenonlinedaily.s3.amazonaws.com/20120605_PODCAST.mp3