If you look back, you will see that your life has been a journey from one challenge to the next and you will have dealt with a level of discomfort in each of these challenges. How we respond to the challenge and deal with the discomfort will determine whether we are moving toward excellence and mastery or toward a state of degeneration and uncertainty.
You've likely heard the saying "short-term pain = long-term gain" and the flip-side of that "short-term gain = long-term pain". As I shared last post, I have the tendency to want it all, however that is not consistent with the pursuit of excellence and definitely not mastery. How do we deal with the discomfort/pain of not having it all (what might even be good for us) when we all know that long term gain is best? The answer is to have a vision of what long-term gain looks like in your life and have a plan to achieve this.
Planning, scheduling, creating structure or order is actually very challenging because it involves prioritizing and while it might be easy in the moment to list your priorities, following through is where we face the discomfort. I said last post that planning is key, however when we plan, we schedule in one thing to the exclusion of many other things. "But what if..." is always tempting us to hold off and not commit - it requires being 'narrow'. Jesus said "wide is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction... narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to life". Pre-planning with your vision in mind is key, then it requires the self-discipline to execute that plan. The second part of verse 23 of Psalm 50 comes to mind "the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!".
Both my wife and I are writing down our weekly schedules being specific with our personal study time, family time, exercise, work, feed, sleep times (this includes our boy Malachi), etc in keeping with our long term vision. Being more disciplined with our time enables us to be more present and on task when the time comes. While our plans don't get executed perfectly every time, having them written down gives direction for our day to day lives and limits moments of indecision and uncertainty which are some of the prime factors involved in emotional discomfort. It even helps us deal better with physical pain when we experience this as we are less inclined to be lead by how we feel.
Dr. Thomas Egan