The Longest Way is a Short Cut

Then [Saul] waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come . . . So Saul . . . offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came . . . And Samuel said, "What have you done?" 1 Samuel 13:8-11

One of the most common obstacles to success is the desire to cut corners. But short cuts never pay off in the long run. If you find that you continually give in to your moods or impulses, then you need to change your approach to doing things. Cutting corners is really a sign of impatience and poor self-discipline. But if you are willing to follow through, you can achieve a breakthrough. The best method is to set up standards for yourself that require accountability. Any time you suffer a consequence for not following through, it helps you stay on track. Once you have your standards in place, work according to them, not your moods. That will get you going in the right direction. Self-discipline is a quality that is won through practice.

MC says..
Self discipline is something that I feel I'm lacking sometime when it come to practicing and following God's command..be it having a consistent quiet time or prayer, loving others, I guess its human nature to go against God, also sometime when we struggle and want to take the easy way out, that's when our self discipine can be bad.. and to keep on having the motivation and discipline, there is a need to have a clear picture of the thing that u want to achieve all the time.. its when this picture fades or bad images from the past failures, our motivation will be lowered and causes our discipline to deteriorate too.. so in order to have a good discipline, something that helps is to alwiz have a clear picture of what u want to achieve and constantly reflecting and checking where are we heading towards our goals just like what the article above mention.

Something that I took notice is about working according to the standards that is set and not according to mood! A lot of time when I don't have the mood or feel emotional, it will take me a long time do even start doing anything.. will take time to ponder on problem and bogged down by my own feelings and emotion.. now its a lot better than last time, last time would struggle a lot when don't have mood, would not able to do anything that is planned, instead just sit there or go to sleep coz dunno how to handle the emotion, as time goes by, learn to see the bad consequences if I don't control this emotion problem cause it can cause things to delay and affected my spirituality and walk with God.. now start to be focus on the things that I suppose to do or things that I already set to do instead of just sitting down and do nothing.. wat a stupid thing to when I reflect back..wasted lots of precious time when if I had better control of my emotions, to even pray for God to help pull thru the struggles and fight harder and not let sin creep into my life..

I think that is what God is trying to tell me so I can experience and be aware of myself better and change from there! If I didn't take time to reflect and continue on doing the same thing, will be living a very ineffective life and continue making the same mistakes and suffer from the bad consequences, just grateful that I got to know God becoz He gave me direction in my life and alwiz guiding me along the way and living a meaningful and impactful life. I'm alwiz reminded by the bible to be the light of the world, to set the example and help ppl to God thru my life :)