Upon reflection at the end of the day, was that day a fruitful one (as in bearing good fruit) or a fruitless one (like the fig tree that Jesus cursed)?
Some days just seem to click from one thing to the next. Other days I feel adrift, unable to concentrate, wandering to the kitchen for a snack, checking outside, picking up and discarding a book. Even going to low as to check Facebook.
What is the difference?
Discipline.
I have made a list of things to do. I chop off the first one early. The tone for the day is set.
Other days I allow something to disrupt my thinking, and I drift. A couple of days ago it was a storm coming through about 9:30 am. It made me feel restless. But I also wasn’t clear on what my main tasks of the day were.
It’s a weird thing this relationship of discipline and freedom. If you are two-years-old or even an adolescent of 16 or 25, you think discipline is the opposite of freedom. Anything that interferes with your emotion of the minute is a denial of freedom, so you think. What it really does is sets you adrift, a boat without power or a rudder floating wherever the currents take you.
When you set your direction with discipline and structure, you paradoxically increase your freedom due to focus by restricting your options to the meaningful ones.
Humans figured that out thousands of years ago. Each of us must figure it out daily.
Faith Venture 
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